Vietnam Currency Guide

The first time I pulled cash out of a Vietnamese ATM, I stared at the screen for a good ten seconds. I had typed 3,000,000 and the machine asked me to confirm. Three million. My brain, trained on Singapore dollars, screamed that something was badly wrong. Nothing was wrong. That was roughly what a few days of street food, a couple of Grab rides and a room with a decent fan cost me. Vietnam just uses a currency with a lot of zeros, and once you stop flinching at them, the money side of the country gets very easy.

This guide is the one I wish I had read before that first trip. It covers the Vietnamese Dong (VND), what the notes look like, what to bring, where to swap money, when a card works and when it is useless, how much cash to carry, how not to get short-changed, and what a normal day costs. I have added the practical stuff around it too, such as the visa position for Singaporeans, SIM and eSIM options, and a few day trips with the prices you should expect. Everything here is what I have seen or been told by people who live there. Rates and fees move, so treat the numbers as a planning range and check the day's rate before you commit to anything big.

The Dong in plain terms

The official currency is the Vietnamese Dong, written VND or sometimes with the symbol ₫. There is no point in memorising a precise exchange rate because it drifts, but as a mental shortcut, one Singapore dollar has tended to land somewhere in the high teens of thousands of Dong. I just drop three zeros and then divide by about twenty. So 200,000 VND is "200", divided by twenty, so about S$10. It is not exact, but it stops you from overpaying out of panic.

The big numbers are not a sign that Vietnam is expensive. A bowl of pho on the pavement costs around 40,000 to 70,000 VND depending on the city and how touristy the street is. That is a few Singapore dollars. A hotel room at 600,000 VND a night is a perfectly sensible budget stay. It is the same economy as anywhere else in Southeast Asia, just counted in smaller units.

One more thing before the notes. Vietnamese shopkeepers often quote prices in shorthand. "Hai lăm" can mean 25,000, and "ba mươi" means 30,000, with the "nghìn" (thousand) dropped because everyone knows. If someone says "fifty" for a coffee, they mean 50,000. Learn the numbers one to ten in Vietnamese and you will decode most of it by day two.

Banknotes you will actually hold

Almost everything is polymer these days. The plastic notes survive humidity, rain and a wallet that spent the afternoon in a wet back pocket. Coins technically exist but you will almost never see one; I have not been given a single coin as change in Vietnam.

The notes that matter, and where they end up, look roughly like this:

Yes, the 20,000 and 500,000 notes are both bluish, and this is the most common way tourists get caught. Under a dim restaurant light or a tuk-tuk-style streetlamp, you can hand over a 500,000 thinking it is a 20,000. Always read the number out loud as you pull it from your wallet. It sounds silly and it has saved me real money. Some drivers will happily "not notice" the mistake.

The 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 notes are still legal tender but you will meet them rarely, mostly as change at markets. The 500,000 is the top note. Break it early at a supermarket or a café, because a woman selling mangoes at six in the morning probably will not have change for it.

What to bring: SGD, USD or just a card?

I have tried all three, and my honest ranking for most Singaporean travellers goes like this. Bring a little Dong for the first few hours, bring a debit or credit card with low foreign fees for ATMs and bigger bills, and keep a small stash of US dollars as backup. Singapore dollars are accepted at some changers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, but the rate is not always as good as USD, and outside the big cities you may get blank looks.

Should you swap money before you fly? A little, yes. I like to land with about 500,000 VND in my pocket so I am not hunting for a changer while jet-lagged and holding a phone with no signal. Enough for a ride, a drink and a SIM top-up. Anything beyond that, wait until you reach the city. Banks and licensed counters in town nearly always beat the airport.

Where to change money without getting burned

Banks are the safe option. You queue, you show your passport, you get a receipt, and nobody tries a trick. The rates are fair though not spectacular, and branches close early afternoon and on weekends, so do it on a weekday. Gold shops with a posted rate board are common in Hanoi's Old Quarter and, if they are licensed, they often give slightly better rates than banks. They count the money in front of you, and you should count it again.

Airport counters are convenient and expensive. Hotel front desks are the same, handy at midnight and priced for people who are tired. Street changers waving thick wads of notes are a hard no, and I say that having once seen a friend get handed a stack with a few genuine notes on the outside and newspaper strips in the middle. It is an old trick and it still works on people in a rush.

If you are landing at Noi Bai in Hanoi and your flight arrives awkwardly early or your connection is long, an airport lounge changes the whole mood of the morning. There is a proper option at Terminal 1 with showers and food, which beats sitting on the floor next to a charging point.

You can look at it here: ACV Lounge Noi Bai International Airport, listed from S$43.98. I only suggest it if you have more than a couple of hours; for a short layover it is not worth the walk.

Cash versus card: what actually works

The honest answer is that Vietnam runs on cash, and then in the cities it quietly runs on QR codes as well. International chain hotels, malls, Highlands and Starbucks-style coffee shops, supermarkets and the bigger restaurants take Visa and Mastercard without fuss. Street food, wet markets, the lady with the baskets of fruit, small guesthouses, local buses and most bike taxis take cash only. Some places add a 2 to 4 percent charge if you pay by card, so ask before you tap.

Local people pay with QR codes through banking apps constantly. As a visitor you usually cannot use those unless you have a local bank account, so do not plan around it. What does work is Grab: add your card in the app and you can pay for rides and sometimes food delivery without touching Dong at all. That is genuinely useful when you arrive at night and just want to get to the hotel.

That last row is the reason I book big excursions online before I leave. You pay in Singapore dollars, you know what you are getting, and you do not need to pull out a fat wad at the pier. More on specific tours further down.

ATMs: the part nobody explains well

ATMs are everywhere in cities and bigger towns, and they accept foreign Visa, Mastercard, Cirrus and Maestro cards. Two things matter. The first is the withdrawal limit per transaction, which is often 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 VND depending on the bank. If you need more, you do several withdrawals and pay several fees. The second is the fee itself. Local ATMs commonly charge a flat fee per transaction, I have seen figures around 20,000 to 50,000 VND, and your home bank may add its own foreign fee on top.

Here is how I deal with it. One decent-sized withdrawal at the start of each leg of the trip, from a bank-branded ATM inside or right next to the branch during daytime. If the machine offers to convert the amount to your home currency, always decline and choose to be charged in VND. That "helpful" conversion, known as dynamic currency conversion, carries a worse rate than letting your own bank handle it.

If a machine eats your card, do not walk away. Phone the bank number on the machine with a hotel staff member helping if needed. And before leaving Singapore, tell your bank you are travelling and check the daily overseas limit. I once had a card blocked in Da Nang because of an automated fraud rule, which was a lot more fun than it sounds.

A story to make the point. On my third trip I booked a cheap guesthouse in Hue and arrived with nothing smaller than a 500,000 note, because the ATM had handed me nothing else. The owner had no change at ten at night, and neither did the corner shop. We ended up settling the room the next morning after I bought a coffee nearby and broke the note. Nobody was upset, but I spent an evening feeling like an idiot. Since then I ask the ATM for what I need in two goes, or I buy water at the first supermarket I find, just to get change in my wallet.

The other small habit is keeping notes flat and in order. Vietnamese shopkeepers fold and sort notes by value in a flash, and it makes the whole transaction faster when yours are tidy too. A rubber band around your 10,000s and 20,000s is a cheap trick that works. I also keep my 500,000s in a different pocket from the small stuff so I never fish out the wrong one while a queue forms behind me at a market stall.

If you travel as a family, pick one adult as the "cash person" for the day and let them handle the haggling. It reduces mistakes and arguments. Children love counting out the notes, and it is a good way to teach them the denominations. Mine now shout the value of each note before I hand it over, which is annoying and extremely useful.

Staying connected so you can check rates and book rides

Money and mobile data are tied together in Vietnam more than people expect. You need data for Grab, for Google Maps, for checking the day's exchange rate, and for translating a menu where the only English is the word "beer". Sorting out your SIM or eSIM before you land removes the first big headache.

For a short trip, an eSIM is the least fuss. You install it before you fly, switch it on when you land, and there is no counter queue. The Vietnam Unlimited 4G/5G Data eSIM sits at S$12.44 and suits people who stream and navigate a lot. If your phone is not eSIM-ready, a physical card does the job; I have used the airport pick-up kind, and the counter staff set it up while I stood there.

If you land in Ho Chi Minh City and want a physical SIM, the Vietnam 5G SIM for pick-up at Tan Son Nhat Airport is listed from S$10.00. Check that your phone is unlocked first. A locked phone and a SIM card are a bad combination.

Visa money you should not forget

Currency planning also has to include entry costs. Singapore passport holders have been able to enter Vietnam visa-free for stays of up to 30 days, as long as the passport has at least six months of validity and a couple of blank pages. That information comes from our own verified visa data, last checked in August 2026. Other nationalities usually apply for an e-visa through the official government portal at evisa.gov.vn, with a fee of about USD 25, up to 90 days, and a processing time of around three working days. Apply a week early so there is no stress.

Rules change, so before you pay for anything, check the current situation for your passport on our visa requirements page. If an airline or an embassy asks for proof of onward travel and you have not bought the flight yet, a flight reservation for visa applications is a sensible, cheap way to show an itinerary. It is a reservation service, not an issued ticket, so keep that in mind and do not treat it as a booked seat.

How much a normal day costs

The country's own planning range for visitors sits around 500,000 to 2,000,000 VND per person per day, and that matches what I spend. The low end is hostel dorms, pavement meals and walking. The high end is a comfortable hotel, a couple of good restaurants and a tour or two. Cities differ: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City cost more than Hue or Da Lat, and islands like Phu Quoc add a premium for everything.

My own pattern: breakfast on the pavement, a long lazy lunch, and one proper activity per day. Spending on experiences rather than shopping keeps the budget predictable. And for a couple of those experiences, prepaying in advance means you are not counting cash at a ticket window.

Spending money on food that is worth it

Hanoi is where I learned the difference between eating and eating well. The Old Quarter has streets named after what they used to sell, and the food is still shaped by that. I went on a walking tour my first evening and spent much of it holding a plastic stool in one hand and chopsticks in the other. The guide knew which pho stall starts selling at four in the morning and which grill only sells one thing, and you do not find that on a map.

If you want it organised, the Hanoi Street Food Walking Tour with Water Puppet Show starts from S$23.17 and covers a lot of ground in an evening. The water puppets are a classic Hanoi experience, and if you only want the show, a standalone Thang Long Water Puppet Show ticket is available for S$7.41.

For something hands-on, the egg coffee class is surprisingly fun. Egg coffee tastes a bit like liquid tiramisu, which sounds weird until you try one. The Egg Coffee Class with Street Food Walking Tour is listed from S$26.68.

Day trips, and what they cost in real money

Ha Long Bay is the trip most people ask me about, and the biggest decision is cash flow, not scenery. Do you want a day trip that returns to Hanoi the same evening, or an overnight on the water? Day trips are fine if you are pressed for time. They involve a lot of driving: roughly three to four hours each way from Hanoi, so you spend most of the day on the road for a short stretch on the water. Overnight cruises feel more relaxed, you wake up to the bay in silence, but they cost far more.

The Ha Long Bay Day Tour from S$41.96 is the straightforward one. If you want more cruising time and a slower pace, the Luxury Ha Long Bay Cruise from Hanoi is listed at S$48.39.

Down the coast in Da Nang, the evening river cruise is cheap and charming rather than spectacular. Lights on the bridges, music from the boat, a breeze that makes the heat bearable. The Han River Night Cruise by Tau Rong Song Han is S$6.00, which is what a coffee costs in some places at home.

Further south in Nha Trang, the bay is the draw. I did a boat day with snorkelling, lunch and a lot of sunburn. The Nha Trang Bay Day Tour with Snorkeling, BBQ and Fishing starts from S$29.99 and works well if you like your days busy. And if you land at Cam Ranh and want a driver waiting, there is a private transfer between Cam Ranh Airport and Nha Trang from S$22.67. Cam Ranh is a good 30 to 40 minutes from the city, so a pre-arranged ride avoids the haggling game at midnight.

One practical note about HolidaySG bookings: your booking is confirmed by our team, and e-tickets are emailed afterwards, so do not count on instant tickets within seconds of paying. Plan a day ahead where you can. That also gives you time to sort your cash in peace.

Scams and slip-ups that cost real money

Vietnam is a friendly country and I have had more kindness than trouble there. But a few classic money tricks do exist, and you will meet at least one if you stay long enough. None of them are dramatic. They are small, practiced, and designed to work when you are tired.

The note swap. You hand over a 500,000 note, the seller says it was only 50,000, and holds up a different note. Say the number out loud as you pay, and keep your money in your hand until they confirm.

The taxi meter. Only use Grab or a well-known meter taxi company, and insist on the meter or the in-app price. A driver who says the meter is broken usually has a fixed price in mind that is three times higher. If you are heading out from an airport, book a transfer in advance so the price is clear.

Short change. The big notes make this easy. Count your change before you walk away. Not rudely, just visibly.

The "special price" for tourists. At a market, the first price is always inflated. Bargaining is part of the game, but do it with a smile. Offer about half, meet somewhere in the middle, and walk away politely if it does not work. They will often call you back.

Counterfeit worries. Polymer notes are hard to fake well, and genuine ones have a clear window and feel slightly slick. If something feels like paper, check it. Staying away from street changers removes most of the risk.

Tipping and small courtesies

Tipping is not compulsory, but it is welcomed, and in the tourism trade it has grown into a habit. At restaurants, check whether a service charge is already on the bill. If not, rounding up or leaving 5 to 10 percent is generous. Tour guides and drivers on a full-day excursion usually appreciate something at the end: a common range is 100,000 to 200,000 VND per person for a guide, and a bit less for a driver, depending on how good the day was. Hotel porters get 20,000 to 50,000 VND per bag. Massage therapists get a small tip if you liked the work. Hand it over with both hands or with a slight nod; it is a gesture of respect.

Carrying cash without feeling nervous

Petty theft exists, mostly bag snatching from passing motorbikes on busy streets. The rule I follow is simple: phone and wallet on the side away from traffic, bag strap across my body, nothing hanging loosely from my shoulder near the kerb. Do not take your phone out to check the map while standing at the roadside.

Split your money. Keep a day's cash in a front pocket or a small wallet, a backup stash in your luggage or the hotel safe, and a card in a different place from your main one. Carry a mix of notes: a few 10,000s and 20,000s for water and small buys, 50,000s and 100,000s for meals, and the 500,000 for emergencies and hotels. Photograph the front and back of your cards and keep a copy of your passport photo page on your phone. Do it before you travel.

A comfortable cash float for most trips is about 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 VND per person per day when you are mostly paying in cash, less if you prepay tours and hotels. If you are travelling for a week, withdraw a couple of times rather than all at once. A huge pile of cash is a worry in your pocket, not a benefit.

Shopping, VAT refunds and last-day spending

Vietnam has a VAT refund scheme for foreign visitors, although in practice it is limited. You generally need to shop at participating stores, ask for the refund paperwork at the time of purchase, meet a minimum spend, and claim at a designated counter at the airport on departure. It is worth asking the store when you buy something expensive, and leave extra time at the airport. For smaller buys, forget about it and spend your remaining Dong on coffee beans, dried mango or a lacquer coaster, because Dong is hard to change back at a good rate once you are home.

On the last day, plan to end up with only a small amount of cash left. Spend the notes at the airport café or a supermarket before departure. If you have a lot left over, swap it back at the airport counter before security, and accept the so-so rate as the price of convenience.

Fitting it all into a trip

If you are putting a trip together, here is how I would arrange the money side across ten days. Land in Hanoi with a small amount of Dong, an eSIM or SIM, and a card. Withdraw cash from a bank ATM on day one. Spend a few days in the north with a street-food tour, a Ha Long day, and a day in the Old Quarter. Fly south to Da Nang for Hoi An and the beaches, then to Nha Trang or Ho Chi Minh City to finish. Withdraw more cash only when you drop to about a third of your float.

Prepay what you can: tours, transfers, SIM or eSIM, the lounge if you want it. Pay in cash for what is cheap and local. That way you carry less money, argue less, and still enjoy the pavement stools and the chaos.

One more thing on timing. Banks close earlier than you think, often around four or five in the afternoon on weekdays, with shorter hours on Saturdays. During the Tet holiday in late January or February, many ATMs run empty and plenty of shops shut for days, so withdraw extra before it begins. I learned this on a trip where half the machines in the street showed an out-of-service message for three days. If you are visiting around Tet, bring a decent cash buffer and book your tours and transfers ahead.

Frequently asked questions

What currency does Vietnam use?

The Vietnamese Dong (VND). Prices are quoted in Dong almost everywhere, though some hotels and tour operators quote in US dollars as well.

Should I exchange money before I go?

Only a small amount for the first day. After that, a bank or licensed gold shop in the city usually gives a better rate than the airport.

Can I pay in US dollars or Singapore dollars?

Some hotels and tour operators will take USD and a few will take SGD, but the rate they give is usually worse than paying in Dong. Treat foreign cash as a backup, not your main payment.

Are credit cards widely accepted?

In hotels, malls, chain restaurants and supermarkets, yes. At markets, street stalls and many small guesthouses, no. Always have cash.

Are ATMs easy to find?

In cities and towns, very. In small villages and on some islands, less so, so withdraw before you head out.

How much cash should I carry per day?

About 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 VND if you are mostly paying in cash, lower if you prepay tours. Keep the rest safe.

Do I need a visa as a Singapore citizen?

Our verified data shows visa-free entry for up to 30 days for Singapore passport holders. Rules can change, so confirm on our visa requirements page before you fly.

Can I use Apple Pay or Google Pay?

At some chain stores and larger hotels, yes. Do not rely on it. Carry a physical card and some cash.

Is bargaining expected?

At markets and with unmetered transport, yes. At restaurants, supermarkets and shops with price tags, no.

Is Vietnam expensive?

Not compared with Singapore. Food and local transport are cheap, hotels range widely, and the cost of tours depends on how much comfort you want.