The Best Money Exchange Ho Chi Minh District 1 – Vietnam Travel

The best money exchange shop in Ho Chi Minh District 1 is Ha Tam Jewelry. It is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and is located just near the famous Ben Thanh Market in HCM.

Because of its convenience and good rate, there will be queues every day in front of the shops from tourists and locals alike. As per my last visit, in HCM, they offered 24.9k VND for every 1 USD, meaning 2.49m VND for every 100 USD exchanged.

At the same time, other money exchange shops offer around 24.8k VND for each USD, local banks like Vietbank offer 24.5k, and the airport rate is around 24k.

I exchanged at Ha Tam several times during my visit to Ho Chi Minh. I used the money for souvenirs, coffee, restaurants, and massages. The VND exchanged are legit and can be used smoothly.

One point to be aware of for exchange in Vietnam is you should always bring a brand new 100 USD note to secure the best rate. The rate would be ~ 2 % worse off if you use small notes like 50/ 20 / 10 USD and 5% worse for a 5 / 1 USD note.

The shop’s location is here.

Below is supplementary information on the topics of money exchange in Ho Chi Minh based on my experience.

How much to exchange

You will need VND in cash for most of your transactions in HCM except for high-end massage shops, restaurants, or malls. That means if you aim for a local experience you should have sufficient cash. For example, when you shop at Ben Thanh Market, a pack of coffee can cost you as much as 200k VND.

For your reference, a meal at HCM is around 150k VND at local restaurants, 400k VND for a full body massage, or 500k VND for the famous beauty-hair washing. That means at any time your pocket shall have more than 1m VND in cash and you would be safe.

Of course, how much cash in your pocket would make you safe, depends on your personal preference and itinerary. I would recommend you first exchange 200 USD at Ha Tam on your first day at Ho Chi Minh.

Then after that, you can top up based on your spending needs. With the convenient location, you can just take a grab bike to the shop within 15 minutes from everywhere in District 1 at less than 10k VND.

Money exchange at the airport or local banks

Exchanging at the airport or local banks is less preferred. As I mentioned, the airport rate could be close to 10% worse off and around 5 % worse off as compared to Ha Tam. In fact, you do not need to exchange VND immediately after arriving at the airport.

When I travel to HCM, I just use Grab (which is paid by credit card) to travel to District 1 from the airport. Then I would exchange in the city center. The same goes for the advice on pre-trip. There is no need to exchange VND before going to Ho Chi Minh or Vietnam because using Grab, your transit to the city center should be cashless.

Unless you plan to take the airport bus that would triple your journey time and is not recommended. First, you have to accept a worse rate at the airport for the cash to pay for the bus, then you lose the time for waiting for the bus and suffer extra travel time.

For local banks, unless there are no other options at the city center, I would not use them.

Ho Chi Minh Versus Hanoi VND Rate

If you are traveling in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh at the same time, you may want to exchange in Hanoi instead. I have been to Hanoi twice before and based on my experience, Hanoi‘s money exchange rates from Jewelry shop are slightly better than that of Ho Chi Minh (even compared to Ha Tam). However, the difference is less than 1%. For example, on my last trip, I got 25k VND for 1 USD in Hanoi Old Quarter, while I could only get 24.9k VND for 1 USD in Ho Chi Minh.

Again it is a very small difference. But if you are very picky about cost, then you may want to exchange a bit more in Hanoi instead of Ho Chi Minh while traveling in Vietnam.