DANANG, VIETNAM – A while back I read a story about the ‘money game’ described by an expat living in Mexico.
It was all about the challenges of acquiring and keeping enough small-denomination bills to be able to shop in local markets and stores.
We play that same game here in Vietnam.
Cash machines dispense large-denomination notes
Most of the local bank ATMs dispense larger-denomination bills. Here in Danang, it’s usually 500,000-Dong notes, worth a little over $20 U.S.
Back in the States it’s no problem to get change for a $20 bill almost anywhere. Even a $50 bill can be changed at any grocery or convenience store.
But here, where an average market transaction might be only 20,000 to 50,000 Dong (a dollar or two) many market merchants and street food vendors are reluctant to accept a big bill and give up so much of their change for one small transaction.
We usually try to break our larger bills at one of the chain supermarkets or bigger restaurants. Since they do a much larger volume, they usually have more change on hand.
If we’re spending more than half of one of those 500,000-Dong notes, we find a vendor much more willing to give change, though they can still be reluctant if they see you have smaller bills.
Unlike shopkeepers in the U.S., local Vietnamese market vendors don’t go to the bank to stock up on change for the day’s business. A lot of the individual sellers probably don’t even have a bank account.
They’ll sometimes approach their fellow vendors to break a big bill, but they, in turn, are usually unwilling to dip into their own stash to make change for someone else’s customer.
So when we go shopping we try to keep an assortment of smaller bills in our pockets at all times.
If you have exact change, they want it!
The real challenge comes when a vendor sees that you have small bills in your bankroll and wants you to pay with exact change, even if you were trying to break a larger bill so you could shop at other stalls.
Sometimes they’ll even go so far as to grab the exact amount out of your hand.
That kind of behavior certainly takes some getting used to, but so far we’ve never had anyone take more than the agreed upon price. And more than once I’ve yanked my money back and insisted they change the larger bill.
The other part of this ‘money game’ involves the condition of the currency we spend. It’s only happened a couple of times here in Vietnam, but we have had vendors refuse to accept a bill that they deem too worn or damaged. They hand it back and demand a cleaner, newer note.
‘Your money’s no good here’
When we were in Cambodia several years ago we found the practice to be much more widespread. Some merchants even refused to accept bills we had just withdrawn from a bank ATM.
Vietnamese ATMs usually dispense relatively clean notes, though there are always a few that are worn, written on, crumbled or just plain dirty.
The change we receive in the market is another matter.
Sometimes, I swear, the bills we get in change were picked up out of the gutter along the street. Dogeared, filthy, torn and crumpled, it looks like the vendors are trying to get rid of that dirty ‘hot potato’ as fast as they can.
When I get one of these in change, I try to spend the funky bill at the next stall, sometimes sandwiching a decrepit note between two cleaner ones. Hey, it’s a game, right?
Besides the wrinkles and dirt, some of these bills have been used so many times that part of the design has worn off to where you can see right through (20K and higher notes are printed on transparent plastic film, while 1K, 2K and 5K notes are paper).
To avoid getting stuck with a bunch of ratty bills no one will accept, I tend to grade and arrange the currency by condition within my billfold, placing the dirtiest, most crumpled bills where I will spend them first.
Challenge accepted, market vendors. I can play the same money game as you.
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