Why was US currency not wanted in Novosibirsk, Russia?
[assuming that] small denomination dollars were a ‘safe’ default near universal currency. That was your mistake right there. Honestly, not being rude, but why on earth would you assume that without doing any further research? Lots of us around the world really don’t have a clue how to tell a genuine US dollar (or twenty) from a fake one, or any clue what to do with it if we did have a genuine one. I’m really NOT having a go at you here, just answering the question. I remember years ago when I was waitressing in Australia, an American sailor gave me a US dollar as a tip. I’ve no idea what I did with it; I think I used it as a bookmark. It wasn’t of any use to me other than that. It IS true that a lot of major businesses in many places will accept dollars, euros, pounds sterling, even when they’re not the local currency, but you just can’t assume that without researching first.
Yeah that is actually kind of crazy travel advice. The best way to pay for stuff overseas is actually to use a credit card — you get the best exchange rate of the day and pay only a small conversion fee. If you need cash, make sure you can get cash advances at ATMs with your card. The reason many people in other countries only want new currency is because they are used to old currency being declared void and they don’t know if that has/will happen in the States.
I agree that that’s not terribly good advice. I was recently in Poland, Estonia and Moscow and while I certainly was never as far east as Novosibirsk, from my experience it was pretty much the same as everywhere else I’ve traveled — there is no such thing as a “universal currency”, and anyone’s best bet is to get local currency through ATM machines or banks. I’ve never heard of local businesses accepting anything but local currency. Also, yeah, like everyone else have said, it’s a bad idea to travel with a lot of cash in any denomination.
Small denomination USD are very useful in Southeast Asia, especially when you get less developed (they’re basically the normal currency in Cambodia, for example, and the few international ATMs dispense them). In a place like Hong Kong, where I am now, they’re useful only if you can find someone to change them. Use ATMs whenever available. Bank rate, most non-US banks don’t charge fees, and you can find a US bank that won’t charge a fee on its end. Travelers checks are a pain but decent backup, depending on where you are.
you shouldn’t expect to pay with usd, or euros, or anything except rubles in russia. usd might be fine in a private transaction but in a shop, restaurant, hotel they are completely out of the question. and illegal for payment, too. re changing us dollars: currency exchange places are gonna want new or nearly new bills (they either won’t take or will offer a discount rate for old/damaged bills) and highish denominations (they don’t want bunches of ones, fives, tens). if you’re travelling to russia, either get your money from an atm or exchange brand-new $100 bills at the currency exchange places.
