Travelling to South Africa - Questions about Cash, Travellers Cheques and Credit Cards
I am a Canadian travelling to South Africa for two weeks. My flights, rental car and hotels are pre-paid. Obviously I'll want to have some money to spend on food, entertainment and unforeseen costs while I'm there.
My question is, how much cash should I bring? Carrying cash around is a bad idea but my limited experience is that travelers cheques are a pain to get cashed and are not accepted anywhere other than banks.
Will my mastercard (issued by a Canadian bank) serve me well? I understand that it should work at ATMs, but will it be accepted at stores, gas stations and restaurants?
Best Answer
Having visited South Africa last year (Johannesberg and Cape Town), I had zero issues using an Australian-issued MasterCard credit card and Visa debit card. This was used in restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, ATMs, etc.
We travelled with no Rand and got out a couple of hundred dollars in Rand from an ATM in the airport on arrival. I've found that that's generally cheaper than currency exchanges. We only used cash when credit/ATM cards were impractical (total was too small or they weren't available).
South Africa is basically a first world country when it comes to their financial infrastructure, as far as I could tell. There are still social and some utility-related issues (flaky power, phone or internet access), but in terms of accessing your money it was not a concern at any point for us. I can't speak for every small town, but then you may very well have the same issue travelling through parts of Australia in terms of ATM/credit card availability.
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How do I cash a Travellers Cheque in South Africa?
Travellers' cheques may be cashed at any banks. Rennies Travel is the agent for Thomas Cook. There are a few American Express branches in some cities; Nedbank is the agent for American Express and First National Bank for Visa.Are Travellers Cheques still used in South Africa?
Once a popular travel money option, traveller's cheques, which are pre-printed coupons of a specific denomination that can be used as a substitute for cold cash, are no longer widely used or recognised in SA.Can you use credit cards in South Africa?
The booming tourism industry means that credit cards are widely accepted across the nation. Mastercard and Visa are widely accepted credit cards in South Africa. American Express cardholders may find less businesses accept their cards.How much cash can I travel with to South Africa?
There are limits on the amount of currency you can bring into South Africa. For cash in South African Rand (ZAR), the limit is 25,000ZAR. For combinations of cash in other currencies, the limit is US$10,000 (or equivalent). You should declare any amount higher than this on entry to South Africa.Debit Card vs Credit Card
More answers regarding travelling to South Africa - Questions about Cash, Travellers Cheques and Credit Cards
Answer 2
Credit cards are accepted pretty much everywhere in SA, as the other people already mentioned in their answers, there are also many ATMs.
One thing I wanted to add is that ATM fraud seems to be quite serious there (my friend was almost a victim when I was there last year). Usually it involves some people trying to "help" you with the cash machine - often seemingly unrelated. They are trying to either scan your card or swap it to a different one (but of the same colour), and at the same time memorize your PIN code as you enter it. So they would try to make you enter your PIN a few times, claiming there are issues with the ATM, etc. In case of my friend just walking away solved the problem.
Answer 3
I live in South Africa and Visa & MasterCards are accepted here.
As mentioned by some people in the blog, you will need to have cash for street Vendors and Small shops on the street.
The most you will usually spend in a proper restaurant: Breakfast less than R100, Lunch less than R180 Dinner R180
But you can easily spend the Day with around R350
Hope this helps
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