Iran - Andrew Burke [321]
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MONEY
The official unit of currency is the Iranian rial, but Iranians almost always talk in terms of tomans, a unit equal to 10 rials (see Rials or Tomans?, below). We can’t emphasise enough how important it is to get your head around the idea of tomans as soon as you can. Throughout this book we use the abbreviation ‘IR’ to indicate Iranian rials. For an idea of costs Click here; and for exchange rates see the inside front cover.
For all intents and purposes, Iran is a purely cash economy. No credit cards. No travellers cheques. Just bring cold, hard cash – preferably in high-denomination euros or US dollars. Apart from some hotels, carpet shops and tour agencies where you can pay in dollars or euros, all transactions are in rials (or tomans). In this book, we’ve listed prices in the currency in which they are quoted. You’ll obviously need to carry a mix of rials and dollars or euros – you’d need a wheelbarrow to cart around everything in rials.
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RIALS OR TOMANS?
No sooner have you arrived in Iran than you will come up against the idiosyncratic local practice of talking about prices in tomans even though the currency is denominated in rials. While most travellers eventually get used to this, at first it is completely bamboozling. One toman is worth 10 rials, so it’s a bit like shopkeepers in Europe asking for 10 cents whenever they wanted €1.
To make matters worse, taxi drivers and bazaris (the shopkeepers in the bazaar) will often say ‘one’ as shorthand for IR10,000. However, before you consider cancelling your trip to Iran on the grounds of commercial confusion, rest assured that after a few days you’ll understand that the two fingers the taxi driver just showed you mean IR20,000. And as you start to get a feel for what things cost, you’ll understand that if something sounds too good to be true – or too bad – it probably is.
In the interim, you can always have the price written down, and then to double-check ask whether it’s in rials or tomans (written prices are usually expressed in rials) – using a calculator is handy, too, as the numbers show in Western rather than Arabic numerals.
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Which brings us to the question of what sort of cash you should bring to Iran. It used to be, somewhat ironically, that the US dollar was king in Iran. But in response to strong US condemnation of Iran’s nuclear program and falling US dollar, the Ahmadinejad government has encouraged Iranian banks and businesses to turn away from the dollar and toward the euro. So much so that some banks won’t even change dollars anymore. On this research trip we had no problem changing dollars (as long as the notes were printed since 1996), but if you have to choose between one or the other then it’s safer to go for euros. UK pounds get decent rates in most bigger towns too, but can’t always be exchanged at borders or in smaller moneychangers, so have at least a few dollars or euros for emergencies.
There is a thriving business in UAE dirhams along the Persian Gulf coast. However, Turkish lira are treated with the utmost scorn everywhere except close to the Turkish border; ditto for the Afghan, Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Pakistani currencies.
Whichever currency you choose, the most important thing to remember is to bring as much cash as you’re likely to need, then a bit more. Getting your hands on money once you’re inside Iran is a nightmare.
ATMs
Although Iran has a functioning network of ATMs (cashpoint machines), they can only be used with locally issued bank cards, so are useless to travellers unless you open a local account.
Banks
Although it sometimes seems as if every fourth building in Iran is a bank, only a few banks will actually change your money and then usually only US dollars, euros or, less often, British pounds in cash. Your best bet will always be the central branch (markazi) of Bank Melli (BMI) in whichever town you are in. In larger cities you may also be able to change money