Currency to use in Morocco

[John and Mel]

Hi all, we are off to Morocco for the first time in the new year, for a couple of months .. can you lovely people advise on whether Mastercard is widely accepted and do they also like to take euros as well as MAD ???

many thanks

 

[TerryL]

They're Arabs - they'll take anything off you!

But being practical about it the currency is the Moroccan dirham, it's what's known as a restricted currency which means it's not available and you're not supposed to take it out of the country, although we are aware of places you can get smaller amounts. The exchange rate is managed so is pretty well the same everywhere, just use the first exchange you see. Note, banks won't do foreign exchange although we found some larger post offices would.

Credit cards are not (yet) widely accepted but are no problem in the larger supermarkets or fuel stations, although the latter do tend to prefer currency. There are also ATM's in most of the larger towns. We've noticed a couple of places will accept euros but never bothered as you can't check what rate you're getting and it sure won't be favourable to you!

Our practice is to take a decent wodge of sterling or Euros, doesn't seem to be any preference, and change them to dirhams at the border (if you use Tanger Med port there's a row of them after Customs) - keep the receipt in case you're asked when you leave the country and change money back*. After that we draw dirhams from ATMs as needed, always being careful to keep enough for at least a couple of tanks of fuel. We have a no-fee debit card kept for just this purpose as using a credit card for cash can be expensive - there's a few threads about this subject. Word of warning - when exchanging don't let them give you too many of the large 500MAD notes, they're next to impossible to get rid of except maybe for fuel or a big shop in a supermarket. Always make sure you have adequate smaller notes and coins, Arabs don't like giving change!

* Why, you might ask. We've known folk take a lot of stuff to sell in Morocco then when they return have a large sum of cash to exchange. The authorities take a dim view of this (take note of the number of cars absolutely overloaded being checked at the border) so as long as you can show you're taking less money out than you brought in you'll be okay. Tourism accounts for 20% of foreign income and is the second largest source after nitrates.

If you haven't done so have a look at some of the older threads, Morocco 2016 is a good one. Also my article in Resources, a few years old now but still relevant. We're planning to return to Maroc mid to late January so might see you there.

 

[LesW]

Hi all, we are off to Morocco for the first time in the new year, for a couple of months .. can you lovely people advise on whether Mastercard is widely accepted and do they also like to take euros as well as MAD ???

many thanks

Might be worth sending a message to Jimbohorlicks who's touring Morocco now.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Hi all, we are off to Morocco for the first time in the new year, for a couple of months .. can you lovely people advise on whether Mastercard is widely accepted and do they also like to take euros as well as MAD ???

many thanks

Hi we are in Morocco now and we have used our Halifax clarity credit card for most fuel purchases and carrefour/ marjane shopping. If you use the bigger fuel stations they are all geared up for cards .even though the fuel is cheaper around 14Dirhams. Per litre(£1.20 or so) when you fill the tank its a lot of cash your using up.but check first before you fuel up .
We have been getting 12.3 exchange rate with Halifax so not too bad. We changed stirling at the Tangier med port when we arrived, there are offices set up for currency exchange , insurance etc. You just have to pick the best exchange rate our was 12.15 at the port so not brilliant. There are also touts selling the sim cards but you have to watch they dont con you into buying a smaller sim than you have paid for. Best to go to the maroc telecom shop.
There are plenty of official money exchange outlets in towns and the larger supermarkets carrefour , marjane will take credit cards. ( contactless)
In Marakesh we exchanged at 12.4 which is the best we have seen .
As said don't accept the 500 notes , even the 200 are hard to change with taxis or street traders .the prices are not high. We tried to change a 200d note in carrefour but with using contactless cards they don't have a lot of cash.the notes are 500, 200, 100 , 50, 20 and then coins 10 , 5 , 1 and 1/2d .there are some smaller ones but not worth anything. Most short journeys in taxis are10D 20 tops.
We did notice in the larger towns that they will accept euros at 10D to the euro( think the rate is 10.6) and some items are marked up in euros ( not seen anything marked up in £), more so in larger towns like marakesh. but if you have changed stirling into euros then to Dirhhams you lose out a little.
We haven't used any atms yet but there are plenty about..most banks seem to be closed on sundays.
Enjoy your trip.

 

[jongood]

The credit card question depends to a certain amount where you are. I would expect to be able to use them in major centres or in bigger garages. Its not as common when you get into the smaller places. I drove into a motorway toll booth by Rabat that was advertising CB payments but was then informed it only accepts Moroccan cards.

When Ive checked you seem to get a better rate for £s than Euro's

You do have to be a bit careful when getting prices for some items, check which currency they re quoting in, can be either MAD or Euros.

.

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[John and Mel]

Hi we are in Morocco now and we have used our Halifax clarity credit card for most fuel purchases and carrefour/ marjane shopping. If you use the bigger fuel stations they are all geared up for cards .even though the fuel is cheaper around 14Dirhams. Per litre(£1.20 or so) when you fill the tank its a lot of cash your using up.but check first before you fuel up .
We have been getting 12.3 exchange rate with Halifax so not too bad. We changed stirling at the Tangier med port when we arrived, there are offices set up for currency exchange , insurance etc. You just have to pick the best exchange rate our was 12.15 at the port so not brilliant. There are also touts selling the sim cards but you have to watch they dont con you into buying a smaller sim than you have paid for. Best to go to the maroc telecom shop.
There are plenty of official money exchange outlets in towns and the larger supermarkets carrefour , marjane will take credit cards. ( contactless)
In Marakesh we exchanged at 12.4 which is the best we have seen .
As said don't accept the 500 notes , even the 200 are hard to change with taxis or street traders .the prices are not high. We tried to change a 200d note in carrefour but with using contactless cards they don't have a lot of cash.the notes are 500, 200, 100 , 50, 20 and then coins 10 , 5 , 1 and 1/2d .there are some smaller ones but not worth anything. Most short journeys in taxis are10D 20 tops.
We did notice in the larger towns that they will accept euros at 10D to the euro( think the rate is 10.6) and some items are marked up in euros ( not seen anything marked up in £), more so in larger towns like marakesh. but if you have changed stirling into euros then to Dirhhams you lose out a little.
We haven't used any atms yet but there are plenty about..most banks seem to be closed on sundays.
Enjoy your trip.

Amazing thank you.. any advise on beautiful roads to drive or unusual places off the beaten track would be appreciated along with nice places where you have stayed …

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Amazing thank you.. any advise on beautiful roads to drive or unusual places off the beaten track would be appreciated along with nice places where you have stayed …

We have done a little blog of our ongoing trip if you want to check it out.

Thread 'Jim and Lyns trip to Morocco' Broken Link Removed

 

[John and Mel]

They're Arabs - they'll take anything off you!

But being practical about it the currency is the Moroccan dirham, it's what's known as a restricted currency which means it's not available and you're not supposed to take it out of the country, although we are aware of places you can get smaller amounts. The exchange rate is managed so is pretty well the same everywhere, just use the first exchange you see. Note, banks won't do foreign exchange although we found some larger post offices would.

Credit cards are not (yet) widely accepted but are no problem in the larger supermarkets or fuel stations, although the latter do tend to prefer currency. There are also ATM's in most of the larger towns. We've noticed a couple of places will accept euros but never bothered as you can't check what rate you're getting and it sure won't be favourable to you!

Our practice is to take a decent wodge of sterling or Euros, doesn't seem to be any preference, and change them to dirhams at the border (if you use Tanger Med port there's a row of them after Customs) - keep the receipt in case you're asked when you leave the country and change money back*. After that we draw dirhams from ATMs as needed, always being careful to keep enough for at least a couple of tanks of fuel. We have a no-fee debit card kept for just this purpose as using a credit card for cash can be expensive - there's a few threads about this subject. Word of warning - when exchanging don't let them give you too many of the large 500MAD notes, they're next to impossible to get rid of except maybe for fuel or a big shop in a supermarket. Always make sure you have adequate smaller notes and coins, Arabs don't like giving change!

* Why, you might ask. We've known folk take a lot of stuff to sell in Morocco then when they return have a large sum of cash to exchange. The authorities take a dim view of this (take note of the number of cars absolutely overloaded being checked at the border) so as long as you can show you're taking less money out than you brought in you'll be okay. Tourism accounts for 20% of foreign income and is the second largest source after nitrates.

If you haven't done so have a look at some of the older threads, Morocco 2016 is a good one. Also my article in Resources, a few years old now but still relevant. We're planning to return to Maroc mid to late January so might see you there.

Thanks so much for your advise, it will be very useful for us .. may see you out there