I think you were being scammed.
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Mildly Infuriating
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No, it's fairly common in many countries. Foreign currencies (namely USD and EUR) are a lot more stable and people prefer that. USD was the unofficial main currency for any large purchases (like a car or a house) in the Soviet union and for several years after its collapse.
In addition to the stability, they might also be trying to avoid paying currency conversion fees themselves. They are going to export the profits in dollars, and they’d rather you pay the 2% conversion tax than them having to do it.
Welcome to Egypt. You were being scammed and people will often try to do that to you. Research local prices before buying anything
How does this scam work? Is it based on the assumption that tourist won't know the exchange rate and can be easily (and presumably grossly) overcharged?
Yeah, and it happens all the time. Gift shops and local shops will often charge more to outsiders because a lot of tourists don't realize how much cheaper everything is supposed to be here. Like they'd sell you a water bottle for $1 when its real price is well below 40 cents when calculating the local currency. This isn't even adding the fact that the USD is worth more than its official price here because the Egyptian Pound is constantly crashing.
Someone in the comments said that asking for foreign currencies is common, but it absolutely isn't. Everyone trades with EGP and if they tell you otherwise, then they're jacking up the price so much because you look like a clueless tourist.
As for how many people fall for this, I'd say... A lot.
In this case I don't necessarily think it was a scam because the conversion matched up with what was shown online. However, they clearly wanted both a more stable currency and to not have to convert it themselves. I understand this but there is no way for me to physically attain another currency since I did not bring any into the country and especially wouldn't have USD. They accepted Egyptian pounds in the end.
What exactly is the scam?
I don't think its too uncommon for tourist areas to try to pressure tourists to pay with foreign currency that has a favorable exchange rate to the local currency. That way they can make extra money by quoting a figure in USD (or other currency) that they know they can exchange for much more than the regular cost in local currency. If pressured with "I don't have USD, so its either local currency or I go elsewhere" they'll usually give in and accept local currency.
Edit: More likely it is simply because Egypt's local currency is in a terrible state, so USD is much less likely to lose value: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/the-egyptian-pound-is-amongst-the-worst-performing-currencies-in-2023.html
It's funny that I see people saying that they do this to make ekstra money by giving bad exchange rates, while my personal experience in Burma/Myanmar (maaany years ago) was that you got a better price in USD, because the local currency was less stable. So people would charge more if you payed in local, because of the increased risk in holding local currency vs. USD.
Given this article saying Egypt's currency is doing terrible and is very unstable, I think you're much more likely to be right about this than my explanation: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/the-egyptian-pound-is-amongst-the-worst-performing-currencies-in-2023.html
Yeah I agree, we have a tour guide and he said because it's an international company running this particular activity they want foreign currency. They said they'd accept other major currencies but we had nothing but a couple of coins and they wouldn't accept card payment.
As an American, asking me to pay in USD in a foreign country is annoying too. I don't carry a bunch of cash when I travel and the cash I do carry is in the country I'm in's currency.
Edit: Also I've noticed that most things priced in USD are more expensive than those prices in the local currency
This happened to me in Laos (was it Laos? yikes, long time ago. I'm pretty sure it was Laos). Before arriving, I bought enough Lao currency for my stay, but the locals only wanted USD. I had to re-exchange my local currency for USD at a pretty bad rate.
Same exact thing happened to me last night. It was $65 USD, and was told it was an international company and they wanted the amount in USD. They complained when i tried to pay it in EGP but it was either take my EGP, this is an extra activity i am happy to pass up otherwise.
I've had this a couple of times. I just told them I only had their local currency or mine, Australian Dollars.
They've then accepted the Australian Dollars.
It's probably a scam, but the amounts haven't been large and what are you gonna do? In one case I needed to hand over some AUD to enter the country! (Cambodia)
Yeah we had about 2 euros, 2 GBP and 20 Israeli shekels. In the end they just accepted the Egyptian currency.
People are saying it's a scam to make foreigners pay in USD, as far as I remember, jt is in fact the law in Egypt that foreigners pay in USD or other foreign currency. There's also a huge makeup for tourist prices relative to what the locals pay, which is honestly to be expected because Egypt is a massive tourist testination and a large part of their economy. The prices are normal or less to what a westerner would pay in their own country but relatively expensive for Egyptian cost of living.
If you're in Cairo, go to the American Express office inside the Nile Hilton. You'll be able to get USD there.
Not in Cairo, besides I think it's silly that I would have to hike to another hotel for that anyway. The guy at the airport laughed when I asked how I can get USD here.