Cuba Money includes quite a few currencies. However the official Cuba Currency is the Cuban Peso (CUP) divided into 100 centavos (cents). Notes are of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 Pesos while coins are of 1, 5, and 20 centavos. The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) was announced by the Cuban financial authorities to stop the usage of the foreign currencies. It replaced the dollars in Cuba. Acceptance of US Dollars continued till 8 November 2004 and now 10% commission is charged to exchange US Dollars.
There are some scams and cheats in the streets of Cuba, based on the ignorance of the common traveler of the differences between the Convertible and Not Convertible Pesos. Since December 2004, the rate of change of the Cuban Peso with the Convertible Peso is of 1/24. However it is important to know that, only plain Cuban Pesos are accepted while accessing to a limited number of products/services, like, public transport, buying market food, or having local street food.
The Cuban Currency are based on the following rules
- American Dollars are not accepted on Government Business from 8 November 2004
- All stores, which used to welcome American Dollars have now changed their accountancy to only Pesos Convertibles
- Pesos Convertibles cost equivalent to 1.18$ (when Dollars are exchanged to Pesos Convertibles), because of the 10% tax
- While trading Canadian Dollars or Euros or any other strong currency into Pesos Convertibles, the exchange rate is 1.08.
The Convertible Pesos are available at airports, Money Exchange Offices and Banks. 1 US Dollar = 0.82 Peso Convertible. However in Cuba people still carry on their business with different foreign currencies as the Cuban Peso is very unstable. Thus Cuba Money is a little complicated.
