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THE KNOWLEDGE
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LIFE IN DUBAI
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Here is all that you need to know about money in the UAE.
The currency is UAE Dirham. This is referred to as DHS or AED. Each Dirham consists of 100 Fils.
Notes are in denominations of 5 (brown), 10 (green), 20 (turquoise), 50 (dark blue), 100(red), 200 (green/brown), 500 (purple) and 1000 Dirhams (light brown)
You can see a picture of some of the notes
here
Rarely will you see a 1000 Dirham note, since they are not dispensed from many cash machines. The 200 and 20 Dirham notes are less prevalent than the others.
Coins are broken down to 5, 10, (coppers) 25, 50, Fils and 1Dirham. Many shops will not carry the smaller Fils change and mark up or down. Often, you will be asked if you have the change to pay for something since it will clear out the till. "You have 1 Dirham, Madam?"
The Dirham is pegged to the US Dollar at a rate of 3.6724 Dirhams to the Dollar and has been since 1980. (The technical bit is that "The UAE is officially pegged to a special drawing right at the rate of SDE1=4.7619 UAE Dirhams, with a margin 7.25% on either side) And so currency fluctuations are wholly dependant on the greenback. There is talk of following the monetary union model for the Gulf, but if a currency were to be introduced it would be unlikely to come in earlier than 2010. Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Diners Club) are accepted in the majority of shops, but not necessarily in the street stores.
There are many places to exchange your cash, including your hotel, specialist exchanges and banks. As with most countries,
the rate that you will receive at your hotel will not be as good as at the exchanges. There are
many exchanges on the street and in the malls, and it is perfectly safe to exchange your money there, and in most cases you do not need any ID.
To get a picture of what the rates are actually like, check out the website of
Ansari Exchange.
What might be useful is to print off a currency
cheat sheet before you leave so you know how much you are paying, or you could use a simple exchange converter to get the rate for your currency.
What has been talked about recently is a GCC Common Currency, which has been
penciled in for 2010. Although there is constant talk that this won't be fulfilled, perhaps as a minimum, the Dirham may change its peg to a basket of currencies rather than just the Dollar that, although has been good for the UAE over the medium term, has resulted in some issues over the last couple of years, with its weakening.
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