Cuban convertible peso (CUC) | Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews Forums

	Anyone returned this week from Cuba? Would you be able to let us know what it costs in Canadian Dollars to purchase 100 CUC. Our neighbors returned from Cuba from a February trip and have left over CUCs and would like to sell them to us.any assistance / responses would be greatly appreciated.

	They are worthless outside of Cuba, and illegal to remove from the country. Tell your neighbor I will help out by getting rid of the evidence. (well, you asked for any response…)

LOL Good one Big John. I’ll let her know you offered.

and yes I did say any assistance / responses would be greatly appreciated. I guess I asked for it.

I can safely return CUC to Cuba and I know great place where those illegally exported CUCs will be spent wisely lol ..

Pretty much see US$ and same conversion is for CUC compared to Canadian $

	All the internet currency exchange sites (like coinmill.com, xe.com, oanda.com, x-rates.com, etc.) are useless for real budgeting because they only give mid-market rates, ignoring the buy/sell costs that you’ll be charged at the bank or Cadeca in Cuba.At present CubaJack’s link is the only website that gives you the exact exchange rates that you will receive at the Bank in Cuba.Cheers,Terry

	Local Gold and Coin stores usually have a good idea of what CUCs will fetch in Canada. A quick call and ask "how much do you pay for … " will give you an idea of what your neighbours could expect. You’d give them a little more, Eh?

Thank you Terry and Spunky great info. I will let the neibors knowPS Since we usually go to Cuba 3 times a year we also keep extra Cuc’s for our return trips. Comes in handy at the airport for a cold beer taxi ride or tip for the driver.Thank you all for your quick responses. Cheers

ald1

Here’s how you work the money exchange link.1.) Find Canadian Dollars on the chart, it’s second from the top.2.) Look at the "Compra" column. That’s the "purchase" rate to buy CUC. Today the rate is 1.36435.3.) That means $100 CAD divided by 1.36435 = 73.29 CUC in your pocket at the bank in Cuba today. Rates at Cadecas are (usually, not always) slightly worse. Over-the-counter exchange at your resort will almost assuredly be worse.Cheers,

Terry

Just look at he US exchange rate…..basically it’s the same thing and easy to find/access and calculate.Amazing how currency at such a poor country can be worth so much more than ours….

Was just in Mexico and was so nice to see our CAD worth more than the USD when exchanging.

Amazing how currency at such a poor country can be worth so much more than ours…. That point seems to puzzle a lot of people. As I explained in a previous thread:

Basically, the convertible peso is a US dollar. The use of the US dollar and the introduction of the convertible peso was intended to provide Cuba with hard currency to purchase imported goods. From 1993 until 2004, Cuban currency was split between the Cuban peso and the U.S. dollar, in combination with the convertible peso. In 2004, the US dollar was withdrawn from circulation and fully replaced with convertible peso notes. You could think of the convertible peso as a unit of currency that is worth 25 Cuban pesos, which in turn are worth about 4 cents.Some countries use the US dollar as their currency, for example, El Salvador and Turks and Caicos Islands.In fact, any country can define their own currency in terms of another currency. There are some advantages and some disadvantages to this. For example, Canada chooses to have a "flexible exchange rate system." To quote from a page from the Bank of Canada:———————————————————————————–Because we have a target for inflation that aims to preserve the domestic value of the Canadian dollar, we cannot also have a target for its external value. So, there is no set (fixed) value for our currency in terms of any other currency. The exchange rate for the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar, and indeed against any other currency, floats and is determined by the demand for and supply of Canadian dollars in the foreign exchange market.———————————————————————————–Cuba just happens not to do it this way. They define their currency in terms of a US dollar, and internal prices are a function of that definition. Hope that helps.

Yeah…so Canadian’s net worth and value is totally influenced by other currencies and the price of oil essentially…..which is of no benefit to most Canadians at the end of the day. Lower currency value equals higher costs for mostly everything.But that’s a topic for a different thread.

I have understood for years that Cuba essentially ties there’s to the US dollar….I was just stating that I am still amazed at the end of the day they have been able to do this for so long. I guess I notice it more so when our dollar is the toilet. Or when I visit another Caribbean country who I would put way ahead of Cuba in many areas…and our low dollar goes SO much further…

Was just in Mexico and was so nice to see our CAD worth more than the USD when exchanging. I think you must have meant "to see our CAD worth more than the Peso." But anyway, I get it. when you change a twenty, and get back more than a couple of hundred pesos, it makes you feel rich.But then the prices are a higher number, too. It reminds me of a trip I made to Venezuela many years ago, when the old Bolivar was worth way less than the current Bolivar Fuerte, and, my hotel bill was a million Bolivars. I bought some cheap souvenirs, and they cost somewhere around 2,000 to 3,000 Bolivars each.If I changed a twenty, I felt quite wealthy walking around with thousands of Bolivars in my wallet.Also, probably a topic for another thread, so I’ll try not to stray from the original subject anymore.

Yes..I meant the exchange rate was better to exchange from CAD to Peso’s then it would be for me to buy USD and then buy Peso’s there…..in Cuba you don’t have a choice or option.

So ultimately it was a better rate then what I would pay/get in Cuba…

	"Yes..I meant the exchange rate was better to exchange from CAD to Peso’s then it would be for me to buy USD and then buy Peso’s there…..in Cuba you don’t have a choice or option."???? You lost me there. Very seldom will you come out ahead paying money changers twice, to get to your desired currency. Same as options available in Cuba.

Normally when I travel….I take USD as it accepted everywhere….But in Mexico it was a better deal to simply use my CAD to purchase there than it would have been to use USD once it was all factored in.

So my point was that ultimately…even with our low CAD..i got more bang for my buck in Mexico than I would have in Cuba.

Beans and I have, in the past used a "Beer Exchange" rate for comparisons. So, to decide where you get the best bang for your buck, it would be important to know how much does a beer cost in Mexico, as compared to Cuba.Certainly you will get more MXP for $100 CDN than you will get CUC for that same amount, but how many beers can you buy for that?

beer in Mexico cost us anywhere from 15 to 20 pesos, when we were in Puerto Vallarta in December (so roughly between $1.12 and $1.50 CAD).

In Guardelavaca at the beach bar, we paid 1 CUC for a beer (CAD $1.33) but in Gibara we paid 1.5 CUC for a beer (CAD $2.00), so I guess Mexico is cheaper!

beer in Mexico cost us anywhere from 15 to 20 pesos, when we were in Puerto Vallarta in December (so roughly between $1.12 and $1.50 CAD).

In Guardelavaca at the beach bar, we paid 1 CUC for a beer (CAD $1.33) but in Gibara we paid 1.5 CUC for a beer (CAD $2.00), so I guess Mexico is cheaper!

It’s easy to find a 1 CUC beer in Gibara though, and even cheaper at .80 centavos if you’re into the cheap "peso" beers instead of the usual Cristal… ;-)Cheers,Terry

	So you decided it was better not to buy U$ and then convert that to Mex pesos? That’s right…as CAD is often not accepted at many places when travelling.While our dollar has dropped against the USD, it has gained in places like Mexico and also in some European countries as well..so if you can find places that accept CAD your further ahead.So my dollar went further in Mexico than Cuba….

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