Money and Banking in Nepal, Tibet & Bhutan?

Money, Bank and ATM

Nepal: The official Nepalese currency is called the Rupee. There are denominations 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50,100, 500 and 1000 denominations, but 1 and 2 rupee coins, though rarer, are still used in Nepal. It is hard to read the coin denominations, but you can easily read and recognize the paper currency because numbers are written in English on one side, and different distinctive colors are used to show the different values.

Tibet: Modern currency in Tibet is the Chinese Yuan (often written as “CNY”), otherwise known as the Ren Min Bi (RMB). Currency comes in denominations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 RMB bills (or 1, 2, and 5 Mao), as well as in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 RMB bills.

Bhutan: The official currency in Bhutan is Ngultrum Bhutan or in the shorter way, NU. At this sate, there is only one version of Bhutan currency is in use: Cotton note (Nu 1, Nu 10, Nu 20, Nu 50, Nu 100, Nu 500, and Nu 1000).

Banks
Banks are open Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm, but banks in the larger cities of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan have evening counters that can stay open until 6-7pm at the latest. Saturday is a public day of rest in Nepal but some banks open their counters to receive the deposits, however it will only be for short hours. Tourist can easily find many Nepalese banks in big cities to complete their transactions with ease.

ATM
ATMs are easily available at several places in big cities of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. But you will have less option to use ATM in small cities. Anyone can use their valid credit card such as Visa, Master, and Union Pay to withdraw money in local currency. Most of the hotels, restaurants, shops they accept Credit cards but they charged a surcharge of up to 4%.

Money exchanges
In Nepal, there are lots of money exchange centers. If you are carrying cash amount in Pounds, Dollars and Euro is easily exchange in local currency. In Tibet and Bhutan you can exchange in International airport in exchange center and local banks.

For any tour of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, you will need to have local currency. And unlike most locations around the world, paying for things has its own rules, many of which are unlike anything you may have seen before in other Asian countries. For today’s travelers, it’s fairly easy to cash local currency to shop or other personal expenses in particular country.