Dubai Currency
Dubai is international business hub and a sprawling tourist destination of the world. Dubai’s official currency is known as the Arab Emirate Dirham or AED for short. The Dubai currency board was established in 1973 and controls the currency issue and managing currency rates in lieu of the global inflation rates. The international monetary fund regulates and controls the currency value.Locally, dirham is referred to as ‘dh’and is divided into 100 units each of which is called a fil. The currency is available both in the form of coins and notes. Coins of 25, 50 fils and 1 dirham are commonly used. Currency notes are available in eight denominations of 5,10,20,50,100, 200, 500 and 1000 dirhams. The current exchange rates of dirham with various world currencies can be found on government websites.
For visitors, it is advisable to carry out Dubai currency exchange with specialist brokers, banks, tourist centers and reliable currency dealers so as to obtain a fair exchange rate. Though exchanging currency at airports is quite common but the rates offered there are generally on a lower side. Most big hotels and shopping centers have their own Dubai currency exchange counters where one can officially exchange currencies. Currency can also be obtained through ATM’s, traveler cheques, credit cards etc and major international banks have their outlets in Dubai.
Dubai currency exchange houses operate between 8 am to 1 pm and 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm. One can get around 7 dirhams for a GBP (Great Britain pound) and 3.7 dirham for a US dollar. Small traders and vendors especially those in souks prefer to deal in cash rather than electronically and offer better price on cash deals. Some of these do deal only in cash therefore visitors can keep Dubai currency both as cash and electronically for requisite purposes.