Why is money in Lebanon and well Lebanon in general so screwed up? This is a very interesting question and indeed one that reverberates throughout daily life within the country.
And this is multi-faceted with credit cards all but unusable, ATM’s a theory rather than a right and monster inflation. How then dot you deal with money in Lebanon?
You can read about the YPT Lebanon Tours here.
Inflation and money in Lebanon!
So basically the current black market in Lebanon rate is 89,000 Lebanese Pounds to 1 United States Dollar, but guess what he government rate is? Well it is 1500 to 1.
Now you may realize that this is fairly out of sync. The reason that they do this is for good old fashioned communist style reasons. Basically the government have these two exchange rates. One of used for state business and the real world rate while real gives no recourse to the people living through it.
I wont dwell on this too much, for yo9u can read about it here
Can you use cards in Lebanon?
Can you use credit cards in Lebanon? The short answer to this is no, and rigs includes in places that are fairly high end like Hamra Street.
ATM’s in Lebanon
This makes it one of the most difficult place to party in the world, particularly as ATM’s go off shift at night. Yes, that is right ATM’s take a brake at night.
This led got me actually needing credit, yes credit after having a bar.
And worst of all, well for a tourist dealing with money in Lebanon anyway not all ATM’s actually work either, nor does Apple Pay. IO personally found that Arab Bank worked and that they let you withdraw USD
Alternate ways to send and receive money
This is a subject I greatly explored previously when I wanted to open an office in Beirut. Alas that did not happen and it was partly to do with money.
That does mot mean that we did not find some workarounds. The most interesting and well known would be Western Union although there are also a number of other options within the money sending world, such as Ria.
Despite this though money will cost you a minimum of 4%, with closet to 10 being more realistic.
How could Lebanon fix this? Well by admitting their currency is fucked and letting some people, such as in tourism and hospitality to allow point of sale machines to work in USD. Do not expect this any time soon though.
Yet while money is difficult here it does not affect the awesome nightlife of Hamra, nor how cool the rest of the country is.