Money, cards and ATMs in Macao

The currency, and the three percent

• The pataca (MOP) is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar at MOP 103.20 to HKD 100.00. The pataca is the stronger of the two.
• Hong Kong dollars are accepted everywhere in Macao - at one to one. That is the trap. Every payment you make in Hong Kong dollars costs you about 3% more than the same payment in patacas, and nobody will mention it.
• Change comes back in patacas, so a trip that starts with a pocket of Hong Kong dollars ends with a pocket of patacas you cannot spend in Hong Kong. Patacas are not accepted in Hong Kong.
• If you are only here for a day, that 3% is not worth a bank queue. If you are staying, withdraw patacas from an ATM on arrival.
• Roughly 8 patacas to the US dollar, which is the easy mental arithmetic.

Cards and wallets

• Cards work almost everywhere: Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, American Express and JCB.
• Alipay, WeChat Pay and a long list of Asian wallets are accepted more widely here than cards are in some European cities.
• ATMs are on every second corner - this is a casino town and cash machines are its infrastructure. Decline the offer to be charged in your home currency; that is dynamic currency conversion and it is always the worse rate.
• Some machines dispense both patacas and Hong Kong dollars. Choose patacas.

Cash rules

• Declare MOP 120,000 or more on arrival through the red channel, including cheques and money orders. On departure, disclose it honestly when asked - the fine runs from MOP 1,000 to MOP 500,000.
• Casinos are not banks. Changing money at a casino cage is not a service offered to non-players.

Tipping

• Hotels and larger restaurants add 10% service. Beyond that, rounding up is enough. Casino dealers are tipped by players, not by visitors watching.