ATM situation in Uzbekistan

[Mikeromero]

Actually, I am sorry to tell that just received information about a new law in Uzbekistan that will mean that ATMs will only issue national currency, not any foreign one.

I enclose here the link (sorry, only in Russian language).

https://kun.uz/ru/news/2019/09/24/s-1-o ... yu-valyutu

So, for anybody expecting to get dollars after october the 1st, the bank offices will be the only option.

[jacob857]

I was expecting some difficulty in exchanging EUR, considering USD popularity, and unattractive rates - but it went very well. All banks i went to easily accepted EUR, and rates were fine (it would have been more expensive for me to get USD in my home country first).

Totally this. If you have USD, take USD. Otherwise if you have EUR, take EUR. Getting some small amount of "emergency USD" (for first day) might be good too. Exchanging huge amounts of EUR->USD->UZS you will lose a lot money so don't do this.

The spread on USD can be less than 1% in some places (while for EUR it's like 2-4%) so it's definitely best to have USD. But exchanging EUR to USD in Europe typically has an insane spread like 10% so it makes no sense.

As a rule of thumb, exchanging money in poorer countries is always cheaper (you pay for the labor).

[ET_]

Samarkand - went to the aforementioned Asaka bank at 39.6578401, 66.9640631 (which doesn’t appear on google maps but does on maps.me)

Both my gf and I were each able to withdraw 750k UZS from our Mastercard at the ATM inside the doors, withdrawal fee looked to be around 1.5%. No indication if there was an upper limit on withdrawals and dispensed all 50k notes.

Unsure of bank hours (previous posts have said it closes at 4pm but we went after 5pm on a Saturday and were still able to access the ATM.

[ET_]

Bukhara with a MasterCard
- Temirs Restaurant: ATM turned off
- Bella Italia: ATM turned off (decent restaurant tho, watch out for the 20% service charge)

So head to the Asaka Bank, about 10 mins past Bella Italia. Took out 1,000,000 Som with my MasterCard, charged 1.5% fee. ATM also offers exchange, currently at a rate of 9300 which is 100 below the accepted rate and 150 below current mid-market rates.

They have an atm on the street and also one inside the front door of the bank. If neither of those are working and you arrive before 16:00 head into the bank and go to the room on the left where they will apparently let you withdraw money.

[aenckli]

A notice beside an ATM confirmed that only sum is withdrawn by international card.

An ATM at Samarkand train station entrance can withdraw 4,000,000 sums.

[Billy]

Hi!

We are having a lot of problems in Tashkent with
1. Withdrawing SOM with our ING Visa (Maestrocard works at Asia Alliance but only limited total amount and we had to withdraw it in like 6 times 1.000.000 with breaks)
2. USD exchange. We are going to Turkmenistan and Iran after, and we still have some dollars but not enough so we really need to get some before.

We had no clue that there is a new policy on USD since 1 of october. The banks aren't very helpfull. So, any solutions? We are worrying we will have to make a detour to Kazachstan or so. But we have a deadline, so we'd rather not.

Thanks!

[kazanskiitatar]

USD exchange. We are going to Turkmenistan and Iran after, and we still have some dollars but not enough so we really need to get some before.

Try going to Chorsu market, in the lower outside area where clothes are sold. There are men around changing money, mostly saying "dollars, rubles" as you walk by. Buy dollars from them. Also some private grocery shops change money sometimes.

The only way to buy foreign currency at a bank is by presenting your exchange receipt (from when you changed dollars/foreign currency into sum), and presenting your passport with registration (there's a special number on that receipt the system needs). Though the system is so convoluted, it likely won't work. Two weeks ago I presented my exchange receipt + passport and hotel registration and the computer system at the bank wasn't accepting it.

If all else fails, you'll have to get a local to go buy with his/her passport.

[Milad]

Have they turned off the ATMs happily dispensing USD in the large international chain hotels in Tashkent and Samarkand? I could well imagine that they have an inofficial exception, since the new currency regulations are most probably not supposed to hit (wealthy) tourists and expats...

[simimochilahablara]

Its quite difficult to get dollars now in Uzbekistan. Atm don't give dollars anymore, and when you ask inside the banks, sometimes it's impossible too. We need dollars because we are going to Irán (crossing Turkmenistan in a transit visa) and we are having big problems to get it. In Samarkand we tried asking in some banks, and any of the main banks of Samarkand wanted to give us dollars from our cards or even exchanging it. But locals can exchange dollars (we saw how locals exchanged sums to dollars while we were being told that it was forbidden for tourists). So I guess that one local can do it for you if you are in a hurry. In Tashkent we could do it in the main office of the Ipak Yuli Bank. We had to withdraw first the sums in the atm outside of the office, and the exchange it to dollars. They exchange only if you have the invoice of the atm where you got the sums.

Good luck!

[ET_]

Asaka Bank in Bukhara gave dollars earlier in October, however a branch we tried in Tashkent did not so not sure what the go is.
I started just standing around exchange desks in Tashkent offering foreigners som for their USD. Illegal but effective.