Best way to exchange money in brazil?

Question

I am looking to change my USD to brazilian R$

Answer 1

Exchange houses in central Rio, Sao Paulo and other capitals. Never in hotels!

Even in airport counters, pay attention when exchanging! Do this discretely, with not more than US$ 200 or 300 each time.

You can be robbed when leaving the premises...

Answer 2

Honestly, the safest easiest and cheapest way to change money in Brazil (or anywhere else) is to take it out of an ATM.  If your bank card has the VISA, Maestro or Cirrus symbol then you are good to go. If not, your bank will easily change it.   HSBC (which is almost everywhere)  seem to have the best rates/fees and the ATM will have English as a language option.  You may want to take some Amex traveller's cheques along too for security.

Answer 3

Travel agents also do exchange.

Answer 4

At the airport you can find exchange houses and banks, there are many, and also in most of the shopping malls, but the cheapest rate is at the city centre (I mean, São Paulo centre).

Answer 5

If you are in Brasil you can go to any  " Banco do Brasil"  branch, they are very reliable. You can change at the international airports too, but the exchange rate is always higher. In the USA American Express do that as well as many exchange houses like Intertransfers in Miami-FL

Answer 6

Exchange houses are always faster and they pay better than the banks. Banks have bureocracy and not all branches are authorized.

At the airport the rate is very bad.

The best way is to use plastic, take money from the local ATM machines with a credit card or a regular debit card.

Thats better because the official rate is applied when you usea card, withdrawing money from you account in USD$ in Brazil.

At exchange houses, Amex, etc you will always get the so called PARALEL price for your dollars and there´s a spread between one and the other (thats where the exchange makes its money, well that and some money laudering as well, i suppose).

Anyway I worked for 10 years abroad and always came to Brazil on vacation and did that, use your debit card at local ATMs.

Theres Banco 24 Horas(http://www.banco24horas.com.br/) , which is everywhere, you will notice the red boots all over the country, besides that you can use the local banks´s atm´s such as BRADESCO for VISA related cards and HSBC, CITIBANK, ITAU and many more for VISA issued cards.

American Express has a shop in Rio at the Copacabana Palace and probably one in Sao Paulo as well.

You can save up to 10% on the ATM rate reather than the exchange houses rate and the airport ones.

Hope it helped.

Maestro, Cirus, Plus etc... all those brands are recognized here.