Card and QR payments

Luxury hotels or superficial stores in Phu Quoc are often very "open" in swiping cards, but if you wander around at popular restaurants, the option of using cash or scanning a domestic QR code is on the throne. International tourists need to "wake up": seeing a sign with a big QR code does not mean that the foreign banking application in your phone can scan and pay smoothly.

How to prepare?

Before excitedly ordering food or using the service, ask the restaurant owner directly if they prioritize receiving cash, swiping the card or scanning the QR, especially when you only have one payment option in your wallet. With the QR scanning method, check if your application is familiar with the payment system in Vietnam and patiently wait for the screen to report a successful transaction. Using a foreign card, determine the spirit of previewing the foreign currency conversion fee table of your bank.

Situations to keep in mind

QR codes for domestic transfers are often quite "picky", not necessarily cooperating with all types of foreign e-wallets. Swiping a card or checking a QR code also sometimes proves a disastrous failure just because of a flickering network connection or security limitations from the bank. Having some cash on hand or having a back-up payment plan will help you solve these "stand-up" situations quickly and neatly.

Before you go

Bring some cash change or have a spare credit card handy.
Ask the store if they accept the type of credit card you're using.
Double-check the deduction history on the app before naively swiping a second time for a faulty transaction.
Absolutely do not share a photo of the card face or OTP code with any strangers.