💰 Quick Context: Two Currencies, One Rate That Is Not One to One
Macau's currency is the pataca (MOP), pegged at about MOP 103 to HK$100. Hong Kong dollars are accepted almost everywhere, usually one for one, which costs you about 3 percent, and change comes back in patacas that Hong Kong will not take. For a day trip, spend Hong Kong dollars. For a longer stay, withdraw patacas from a bank machine. The Cotai resorts take cards and mobile wallets; the old town's snack shops and many taxis want cash. Casinos mostly count in Hong Kong dollars.
🎧 Order Hong Kong Dollars Before You Fly
Accepted across Macau and they keep their value in Hong Kong. Patacas do not.
Order HKD → CEI Currency ExchangePatacas, Hong Kong Dollars and the 3 Percent You Did Not Notice
Macau has its own currency, and most visitors never use it on purpose. The official money is the pataca, written MOP or MOP$, issued by two banks, BNU and Bank of China. But Hong Kong dollars circulate freely: casinos, hotels, shops, restaurants and buses accept them, and many visitors arrive from Hong Kong with nothing else. That is convenient, and it has a price that almost nobody calculates.
The peg is not one to one. The pataca is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar at about MOP 103 to HK$100, so a Hong Kong dollar is worth slightly more than a pataca. Most shops ignore that and take HK$ at par, one for one. Pay a MOP 500 bill with a HK$500 note and you have handed over roughly 15 patacas more than you owed. On a day trip that is small change. On a week's hotel extras, shopping and meals, it is about 3 percent of everything.
Your change comes back in patacas. Hand a shop a HK$100 note for a MOP 60 purchase and the change will usually be counted out in patacas. By the end of a stay most visitors have a pocket of them, and patacas are not accepted in Hong Kong and are hard to sell back anywhere outside Macau.
The rule. On a day trip from Hong Kong, spend Hong Kong dollars, accept the small loss, and use your pataca change before you leave. For a stay of two days or more, withdraw patacas on arrival, spend them, and keep your Hong Kong dollars for the onward journey. Either way, when a card terminal asks which currency to charge, choose patacas. The mechanics of paying in a second currency, and where else in the world it costs you, are in our post on shops that take two currencies.
Casino Money: Chips, Cages and Hong Kong Dollars
The casinos think in Hong Kong dollars. Gaming revenue is the reason Macau looks the way it does, and on most casino floors the tables and chips are denominated in Hong Kong dollars, with some pataca tables alongside. Buying chips at the table with either currency is normal, and the cashier's cage will pay out chips in Hong Kong dollars. For a visitor who wants to try the tables, that is one situation where Hong Kong dollars are the natural currency to carry.
Card use on the floor is limited. Casino tables do not take cards. The cages and the cash machines on casino premises are there to turn cards into cash, and a card company may treat a cash withdrawal or a purchase coded as gambling as a cash advance, with a fee and interest from day one on a credit card. If you want gaming money, withdraw it with a debit card from a bank machine before you walk in.
Pawn shops are not exchange offices. The streets around the older casinos on the peninsula are lined with pawn shops and gold dealers. They exist for gamblers who have run out, not for visitors who need change, and their rates reflect it. The resorts, the old town and a few minutes' walk to a bank branch cover everything a visitor needs.
Everything outside the casino floor is ordinary. The resort hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and shows on the Cotai Strip take Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay and mobile wallets without comment, priced in patacas or Hong Kong dollars side by side.
Cash vs. Card in Macau
Two Macaus with two payment habits. The Cotai Strip and the big peninsula resorts are as card-friendly as anywhere in Asia, and Chinese mobile wallets are everywhere, because most visitors are from the mainland. The historic centre, Taipa Village and Coloane are different: the almond-cookie and jerky shops on Rua do Cunha, the pork-chop bun counters, the noodle shops off Senado Square and the egg-tart bakeries are more likely to want cash, and many taxis still do.
The Macau Pass. A stored-value card sold at convenience stores and supermarkets, the Macau Pass pays for buses and the Light Rapid Transit and works in many shops. Topping it up with cash is the simplest way to avoid needing exact change on a bus.
How much cash. For a day in the old town, MOP 300 to 500 in small notes covers snacks, a museum, a bus and a taxi. Add more if you plan to buy food souvenirs, which make up a large share of what visitors actually carry home.
How to Get Money for Your Macau Trip
The best approach depends on whether Macau is a day trip or a destination, because the Hong Kong dollar is both a foreign currency and one that Macau accepts.
Order Hong Kong dollars before you travel
US travellers can have CEI Currency Exchange ship Hong Kong dollars to a US address with insured 2 to 5 day delivery. Order Hong Kong dollars, not patacas: they are accepted throughout Macau, they keep their value if you continue to Hong Kong, and they are what the casinos use. Patacas are hard to buy abroad and harder to sell back.
Withdraw patacas from a bank machine
Bank machines from BNU, Bank of China, ICBC and HSBC accept foreign cards, and many offer a choice of patacas or Hong Kong dollars. For a stay, take patacas, spend them, and avoid the 3 percent that paying in HK$ at par quietly costs. Read any fee shown before you confirm, and decline the offer to convert the withdrawal into your home currency. The Macau Airport guide covers the machines in arrivals. Our ATM fee calculator shows what your specific card charges.
Exchange counters, and paying in Hong Kong dollars all week
Exchange counters at the ferry terminals, the airport and inside casinos price their rate for convenience. Paying every bill of a long stay in Hong Kong dollars at par costs about 3 percent without any counter involved. And when a card terminal offers to charge you in dollars rather than patacas, that is dynamic currency conversion, which costs more than either.
For a side-by-side comparison of every method, see our complete Getting Currency guide →.
Best ATMs to Use in Macau
Macau's retail banking is concentrated in a handful of institutions, with Portuguese and Chinese roots side by side. Bank machines are plentiful on the peninsula, in Taipa and inside the resorts. Macau has no Bank of America Global ATM Alliance partner, so a BoA card pays its normal non-network fees everywhere.
BNU (Banco Nacional Ultramarino)
One of Macau's two note-issuing banks and part of Portugal's Caixa Geral group, with branches and machines across the peninsula, Taipa and at the airport. A reliable first choice, and the bank whose name appears on half the banknotes you will be handed.
Top Pick
Bank of China (Macau)
The other note-issuing bank and the largest by presence, with machines at the ferry terminals, in the resorts and throughout the city. Handles UnionPay, Visa and Mastercard, and many machines offer both patacas and Hong Kong dollars.
Top Pick
ICBC (Macau)
The Macau arm of China's largest bank, with branches in the commercial districts and machines at shopping centres. Works normally for foreign cards; choose patacas and decline conversion.
Recommended
HSBC
A familiar name with a small branch network in Macau. Useful if you hold an HSBC account elsewhere, and a perfectly ordinary option if you do not.
Fine, Fewer Machines⚠️ Choose Patacas on Every Screen
Resort shops, hotel desks and some machines offer to charge a foreign card in US dollars or your home currency rather than patacas. Accepting hands the conversion to the merchant's provider at a markup far larger than any ATM fee. Choose patacas, or Hong Kong dollars if that is the only other option. Our dynamic currency conversion explainer shows the numbers.
Counters and Habits to Avoid in Macau
Macau does not have a problem with predatory cash machines. Its costs come from convenience counters and from a currency habit that feels free.
Exchange Counters at Ferry Terminals, the Airport and Casinos
Placed where visitors arrive or run short, and priced several percent away from the official rate. A bank machine in the same building gives a better result. The pawn and gold shops around the old casinos are not an alternative.
AvoidPaying in Hong Kong Dollars at Par for a Whole Stay
Accepted everywhere, and each payment costs about 3 percent because a Hong Kong dollar is worth roughly 1.03 patacas. Fine for a day trip, expensive over a week, and it fills your pockets with pataca change you cannot use in Hong Kong.
The Quiet CostGetting Around: Resort Shuttles, the LRT, Buses and Taxis
Resort shuttle buses have long been the way visitors move around Macau for nothing, linking the ferry terminals, the airport and the border gates with the big hotels. The government has pushed the operators to cut back and consolidate routes in recent years, and the shuttles are aimed at hotel guests, so check your hotel's current service rather than relying on an old list.
The Light Rapid Transit Taipa line connects the airport, the Taipa ferry terminal, Cotai and, across the bridge, Barra on the peninsula. Tickets are a few patacas from the station machines, or tap a Macau Pass.
Public buses cover the whole territory for a flat fare of a few patacas. Drivers give no change, so use exact coins or a Macau Pass. Hong Kong coins are accepted one for one, which costs you slightly and is not worth worrying about at bus-fare scale.
Taxis are metered and inexpensive, but at busy times they are hard to find, particularly on Cotai in the evening. Many still take cash only, although card and QR payment are spreading. Carry patacas or small Hong Kong notes, and have your destination written in Chinese.
Arriving from Hong Kong or Zhuhai
By ferry from Hong Kong. High-speed ferries run from Sheung Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui, and from Hong Kong Airport for transit passengers, to the Outer Harbour and Taipa terminals. Book and pay by card online or at the counter, in Hong Kong dollars. The Hong Kong money guide covers the Hong Kong side.
By bus over the bridge. Shuttle buses cross the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge from the Hong Kong port on Lantau Island to the Macau port. Tickets are cheap, sold at the terminal, and payable in Hong Kong dollars or patacas. Local buses connect the Macau port with the peninsula and Cotai.
From mainland China. The Gongbei border gate connects Macau with Zhuhai, where the currency changes to the yuan and payment is dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay. Neither patacas nor Hong Kong dollars are much use on the other side, so spend or change them first. The China money guide covers setting up the apps.
Tipping in Macau
Largely built in. Hotel restaurants and many sit-down restaurants add a 10 percent service charge to the bill, and nothing further is expected. In smaller restaurants and noodle shops without a service charge, leaving the small change is enough. Hotel room rates are quoted before a service charge and government tax are added, so compare prices with those included.
Elsewhere. Round up a taxi fare. A small tip for hotel porters is customary at the large resorts. Dealers in casinos accept tips from winning players, in chips, which is a custom of the tables rather than an obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Hong Kong dollars in Macau?
Yes, almost everywhere: casinos, hotels, shops, restaurants and buses accept them. But shops usually take them one for one with the pataca, while the official rate values a Hong Kong dollar at about 1.03 patacas, so each payment costs you roughly 3 percent, and your change is given in patacas. Fine for a day trip; for a longer stay, withdraw patacas.
Can I spend patacas in Hong Kong?
No. Hong Kong shops and transport do not accept patacas, and few exchange counters outside Macau will buy them, or only at a poor rate. Spend your patacas before you leave, pay the last bills of your trip with them, and avoid collecting coins, which are the hardest part to get rid of.
Does Bank of America have an ATM partner in Macau?
No. Macau has no Bank of America Global ATM Alliance partner, so a BoA debit card pays its normal non-network fees at every machine. China's partner bank does not cover Macau. A card with no foreign transaction fee, or one that refunds ATM fees, is cheaper here.
What currency do Macau casinos use?
Mostly Hong Kong dollars. The majority of tables and chips on Macau casino floors are denominated in HK$, with some pataca tables, and the cage pays out chips in Hong Kong dollars. Tables do not take cards, and using a credit card at a casino cash machine may be treated as a cash advance with fees and interest.
Do I need cash in Macau?
Some. The resorts, malls and larger restaurants take cards and mobile wallets. The old town's snack and souvenir shops, Taipa Village, small noodle shops, buses and many taxis are easier with cash. MOP 300 to 500 in small notes covers a day of sightseeing, plus whatever you plan to spend on food souvenirs.
Is there a sales tax in Macau?
No. Macau has no VAT or general sales tax, so shop prices are what you pay. Hotels add a service charge and a government tax to quoted room rates, and hotel and many sit-down restaurants add a 10 percent service charge to the bill.
Are the free casino shuttle buses still running in Macau?
Yes, but fewer than before. The big resorts still run shuttles from the ferry terminals, the airport and the border gates, mainly for hotel guests, but routes have been cut back and consolidated in recent years. Check your hotel's current service, and use the Light Rapid Transit or a bus for a few patacas if the shuttle you expected no longer runs.
Macau money toolkit
Deep-dive guides for specific banks, airports, and traveler nationalities in Macau. Each one builds on this overview with card-by-card fee math, exact ATM locations, or terminal-by-terminal directions.
Go deeper: Macau, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta
This page covers Macau end to end. For the arrivals hall, the airport guide. For the city most visitors come from, and the currency that works in both, the Hong Kong guides. For what happens to your money across the border in Zhuhai, the China guide.
Hero photo: the Ruins of Saint Paul's, Macau, by Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.