A Cash Society

I saw an article the other day that said that a recent study showed over 60% of Americans no longer carry cash.  I can’t say that is at all surprising.  Back in the states, I hardly ever paid cash for anything.  I preferred to use my debt or credit card.  On the advice of my father, I always had $20.00 in my wallet just in case.

The move to EQG, it was a little bit of a shock to be in an almost entirely cash based economy. Other than the three large hotels and maybe the airlines, nothing takes credit or debit cards.  It has been interesting that I always have to check how much cash I have before going out to make sure I have enough to cover my expenses.  As well as having to think about the price to see if it is reasonable for what I want.  This means having to convert from XCFA s to dollars. 

What is a XCFA of XAF? XCFA stands for Central African Francs.  XCFA is a common currency between a decent percentage of the central African nations.  The name is common but each countries prints their own XCFA, so some countries using the XCFA doesn’t accept other countries XCFA.  I haven’t run into this yet but I am sure I will someday.  The exchange rate for XCFA is fixed with the Euro such that 1 Euro = 655.957 XCFA.  This makes the exchange rate with the dollar fluctuate but currently its $1.00 = 481.138 XCFA.  Most of us expats just assume its 500 XCFA per dollar so it makes the conversion easy.

Getting XCFA is easy, the hotel, banks and casino will gladly take your dollars and give you XCFA, but the will not give dollars for XCFA.  This means it’s a balancing act between how long I am going to be here and how much XCFA do I think I will need during that time. 

Even with the exchange rate, some things cost more, others cost less than in the States.  Here are some common stuff and the XCFA and dollars.

• Can of Coke Cola (at the hotel bar) - XAF 2,000.00 = $4.16
• Bottle of Water (at the hotel) - XAF 1,800.00 = $3.74
• Breakfast Buffet (at the hotel) - XAF 18,000.00 = $37.41
• Club Sandwich and drink (at the hotel) - XAF 14,000.00 = $29.10
• Jar of Nutella -  XAF 1,500.00 = $3.12
• Bottle of Shampoo - XAF 2,500.00 = $5.20
• 1L Smirnoff Vodka - XAF 5,000.00 =$10.39
• 1L Bacardi Black - XAF 8,500.00 = $17.67
• Bar of 80% Dark Chocolate - XAF 2,000.00 = $4.16

~And that has made all the difference.~