Denominations

The Malaysian currency is called the Ringgit. (RM / MYR)

Each Ringgit is divided into 100 Sen.

MYR coins come in 5, 10, 20 and 50 Sen denominations in a variety of different materials and finishes.

Bank notes are available in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 Ringgits, but some merchants might refuse the very old notes, especially if they show some damage.

Other currencies aren’t widely accepted in Malaysia, so you’ll need to exchange some cash to get you through.

Exchanging currency in Malaysia

Exchange money once you arrive in Malaysia

Avoid exchanging in or around airports and hotels

Currency exchange in Malaysia is fairly easy. You can change your cash at a bank, with a money changer, or at a currency exchange desk – at a hotel or the airport, for example. As a general rule, it costs more to switch currency at a bank or currency exchange desk, and airports and hotels tend to have even higher fees.

If you need larger sums, money changers in town are the best way to get good deals. Steep competition means you will get a better exchange rate than those offered in airports or hotels.

If you’re in need of cash in a hurry, your best option may be to use an ATM to withdraw what you need.

When you choose an exchange service, you’ll need to watch out for hidden fees. Even if a service claims ‘Zero Commission’, they’ll simply add their profit into the poorer exchange rate they offer you.

If you’re exchanging cash, make sure the notes you have are in good condition. Torn or damaged notes might be refused by money changers.

Using traveller’s cheques in Malaysia

Traveller’s Cheques can’t usually be used in Malaysia as a form of direct payment. Banks and exchange services may cash the Cheques for you, but there will be a fee for each Cheque they change.

If you’re carrying Traveller’s Cheques, look carefully at the exchange rates and fees applied. Often, the combination means that you’re worse off than if you were using cash or spending on a card. Add in the inconvenience of needing to find an exchange bureau who can deal with Cheques, and many travellers decide to avoid them altogether.

Using credit cards and debit cards in Malaysia

Many smaller businesses don’t accept cards

Smaller traders and stores don’t accept debit/credit card payments in Malaysia – but you should have no problems with large, established businesses in tourist areas. All the major card providers are accepted, but make sure you have some cash on you too, just in case of any issue.

Tell your bank before you leave home

Many financial institutions will have Malaysia on their ‘watch list’ for suspect activity. This means it is crucial to tell your card provider in advance that you’re travelling there so that your card isn’t blocked. It only takes a minute or two to call your bank and it can help avoid an embarrassing and awkward situation later.

Avoid letting foreign ATMs convert for you

Spending on credit or debit cards is a convenient option for many travellers – especially for larger purchases or hotel bills. However, because you’re using a foreign card, you might find that you’re asked if you want to be charged in your home currency.

Being charged in your home currency is something called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). It lets you see the cost of the transaction listed in your home currency when you pay. Though it’s described as a “service”, DCC isn’t a great idea. It leaves you exposed to hidden fees with a poorer exchange rate assigned by the local bank. Always opt to pay in the local currency (MYR) instead – that way, your home bank (who wants to keep you as their customer) will assign a much better exchange rate.

Finally, apply sensible precautions when using a card in Malaysia. Tourists are easy targets for scams, so don’t let your card out of your sight. If you have any doubts, use the ATM finder in the next section to withdraw cash and pay that way.

ATMs in Malaysia

ATMs are common in Malaysia and can be found in banks, shopping malls and transport hubs. You can find one easily using one of the locator tools below.

Visa ATM locator MasterCard ATM locatorAmex ATM locator

Research ATM fees

When you use an ATM, your home bank will apply a fee for overseas withdrawal. You may also find that the Malaysian ATM adds its own fee. Ask your home bank before you leave what charges will be added – and watch the notices on the ATM to understand any additional fees.

Choose to be charged in the local currency

Usually, despite the fees, using an ATM is a convenient and reasonable value way of getting cash abroad, as long as you avoid DCC.

DCC is when you’re charged for the withdrawal in your home currency. However, this means that the exchange rate applied is selected by the Malaysian ATM provider – it’s almost always a poor deal. While your home bank has an interest in keeping you, an ATM provider will be very happy to take your hard-earned cash.

Always select to be charged in local currency when withdrawing money abroad to access the rate set by your home bank.

Banks in Malaysia

Five Major Retail Banks in Malaysia
Maybank
CIMB
Public Bank
Hong Leong Bank
International Banks Operating in Malaysia
HSBC Malaysia
BNP Malaysia
Deutsche Bank Malaysia
Bank of America Malaysia
Citibank Malaysia

Malaysia is a mix of several culinary traditions, local Malay, Chinese and Indian. Chinese food in Malaysia boasts much of the provincial diversity that you just don’t find in the West’s Cantonese-dominated Chinese restaurants, while Indian fare is predominantly southern Indian, lighter and spicier than northern food.

From the food stalls and cheap street diners called kedai kopi, food everywhere is remarkably good value. Basic noodle- or rice-based one-plate meals at a stall or kedai kopi rarely cost more than a few ringgits. A full meal with drinks in a fancy restaurant seldom runs to more than RM50 a head. The most renowned culinary centres are Georgetown, KL, Melaka and Kota Bharu, although other towns have their own distinctive dishes too.

Food stalls and food courts

Some of the cheapest and most delicious food available in Malaysia comes from stalls, traditionally wooden pushcarts on the roadside, surrounded by a few wobbly tables with stools to sit at. Most stalls serve one or a few standard noodle and rice dishes or specialize in certain delicacies, from oyster omelets to squid curry.

When the food is ready, it is brought to you and you pay, but that is generally the case.

Stalls open at various times from morning to evening, with most closing well before midnight except in the big cities.

Most kedai kopis open at 8am to serve breakfast, and don’t shut until the early evening; a few stay open as late as 10pm.

Expressed through nasi campur (“mixed rice”), Campur food is not haute cuisine. Whether you have, say, ikan kembong (mackerel) deep-fried and served whole, or chicken pieces braised in soy sauce, or bean sprouts stir-fried with salted fish or shrimp, any campur spread is much closer to home cooking than anything served in formal restaurants.

Nasi campur and noodle dishes are meals in themselves, but otherwise eating is generally a shared experience – stir fries and other dishes arrive in quick succession and everyone present helps themselves to several servings of each, eaten with rice, as the meal progresses.

Desserts

Easy to find and worth trying is eis kacang (also known as air batu campur – “mixed ice” – or ABC), comprising a small helping of aduki beans, sweetcorn and bits of jelly, covered with a snowy mound doused in colourful syrups. Even better, though high in cholesterol, is cendol, luscious coconut milk sweetened with gula melaka and mixed with green fragments of mung-bean-flour jelly. You’ll even find delicious red-bean ice cream on sale, its flavour dominated by coconut milk rather than the beans.

Drinks

Tap water is generally safe to drink, and bottled water is widely available at around RM2 a litre. Among freshly squeezed juices, watermelon, orange and carrot are common, as is sugar cane, extracted by pressing the canes through mangles. Some street stalls also offer cordial-based drinks, nowhere near as good.

Tea (teh) and coffee (kopi) are as much national drinks as they are in the West. If ordered with milk, they’ll come with a generous amount of the sweetened condensed variety or sometimes evaporated milk (only large hotels and smarter Western-style cafés have regular milk). If you don’t have a sweet tooth, either ask for your drink kurang manis (literally “lacking in sweetness”), in which case less condensed milk will be added, or have it black (use the suffix “o”, e.g. kopi o for black coffee).

Locals adore their tea or coffee tarik, literally “pulled”, which in practice means frothing the drink by repeatedly pouring it out of a container in one hand to another container in the other hand, and back. Occasionally this can be quite an entertaining feat, the drink being poured from head height with scarcely a drop being spilled.

Alcohol

Most big cities have a bar scene, though in Malaysian towns drinking is limited to non-Muslim eating places, drinks stalls at food courts (which usually have beer and perhaps stout) and Chinese-run bars – sometimes little more than tarted-up kedai kopis, the walls perhaps plastered with posters of Hong Kong showbiz poppets. However, in strongly Muslim areas, particularly Kelantan and Terengganu, only a small number of establishments, usually Chinese kedai kopis and stalls, will have alcohol.