Money in Brazil: cards, cash, Pix and tipping

Cards work better here than you expect

The first thing that surprises Americans is how card-friendly Brazil is. Contactless is normal, small purchases go on a card without comment, and a beach kiosk selling a coconut may well have a card machine. The idea that you need a thick envelope of cash for a Brazilian trip is about fifteen years out of date.

Bring a card with no foreign transaction fee. Over two weeks that fee is the difference between a rounding error and a real number. Bring a second card from a different network and keep it somewhere else, because the failure mode that actually ruins a day is one card being frozen by a fraud algorithm that does not like São Paulo.

Tell your bank you are traveling. Some still need it, some do not, and the one that does will not tell you until it declines you.

The one setting that quietly costs you

When you tap or insert, the machine may ask whether you want to be charged in dollars or reais. Always choose reais.

Choosing dollars is called dynamic currency conversion. It looks helpful, because it tells you exactly what you are spending in money you understand, and it is doing the exchange at a rate chosen by whoever operates the machine rather than by your bank. It is consistently worse. It is often several percent worse. On a whole trip it adds up to a nice dinner.

Same at ATMs. Decline the conversion, take the reais, let your own bank do the maths.

Cash, and how little of it you need

Carry some, not much. What it is genuinely for:

• Street food, beach vendors and the guy with the cooler
• Small-town taxis and the occasional pousada that prefers it
• Tips for a guide or a driver
• The one place whose machine is broken, which will happen once

Withdraw from a bank ATM inside a bank or a shopping center rather than a street-facing machine, and during the day. Banco24Horas machines are common and take foreign cards. Not every machine accepts every foreign card, so if one refuses you it is often the machine and not your account.

Pix, and why it is complicated for you

Pix is Brazil’s instant bank transfer system and it has genuinely changed how the country pays for things. It is free, it settles in seconds, and it works by scanning a QR code or sending to a phone number. Brazilians use it for everything from rent to splitting a beer.

The problem for a visitor is that it is built around a CPF, the Brazilian tax number, which you do not have. You will see Pix QR codes constantly and mostly you will not be able to use them.

This has been moving, and there are services aimed at visitors. It is worth checking what is currently possible rather than assuming either way. What is certainly true is that you can have a good trip without ever using Pix.

Tipping, in plain terms

American tipping norms do not apply here and trying to apply them reads as strange rather than generous.

Restaurants usually add a service charge to the bill, listed as serviço. It is customary to pay it and you are within your rights not to if the service was bad. Beyond that, no additional tip is expected.

Taxis and rideshares: rounding up is normal. A percentage is not.

Guides and drivers on a full day out: this is the one place a real tip is both expected and appreciated, and cash is best.

Hotels: something for housekeeping at the end of a stay, something for a porter. Modest.

Nobody is going to chase you down the street. The social pressure that makes American tipping stressful is simply not present.

Getting reais before you fly

You do not need to. Airport exchange counters in the US give poor rates, and you will have a card working from the moment you land. Take a small amount out of an ATM at the airport in Brazil if you want cash immediately, and do the rest in town.