No more dollars for Cuba

Travel companies are warning their clients not to take US dollars to Cuba after president Fidel Castro announced the currency would be outlawed from November 8. Castro is angry about increased US sanctions against Cuba, which include limiting the amount of times Cubans based in the US can go back to the island. The two countries have been at loggerheads since 1959, when Castro led a revolution of the island and declared it a communist state. However, US dollars have been legal tender in Cuba since 1993, because funds from the old Soviet Union dried up following the collapse of the regime and Castro was forced to open the island to tourism to generate funds. All shops, restaurants and bars have only taken dollars from tourists for the past 11 years but from November 8 will only be able to take Cuba’s official currency, the peso. Dollars can be exchanged for pesos, but a charge of 10 per cent will be levied. Sterling and Euros traveller’s cheques and dollars can be exchanged and will be subject to the normal commission rates or 2-3 per cent. A spokesman for Thomson said: “We are warning our customers not to take dollars because a 10 per cent fee to change money is a hefty charge. “Instead they will be better off taking sterling or traveller’s cheques.”