By Laura V. Mor on April 21, 2023 from Havana
photo: Guerrillero
After two years of implementation of the magnetic cards preloaded in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) intended for foreign tourism in Cuba, CADECA -Casas de Cambio executives confirmed on Friday morning that they have managed to count on a country-wide support, to facilitate their use throughout the country.
The prepaid cards were created in June 2021 with the aim of providing residents abroad and international travelers with an online payment tool in Cuba; since due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade, not all credit and debit cards allow their use in Cuba without being unusable or having banking restrictions.
The acquisition of these MLC cards is made through the currencies accepted by the Central Bank of Cuba: Canadian dollar, pound sterling, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, Mexican peso and euro.
Now, the U.S. dollar is also an acquisition option after the recent acceptance of bank deposits in that foreign currency in the country.
These cards can be purchased in amounts of 1000, 500, 200, 100 and 50, at CADECA’s network of offices in cities, airports, hotels and ports, for an additional cost of $5 for each card purchased. ($3 in case of demagnetization and need of replacement).
So far it is not possible to make deposits or transfers from abroad or between cards, but according to CADECA S.A. officials, work is being done so that in the medium term this will be a possibility which will help facilitate the development of tourism.
Although this payment method allows the acquisition of goods and services offered by the state commercial network throughout the country, if we consider the increase of the non state management in areas such as restaurants, lodging, car rentals, among those most used by tourists, the use of this tool would be limited. In this sense, Maday Fernández López, President of CADECA S.A., explained that they are working on the computerization process of this network so that in the long term this sector will have also have POS (Point of Sale Terminal) to facilitate transactions.
Currently, the option that tourists can use is to withdraw physical money in Cuban pesos (CUP) at any CADECA, bank or ATM in the country at the established exchange rate of 120 for each MLC contained in the preloaded card, since this is the current legal tender in which non-state gastronomic services, for example, are authorized to trade.
Once the visit to the island is over, if the card still has a balance, the traveler has the right to be reimbursed the amount in foreign currency, which is done at the CADECA existing at the airports at the time of departure from the country. If the traveler decides not to do this they can keep the card to use in subsequent visits, as long as it is within two years of expiration of the card.
It is worth noting that the use of this online payment method does not disable or supplant the use of international credit or debit cards, such as Visa and Mastercard; but rather it comes to meet the demand of tourists who find it impossible to use them in Cuba due to economic sanctions imposed against their own countries.
Source: Cuba en Resumen