Exchange Rate Now!

Like its middle east cousins, the Omani Rial is highly valued against the US dollar and currently ranks the third most expensive currency in the world, just behind the Kuwaiti Dinar and the Bahraini Dinar. This ranking is unlikely to change in the medium, as the Omani Rial (OMR) is pegged against the US dollar and well supported by the Oman Central Bank.

Currently, 1 Omani Rial (OMR) = 2.5974 US dollars (USD), or 1 USD compared against 0.3845 Omani Rial.

There are many benefits of pegging the Omani Rial against the US Dollar. For one, this pegs prevents fluctuations and speculations which the country cannot afford. In addition, Oman has the necessary reserves to prevent just that. Finally, having the peg frees important government resource into more growth areas like interior development and in specific, further redefining the usage of oil money (more…)

If you are one of the many millions around the world who uses VISAcredit cards, you might have realise that the exchange rate offered by VISA is usually below that rates offered by Bureau de Change.

This is yet another cash cow for VISA. Besides taking a cut of your transaction from your merchants (who passes on the cost to you), tourists around the world simply loves to swipe their VISA due to the convenience. Every swipe of the credit card brings the following profit to VISA:

1. 1-2% of your transaction fee (paid for by your merchant, who prices this into the cost of your product).
2. 1-2.5% of currency exchange fees.

Effectively, every swipe of your VISA credit card (more…)

With VISA steadily gaining market share over the global credit card segment over the years, American Express is struggling to prevent itself from one day being obsolete. As a result, it has started to offer more tie-up with merchants to offer discounts to products as well as more advertising on the media.

Another draw on using American Express is the better exchange rates offered compared to VISA. If you ever owned both an American Express credit card as well as a VISA credit card, ever wondered which credit card gives you the better exchange rate? General experience says (more…)