Malaysia’s currency is the ringgit (RM, sometimes written MYR), split into 100 sen, and the best rates in Kuching come from licensed money changers in the malls, not the airport or your hotel. Cards work fine in malls and chains, cash still rules at hawker stalls, and e-wallets like Touch ‘n Go cover most of the gap in between.
I’ve changed money at all three ends of this spectrum: the airport counter in a jet-lagged panic, a mall changer with five minutes to spare, and an ATM at 11pm when both had let me down. One of those cost me noticeably more than the others, and it’s the one everyone’s tempted to use first. More on that below, along with a budgeting angle if you’re trying to work out what all this actually costs you over a month, beyond the rate on the board.
TL;DR
- The ringgit (RM/MYR) is Malaysia’s currency; 100 sen make up RM1, though sen coins are increasingly rare in daily use.
- Never trust a fixed number for the exchange rate. Check XE, Google, or the Bank Negara Malaysia reference rate on the day you actually change money.
- Licensed money changers inside Vivacity Megamall, The Spring, and Sarawak Plaza typically beat both banks and the airport for rate quality.
- The airport counter and hotel front desk are consistently the worst value in Kuching; use them only for a small emergency top-up.
- Cards cover malls and chain restaurants, but plenty of hawker stalls and kopitiams are cash only, so carry small notes.
- Touch ‘n Go eWallet, DuitNow QR, GrabPay and Boost are everywhere in the city, but most need a Malaysian bank account or number to top up properly.
What Actually Is the Ringgit, and How Do I Check a Real Rate?
The ringgit is written RM or MYR and divides into 100 sen, though you’ll mostly deal in whole ringgit and the odd 50 sen coin. Notes run from RM1 up through RM100, and coins cover the smaller denominations, though a lot of everyday pricing now rounds to the nearest 5 or 10 sen anyway.
Here’s the bit worth getting right before you land: never plan around a fixed exchange rate you read somewhere, including in this article. The ringgit moves daily against every major currency, and a number that’s accurate in March can be stale by June. Check a live rate on the day, either through XE.com, a plain Google search of “GBP to MYR” or whatever your home currency is, or the reference rate published by Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank. That reference rate is the honest benchmark. It’s what a money changer’s quote should be reasonably close to, and it’s what tells you whether a counter is offering you a fair deal or clipping you.
Once you have that number in your head for the day, you can actually judge whether a money changer’s board rate is decent or not, which is the whole game.
Where Do You Actually Change Money in Kuching?
Ranked roughly by rate quality, from best to worst, based on comparing boards across the city on ordinary shopping trips.
| Where | Rate quality | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed money changers, Vivacity Megamall | Best | Multiple counters, easy to compare boards side by side |
| Licensed money changers, The Spring and Sarawak Plaza | Best | Alfa Millions at The Spring; Mohamed Yahia and Sons at Sarawak Plaza |
| Local banks (Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank) | Middling | Fine in a pinch, generally a wider spread than the mall changers |
| Hotel front desk | Poor | Convenient, priced accordingly |
| Kuching International Airport counters | Worst | You’re paying for the fact you’re standing right there |
The mall changers win because they’re competing with each other in the same building. Walk between two or three counters in Vivacity, glance at the boards, and you’ll see the spread for yourself; it’s rarely more than a few sen difference, but on a larger sum it adds up. Banks will change money for you too, and it’s a perfectly safe option if you’re already there for something else, but their rates are built for convenience rather than competitiveness.
The airport is the one I’d actively steer you away from. It’s not that it’s a scam. It’s a captive audience paying a premium for changing money at the exact moment they’re least likely to shop around, and the board rate reflects that. Change enough for a taxi and your first meal at the airport if you must, then do the rest of your changing in town once you’ve had a shower and a look at a proper rate.
Should You Pay by Card, Cash, or E-Wallet?
Malls, supermarkets, chain restaurants, and most mid-range places take Visa and Mastercard without a second thought. Where it gets patchy is anywhere smaller: a lot of hawker stalls, kopitiams, and wet market stalls are cash only, and the ones that do take electronic payment usually want a QR scan, not a card tap.
That QR scan is DuitNow, Malaysia’s interbank payment network, and it’s become the default way locals pay for a RM6 bowl of noodles. Alongside it, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, GrabPay, and Boost cover most of the digital-payment ground in Kuching, and setting one up is worth doing if you’re staying more than a week or two. The catch: topping these up properly, rather than just accepting a small starting balance, usually needs a Malaysian bank account or a local phone number linked to a Malaysian bank card. That’s a chicken-and-egg problem for someone who just landed. Short visits tend to lean on cash and card; longer stays are where the e-wallets earn their keep.
Carry a mix. Small notes for hawker stalls and market stalls, a card for the bigger stuff, and an e-wallet once you’ve got the local banking sorted enough to load it.
Do Foreign Cards Work at ATMs Here, and What About Outside the City?
Foreign debit and credit cards generally work at ATMs run by the major Malaysian banks, Maybank, CIMB, and Public Bank among them, and you’ll find plenty of them clustered around the malls and along Padungan and the city centre. Expect your home bank to charge a foreign transaction fee, and note that standalone ATM operators such as Euronet usually add a withdrawal fee of their own, so this isn’t the cheapest way to hold cash if you’re doing it every other day. If you’re staying long enough that a local account starts to make sense, that’s a separate process worth reading up on before you land, covered in our banking guide for foreigners.
Outside Kuching, the picture changes fast. Head into rural Sarawak, a longhouse stay, a smaller town, or anywhere off the main tourist routes, and card machines and functioning ATMs both get scarce. If you’re heading that way, whether it’s a longhouse trip or further out into Sarawak, draw out what you need while you’re still in the city. Turning up in a small town assuming you’ll sort it out when you get there is how people end up asking a guesthouse owner to break a RM100 note.
Is Changing Money in Kuching Actually a Hassle?
Not really, once you know where to go. The honest annoyance isn’t the exchange rate. It’s that most people’s first experience of changing money here happens at the worst possible counter, the airport, before they’ve had the chance to learn any of this. Land, change just enough for a taxi and a meal, then do the real changing at a mall counter once you’ve compared a couple of boards and checked a live rate on your phone. Five extra minutes, and it’s the difference between a fair deal and a quietly annoying one.
Last updated: July 2026. Rate-checking sources (XE, Bank Negara Malaysia reference rate) and money changer locations verified against current listings for Vivacity Megamall (SMJ Money Transfer), The Spring (Alfa Millions), and Sarawak Plaza (Mohamed Yahia and Sons).