No problem to change Cfa into Euro in Mali, even on the street they can do it, though not really safe. You have a lot of little money change offices. Banks are there as well.

In Bamako there is also a cashwithdraw machine, where you can take CFa with a VISA card.

thanks qwer for your answer,

this looks it could be a good way how to prevent both robbery and becoming fake notes... i just consider buying travellers cheques instead of sending money via WU (i dont know if the fees are similar in africa but WU in slovakia wants about 5% fee contrary to 1+1% when changing TC..)

HI !!!
regarding getting cash at cashpoints...It should be remember that those countries have smaller daily maximum ammounts. I mean .. in Gambia ..you can not get more than 40 quid a day from cashPoints (that should be quite a lot of money in Banjul) .

Same in Dakar.. I remember the limit was around 60.000 CFAS (95 Euros/65 quid) a day , regardless of your current credit.


Also .. there's something to be known about how the overseas cashpoint system works.

1 you enter the card
2 type your PIN
3 specify the ammount you wanna get .
4 the ATM checks your available credit by making a pre-reserve request to your bank .
AT THIS POINT THE AMMOUNT IS DEDUCTED FROM YOUR CARD'S CREDIT
4 the ATM tries to give you the notes.
5 if It succeds then you get the cash , and IT sends the formal International cash withdrawal record , etc..

6 IF NOT .. then does nothing . you get your credit lowered by the ammount you tried to get.. , but got no money at all. As there are no International Cash Widthrawal Record.. sooner or later (later) you get your
money/creditc automaticly restored but that can take months.

That happens every time you get money abroad (It happens to me from time to time in UK ) , and after a few months.. I got the credit restored .

That is .. every "try" abroad with the card..lowers the limit on your card , regardless you got the money/service or not.

In Africa these incidents are much more common (out of notes , faulty connection, ATM malfunction , tampering ,e tc) ... so .. should that happenn in the middle of a trans-african expedition a few times .. you can have your card's credit down to zero without actually getting any money ! , and then you have a problem . -even that you get your credit/balance back in a few months.

Someone riding an Enfield to CT , had apparently that problenm in Togo or Ghana.

Javier

Yes, Western Union charges very high comissions, but I think that loosing all the money (robbery) or lots of it (fake notes) would be statistically bigger than paying the comission.
As to withdrawing cash abroad, you get deducted your account and don't get any money only sometimes. The other times it doesn't happen. I had such and accident in Croacia and I had about 550euros deducted (trying several consecutive times to withdrawal cash), and I got nothing. If you contact your bank inmediately they should arrange it in a few days (tell it to them, don't wait!)
As to a maximum daily limit, I had this problem in Bulgaria: the maximum daily limit for ATM's in Bulgaria is 200leva (100 euros), but I got 300 euros on one day, on 3 different and consecutive transactions on the same ATM, so this should probably be the same in Africa.

qwer
definitely paying WU comission is better than loosing money, i just meant by my note if it is possible and it could work why to pay more than necessary?

+/- same like Mali - no bureaucratic obstacles.
You need time however.</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Moro, have you tried doing it in Mali, too?

If you leave by air from Nouakchott. if you are an european blanc and if you are alone. you will be definitley stopped by douane and check your passport.

So the best idea to sell the car in mauri, let douane stamp on the lady's passport.

just a small tip

+/- same like Mali - no bureaucratic obstacles.
You need time however.

Moro, have you tried doing it in Mali, too?

Don't know where exactly your question is aiming at, so:
No, not personally, bit have witnessed two deals: you hand over the keys, get the money (or vice versa), take your ex-car papers & license plates and off you go. That was back in 2003.
2004 we sold a landy 3 petrol in Agadez to a french expat for a price that was fixed in advance after we have been using the car in the region for 3 months. In the course of this time several potential buyers approached us, even though they +/- knew we were selling the car to the french woman. The price they offered us were increasing as time went buy. In the end we could have sold the car for double the price, but you know, once you give your word, you keep it...
So in my experience if you want to sell the car in Mali or Niger, a car that makes sense to the locals (diesel and as big as possible) it really is no problem and the more time you have (in which you pretend you don't want to sell it) the higher the price.
Happy with the answer?

What is the deal with right hand drive and left hand drives? Can you sell a right hand drive if its a Merc and a diesel?

Also what are the requirements in condition; how glemaing does the car have to be? Finally is there away round the carnet as the only place on my travels that will need one is Mauretania. RUBBISH!

Anyone interested in some overland travels feel free to email me.