Part 3 of 9
Where to exchange money in Baghdad: Harthiya, Karrada, Shorja and the companies that sell dollars at the official rate
Baghdad has more licensed exchange companies than the rest of Iraq combined, three clusters where they gather, and one thing no other city offers: travel dollars at the Central Bank's rate.
Read the one before this?
Where to exchange money in Sulaymaniyah: the souq by the Khanqa mosque, and why no board is online
Of the 1,378 companies on the Central Bank’s register of exchange and transfer businesses, 863 are in Baghdad. That is the first thing to know about changing money in the capital: there is no shortage of counters. The second is that they are not spread evenly. Three districts hold most of the trade, and each has its own character, its own hours and, in one case, its own price.
Harthiya: the bourse behind Baghdad Mall
The Harthiya bourse is the wholesale end of the market, a block of exchange companies behind Baghdad Mall where the day’s dollar1,588+0.52% price is effectively set for the western side of the city. Al-Mayar and Al-Hilman are here, the latter on Damascus Street and known for a good sterling price. Al-Rayan‘s Baghdad branches that its own list marks open are in the Jadiriya Mall and the Iraq Mall in Dora, not in Harthiya. This is where large amounts move, and where the buy and sell are tightest.
Karrada and Arasat
Karrada is the retail heart. Al-Taif, the only Baghdad company whose board DinarView reads every ten minutes, has its head office in Karrada Dakhel near Kahramana Square and answers on the short number 6600. Sama Baghdad is opposite the Babylon Hotel, Al-Fanjan in Karrada Kharij with a second branch in Kadhimiya, Al-Battar in Karrada with branches in Sinak and Shorja. Karrada’s offices keep long hours, Saturday to Thursday into the evening, and most of them do transfers and travel dollars as well as cash.
Shorja and Rashid Street
Shorja is the old wholesale market and its exchange offices serve the traders around it. Al-Nujoom is on Rashid Street, and Al-Battar and Al-Quttaf keep Shorja branches. Prices here follow Harthiya within the hour; the offices open early with the market and close earlier than Karrada.
The offices DinarView lists
| Company | Area | Board online | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al-Taif | Karrada Dakhel | Yes, read by DinarView | 6600 |
| Al-Fanjan | Karrada Kharij, Kadhimiya | No | +964 780 900 0072 |
| Al-Qand | Mansour (Babylon Mall), Saydiya, Zayouna, Adhamiya | No | 7525 |
| Sama Baghdad | Opposite the Babylon Hotel | No | 6570 |
| Al-Mayar | Harthiya bourse | No | +964 772 244 2222 |
| Al-Atheer | Baghdad | No | +964 771 620 0006 |
| Al-Dathoor | Rabiei Street; Mansour | No | +964 773 360 1313 |
| Al-Hilman | Harthiya, Damascus Street | No | +964 781 111 1814 |
| Al-Battar | Karrada, Sinak, Shorja | No | +964 783 494 1071 |
| Al-Nujoom | Shorja, Rashid Street | No | +964 783 305 9245 |
| Al-Quttaf | Hay Al-Amil, Salihiya, Shorja | No | — |
| Al-Rayan | Jadiriya Mall; Iraq Mall, Dora | No dollar rate published | +964 780 092 6926 |
All twelve, with maps, are on the Baghdad page. Only Al-Taif carries a tick, because only Al-Taif publishes a board DinarView can read; the Baghdad figure on this site is that single board and is labelled indicative until a second one is readable.
Two prices in one city
Baghdad is the one city in this series where you can buy dollars at two different prices on the same street. The market price, quoted per $100 on every board and counter, is the one DinarView publishes as the market rate. The official price is the Central Bank’s 1,310 dinars per dollar, and a handful of licensed companies sell travel dollars at it: Sama Baghdad, Al-Qand, Al-Fanjan and Al-Sarraf. The conditions are the Central Bank’s: a passport, proof of travel, a cap on the amount, and often a wait. The difference is large, around 18 percent at the time of writing, which is why the queue exists.
DinarView keeps these two prices apart on purpose. The official figure is shown beside the market figure on the rate board and is never averaged into it. An office selling at the official window is not a source for the market median, however honest its price.
How Baghdad quotes
Boards quote dinars per $100, buy and sell. Al-Taif’s board shows a single figure per currency, so its buy and sell are the same number and DinarView shows a dash for its spread. Other counters quote a spread of 250 to 500 dinars per $100, wider than Erbil’s, because Baghdad’s market is deeper in transfers than in cash and the cash counter is not where the company earns.
Every Baghdad company on the list is licensed by the Central Bank. Licences are worth checking on the company’s own paperwork: the register lists licence codes, and a company that cannot show one should not be handling your money.
Before you go
- Harthiya for amounts, Karrada for convenience. The bourse quotes tighter; Karrada is open later and closer to where most visitors stay.
- Short numbers. 6600 (Al-Taif), 7525 (Al-Qand) and 6570 (Sama Baghdad) answer from any Iraqi mobile and quote the day’s price.
- Official-rate dollars take a day. Ask which documents the office needs before you queue. The passport and ticket are always on the list.
- Friday. Al-Qand closes; Al-Taif’s board still updates; most Karrada counters open for a few hours in the afternoon.
A worked example: $1,000 at two prices
An Iraqi with a passport, a ticket and a morning to spare buys $1,000 at Al-Qand’s official window for 1,310,000 dinars. The same $1,000 on the Karrada street costs about 1,546,500 at the rates on the day this guide was written. The difference, 236,500 dinars, is the size of the subsidy the Central Bank extends to travellers and the size of the incentive to resell, which is why the window asks for documents and caps the amount. A traveller who takes the official dollars abroad is 236,500 dinars better off than one who buys on the street; a traveller who sells them back on the street the same afternoon has broken the rule the window exists to enforce. DinarView shows both prices because both are real, and keeps them in separate columns because the difference between them is the story.
Transfers, not cash
Most of what the Karrada companies do is not visible at the counter. Al-Fanjan is a Western Union agent; Al-Taif runs an app and a short number for sending money between its 25 branches; Al-Qand publishes a WhatsApp channel and takes card payments. A family in Basra receiving money from a relative in Baghdad, or a merchant paying a supplier in Erbil, uses these companies as banks that stay open in the evening. The cash counter is the storefront. That is also why Baghdad’s counter spreads are wider than Erbil’s: the companies earn on the transfer, and price the cash to cover the risk of holding it rather than to compete for it.
Questions readers ask
Which Baghdad district has the best rate? Harthiya, by a small margin, and only for amounts worth the trip. For a few hundred dollars the difference is less than the taxi fare.
Why does DinarView show one board for Baghdad? Because one company publishes a readable board. Al-Mayar’s site has no board, Al-Rayan does not publish a dollar rate yet, and Al-Qand and Al-Fanjan publish none. When a second board is readable the Baghdad figure becomes a median.
Can a visitor buy dollars at 1,310? Iraqi citizens with a travel document can, at the companies named above, within the Central Bank’s limits. The offices will tell you the current cap.