Part 8 of 9
Where to exchange money in Duhok: the city-centre offices, the Zakho road and the Turkish lira
Duhok is the last Iraqi city before the Turkish border, and its exchange offices trade more lira than anywhere else in the country. Where they are, who is listed, and how the dollar is quoted.
Read the one before this?
Where to exchange money in Kirkuk: the Baghdad Road corridor, Domiz and the offices that double as salary agents
Duhok is the smallest of the three Kurdish cities and the one closest to the border. Everything that crosses from Turkey by road, the trucks, the shoppers and the tourists, passes through Duhok governorate, and the city’s exchange offices are shaped by it: they trade more Turkish lira48.78+0.22% than any other Iraqi city, keep long hours for the road, and quote the lira before the euro. None of them publishes a board online yet.
The city-centre offices
Duhok’s exchangers are in the commercial centre rather than on one named street. AJMA and Dijlah answer on mobile numbers and are the two offices DinarView confirmed by phone. Darwin and Hanzo are on the map from the September census, with coordinates but no published number. Al-Quttaf, the Baghdad company with branches in the three Kurdish cities, is in Zari Land on Masike Street. Al-Taif, whose Baghdad board DinarView reads, has a Duhok branch that also acts as the agent of Al-Taif Islamic Bank; it answers on the company’s short number 6600.
The Zakho road
Zakho, an hour north, is the border town itself, and its offices serve the crossing at Ibrahim Khalil: the Zanon office at Seri Gundiki is the one DinarView has on file. Zakho is not yet a city on this site, so its offices are not listed; when it is added, the crossing’s counters will be the first entries. Until then, change money in Duhok before you drive north, or in Zakho’s centre rather than at the crossing, where the counters quote worst.
The offices DinarView lists
| Office | Where | Board online | Phone | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AJMA | City centre | No | +964 750 850 0006 | Daily |
| Dijlah | City centre | No | +964 750 307 5058 | Daily |
| Darwin | City centre | No | — | Daily |
| Hanzo | City centre | No | — | Daily |
| Al-Quttaf, Duhok branch | Zari Land, Masike Street | No | — | Daily |
| Al-Taif, Duhok branch | Duhok | Baghdad board only | 6600 | Daily |
The six, with maps, are on the Duhok page. No Duhok office publishes a board DinarView can read, so the page shows no number and says why. Al-Taif’s board is a Baghdad board; it is not treated as a Duhok price.
How Duhok quotes
Dinars per $100, buy and sell, for new-series notes, as in Erbil, which is an hour and a half down the road and whose boards set the reference. Duhok’s counters sit within a few hundred dinars per $100 of Khaki and Gailany on the same morning; the spread is 100 to 300 dinars, tighter than Baghdad’s, because the city’s cash market is small and the offices know one another.
The Turkish lira is quoted the Erbil way, as lira per $100, and Duhok’s lira price is the best in Iraq most days because so much of it comes through. If you are travelling into Turkey, buy lira here rather than at the crossing or in Silopi. The euro and the dollar1,588+0.52% are the currencies the offices hold in depth; anything else, ask a day ahead.
Before you go
- Check Erbil’s boards first. They are on DinarView’s rate board every ten minutes and Duhok prices off them.
- Lira before the border. Duhok’s centre quotes better than Zakho’s crossing by a clear margin. Change what you need for the road here.
- Official-rate dollars. Al-Taif’s Duhok branch, as a bank agent, can direct you to the official window; the other listed offices trade at the market rate only.
- Hours. The city-centre offices open daily; the road counters follow the traffic. Friday is quieter, not closed.
A worked example: lira for the road
A family from Duhok driving to Diyarbakir for a wedding wants 20,000 Turkish lira and $300 for the road. The lira comes first: at the rates on the day this guide was written, a Duhok counter quoted about 4,840 lira per $100, so the 20,000 lira cost about $413, or roughly 639,000 dinars at a sell price near 154,650 per $100. The $300 for the road cost another 464,000 dinars. Total, a little over 1.1 million dinars, and the whole transaction takes a minute at a city-centre office. The same lira bought at the Ibrahim Khalil crossing would have cost 100 to 300 lira per $100 more, and the same lira bought in Silopi from a Turkish counter would have cost a commission on top. Duhok’s centre is where the lira is cheapest in either country, and the family that changes here and carries the notes across saves the price of a tank of fuel.
Diaspora money and the summer
Duhok’s second market is the summer. Families from Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands come home for two months, and they arrive with euros, kronor and cards. The euro is quoted per 100 against the dollar, like the lira, and a visitor selling 1,000 euros gets two steps of arithmetic and two small margins; the all-in dinar figure is what to ask for, and DinarView’s euro row is the number to compare it with. Cards work at the city’s cash machines at the bank’s rate, which is usually a little worse than the counter’s; for large sums the counter wins, for small ones the machine is simpler. In August the offices keep longer hours and the counters are busiest in the evening, which is the opposite of the rest of the year.
Questions readers ask
Is the dollar cheaper in Duhok than in Erbil? No; the two markets are aligned within a few hundred dinars per $100, and Erbil’s boards are the reference.
Where is the best lira price in Iraq? Duhok’s city centre, most days, for the reason above. Ask for the lira per $100 and work out the dinar figure, or use DinarView’s converter.
Why is Zakho not on DinarView? The site’s city list does not include it yet. Its offices are known and will be listed when the city is added.
Why no Duhok number? No Duhok board can be read yet. The offices are listed with their phones; the number will appear the day a board opens.