For over a month now we have witnessing a dollar shortage in Lebanon which caused two parallel markets to be established for the currency. The first market is the one regulated by the central bank where financial institutions are supposed to deal by the ~1,500L.L rate, while the other is controlled by money changers where the rate changes from day to day and follows the supply and demand principle. And as banks decrease their supply of dollars to the market, their clients feel obliged to turn to money changers who have been imposing a rate as high as 1,750 or 1,800L.L sometimes (20% difference).
This has unfortunately impacted a lot of people since most of us earn our salaries in LBP but pay for goods and services that are priced in USD. And the 20% variation in exchange rate has been translated as an increase in the price of goods. So if I am holding lebanese lira and want to buy a $10 item, it now costs me 18,000L.L instead of 15,000L.L in case a bank refuses my exchange transaction and I opt to do it at some money changer. A real example is now the price of mobile recharge cards which prices have significantly increased in case you want to pay in Lebanese lira.
To avoid this effect of prices inflation on me, I personally have been using digital channels to settle my payments using my credit card (i.e. dealing directly with the financial institutions at the ~1,500L.L rate) whenever I have the option to do so.
This is applicable to mobile recharge cards and bill settlement, internet subscription renewal, money transfers.
Mobile recharge cards & bill settlement
For touch lines you should first create a user on their website and then you can either recharge a prepaid line here or settle your bill here.
Alfa users also need to create an account on Alfa’s website and they can recharge a prepais line here or settle their bills here.
On the other hand, a lot of ATMs around the country gives you the capability of purchasing mobile recharge vouchers when using your card, and you will of course be charged in dollars at the official exchange rate.
Internet subscription renewal
Likewise, the most popular ISPs offer renewing or recharging your internet account online. To my knowledge, Cyberia, IDM, TerraNet, Sodetel, WISE, and MOBI, all offer the service.
Ogero
Ogero actually set their prices in lebanese lira but I’m including it here because I find it more convenient to pay my bill online than physically going to one of their central offices, or to one of their payment partner (like OMT for example) that impose 2,000L.L extra charge for every settled bill.
To settle your bill online, create an account here and then linkt you landline to it by inputting your number and your initial subscription date which you find on any old bill you have.
Money transfers
Last time I tried to transfer dollars outside Lebanon through one of the money transfer companies, the agent didn’t accept the money unless it was in the currency. However, Western Union recently launched a service that allows you to transfer money online using your credit card. I personally didn’t try it yet but you sign up to it here, and you are required to verfiy your identity by taking your ID card to one of the BoB Finance branches in town before starting to use the service.
Other services
Many service providers provide online services that are either not much advertised or people simply don’t know about. If you are subscribed with CableVision for example, you can pay onlin here instead of going through your dealer. And the same applies to beIN here. So always inquire with any solution provider about such possible payment options that can make your life easier.
The above all works as long as bank provide their clients with reasonable amount of dollars to settle their credit cards. So in sum, try as much as you can to perform your exchange operation at regulated institutions until we hopefully make it out of this crisis!