Money in Moldova: currency, cards and paying for treatment

This guide covers travel, process and cost. It contains no clinical advice.

Moldova's currency is the Moldovan leu (MDL). It is not the euro, and euro notes are not legal tender, though many clinics quote treatment prices in euro. Cards are widely accepted in Chișinău, cash is still useful for taxis and small purchases, and the official exchange rate is published daily by the National Bank of Moldova.

The currency, and why quotes look different from payments

Moldova uses the leu, abbreviated MDL. Prices in shops, taxis and restaurants are in lei. Dental clinics serving international patients almost always quote in euro, because that is the currency their patients think in — but the invoice may be issued in lei at the day's rate, or in euro if the clinic is set up to do that. Ask which, before you arrive, so the final number does not surprise you.

The National Bank of Moldova publishes the official rate daily. It is worth a look the day before you pay: it tells you what a fair rate is, which is the only defence against a bad one at an exchange counter.

Cards, cash and ATMs

Paying the clinic

How you pay matters more than most patients realise, because it determines what evidence you hold if something later goes wrong. A card payment or bank transfer leaves a record tying a sum to a named business on a date. Cash leaves nothing unless the clinic issues a proper invoice, and by the time you need that proof you will be in another country.

A discount offered specifically for paying cash, with no invoice, is a signal about how that clinic operates. Decline it, and reconsider the clinic.

Before you travel, agree in writing what the deposit is, what it covers, whether it is refundable and under what circumstances, what the balance will be, and in which currency each is payable. Ask for an invoice for every payment, including the deposit, and keep them together with your treatment plan.