Before you start

Passport and valid permit
Proof of Harare address
Employer letter
Passport photographs

Step-by-step

1
Open a foreign currency account
The Reserve Bank's exchange control guidelines recognise an individual FCA funded with salaries, diaspora remittances, donations and foreign currency cash deposits, subject to the usual KYC and anti-money-laundering checks. This is the account your dollar salary should land in.
In personWho: You
2
Open the local-currency account alongside it
Municipal rates, some utilities and anything priced in ZiG are easier from a ZWG account. Most banks will open both at once — ask for both rather than discovering later that you need one.
In personWho: You
3
Register EcoCash on your Econet line
Mobile money is how small amounts move — a kombi fare, a vegetable seller, splitting a bill. EcoCash keeps ZiG and USD wallets separately, so check which wallet you are being paid into and which one a merchant wants.
Mobile appWho: You
4
Solve the small-notes problem deliberately
Zimbabwe has a chronic shortage of US coins and low-denomination bills. Bring clean, undamaged US$1, $5 and $10 notes; a torn or heavily marked note gets refused. Change from a $20 is very often ZiG, which is one of the main ways ordinary people end up holding the local currency at all.
In personWho: You
5
Set up international transfers before you need them
Ask specifically about receiving foreign currency into your FCA, the fees, and the bank's SWIFT arrangements. This varies a lot between institutions and it is the thing most likely to catch you out.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Valid permit
Proof of Harare address
Employer letter
Passport photographs

Things most newcomers don’t know

The FCA is the account that matters, and the central bank says so.

The Reserve Bank's foreign exchange guidelines set out an individual FCA category explicitly funded with salaries and remittances. That is the regulator acknowledging that ordinary people are paid in dollars. Open the FCA first and treat the ZWG account as the secondary one, not the other way round.

Source: RBZ Foreign Exchange Guidelines FXD5, March 2026

Bring physically good small notes. This is not a trivial point.

The absence of US coins and small bills is one of the most consistently frustrating parts of daily life for newcomers, and worn or torn notes are simply refused. A wad of clean singles and fives is worth more than an equivalent sum in twenties, and it is the one thing you cannot fix once you are here.

Source: community-reported, consistently

EcoCash's two wallets are two different pots of money.

The ZiG wallet and the USD wallet do not talk to each other and are not interchangeable at the counter. People get paid into one and try to spend from the other. Check which wallet a transfer landed in before you assume you have been paid.

Source: Econet — EcoCash product structure

Electronic payment carries a tax that cash does not.

The transfer tax applies to money moved electronically. On day-to-day spending it is negligible; on a rental deposit or a car purchase it is a real number, and it explains a lot of Harare's preference for cash on large transactions.

Source: ZIMRA — Intermediated Money Transfer Tax

Common mistakes to avoid

Opening only a local-currency account and then being paid in dollars.
Arriving with only large US notes, or with notes that are torn, taped or heavily marked.
Assuming a bank card works everywhere — small traders and kombis are cash and mobile money.
Not asking about inbound international transfer fees before choosing a bank.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.