On Tuesday, 3 November 2026, the Bank of Israel published a representative rate of NIS 3.157 to the dollar. On 29 May it had been NIS 2.811, the lowest figure of the year so far. A visitor who budgeted $1,000 for a week in New York at the end of May was looking at NIS 2,811 at the official rate; the same $1,000 now comes to NIS 3,157, about 12% more for the same dollars.
The rate a traveler actually pays is a different number again. Somebody has to convert each dollar charge into shekels, and the traveler often gets to choose who. American prices also leave out the sales tax, menus say nothing about the tip, a hotel will tie up money that hasn't been spent yet, and some stadiums won't take cash at all.
The shekel will keep moving before most readers fly. The costs described here move far less, and several of them depend on a choice made in a second or two at the payment screen.
A terminal that offers shekels sets its own exchange rate
Hand an Israeli card to a waiter in Manhattan and the payment screen may ask a question before it asks about a tip. Pay in ILS or in USD? Picking shekels triggers what the card industry calls dynamic currency conversion. The merchant's payment provider converts the charge on the spot, at a rate it chooses, and shows the result in shekels.
Visa's travel guidance lists what that screen and the receipt must show: The amount in both currencies and the exchange rate used, plus any markup or extra fee. Merchants "must not choose on your behalf," the card network says. If those details are missing, or a cashier leans on the customer to pick one option, Visa recommends declining the conversion and reporting it to the card issuer, and saying no doesn't stop the card from working.
Choosing dollars hands the conversion to the card network and the Israeli issuer, and the receipt shows the charge in dollars. The issuer then adds a foreign-currency fee of its own, and that fee is set out in the tariff sheet for each card, so two cards in the same wallet can cost different amounts on the same purchase.
The number on an American price tag is rarely the number charged
In Israel the price on the shelf already includes VAT. American tags usually don't include sales tax, which the register adds at the end, and the rate depends on where the shop is. New York State's tax department lists 8.875% for New York City, so a $40 phone charger in a Midtown store rings up at $43.55.
Restaurants add a second step. When the Pew Research Center surveyed 11,945 American adults in August 2023, 92% of those who eat at sit-down restaurants said they always or often leave a tip. Asked what they'd leave after an average meal, 57% said 15% or less (2% said nothing at all), and only about a quarter said 20% or more. Seven in ten said tipping was expected in more places than it had been five years before.
Hotels work the other way round. At check-in they set money aside as a hold against charges that may never come. Arlo, a chain with hotels in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Miami and Washington, holds $100 for an entire stay at its Midtown, NoMad and SoHo locations and $150 a night, up to $500, in Williamsburg. On a debit card those dollars can't be spent or withdrawn while the hold lasts.
Banks usually lift the hold two to four business days after checkout, Arlo says, though it "can rarely take as long as 30 days," and the hotel has no control over the timing. The chain's own advice is to put incidentals on a credit card even when the room itself is paid by debit.
Evening tickets and other entertainment are charged by category
A night out in New York often means a show. Broadway drew 14,577,322 admissions in the season that ended on 24 May 2026 and grossed $1,910,903,835, the Broadway League reported, which works out to about $131 per admission. A ticket paid by card reaches the issuer with a four-digit merchant category code attached, and the issuer reads that code to decide what sort of purchase it's looking at. Rewards and fees follow from it.
Visa's merchant data manual, in its October 2026 edition, files restaurants under 5812, taxis and limousines under 4121, hotels under 7011, and theatrical producers and ticket agencies under 7922. A seat bought at the box office and the same seat bought online from a hotel room normally carry the same code, and on an Israeli statement both convert the same way dinner did.
Betting merchants, online and in person, get codes of their own, and here the category can change the price. Some issuers book those charges as cash advances, a category with its own fee. A US guide to the top 20 online casinos usa real money shows the effect in its payments table, which lists debit cards with no fee and notes that some card issuers charge a cash advance fee on credit card deposits.
Israeli phones already work at New York's subway gates
Apple Pay went live in Israel on Wednesday, 5 May 2021, and the Jerusalem Post reported the next day that all of the large Israeli credit card companies had agreed to work with Apple. Ron Painero, chief executive of the card firm Max, called the launch "a holiday for iPhone users." Card machines at most Israeli businesses had been using the EMV standard, which handles contactless payments by phone and smartwatch, since November 2020. Card readers in the US use the same EMV contactless standard, so a phone that pays in Tel Aviv can pay the same way in Manhattan.
New York's subway is the first test for many visitors. The MTA's OMNY readers at the turnstiles and on buses take contactless cards, phones, wearables and OMNY cards, and the base fare has been $3 since January 2026. MetroCard sales ended on 31 December 2025.
Fares are also capped by the week. Once one card or device has paid $35 in fares within seven days, the remaining subway and local bus rides in that period cost nothing. The count runs per card and per device, though. A physical card and the copy of it in a phone's wallet build separate totals, so a visitor who switches between them can pay well past $35 in a week. Foreign cards are no novelty at the gates; New York State said in July 2023 that OMNY had already processed cards from all 195 countries that issue bank cards.
Cash still covers about one American payment in seven
The US hasn't given up on paper money. American consumers made an average of 47 payments a month in 2025, six of them in cash, or 14% of the total, according to the Federal Reserve's 2026 consumer payment diary. Credit cards led with 16 payments a month and debit cards came next with 15. Some 76% of consumers carried cash on them, about $69 on average. People aged 55 and over made ten cash payments a month; 18- to 24-year-olds made two.
Getting dollars out of a machine means paying two fees. The ATM's owner charges a surcharge, which averaged $3.22 in Bankrate's survey of 25 large US markets, published in September 2025. That was the highest average the survey had found. The Israeli bank then adds its own fee for a withdrawal abroad, and the ATM screen may offer to charge the withdrawal in shekels, the same conversion offer a restaurant terminal makes.
The surcharge comes with every withdrawal, so at the Bankrate average two larger withdrawals in a week cost $6.44 in surcharges and six small ones cost $19.32. A modest amount of cash covers the occasional small payment where a card reader isn't handy, and the rest of a trip can run on the card.
Stadiums are the places where cash stops working
Sports venues have moved furthest from cash. The Chicago Bears stopped taking cash for concessions, souvenirs and other purchases at Soldier Field from the 2022 season opener against the San Francisco 49ers on 11 September. At the time, CBS Chicago reported, fans who arrived with cash could buy prepaid Visa cards at no charge inside the stadium and spend any balance left on them elsewhere.
A July 2022 episode of the Hey USA! series on PlayUSA News on YouTube looked at upgrades to Soldier Field, about six weeks before the stadium stopped taking cash at Bears games.
The team's current game-day guide still describes concessions, in-seat vending and retail at Bears games as cashless, with cards and mobile wallets accepted. It also lists PNC ATMs around the stadium. For an Israeli visitor, cash withdrawn there would carry the machine's surcharge and the Israeli bank's fee and still be no use at a concession stand. The card or phone already used on the subway pays at the stand with only the issuer's foreign-currency fee on top.
At Seattle's Lumen Field, cash still has a way in. The stadium calls itself "a fully cashless venue," with parking included on game and event days, and its stadium guide lists 10 kiosks that turn cash into prepaid cards at no fee. Those cards work outside the stadium as well.
This article was written in cooperation with PlayUSA