Cuban currency exchange - ATM vs exchange office

Question

• What are fees for exchanging EUR to CUC in ATM and exchange office (CADECA)?
• Is it difficult to find ATM in the main cities?
• Is MasterCard accepted in ATM?

Considering these options because don't know how much cash should I bring to the country.

Answer 1

What are fees for exchanging EUR to CUC in ATM and exchange office (CADECA)?

The fees are likely to be a small variation of those stablished by the Central Bank of Cuba, and they are likely to be +- the same across the whole contry.

In my personal experience, fees are usually about 3% of the exchanged amount.

Is it difficult to find ATM in the main cities?

That depends on what you mean by "difficult"... there is at least one on each province capital, and many of them in main cities like Havana or Santiago. Everywhere there is a bank, it will have an ATM. You can also do cash-advances in most of the CADECAs offices and hotel front desks (some hotels only offer this service to their guests).

Is MasterCard accepted in ATM?

For future readers, see this other answer: https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/88846/1154
And this one: https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/84405/1154

Last time I tried (Dec 2015) it was not, but you can go to a bank and they will get the cash for you from the card. VISA will work in ATM as long as it was not issued in US dollars or by a US-affiliated bank.

More information here: https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Travel-g147270-c150737/Cuba:Caribbean:Money.Misconceptions.html

Note that the bit about "credit card service charge" on that page is wrong... there is no service fee for cash advances, but there are fees when doing purchases or paying for services. It will even be displayed as such in the invoice/bill.

Answer 2

According to All about currency in Cuba:

travelers can use Visa and Mastercard to withdraw cash from an ATM or to make purchases

Please notice that when withdrawing cash from an ATM with your credit card the amount will be converted first to the US Dollar plus 3%. For example, if you want to withdraw 100 CUC, 103.00 USD will be debited from your account.

UPDATE

Just came back from Cuba. Tried 3 different cards (Maestro debit, Mastercard debit, Mastercard credit) in ATM and they worked well. Exchange fee in Cadeca and ATM are similar (~3%). ATM is good for shorter queues, no need for passport, works all day. However, you should carry enough cash because risk for some cards may remain.