Book Phu Quoc and Cat Ba ferries online if you want to use a foreign Visa or Mastercard, because online is the only channel where those cards reliably work. Pier ticket counters at Rach Gia, Ha Tien and Hai Phong take cash or Vietnamese QR payment, not foreign cards. Decide the route first, the booking channel second, the payment method last.
A fast ferry from Hai Phong to Cat Ba costs 250,000 to 300,000 VND per adult and takes 45 to 60 minutes. The crossing is the easy part. The part that catches people out is standing at a ticket window with a Revolut card and discovering the counter has never taken one.
Island transfers in Vietnam are a sequence of small decisions, and each one quietly narrows how you are allowed to pay. Make them in the wrong order and you end up at a pier 40 minutes from the nearest working ATM.
Route, channel, payment method — in that order
Most people start by asking how they can pay for a ferry ticket. That is the third question, not the first. The route determines which operator runs the boat, the operator determines which booking channels exist, and the channel determines what plastic or app the seller will accept.
For Phu Quoc, the main operators are Superdong and Phu Quoc Express, running from Rach Gia and Ha Tien on the mainland into Bai Vong Port. Both sell online, and both also run physical ticket offices where the payment rules are completely different from their websites.
For Cat Ba, you are choosing between a passenger hydrofoil out of Ben Binh in central Hai Phong and the road-and-ferry route that ends with the Got Pier to Cai Vieng crossing on Cat Hai island. One is a single ticket. The other is a chain of three legs, each sold separately by a different seller.
Settle the route and you have already eliminated half the payment confusion, because you now know whether you are buying one ticket from one company or three things from three counters.
Phu Quoc and Cat Ba are two different payment problems
Phu Quoc is the simpler of the two. Expect roughly 250,000 to 350,000 VND per adult depending on operator and route, with Ha Tien to Phu Quoc the shorter crossing and Rach Gia the longer one. Operator websites and agent platforms accept international cards, which means a traveller who books three days ahead never touches cash for the ferry itself.
Taking a motorbike across to Phu Quoc is the exception. Vehicle slots are usually settled in the vehicle lane at the port rather than online, and that is a cash-or-QR transaction at a hut, not a card terminal.
Cat Ba is messier. There is no direct boat from Dinh Vu to Cai Vieng, so travellers coming that way take a ferry from Dinh Vu to Ninh Tiep Pier at around 0.5 USD per person one way, then a shuttle to Got Pier, then the ferry across to Cai Vieng. Three small payments, all at the pier, all to sellers who have no interest in your foreign card.
Individually these are tiny sums. Collectively they are the reason people arrive on Cat Ba with no small notes left and a long queue at the island's one busy ATM.
What the counter at Got Pier actually accepts
Every ticket hut and shuttle operator on that chain takes cash. Nearly all of them also take a QR code, because QR payment in Vietnam is now effectively universal wherever electronic money is accepted at all — the State Bank of Vietnam recorded adoption surging 150 percent during 2025.
The catch is that the national QR standard, VietQR, is managed by NAPAS and runs on Vietnamese bank accounts and domestic apps. A ticket window that cannot take your Mastercard will take a QR payment without blinking — the gap is not technology, it is which rail your money sits on.
The obvious workarounds mostly do not open to short-stay visitors. MoMo needs a Vietnamese phone number, ZaloPay needs a Vietnamese ID document as well, and since Circular 41/2025 new e-wallet registrations in Vietnam require biometric verification. Standard bank accounts need a long-term visa, work permit or Temporary Residence Card, which rules out anyone on a 45-day exemption or a 90-day e-visa.
This is where LocalPay earns its place in an island itinerary. It is a non-custodial wallet you top up with the Visa or Mastercard you already carry, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay, and then spend by scanning the same QR codes the pier huts and island cafes display. No Vietnamese bank account, no local SIM, no residency card.
Cash still has a real argument here, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. If you are doing a two-night Cat Ba trip and will need small notes anyway for the Cai Vieng bus and a bike hire deposit, one ATM withdrawal of 2,000,000 VND spreads a 22,000 to 55,000 VND machine fee thinly enough that it barely matters. The fees only turn ugly when you withdraw small amounts repeatedly, which is exactly what happens when you have no other way to pay.
“A ticket window that cannot take your Mastercard will take a QR payment without blinking — the gap is not technology, it is which rail your money sits on.”
Step-by-step
Six things that go wrong between the ticket office and the boat
- Allow 45 minutes at the port for Superdong departures — the e-ticket to boarding card exchange happens at a single window and the queue builds fast before peak sailings.
- The passenger name on the booking must match your passport exactly; agents will not reissue at the pier, and staff do check.
- Carrying a motorbike across costs extra and is settled in the vehicle lane at the port, usually in cash, so do not arrive with only a card and a booking reference.
- Northern crossings to Cat Ba are cancelled in rough weather, more often between October and December; refunds come back through the channel you booked on, which is another reason to book somewhere traceable.
- Carry 50,000 and 100,000 VND notes for the pier shuttles. Small sellers near Got Pier will not break a 500,000 note for a 20,000 fare.
- Hotel desks that book your ferry add a commission that is rarely itemised — ask whether the quoted price includes the shuttle leg or just the boat.
The decision order is what saves you: route, then channel, then payment method. Lock the route early and you can pay for the boat itself with the card you already own, from a hotel lobby in Hanoi or Can Tho, days before you go anywhere near a pier.
What you cannot pre-book is everything that happens after the gangway — the shuttle, the island bus, the bike deposit, the first beer in Cat Ba town. Those sellers want cash or a QR scan. Installing LocalPay from the App Store or Google Play before you travel, and topping it up with your own card, means you can scan at any merchant on either island without a Vietnamese bank account or a local SIM. It is backed by Colosseum and you keep control of your own funds throughout.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, but only when booking online. Superdong and Phu Quoc Express websites and third-party agents such as Baolau and 12Go accept international Visa and Mastercard. The physical ticket counters at Rach Gia, Ha Tien and Bai Vong Port take Vietnamese dong in cash or a domestic QR payment, not foreign cards.
A fast ferry from Hai Phong to Cat Ba costs 250,000 to 300,000 VND per adult and takes 45 to 60 minutes. The cheaper road route via Got Pier to Cai Vieng on Cat Hai island costs less but is sold as separate legs, with a shuttle and an island bus to pay for on top.
No, there is no direct boat from Dinh Vu to Cai Vieng. You take a ferry from Dinh Vu to Ninh Tiep Pier for about 0.5 USD per person one way, then a shuttle to Got Pier, then the ferry across to Cai Vieng. Each of the three legs is paid separately, in cash or by QR scan.
