[northernlight83]

Quick question:

What form should I take money to India in?  How easy is it to get money from ATMs, to use credit cards, or to exchange travellers cheques?

Thanks everyone!

Nicola

[WonderWomanUSA]

ATMs are almost everywhere, and that's what I used. I always withdraw the maximum, keep the biggest bills in my money belt, and change what I need for walking-around money. Often, I get change by paying my hotel bill in the morning ... my hotels probably averaged Rs 600, so I'd give them 1000 and have Rs 400 to start the day.

However, I always carry a few traveller's cheques (the ones I'm using now are at least 6 years old) and some cash. For me, that would be USD20 notes, for you, it might be Euros or Sterling .. don't go through any heroics to change to some other currency, as the moneychangers know all the rates!

If you use ATMS, keep your receipts. You might need them to get rail tickets from the "foreigners' reservation office" or to change rupees back to your home currency when you leave India.

I used my credit card couple of times to pay hotel bills, and once at a very nice restaurant, but most of the places I slept and ate wanted cash.

Have a great trip!

[john.sw]

Cash is king.

There's an ATM in every medium-sized town and above, but rarely in rural areas.  We have to drive for 45 minutes to our nearest ATM!

You can change foreign currency at hotels and in a lot of shops and travel agents.  Often they'll give you a better exchange rate than you can get in a bank.

The only thing to bear in mind is that if you need to change Rupees back to your own currency you may need to show receipts.  It is illegal to take Rupees out of India.

I have no idea what a travellers cheque is - do they still make them?

[AlanD]

We normally take a mixture of Amex TC's and pounds sterling with bank cards as a backup. We've just done a five month trip to India and Nepal and had absolutely no money problems.

We were in and out of Delhi a few times so we would change enough TC's to see us back to Delhi, asking the money changer for large denonmination notes to keep the bulk down. We would usually produce these when paying restaurant or hotel bills so that we always had a supply of smaller value notes.

In the last couple of years we've had a problem with our bank cards - twice our bank has voided our cards as they suspected that there has been an attempt at fraud. This has been a bit inconvenient as it took a few days for the new cards to arrive through the post. I wouldn't want to be in this position in India.

We usually take about four times the amount of TC's compared to cash - the advantage of TC's is that if you genuinely lose them they can be replaced. I don't think it's advisable to carry large amounts of cash.

[john.sw]

AlanD, on Jun 11 2009, 04:16 PM, said:

...twice our bank has voided our cards as they suspected that there has been an attempt at fraud....

Good point!

You should contact your bank/card provider and ask them to make a note on your account that you are in India!

I had one or two problems with cards in India before informing the bank that I was in India, and the attempted transactions were actually me, not some fraudster!