In Reply to: ATM vs CASH posted by msj on Tuesday, 25. January 2005 at 16:55 Bali Time:
Andyr was right that Citibank redi credit accounts are very handy because they charge no ATM fee whatsoever. Most credit or debit cards have a charge between $4-8 (American Express is only $1.25). And since in many machines the maximum withdrawal is 600,000Rp, it means you are paying up to almost 10% of the transaction in fees. (Always look for ATMs that allow 1.2 or 1.5 million, and withdraw the maximum.) Even $4 is almost 30,000rp, which can get you a nice steak dinner, or six decent meals at a warung. What $8 can buy is just ridiculous. A clean version of what a friend of mine said is "If they're gonna charge that much every time I want cash, there should at least be a woman at the ATM to massage me during the transaction." Except he wasn't talking about a massage.
I wouldn't advise bringing huge wads of cash, coz even though most of the time it won't vanish, you wouldn't want to be involved in one time that it does.