In Reply to: Money posted by Jim Smith on Saturday, 18. June 2005 at 08:27 Bali Time:
Last year this is what we did money-wise. Took some leftover rupiah from previous trip (we usually just get a bit of rupiah from a NZ bank if we don't have any left over - enough to get by for a day or so, and to pay taxi from airport, as the exchange rate in NZ is bad, but shop around agencies in NZ if you buy rupiah in NZ, as they differ in commission rates for exchange). You can exchange NZ notes in Bali easily.
I have found the best way is to use my Westpac credit card and load it up so I am well in credit, and just use the ATMs over there with the cirrus logo on them. That way I don't get hit with an $8 fee per withdrawal. (Check with your bank..I shopped around and found some banks would charge me $6-$8 per withdrawal EVEN when I was in credit on my credit card account, so went with Westpac!). Last year we found the exchange rate was reasonable too..600,000 was costing me NZ $103 - $105 on my statement and the 1,000,000 withdrawals were costing about $176.30. This March my daughter used my spare eftpos card in Bali (Mum's peace-of-mind backstop) and she took out 1,000,000rupiah and that cost me $145.75 plus an $8 bank fee. She also took out 7,000,000rph and that translated as $102 NZ, plus the $8 fee.It pays to take another card just in case, and if it is a savings/cheque account atm card be sure it is set up as a debit card as well or it may not work there.
I also ensured ahead of time the ability to transfer money between my two banks and my different accounts while I am online over there - just in case a card fails or gets swallowed. I have noticed that in some internet cafes/hotel internet rooms I have trouble accessing banks online, but in other cafes I have had no trouble, so don't panic if you go to do an account balance check and can't access your bank...just try somewhere else.
Some ATMS will let you choose the 'other amount' option and you can get out 1 million rupiah instead of usual ceiling of 600,000 per withdrawal. (Could do that at Makro). Otherwise just stand there in the air conditioning and do two or three withdrawals in a row. But be careful..their machines are different. As well as spitting out the transaction record slips at the end of all your transactions they often do not give you your card back till AFTER the money and slip, and it is easy to walk away and leave it in the machine. (Once or twice I have noticed the opportunists who hang around machines in the hope of this happening, and the chance to make some additional withdrawals on your behalf, so just be aware of getting your card back).
It pays to stash the wads of 600,000 in different parts of your purse or elsewhere in your bag before bargaining too...nothing sends a starting price higher than a thick sandwich of 50,000 notes stuffed in your purse/wallet!
Another money tip..in supermarkets and larger stores don't hand over your small notes, keep them stashed away not visible. That way you won't use them up, and you will in fact gather more. You really need to keep the smaller notes for taxis and purchases in smaller shops. They often will 'not have change' for a 20,000 or 50,000, taxis especially. If you keep smaller notes in a little purse or a separate part of your bag you will not keep getting caught out with only big notes. If you are in a group you could do what we did..everyone handed over their smaller notes to me as we set off for the day and I was the one who dished them out to each taxi driver. It meant we were not all scrabbling in our money as we held up traffic at our destination.