In Reply to: Why take so much cash? posted by melbmeg on Sunday, 2. August 2009 at 06:12 Bali Time:
1. Too many experiences of being short changed by ATMs in Oz and finding that the bank is right unless the owner of the machine finds a discrepancy in the balances after an audit with the downside if they don't find (or own up to) an error being a $30 bank charge for their time. Have had this twice on different machines so don't use them unless desprate
2. I have read on this forum about machines in Bali recording a transaction but not dispensing due to being empty.
3. If you are faced with a withdrawal of only rp1,000,000 (A$120) then a A$5 fee is approx. 4% which is huge.
4. The chance of card skimming is great
5. I had a machine in Kuta in 2005 that wouldn't accept my pin on two consecutive attempts so I tried another machine which also wouldn't accept my pin and it swallowed my card on the first attempt. Great problems getting emergency cash from Visa mainly because you have to ring them on a toll free number which doesn't work from street phones, couldn't figure how to make it work from mobile (and it would have cost a packet) and the hotel wouldn't believe it was toll free.