In Reply to: You will always lose if you buy your rup posted by sherbert on Monday, 3. January 2011 at 13:22 Bali Time:
before. Every time you convert currency you lose a percentage, So changing AUD to USD then USD to IDR you lose twice. The Banks, Post Office, Credit Unions are there to make money so they need to charge a fee. ( they say "no Fees" but it's in the exchange rate they offer. Our Post Office told me "No Fees" but they use American Express as their guidline hows rate as of today is .98 USD to 1.00 AUD.
The best way to hedge against this is to get a friend who is going over to change your AUD whilst the rate is high on the street and bring it back for your future trip.