Leaving for India in a couple of weeks and after looking at all the postings on India's money, I'm confused.

1. You can't get ruppes in the states

2. Is it best to bring cash? US dollar or travelers checks

When arriving at the Delhi airport, is it easy and fast to do all your exchanging on the spot?

We dread looking for ATMs all over the place (and hear it's very expensive - fees) and would prefer to get all our Indian money upon arrival.

Any feedback would be most appreciated. Fodors always come through

The easiest and fastest way to get rupees is through ATM's. There is at least one at the Delhi airport and they are also all over town and throughout India. I don't think we paid any fees at all when we were there 3 years ago. I think changing money or travelers chex would be a bit of a pain, although you can certainly do it at your hotel or at the airport.

The tough thing though is you have to practically beg for small change and you won't get that from an ATM. You'll need the small change particularly for tips.

There are ATMs and a human money changer at the airport arrival area. the human will make you beg for small rupee notes. You'll want lots of 10s and 20s and 50s for restroom attendants, rickshaws, tips, etc.

There are lots of ATMs all over India. i liked the Citibank ones best as they consistently worked and gave out the full amount that my bank allows. Fees were cheap.

The ATMs will often look like a regular bank with a guard outside, but inside the door is just a tiny room with one machine. Small shopping centers like khan market will have several bank ATMs.

i too liked the citibank ones as you could withdraw a reasonable amount of money like $300 or so while many of the india banks ones limited you to as little as $40 per withdrawal, thus driving up any per transaction fees you might encounter...

i personally find ATM's the only way to go and they are plentiful

Please do not bother with traveller’s checks, no one wants them and you will get a poor exchange rate.

Virtually all hotels and many shops and even restaurants will take a credit card, so try to use that whenever possible to limit the amount of cash you need, plus you generally get a good exchange rate on the credit card. (Your card may also add foreign currency fees, check this, but for large purchases and esp for anything you buy to be shipped home, the fees may be so minor as to be a non-issue compared to having to carry all that cash around or chase a missing package for which you paid cash).

As noted above, there are ATMs in many places in India, and I would also recommend using them whenever possible for the best exchange rate. You can exchange a small amount of cash when you arrive at the airport (or use the ATM) and then get the rest as you go via ATM in the various places on your itin.

While India is generally safe, I would not recommend converting “all” your cash at the airport and carrying it around with you. You would not want to lose that. Withdrawal of small amounts at ATMs when necessary is preferred. In a pinch, you can exchange cash at hotels and banks (bad rates generally, esp at hotels, so they should not be used as a regular source of cash).

I am in India right now.

You most certainly can get rupees in the States - I got a couple hundred dollars worth from Travelex, which is all over the place in the USA, before I left.

There are plenty of ATMs in India, including obvious ones at all the airports, Delhi included. I don't know why you dread looking for them, or why you think you'll be charged a fee. I haven't been charged any fees anywhere, and I've been using ATMs all over India for the past 9 days.

I also don't know why you'd want to get "all" your Indian money upon arrival. The exchange rate today was about 47 rupees to the dollar, so when I withdrew $300 in rupees from the ATM machine this afternoon I had a wad of bills about 3 inches thick. If you want to exchange "all" your money upon arrival, you'll need some sort of pack mule to help you carry it around the country. And it would be really silly, and potentially risky, to travel around this country with a boatload of rupees on your being. Not that it's dangerous - it's not. It's just that one stupid mistake (and tourists make them all the time) and you'd be SOL.

You can change dollars at exchange booths and every hotel for a decent rate, but I'd do that as a lst resort. You'll get a better rate at an ATM machine any day.

Traveler's checks are a total dinosaur. Forget about them.

Have a great trip. It's an amazing country!

Several people on this thread mention how hard it is to get Rupees in small bills - 10s, 20s.
Anyone have any ideas as to how you can get them at the airport? Will the hotels break bigger bills?
Thanks,
(Hi, Egypt2008! See you soon!)

hi Egypt2008

Depends where are you heading to

&quot;<i>Virtually all hotels and many shops and even restaurants will take a credit card&quot;</i>
In some areas up north (e.g. Spiti, Kinnaur) the above quote is not valid...

i haven't used ATM's, but changed notes. there are a lot of money changers in touristic areas
bestrates @Grand Bazar with a bit of comparing and bargaining

of course there's no need to change all the sum at once, but when going to those areas i've mentioned, i did change enough until reaching the next (touristic)town

<font color="blue">NGail</font>
i've paid in every hotel with the largest bill possible. if they don't have change they'll go looking for... most shops have too

aby

A good way to get smaller bills in India is to use a larger bill at a store, the post office, a hotel, restaurant etc. by purchasing something small.
It is not hard to do, although once in a while you will find some small merchants will say they do not have the very small bills to give you your full balance back.
If that happens try to purchase another small item so you get your money's worth.
I have sometimes just bought a newspaper or a candy bar or even some little decoration.
Often you will get lots of small coins. It is a good idea to purchase a tiny coin purse too. India has a lot of cute ones.
Of course, the small change can also be donated in temples or used as part of a larger tip to those who help you.

I called Travelex who handles the foreign currency I get at our credit union. They have been having a rush on Rupees for some reason and had taken them off their website for purchase. I was told that in a couple of weeks, they should have enough to start selling once more.

I think it's because the Rupee has been falling in value - at one point it was over RS 50 for 1 US $ - people traveling to India may be &quot;stocking up&quot; at a good rate.

There is great turbulance in the forex market. There is a flight of capital as the foriegn investors probabaly need to pay up the debts elsewhere.I think the rupee will stabilize once the pressure exerted by foreign investors eases. The USD will fall dramatically, just like the downslide in GBP / Euro.

That may be true - for selfish reasons I hope the dollar stays strong at least untill I finish my trip to India in April.
Time will tell.