Changing large amount of money in Mumbai

lozza_84

Hi, I'm arriving into Mumbai international airport later this week and I need to change a relatively large amount of money (£250) to rupees. I have sterling travellers cheques. Will I be able to change this easily at the airport? And is the rate likely to be a lot worse than I would get in central Mumbai? If there will only be a slight difference I would be happy to change at the airport and incurr a slight loss rather than trawling the streets of Colaba to find a reputable currency exchanger.

Just to point out that I will be using ATMs and a small supply of US dollars for my daily spending, but I need this money for a one-off payment and thought changing travellers cheques would be the best way to go about it.

(sorry if there's already a thread on this but I was unable to find an up to date one that answered my question).

pinkyparker

You might be better off at a Mumbai branch of the State Bank of India. There will be a form to fill out listing the serial numbers of your travelers checks and they will want a copy of your passport. It will expedite things if you bring them a copy.

They will check the serial numbers against their lost/stolen list. This can sometimes take 20 or so minutes. But, being a national bank, will have a good supply of the denominations you need at a better rate than you will get at the airport.

Whenever I have to change large sums of money, I take a tuk-tuk or taxi to the bank, have him wait for me, then I return to the hotel and put it in safekeeping. You don't want to walk around with that amount of money on you,

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Nick-H

I am so dispointed: I thought we'd be talking tens of thousands of pounds here! At least more than one is supposed to have brought in in cash

It sounds like you already got the cheques. If not; just bring cash. Any licensed money changer will change it for you, and give you the necessary paper work. Any unlicensed changer will do the same, sans the paperwork. Generally, (I don't know Mubai), people say you get a better rate than at the airport.
Nearly 20,000... you can walk around with it, but do not have it so people can see it when you take out your purse/wallet, and do not produce a roll of big notes from your pocket when paying bills, especially small, on-the-street amounts

Eastern Mind

I'm with Nick. I thought you would be purchasing something large, like a new small car to send back home. I took 8 to 9 thousand rupees out of the ATM at a time. I don't like going to ATMs over and over every day. My one shot expense was 50% for the car/driver at the beginning. They accepted the 900 US cash, and I was carrying double that. If you're wearing a hidden money belt, no one has any idea of how much you have (in large bills of course). So if you carry R1000s or US100s and you're not looking like you want to get mugged out at 3AM in the seediest areas of India, its not a problem. But yes, keep the small amounts on your person somewhere else.

camelgirl

I think you're getting the picture that what you are planning to exchange is NOT a lot of money & no need to worry about it.

If you want to use T-checks just bring a few large denomination ones (100 x 3) & it won't take long at the bank.

I doubt that you'll have use for small denomination U.S. money. Most people you'll deal with daily won't want it. They'll want rupees. Just get rupees from an ATM.

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