what currency to bring? UAE dirhams? And what budget?

arkaren80

Hi. I couldnt find a right thread for my querry so I'm putting it here. What is the best currency to bring to India? I know it's usually USD, but i'm thinking if it's ok to bring UAE dirhams with me. Also, how much should my personal daily budget be for food and going around?

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Aishah

Arkaren - I think you should start your own thread with this question. I don't know anything about UAE currency - do you have an ATM card e.g. Visa, American Express etc. which could be used for withdrawing money? American dollars are easily exchanged. There are some threads re daily budgets already, you might look there.

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manojb

Where are you going? Dirhams (and most other Gulf currencies) can be easily exchanged in Kerala. I can't speak for other places.

capt_mahajan

You should be able to exchange Dirhams easily almost everywhere there is a money-change facility. Certainly in big cities.

Budget - All depends on how you travel, where you stay, drink and eat and what you buy.

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jyotirmoy

Exchanging Dirhams won't be a problem but why cash?
ATM's are to be found every where these days so bring a debit card. The most popular is Visaelectron, mastercard. Also bring a credit card and pay your hotel bills, mid level to top level resytaurants bill.... shopping etc. A Visa or Mastercard would be the best. Amex is often accepted at high level establishments only.

Fan of India

Hi - I have stayed in the UAE and from that experience i can personally tell that the exchange rate which you shall get over there will be better than that in India. Hence - if you insist on carrying cash - it is adviseable that you make your conversion there itself and come here with the Indian Rupees. You can get the currency excahnged at the Al- Rostamani or Al- Ansari or any other exchanges in Abudhabi.

Also the debit cards of banks over there (DIB / ADCB etc) will not work here (sad but true!). Hence it helps if you have a credit card - that too of an international bank e.g Stanchart / Citi etc. But beware - the exchange rates charged by these will once again be exhorbitant!

Regarding your daily budget - well it depends purely on your standard of travel. However you can have a good budget meal in simple restaurants at about Rs. 50 per person.

machadinha

... Except unless Arkaren has an Indian passport (or is NRI or PIO or whatever perhaps?), you cannot legally take Rupees into or out of India. A bit of pocket money, sure, no one will mind (but even that you shouldn't technically count on. By all accounts it just doesn't seem to be a problem.)

I've never heard of exchange rates as such for any sort of cards. What you'll run into is your own bank (normally not the ones where you make the withdrawals) will charge you for any transactions, and it pays to enquire about this. These can be rather hefty -- if so, make fewer and larger withdrawals. Or switch banks.

ps Do note this stuff will vary locally, per your and other banks, per the mood of the day, and so on. There were some decent angles on it here a while ago: Recent problems changing US$ in India?

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capt_mahajan

Not even then, beyond a small amount. Restrictions apply to everybody.

machadinha

Ah! OK, thanks. I thought Indian citizens were exempt, or to an extent at least.

capt_mahajan

Nope. The same restrictions apply.

In fact, if I were the Indian authorities I would be more concerned about NRIs and resident Indians going abroad or coming in, there is so much 'black' or undeclared (for Tax) money in India, and people have been stashing it abroad for generations.

jyotirmoy

Yes you are not allowed to bring in INR. The exchange rate that the card issuing bank will be what it is at that moment. I have not come accross any instance of card issuing banks offering lower exchange rates, never.

machadinha

True Capt. I was thinking besides money-laundering concerns, it would make sense that they might be allowed to take some reasonable set amount for personal use in and out. Anyway that's what I'd heard, but it's good to know that isn't the case, not for me, but for other readers.

Well, here's another thread that threatens to go widely

ps

Yes, lest I misphrased: Of course you'll be dealing with an exchange rate, the going one indeed I reckon, may vary slightly per bank, and certainly will per day. What I meant to say is no traditional commission charges and so on will go on top of that I think; just those transaction charges as mentioned. So you need to look into the latter; other than that, the days of shopping around for the best deal seem to be pretty much over, save for in a few countries. As far as ATM cards are concerned, at least; it will still work that way for TC's.

arkaren80

Thanks for the info...I think I should always have cash aside from my cards coz you'll never know what's gonna happen...perhaps i'll stick to dollars then.

Can I take some Indian Rupee bills and coins out of India for souvenirs? I collect all types of money from any place I go to.

machadinha

As noted, the answer should technically be no, but in practice no one seems to mind, and people do it all the time. Just don't try to take in or out wads of money with you (some expat I believe got into serious trouble with that not long ago, there was a news report on it posted here), and maybe keep those few bills somewhere else than visibly in your wallet that you may be flashing around. Other than that, don't get paranoid about it, it's just a few hundred Rupees after all.

nycank

From CBEC website