Question Best way to get Indonesian rupiah cash?

[Centrals]

She already posted her travel plans and resorts she will stay at.
My HSBC HK ATM card works fine outside of HK.

Do you know the difference between plan and itinerary?
Who give a toss whether your ATM card working or not.

There are three ways for me to get Indonesian Rupiah.
1. Buy it in HK.
2. Change it at Jakarta airport.
3. Change it at money exchanger in Denpasar.
It is all depend on my arrival time in the country.
ATM or credit card!!!!! Absolutely no need. My ATM card does not even work outside HK because I see no reason to have it registered with the bank.
The largest amount that I ever exchanged was in Bali for just under 20M(~US$1,500.00). I did it with three different money exchangers in Kuta. US$500.00 each time, returned to the hotel off loaded the money and went out again.

 

[Centrals]

There are many ways to skin a cat.
We all have our favourite ways to exchange for foreign currency. But I never ever let it to interfere with my travelling plan. I am pretty sure plenty of you have been to places where getting the local currency was impossible until you actually arrived at the destination. I have a few to tell but it is irrelevant here.
Enjoy the trip.

 

[drrich2]

Reading over this thread over time, I'm reminded sometimes it's the little details that trip people up in ways they didn't anticipate, particularly less seasoned travelers who may not know things that seem so obvious to the more seasoned folks.

For the benefit of those fairly new to traveling internationally, who may not've relied on ATM withdrawals outside their nation before, it's worth noting you may need to go into your credit or debit card account online and make sure the option for international transactions is 'on.'

In theory you could do that when abroad if the situation comes up, and you realize what's going on and needs to be done. In theory. IIRC, back in Feb. 2022, on a Bonaire trip, my bank account didn't let me log in from my notebook computer, presumably because it sensed I was out of the country. One might try using a VPN as a workaround, but that sort of thing is best worked out in advance, not your first time at a foreign airport in between flights, or when you're concerned about meeting your hotel shuttle shortly. I try to avoid enabling cell service because I don't want to pay international roaming charges.

If this seems very basic, well, it's the kind of problem I could imagine myself blundering into, so I figure maybe someone else could, too.

Richard.

 

[Luko]

it's worth noting you may need to go into your credit or debit card account online and make sure the option for international transactions is 'on.'

Absolutely.
However note that even though I might fall into the more seasoned traveler category, hence I usually think about advising my bank on my trips, there are sometimes unexplained bank transaction "glitches" I can't explain even with the most advanced banking systems, this is why I insisted all along that a credit card is never paramount toall problems.

Example : two months ago I traveled in Estonia & Finland which are both EU countries, even though my bank told me everything was safe, I couldn't pay electronic bus tickets on the finnish app, my Visa Premier card was always rejected. -Same occured 5 years ago in the Netherlands for a car rental-. My bank was never able to explain why.
Luckily my wife's Amex did work fine.

 

[chillyinCanada]

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