dirtfarmer
Contributor
I kind of like carrying a couple of bricks of rupiah, makes me feel rich.
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Thank you for this, I am heading to Charles Schwab office in the morning so I can ask for info. about "money magic machines" $$$$$$
While this might be a pain, it is still better than actual fraud draining the funds and leaving me broke and stranded in a foreign country!The Charles Schwab account is a GREAT deal, but i'll warn you about its use in Indonesia. On two trips to Indo since setting up the account, despite setting a travel advisory before going, my transactions were immediately blocked, causing me call back the US over and over. Often it would be cleared, only to have it immediately blocked after one use. One trip i had to call 4 times. The explanation was always that there "was a lot of fraud" in Indonesia and it "wasn't them" it was Visa doing it, so essentially they were helpless, and no manner of complaining ever got me anywhere. Same problem with Philippines incidentally. Otherwise has worked like a charm anywhere else in the world. Despite the problems in Indonesia, still an account well worth having...just be forewarned what will likely come up.
While this might be a pain, it is still better than actual fraud draining the funds and leaving me broke and stranded in a foreign country!
The Charles Schwab account is a GREAT deal, but i'll warn you about its use in Indonesia. On two trips to Indo since setting up the account, despite setting a travel advisory before going, my transactions were immediately blocked, causing me call back the US over and over. Often it would be cleared, only to have it immediately blocked after one use. One trip i had to call 4 times. The explanation was always that there "was a lot of fraud" in Indonesia and it "wasn't them" it was Visa doing it, so essentially they were helpless, and no manner of complaining ever got me anywhere. Same problem with Philippines incidentally. You need to make sure you aren't going to be rushed to use an ATM in case you are blocked, and make sure you have the time and internet connection if you need to use Skype to call back to the US, and then deal with the uncertainty that even after it's resolved it will likely just happen again the next time. It definitely reduces the overall usefulness it has everywhere else...Otherwise has worked like a charm anywhere else in the world. Despite the problems with Indonesia, still an account well worth having, just be forewarned what will likely come up.
While this might be a pain, it is still better than actual fraud draining the funds and leaving me broke and stranded in a foreign country!
So I am spending about seven weeks in Indonesia starting in October 2017. This is a mainly a dive trip both land and several liveaboards. While most of the trip is prepaid I still need cash for some of the trip. I do not want to carry a lot of cash with me so I was wanting to know what others do in this situation? I will need mostly Indonesian rupiah. ATM's, bank machines, credit cards? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.