Changing and handling money

  When changing money, unless you have a hefty bill to pay somewhere, it is best to shun the 500 and 1000 notes. Try to get as many 50 Rupee notes as possible, as these are by far the most useful. The 10 notes are handy too, but can get bulky in your wallet. The most common notes are probably 100’s. The reasons for favouring smaller notes are various:

1. the 100 and 500 notes are horribly similar in design, and it’s easy to get them mixed up

2. vendors do not always have change

3. by handing over larger notes as payment, you increase the chances of getting short changed

4. by slight of hand, a vendor might turn a 500 note into a 100 note.   

  As intimated above, the 500 Rupee notes look distressingly like the 100 Rupee notes, and a common scam is to switch a 500 for a 100, then claim that more money is needed. This is a particularly vexing scam. If in a taxi, for example, you pay a Rs. Rs. 350/-  fare with a Rs. 500/- note, and a driver does the switch, not only do you lose Rs. Rs. 400/- but you still have to pay another Rs. 250/- ! After such a ruse, the driver can take the day off. When handing over Rs. 500/-, or even Rs. 1000/- notes, it is important to say the amount you are handing over out loud. Once he has nodded, it is highly unlikely he will try it on. Travellers also report the opposite, where they hand over a bunch of hundreds, only to be handed back one note because it was a Rs. 500/-, so it is possible that the poor driver/waiter/cashier etc. might even be telling the truth when he or she complains of a counting error, accordingly, a quick verbal confirmation as you are handing over the money keeps everybody safe and happy.

  One simple ruse is for trixters to claim to have not been paid after money has already been handed over. A simple countermeasure is to make some comment every time you hand over cash, for example: “here’s the money, I have the exact amount.” After this, if need be, you can simply refer back to your previous conversation to prove that the money was handed over.

  When I first arrived in India in 1999 the money change kiosk at Bombay’s airport switched one of my £20.00 notes for a £10.00 note. I was too tired and bewildered to kick up a fuss, so I let the matter slide. But from then on I learnt to keep my eyes glued to the teller’s hands, especially at airports. If a teller starts counting the money out of view, immediately ask him to count it before your eyes. Nowadays, after such an incident, I would immediately report the matter to the “airport officer”.

  My second mistake that night, was to change £400.00 in one go, or should I say £390.00 – as I had just been robbed £10.00. In exchange I was given huge wads of small currency notes, which is quite usual. I then had to stuff these into various pockets, as if I had just robbed a bank. Unless you intend to make a large purchase, changing such large amounts is unnecessary and impractical. 

  Do not forget to keep the encashment slip (receipt) from the moneychanger, as you have to show these when you buy train tickets at the tourist quota offices. You need them when changing rupees into another hard currency when going back home and, for those wishing to stay more than six months, when you apply for your visa extension you will need certificates to prove you have been changing money throughout your stay and not earning money while you are in India. Ordinary Indian citizens are restricted from buying and selling currency unless they can prove an overseas trip. On several occasions Indian strangers have given me US dollars so as to buy them Rupees. I always did them the favour and have never heard of this being a ruse for a scam.

  It is always best to change money at proper establishments and not with private individuals and strangers. Firstly, such transactions are illegal; secondly, even if you are approached by somebody offering a very favourable exchange rate, he might be offloading counterfeit Rupees for hard currency. The mere possession of a counterfeit Indian currency note is an offence punishable by three to seven years of imprisonment. The Indian government often accuses neighbouring Pakistan of injecting fraudulent banknotes into the Indian economy. In 2006, India’s Central Bureau of Intelligence accused a Pakistani government printing press in Quetta of churning out large quantities of counterfeit Indian currency. 

  Try not to use credit cards in India unless absolutely necessary, some illicit shopkeepers are adept at running off additional slips and forging signatures. Stories abound where tourists have returned from there holidays to find fictitious purchases on their credit card bill. Some restaurants may tell you that your credit card has been declined when in reality there is no problem; this is a game they play when they prefer cash.

   The Indian government is quite bad at disposing of decaying currency. Rupees just seem to be used over and over until they fall to pieces or end up as grimy and tattered paper debris; often in the hands of unsuspecting tourists.

  Indian vendors insist on perfect notes, as if the ragged ones were not legal tender. To make the situation worse, thick wads of bank notes are always stapled together, so many of their notes are undermined with multiple punctures, and can be further damaged when you try to liberate your money from the iron grasp of these thick staples. If you can avoid them, don't accept badly torn notes. Retailers love to unload them onto unfussy tourists, but time and again won't accept them themselves.

   It’s possible to get rid of torn notes by having an “it’s that or nothing mate” attitude towards shopkeepers, and you can threaten to walk away unless they accept your jaded banknote. They usually cave in, as they consider losing a sale the greater of the two evils.

  If you have got nothing better to do on a rainy day, you can do a subtle repair job on your ripped notes with tiny slithers of Sellotape. The strips should not easily be visible as Indians do not care for bandaged notes either, but if the repair job is delicate enough, they can be passed on.

   A money belt can be a scratchy and awkward item to wear each and every day. A flat pouch that you wear across your body and under your clothing is less obtrusive and big enough to take both your tickets and passport. It is a better idea to keep your notes folded or flat within it. Never roll them up in bundles with elastic bands, as these fall out far easier.

  British pounds, Euros, Australian, Canadian and American dollars are all easy to change to India, but travellers cheques in Euros or dollars are easier to change. AmEx and Thom. Cooke seem to be equally appreciated, although I have heard that AmEx replace stolen cheques quicker. Some places charge a commission on changing travellers cheques, but most don’t.

   If you wish to have money transferred to you, Western Union offers a consummate service. They can even deliver the cash to your door, but Western Union does not cover all of India. If you want to have funds transferred into an Indian bank account, give the process at least a week and make sure that the transfer is in Indian Rupees, and not in your own currency. Indian banks can give an extremely poor exchange rate conversion that borders on embezzlement. If you argue that the exchange rate is wrong, the bank staff will simply shrug their shoulders and mumble something about their head office. The overseas transferring bank can easily make a conversion their end and at a normal rate. The paperwork in India will then clearly state how many Rupees the Indian bank owes and there can be little argument about the matter.

Do not exchange your money back from Rupees to your currency at the airport when returning home - you will be ripped off by the rate!

Don't underestimate costs in India

  India is not an expensive country, but you must consider what type of lifestyle you are going to want whilst you are there. Yes, it is perfectly true that you can find a room, and eat, for less than five dollars a day in many places, but it will be Indian food and your room will be devoid of hot water, air-conditioning and, as for a TV – no way! Personally, I would feel awkward with less than U$10 a day, but quite happy with U$20. In 2004, for example, I took U$5,000 spending money on a six-month jaunt around South Asia. Admittedly, for most of that time, I staid in ordinary hotels without TV or AC, but I did go out almost every night and took half a dozen domestic flights to boot, at the end of which I only had a little money left over.

  In the coastal areas of Goa, there are none of the cheap and cheerful Indian restaurants you find elsewhere in India, and there are no cheap roadside eateries thereabouts either. I don’t know whether cheap Indian eateries in coastal Goa get threatened by other owners, or whether it’s pure market forces that make them raise the all the prices, but either way, you will not get a meal for fifty cents. On an over-tight budget, you may find yourself like some forlorn beggar: looking longingly at the spendthrift lifestyles of your compatriots. At sundown, whilst they are partying in some hip restaurant, you will be elsewhere, lingering the night away. It is best to have a free-spending good time for two months, rather than travel on a tight budget for three. 

  A good 750-ml. bottle of beer can cost U$1.75; a decent room with amenities will cost you U$10.00 a night in most places, so it is quite easy to blow U$25 a day. This is still very good value when compared to developed countries, but it is not as ridiculously cheap as some people would imagine. You cannot “live like a king” for a few dollars a day – sorry.

  Do not come to India with U$2000.00 for six months, that’s for sure. Some things in India are actually more expensive than in the West, per kilometre Indian flights are very costly, and phone calls are overpriced. It is usually cheaper to phone India, rather than phone from India. Ask the hotel you are staying in if you can receive a phone call there, then SMS or e-mail a time and number to those who wish to call. You might even want to leave some phone cards with your loved ones at home. One scam is for hotels to double or triple the price of your outgoing call to make more profit – which is yet more incentive to receive calls rather than make them. (At the time of writing, the type of call cards where you reveal a code and call a local number via which an international call can be made, do not seem to be available in India.)