Anyone got any 100 rupee notes...?

Swish - we're aiming for the quiet beach holiday, i suspect the currency situation will assist further heh. Got a bit of Mumbai time for hectic mayhem (and luxury) at the end. We were going to do a few days in the north too but ended up having to travel too much (and Brad and Angelina's old haunt seemed a bit pricey/remote).

Seems like there's mixed experiences with getting hold of money - 2000 notes seem readily available at the airport(s) and banks, and some have given tales of getting lucky with ATMs or Banks willing to do big withdrawls or exchanges.

I'm going to take a decent wedge of sterling (buy some 2000's in the airport), and perhaps $200-300 USD as a backup. The world over loves the green stuff so maybe handy when i have no rupee options.

Presumably airport kiosks will sell INR via CC/Debit too?

I plan on testing every ATM i can find in the airport before leaving it for the night, around our hotel, and again on the way out of the domestic terminal, and on arrival in Goa. Hopefully somewhere i'll find something and probably just spend the holiday eating/drinking in multiples of 2000!
 
jimmybell said:
Swish - we're aiming for the quiet beach holiday, i suspect the currency situation will assist further heh. Got a bit of Mumbai time for hectic mayhem (and luxury) at the end. We were going to do a few days in the north too but ended up having to travel too much (and Brad and Angelina's old haunt seemed a bit pricey/remote).

Seems like there's mixed experiences with getting hold of money - 2000 notes seem readily available at the airport(s) and banks, and some have given tales of getting lucky with ATMs or Banks willing to do big withdrawls or exchanges.

I'm going to take a decent wedge of sterling (buy some 2000's in the airport), and perhaps $200-300 USD as a backup. The world over loves the green stuff so maybe handy when i have no rupee options.

Presumably airport kiosks will sell INR via CC/Debit too?

I plan on testing every ATM i can find in the airport before leaving it for the night, around our hotel, and again on the way out of the domestic terminal, and on arrival in Goa. Hopefully somewhere i'll find something and probably just spend the holiday eating/drinking in multiples of 2000!

Depending on the hotel (and if you don't mind their exorbitant exchange rates) it might be worth asking them if they can have some made available for your arrival?
 
Yeah tried that .. sadly i got:

Hilton:
Many thanks for writing to us, due to the currency situation in India currently we as well as other monetary institutions have temporarilly stopped currency exchange services. Hence it is advisable not to bring in any foreign currency and use only your credit/debit card for transactions. You can pay for our services through card directly at hotel.

Taj Mahal Palace:
As much as we would like to help you, we would be unable to do so due to restrictions on all of us by our Government. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope that the situation is resolved.
 
Ok, exceptional circumstances which were different from when I was there.

Good luck.
 
PerryGunn said:
Goa for a few weeks - just the two of us, leaving my daughter at home to feed the cats :lol: - we leave on Saturday.

Hey Perry - Just arrived in Mumbai for our brief hotel stop, duplicating my post i did on tripadvisor forums. Not sure if you're transferring immediately or if you're leaving the airport at all. Most of the below is probably useful only if you go near baggage collection. Generally seems fine so far tbh, we've got a wedge of 2000/500 (new notes) and 100s from the airport:

Airport = ~77INR = £1 GBP, or 62 INR = $1 USD in the bag collection area, plus 'service fee' depending on withdrawl amount (under 5000 is 300, above 5000 is 6%). Seems like the 5000/week restriction does not apply in the airport.

Airport cash machine just outside the baggage reclaim area was allowing 2500 withdrawl (2000+500 both new notes) per card. Rate TBC, but it's a State Bank of India machine, so apparently shouldn't be as bad as kiosks. There are 5 or so kiosks next to this ATM, rates were printed at around 76+fee (unknown). Queues for ATM + kiosks all around 5 people deep, took about 10 mins to get cash.

So far no money issues apart from the not-great kiosk rates, short queues but no problems for anyone that i saw. Will duplicate this post into a few other threads ive seen that people may benefit from - mods feel free to delete if this isn't allowed, tho hopefully it helps people arriving soon.

We're on the 13:45 flight down to Goa tomorrow - enjoy your hols! Feel free to shout if somehow i can do anything to help.
 
Thanks @jimmybell, I saw your TA post so I'm hopeful that the situation is easing slightly

We're not going via Mumbai, we're on a direct flight to Dabolim and get in around 8:30am on Sunday so I'll have to check the ATMs when we arrive
 
Down here in Palolem people seem quite happy with the old 500/1000 still, especially in the smaller stores and bars/restaurants. I've found small dollar denominations quite useful as you get a decent rate, we just confirm what they're accepting before eating and then swap 10 USD for 680 as required.

Long story short - it's fine really, just gotta be smart about it. If i'd of been a bit less knackered on arrival in Mumbai i'd of just used all my cards to withdraw 1500 each, and walked away with a wallet full of the new 500s!

I did find the rate in the Goa aiport pretty terrible - i think they advertised 77 for GBP, but their example conversions (now including fees) were "30 = 2000", so i just enlightened them to their actual rate (66) and walked on.
 
Back
Top Bottom