Indonesia / Money rules

Indonesia money rules

Eight things worth remembering while you are there, each linking to the fuller explanation.

Open it, then press and hold to keep it in your photos. Works with no signal.

1. 1Most of what you will do runs on cashHotels, smarter restaurants and larger shops take cards, and a few add a percentage for the privilege. Warungs, markets, parking attendants and boats do not, and between them they account for most of an ordinary day.How much rupiah to carry
2. 2Count the zeros, then count them againA hundred thousand note and a ten thousand note are easy to mix up at a glance, and rupiah figures run long enough that misreading one costs real money. Slow down at the moment of paying, particularly on day one.Reading rupiah notes
3. 3Choose rupiah, never dollars, at the terminalThe offer to bill you in your own currency is dynamic currency conversion, and it takes 3 to 8 percent on the way past. Your bank will do the same sum for less.Paying by card in Indonesia
4. 4Draw cash inside a bank or a mall, not off the streetThe standalone boxes along the tourist strips are where card skimming turns up. Use a machine inside a branch of one of the big banks, or in a shopping centre, and do it in daylight.Getting rupiah safely
5. 5Pay the Bali levy on the government site onlyLookalike pages charge several times the real figure and exist mainly to collect card numbers. The official address ends in .go.id, the levy is once per trip rather than per night, and a counter on arrival is the safe fallback.The Bali levy and the visa on arrival
6. 6Read the bill for the plus plus before you tipHotels and tourist restaurants routinely add service and tax on top of the listed price, and where that is already sitting there it stands in for the tip. At a warung nothing is expected at all.The plus plus, and what to tip
7. 7Tip in rupiah, in cash, with your right handA tip added on a card tends to vanish into a pool, so cash is what actually reaches the driver, the guide or the spa. Small notes make it easy, and the right hand is the polite one.Tipping in Indonesia
8. 8Book the ride in an app, and be ready to walk a littleGrab and Gojek both price the trip before you get in and undercut a street cab. Local unions block app pickups in parts of Ubud, Canggu and Uluwatu, so a driver may ask you to meet him round the corner. Being dropped off there is rarely the problem.Ride apps, and the no-app zones

These are the rules that do not really change, which is why they are worth carrying. Exact fees, rates and prices do move, so check the Indonesia guide for anything current before you rely on a number.

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