Quote:
Originally Posted by Batam Man
Yes you can draw your $ from the Maestro or Cirrus ATM, but most of the time it will be higher exchange rates (not forgetting the service charges) compare to the local money changer in most countries. In Indonesia the ATM only allow you to draw up to Rp.1.5mil, and if you needed more $ you’ll have to do a few withdrawal and the service charge will be per transition.
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Sorry, I see totally different things, and it's not just my opinion. I have numbers in front of me. Let me reiterate.
Exchange rates are better on Maestro than in any bank or office.
Why?
1) Because Maestro takes the international rate (the one you see on Yahoo Finance) and adds something on the order of 1.5% (see it on the card contract, or on the Mastercard web site). IN ADDITION, there is the fixed fee from your bank (my bank charges me 2EUR) AND SOMETIMES the fixed fee of the bank of the ATM. => Be sure to withdraw some significant sum and not only 50$, or fixed fees will eat the advantage on the rate.
2) What is charged by the exchange offices or banks? You can estimate it as deviation from the average (sell rate - buy rate) / 2. In many cases, you'll see some exchange rate fee on the order of 4% or 5%. (in an airport, it can be 20%!)
3) Since we never believe theory, I just compared my bank account statement with the exchange rates available on the street. I did this in MANY countries, incl. Batam, Uganda, Ghana, South America, Bangladesh....
(juicy field reports about local girls duly posted on ISG).
Of course, these raw data confirm that it's better to use the Maestro card rather than negotiating on the street (unless you dont want to change a small amount).
AND, even if the rate was not better, it is always easier to use a card to take cash in a foreign country, rather than travelling with a bag of notes in your original currency.
You wrote:
" In Indonesia the ATM only allow you to draw up to Rp.1.5mil".
Sorry, also here I have seen different things.
In Batam, I usually withdraw 2 millions each time.
Most ATMs give this amount in 50k notes, and this is not very comfortable.
There is ONE ATM in Nagoya Hill Street Food, though, which gives 100k notes. Much better.
Warning
The above holds for Maestro (or other international circuits, I believe) DEBIT cards. Refrain to use CREDIT cards to withdraw cash instead. VISA and MASTERCARD charge 4% fee on top of the interbank exchange rate + 1.5% for advancing credit cash.