I will be arriving at Delhi Airport from Australia, and wont have any Indian currency on me. Like all other airports I am assuming that Delhi airport would also have a foreign exchange. What I wanted to know is, that is it good idea to change money at the airport or not. If not then where do you recommend I exchange it from?
The money exchange counters charge stupid amount of commission and their exchange rates are also the worst I have seen any where in the world. You would be better of exchanging your money in the city some where at one of those western union kind of offices or travel agents.
You can use your debit card at one of the cash points to take out local currency. That is what I am planning to do because my bank does not charge much for taking cash out internationally. You need to get in touch with your bank to find out what the charges are and what exchange rates you would get to make sure you don't get ripped off.
most places in Delhi accept cerdit/debit cards. So your cash requirement would not be significant. as suggested, you can directly withdraw using your card, or if you want security, you can get a pre-loaded card that you can use here at POS as well as for withdrawing money.
I would get a travel Visa prepaid card before I left, if I were you. The commission on exchanges there is horrible. You can purchase a travel Visa, load a certain amount of money on it, and use that instead.
We used to bring along the local currency of our destination. Like when we went to Thailand, we bought Thai Baht from the bank. However, we have an excess of Baht that we brought home and still there in our cabinet, maybe around $500 worth. For our next trips, we just bring along some US dollar that would be enough for the transportation from the airport to the hotel. What we do is withdraw local currency using our credit card. That way, we could control the cash and avoid being left with a lot of local currency that we cannot use anymore.
I have travelled to many different countries, but one thing that is always the same is the horrific exchange rates at airports. You should never, except in cases of emergency, change money at an airport. I would recommend buying rupees from a currency exchange within your own country, for an initial amount to get you started, and then seek out an exchange in India for any further installments of Indian currency. The sheer amount in fee's charged by currency exchanges at airports is obscene. Please avoid at all costs.
Unfortunately Indian currency is not available anywhere outside of India. Indian laws do not permit Indian currency being traded outside of India with an exception of a few exchanges where only banks trade not individuals. The only option for a tourist is to either use a debit card at an ATM (There are plenty of them at every airport in India) or exchange at one of the money changers. Exchange rate and commissions were very reasonable until we had the Terminal 2 as the main international airport but since T3 came into being the banks that have their kiosks there have started charging stupid amount of commission.
