Currency In Bali

Before leaving New Orleans and flying out to Los Angeles, I made sure to stop at the ATM I didn’t want to use my card at all while in Bali. That’s just a personal preference for me when I travel internationally.  When we arrived in Bali, I converted some of my cash over at the airport. I would suggest converting some money over so you can pay for the taxi but not everything. Reason being is, there are different money changers on the outside alongside the hotels, restaurants, and shops and the exchange rates are cheaper than the airport.

At the airport, I converted $200 USD which is around 2,912,819.00 before the exchange rates. So basically, we were millionaires in Bali. 😉

Before you book your next travel be sure to read here about the 10 travel apps you must download. During our stay in Bali, we used the Currency Converter app along with Google Translate while we were in China both were lifesavers.

The official currency code for Indonesian rupiah is IDR.

Amounts in rupiah tend to be quite large because of all the zeros. Sometimes prices are given with the “thousand” implied. For example, if someone says that something costs “fifty,” that would mean 50,000 rupiah around USD $3.50.

Indonesian rupiah is colorful, making it easier to differentiate between denominations.

• 1000s, 2000s, and 5000s are roughly the same blend of colors. The Rp. 5000 banknotes are a little more tan/brown to differentiate them.
• Rp. 10,000 banknotes are purple.
• Rp. 20,000 banknotes are green.
• Rp. 50,000 banknotes are blue (these are very common).
• Rp. 100,000 banknotes are pink (these are the largest).

If you’d like to check the current exchange rates before your travel be sure to check out https://www.xe.com/

Using a Credit Card

When using a card at the ATM, if your card isn’t accepted or the network appears to be down, don’t repeat the transaction attempt more than twice. Doing so may trigger security mechanisms. Wait a while or try a different ATM to avoid having your card captured by the machine. We actually saw this happen to someone who used the ATM at the airport. My boyfriend used the ATM but he quickly took his card out of the machine immediately after his money was dispensed.

Before using your card be sure to inform your bank about your upcoming travels. Forgetting to tell them that you’re traveling may prompt them to deactivate your card after “suspicious” charges pop up in Bali!

Lastly, Bali isn’t expensive at all. I’ll explain more in the upcoming Bali posts so stay tuned!