Carrying few dollars to India

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arun mehta02

Registered Users (C)
I got my GC last month.

I would like to carry some dollars to India for backup and if not needed, get them back.

Question is: Do I need to declare these dollars at the indian airport and if so, how?

Thank you.

Arun
 
arun mehta02 said:
I got my GC last month.

I would like to carry some dollars to India for backup and if not needed, get them back.

Question is: Do I need to declare these dollars at the indian airport and if so, how?

Thank you.

Arun
Click to expand...

In Cash ?
You have to declare if it is higher then the Customs allowed limit & they will stamp in your PP.. Yes you can bring it back also..

Please check Indian customs website for limits..
 
If you have an ATM card with MasterCard or Visa logo, that is the cheapest way to use dollars in India (assuming your bank does not charge you for using ATM from another bank).
 
If you deposit Cash in $'s, you would get the lowest conversion rate. A travellers cheque would get you better rate than cash. Carrying travellers cheques is more safer..., if you do not use them, can bring them back.
 
Actually that is NOT true. Cash has the highest conversion ratio as compared to Traveller's checks. Do you think the convinience of using traveller's checks comes free? Having travelled extensively in Europe last summer, I was painfully made aware of these rules. I would advice a good mix of cash and traveller's checks.
 
Honeyb, nandpc

Assuming the lower limit from your responses of Rs 25000 which is roughly $500:

If I am carrying $500 with me, I can move out in India without declaring or converting. Please confirm.
 
140_takes_4ever said:
Actually that is NOT true. Cash has the highest conversion ratio as compared to Traveller's checks. Do you think the convinience of using traveller's checks comes free? Having travelled extensively in Europe last summer, I was painfully made aware of these rules. I would advice a good mix of cash and traveller's checks.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's not true that cash $ is lowest conversion ratio. US dollar is most convenient currency in world - anybody wants it and ready to give the highest conversion ratio. But some foreign exchanges do give equal conversion radio for $ travellers checks - but they are rare and you need to find them hard if you land up in new place.
Also, I had some experience with ATM card in Europe. In Europe all the ATM machines takes max 4 PIN digits - where in USA most of the machines takes upto 8 digits. So if you have PIN number more than 4 digits, you are screwed.
 
arun mehta02 said:
Assuming the lower limit from your responses of Rs 25000 which is roughly $500:

If I am carrying $500 with me, I can move out in India without declaring or converting. Please confirm.
Click to expand...

Yes, upto $500 you don't need to declare.
 
arun mehta02 said:
If I am carrying $500 with me, I can move out in India without declaring or converting. Please confirm.
Click to expand...

Dude, are you seriously Indian? I mean which Indian doesn't know how things work when you enter India? Just slide the money in your shoe/socks, it doesn't matter how much money you take. Just take it easy, slide under the bar. I have yet to see someone stopped for not declaring money. It isn't as if you are bringing a suitcase filled with money, go to the bank and get 100$ or higher denomination bills! It will be such a small bundle you won't even realise it.

Pralay,

TC can never equate cash. You have to pay some price for the convinience of carrying TC's. I have travelled extensively abroad in the past 3 years, and in all that time, never came across a single place that offered that rate.
 
Dollars

I was thinking of making some fun here. Guess what ..

let me say-- If you have excess dollars say more than what you are supposed to then you need to keep them with me and never get them back..
 
140_takes_4ever said:
TC can never equate cash. You have to pay some price for the convinience of carrying TC's. I have travelled extensively abroad in the past 3 years, and in all that time, never came across a single place that offered that rate.
Click to expand...

Well, in India I can mention atleast three places (at Bangalore and Calcutta) where two years back they used to give equal value for TC and $ (don't know current status now). And they are all legal foreign exchanger. The convenience charge you are talking about are most of the times paid by you when you make the TC. I guess American Express charges one more time when the foreign exchanger try to encash $. Now, for competition, some foreign exchanger might not ask you that fee and provide you equal value as cash $. As similar example, the consumers don't pay the commission for the credit card transactions, but merchants pay. But there are merchants still exist who pass commission amounts to buyers.
 
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140_takes_4ever said:
Pralay,

TC can never equate cash. You have to pay some price for the convinience of carrying TC's. I have travelled extensively abroad in the past 3 years, and in all that time, never came across a single place that offered that rate.
Click to expand...

140, I guess you have your experiences to back you up, but here's my perspective -the last time I was in India (about 5 years ago), the following was the order of the conversion rate (best to worst), at least at a nationalized bank: Check (yes, personal check in USD - although it would take a few days to realize the check after depositing it in my NRI account), followed by TCs, followed by cash.

You pay for the convenience of using TCs in the upfront fee that the issuing institution charges. From a collecting institute's perspective, cash is not king - it costs them more to handle it than an instrument (check, TC) and that reflects in the rate.

Sure, you can probably get a better exchange rate if you trade cash with an 'operator' :p , but at least 5 years ago, that amount had to be pretty large (~ 10Gs) to get a rate better then a TC :D

To put the whole thing in perspective, however, the rate difference is not significant so as to cause hardship unless you're dealing in large sums.

Again, this was 5 years ago. I would however strongly recommend TCs over cash - if you're a AAA member or have elite status with your US bank (works for my bank, at least) for ex, they are issued free of cost and you have the piece of mind of knowing that you are not liable for loosing them, esp on a trip to India.

The past few years, I've been travelling to Europe and never had trouble using an ATM card since I do have a 4 character PIN (I did not know until now that they can be longer!)
 
Are u worried about carrying $500? umm..dont even stress you brain cell for that matter....You can carry much more than that without having any problem

arun mehta02 said:
Assuming the lower limit from your responses of Rs 25000 which is roughly $500:

If I am carrying $500 with me, I can move out in India without declaring or converting. Please confirm.
Click to expand...
 
Regarding Cash or travellers cheques..., it is better to take mixed...
but as far as SBI in India..., last year I have seen all the three rates posted in the NRI branch... Cash had the lowest conversion rate..., Travellers cheque had a little higher rate and Demand Draft/Chasiers Checks or personal checks have the highest rate of the day.
Since the third item carries a service fee..., one gets a good benifit only if the $ value is high.
This is my experience....
 
One more thing, you can get a bank draft or cashier's cheque of any amount ( less than $10,000 may be on somebody else name) and take it with you. I don't think that you have to declare it. You can cancel the cashier cheque back here if you don't require the money in India.

If you carry cash or travellers cheque, $500 is the limit.

-Honeybee
 
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