In Reply to: Helping Bali friends to get a house .... posted by sting ray on Wednesday, 11. February 2009 at 14:00 Bali Time:
we transfer money regularly by TT into our account with BCA. Australian banks don't deal in Rupiah - so you transfer Australian dollars and it is converted by the receiving bank at their rate of the day. It is always slighly lower than their advertised website rate, which is essentially a fee and/or middleman fee.
At the moment, the TT rate with BCA is slightly less than what you will get if you go into PT Central Kuta and exchange cash there. For a large amount that could make a difference, however you have to make sure you declare taking a large amount of cash out of Australia. The BCA rate is here: look at the Beli rate for TT/DD http://www.klikbca.com/individual/silver/ind/rates.html
I recommend you use PT Central Kuta for the exchange as in my experience they have the best rates. They are well set up for handling large transactions, and the rates are better than the banks. They are on Jalan Raya Kuta, if you head out of Kuta on Jl Raya Kuta it is just over the bridge on the right hand side of the road.