In Reply to: US Dollars posted by kmh on Monday, 27. February 2012 at 12:25 Bali Time:
You do not need to bring US Dollars to Bali.Last time I looked Bali is part of Indonesia and their currency is RUPIAH.
The only reason you see things quoted in US Dollars is because that it is a benchmark currency that most people can relate to in a relatively simple way.Most people have trouble with all the zeroes associated with the Rupiah,but trust me you can pay for everything in Rupiah.(Unless you are planning on sending shipping containers home to Australia which do have to be paid for in US Dollars,but that is another story).
Save yourself the hassle and waste of money of converting AUD to USD to only have to convert it to Rupiah when you get here anyway.
To give you a simple example using approximate exchange rates, lets say that the tour price is quoted in USD, say $100.At the current exchange rate of 9000Rp = US$1 the price in rupiah is 900,000.Now the current rate for an Australian dollar is Rp9600.
So putting it another way,because the Australian dollar is now stronger than the US Dollar this same tour will only cost you AUD$93.75.Gotta be happy with that!!!
So here is what you do - bring Australian Dollars with you and when you get here take your dollars to a money changer (one that says no commission) and exchange the dollars into Rupiah.Don't go to a bank they will give you a lousy exchange rate.Then you go on your tour and can pay the tour company in Rupiah (keep saying to yourself Indonesia, Rupiah,Indonesia Rupiah and you'll get the hang of it in no time!
You do not need to change your Aussie dollars into Greenbacks then into Rupiah then if you happened to have any American dollars left you would then probably want to change them back to Aussie Dollars when you got home cause,guess what, nobody would accept payment for anything in Greenbacks.Remember, each time you change money you will be charged a commission.