Using money in Panjab

[Guest SantSapai]

Gurfateh Ji!

I will be going to Panjab soon and would like to know how people from UK spend over there.

Do you just withdraw from your UK account from ATM's?

Set up an account with say state bank of india or national bank of Panjab?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, admin when you approve this can you please unlock my account. I have been contacting you for months, via reset account, contact us and forgotten password but no response (checked my spam too).

I have never been blocked.

Please sort it. Thanks.

Akaal!

[Singhstah 288]

In short, using ATM is not the best option.  If you open a Punjab national Bank (PBN) account here in the UK, it is considered different to an account opened in India and in short you don't have any support or service for it there. The most I could do with my PBN account was withdraw some money daily which was limited to a certain amount allowed to be withdrawn each day. 

There are currency changers in Punjab such as Thomas Cook which can change it for you. You can change some money at the airport but don't change too much money there as the rate is usually not great.

One way is to have your money sent by Western Union to Punjab, although when you go to the post office to collect your money, they will ask you for a photocopy of your passport and a copy of proof of your address in India (a hotel bill is acceptable to).

[Guest London jwaan]

Get a revolut card. They will give you the interbank rate.

[puzzled 4,078]

My dad set up an account with that icici bank which is similar to punjab bank and he found it to be a waste of time. He set it up in India and it took a long time. We were told we have to make an adhaar card first which took a long time and then they asked for all sorts of other things (i don't know how many of the rules they were making up as they were going along) This was around the time modi was getting rid of the 1000 rupee note so maybe that delayed the process  

[Big_Tera 1,156]

Forget about withdrawing from Indian atms. 90% of the banks in india dont accept uk cards plus most dont have no cash in them. Also many dont even work. In short dont rely on indian atms. They are a complete nightmare not to mention damn expensive. As every time you withdraw you get charged. Atms in short should only be used in emergency when you have no other option. 

Best thing to do is take some time and calculate your expenses for the duration of your stay in India.

ie hotels, food, transport, shopping and other costs. Then simply withdraw pounds currency  from  the uk. Take this in your luggage. preferably hand luggage. 

When in india simply exchange the money to rupees. Can be done all at once. Or when needed. that is the best way. And you dont get all these charges ie with using western union and using atms. 

Saying that western union is the second best option other then taking english money with you. 

[Guest Genda]

I have seen advertisements where nowadays Indians pay online via some kind of app on the phone. Might want to check that out.

[Guest London jwaan]

On 8/26/2018 at 11:33 AM, Big_Tera said:

Forget about withdrawing from Indian atms. 90% of the banks in india dont accept uk cards plus most dont have no cash in them. Also many dont even work. In short dont rely on indian atms. They are a complete nightmare not to mention damn expensive. As every time you withdraw you get charged. Atms in short should only be used in emergency when you have no other option. 

Best thing to do is take some time and calculate your expenses for the duration of your stay in India.

ie hotels, food, transport, shopping and other costs. Then simply withdraw pounds currency  from  the uk. Take this in your luggage. preferably hand luggage. 

When in india simply exchange the money to rupees. Can be done all at once. Or when needed. that is the best way. And you dont get all these charges ie with using western union and using atms. 

Saying that western union is the second best option other then taking english money with you. 

Respectfully, that's incorrect.

Get a revolut card whilst still in the UK. Send gbp to that card, use for purchases wherever visa is in India and it will automatically convert to rupees at the time of each transaction. Also withdraw cash at atms. No charge up to 200gbp withdrawal a month. And minimal after that. Best thing is they give you the interbank rate which no money exchange or western union will.

Also, of course atms there have cash in them. Failing everything find an ICICI, hsbc or standard chartered atm. No charge for using any with a revolut card.

[singh1006 6]

i don't know why someone would say that ATMs in India do not work. Indian ATMs are like any other ATM in the western world. Foreign cards work in Indian ATMs. There is a max limit of Rs. 20,000 per day to withdraw from ATM. There is minimal transaction fee of Rs. 20 or 50.  The exchange rate you get when you take money out is applied by your foreign bank and not by the Indian bank. I have used ATMs in India multiple times without any problems.