ATMs and Cards in India: Using a Foreign Card as a Visitor

Cards on the big international networks are widely taken in Indian cities: at hotels, airlines, larger restaurants and shops, and at most ATMs. Small shops, street stalls, auto-rickshaws and village markets more often want cash or a UPI payment. Our advice before you fly:

• Tell your bank which dates you will be in India, so that the first payment is not blocked as suspicious.
• Ask your bank what it charges for a card payment abroad and for a cash withdrawal abroad. Those charges are set by your own bank, not in India, and they differ widely.
• Take two cards, from different accounts if you can, and keep them apart, so that one lost or blocked card does not leave you stuck.
• Make sure your card has a chip and that you know its PIN: at ATMs and on many card machines you will be asked for it.

ATMs in India are run by banks and by licensed non-bank operators. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) authorises those operators, whose machines are called white label ATMs, and it says that for a customer, using one is just like using any bank's ATM. Which cards an ATM takes is up to the card issuer, so if one machine refuses your card, try another bank's.

The RBI's safety advice for ATM users applies to visitors too:

• Use the machine alone, in private, and do not let anyone see your PIN as you type it.
• Look for anything attached to the card slot or keypad; a fitted device can copy card details. If you find one, tell the guard or the bank.
• Be wary of strangers who start a conversation or offer to help you at the machine.
• Never leave your card in the machine, and never give your PIN to anyone; banks do not ask for it by phone or email.

In our experience an ATM inside or beside a bank branch, used in daylight, makes any problem easier to sort out, because the bank's staff are on hand. The ATM premises must also display the bank's or operator's contact numbers for complaints.

Paper is worth keeping in India. At the end of your trip, banks and money changers authorised by the RBI can turn unspent rupees back into foreign currency for a visitor who shows an encashment certificate, the receipt you get when you change money. Foreign tourists, but not NRIs, may also be able to reconvert up to 50,000 Indian rupees against original ATM slips, if they show a valid passport and visa, a ticket confirming departure within seven days and the card used for the withdrawal. Without either, an authorised dealer may at its discretion reconvert only up to 10,000 Indian rupees, and only if you leave within seven days.

You can also take up to 25,000 Indian rupees in notes out of India, so a small remainder can simply travel home with you. NRIs with Indian bank accounts should also read money and SIM cards for visitors.

Change foreign currency only at a bank licensed to deal in foreign exchange or at a full-fledged money changer, the two kinds of authorised person the RBI licenses. A money changer must display its buying and selling rates near the counter, updated each morning, and a copy of its RBI licence; if you cannot see the licence, go elsewhere. Ask for an encashment certificate. Authorised persons may sell you rupees against an international credit or debit card as well as for cash, and the RBI limits how much they may pay a foreign visitor in cash, when buying your currency, to the equivalent of 3,000 US dollars a transaction. Never change money with someone in the street.

Keep the card in sight while it is used and check the amount on the machine before you approve it. If a card machine offers to charge you in your home currency rather than in rupees, we suggest you choose rupees and leave the conversion to your own bank, whose rate you know. Keep receipts until you have checked your statement.

If your card is lost or stolen, call your bank at once and ask it to block the card, then tell your guide or hotel so they can help with the rest of the trip. For how cash, cards and UPI fit together, see money in India; for the prepaid wallet that lets visitors pay by UPI, see UPI for foreigners; and for what you may bring through customs, see customs rules for gold, jewellery and cash.