Hi guys I am going to india for one month and want to know whats the best way to convert CAD to INR currency..should I convert most of it to travellers cheques in US funds and carry US cash or will I be able to use my pc financial debit card when in India? I am also taking my credit cards in case I need it but I just want to avoid carrying a wad of cash on me.

I guess you can use your debit cards/credit cards in India. However, PC will charge you a foreign transaction charge of upto 3% per transaction. In addition, it may be safer not to use your Canadian card in an Indian ATM.

the best way is to have a NRE account in India. You can fund your account using any money transfer service like Money2india or remit2india. You can then use the debit card that you get with this account for transactions.

If you dont have that, another option is to use travellers cheques and encash it at any bank.

As a fellow CD had advsied you to open a NRE account , you can do it with CITINRI . You can deposit money here and conveniently use in India
Best of luck for your visit
Ashwani

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I try not to complicate things by using the cards (credit/debit), I have used the credit card though, very few times. I prefer to use cash/traveller's cheques. TD Canada Trust gives (or used to give) you free TC - depending on the type of account you have. Otherwise, I carry cash and convert it as needed.

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Originally posted by ash_canada

I guess you can use your debit cards/credit cards in India. However, PC will charge you a foreign transaction charge of upto 3% per transaction. In addition, it may be safer not to use your Canadian card in an Indian ATM.

the best way is to have a NRE account in India. You can fund your account using any money transfer service like Money2india or remit2india. You can then use the debit card that you get with this account for transactions.

If you dont have that, another option is to use travellers cheques and encash it at any bank.

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I may be wrong but my understanding is that Interac works only in Canada. Unless your PC financial debit card displays any other logo that matches with the ATM you use in India, you proably won't be able to access your funds in Canada.

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My own experience: PC Financial Debit card work only on ceratain (Very few)bank machines in India. It will work on Hongkong (HSBC) Bank ATM machine and will not work on Citibank ATM.

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I had $1,500 in cash, rest in bank draft. Not sure if the bank draft was the right choice, but given the time constraint, I had to go for it. Banks charge 1% commission for TC. I thought of getting TC, then the bank adviced me against it.

DIO