best banks please - urgent!

[crosskeyscottage]

We have to open bank accounts to transfer funds over to purchase land. With no Kitas in place we have been offered an immediate bank account/introduction for 'compensation of US$300'. Is that the going rate?

Also any banks to steer clear of or any recommendations?

Is there anyone that we can buy Rupiah through (from Sterling or US$) and send over to a Rupiah account? Our usual traders in the UK say it is not possible to trade Rupiah outside the country. We dont want to be at the mercy of the Indonesian bank for rates as we think they are pretty low in comparison.

[sherm]

Please forgive I don't understand... they want to charge you 300USD to open an account?

[crosskeyscottage]

The recompense for doing an introduction letter and getting an account immediately without a KITAS. This is Bali right? How else can we get a bank account straight away other than putting it into a locals name?

[pollyanna]

The $300. sounds outrageous. We opened accounts in our names before we moved to Bali for the same purpose; to buy land. We did have a Balinese friend with us. His name is not anywhere on our accounts though and he didn’t charge us any money for spending half an hour in the bank introducing us to our banker. We opened our accounts at Danamon Bank in Ubud and have always been totally happy with them. Another plus is that their internet banking works well and there is an option to use the internet banking in English.

All this happened before we got our KITAS. All we had were our passports.

I think I’d be steering well clear of whoever wants the $300 for opening a bank account.

[crosskeyscottage]

We agree its is outrageous! Maybe we will go down the route of using a friend until our Kitas comes through. Do you recommend Daman bank?

What about their rates for money coming through in other currencies, ie sterling or US$ to rupiah, are the rates fair? Or any way/advice of buying Rupiah through on line money exchange companies?

[no.idea]

An Australian friend opened a BNI account early this week. It took him 30 minutes. They charged him no fees and he does not have a KITAS. The account is in his name.
I transferred $10,000 from Australia last Thursday into my BII account. The money came through yesterday (Tuesday). They gave me an exchange rate of 9430. This is slightly higher than authorised money changers are quoting.
For example PT. Dirgahayu Valuta Prima - The best rate for money changer in Bali, Indonesia. We cater to US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Australian Dollar, Poundsterling, Singapore Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, Switzerland Franc, Japanese Yen, Malaysian Ringgit, S are quoting 9400 for the AUD $.
Do not put ANYTHING into someone else's name.

[crosskeyscottage]

Many thanks for all of the info for the bank accounts. Question now definately answered!

If anyone can give any more info about on line money exchange companies, we would be grateful.

[ronb]

I use Commonwealth Bank Indonesia. Originally they set me up with 2 accounts, one in AU$ and one in Rp. The idea was you transferred AU$ into that account, then picked your own time for converting to Rp. After a while I figured I didn't need the AU$ account and closed it. So international transfers are done in AU$ then converted to Rp on arrival. I am happy with the rates they give (I check against on-line rates occasionally). The transfer will complete on the same day if you do it early in the day and it is not a bank holiday in Indonesia.

One thing the Commonwealth ATMs do is offer to dispense US$ or Rp. This may be useful to some people, and if so, then the AU$ account would avoid the double conversion from AU$ to Rp to US$.

Besides the Commonwealth account, I also have a BCA account to help with payments like Telkomsel and Indovision - and just recently pre-paid electricity.

[Barekarma]

Hi Sherm,
I use Danamon Bank, as research on all the banks in Indonesia that can offer a international service of transfering other currencies into Indonisan Rp, Danamon Bank was the cheepest, with a exchange cost of about 0.7%, as compared with Commonwealth Bank (3.75%) and BCI (3%). We open two accounts. A sterling (GBP) acount with Danamon, and then a Rp, account in the same branch. This means that money from the UK goes into the Indonesian Sterling (GBP) account, and then it can be transfered to the Rp account when the currenty exchange rate is the best for us.

The foreign acount can be in Euros, US dollars, Ozzy dollars, Singapore dollars, Hongkong dollers, etc. I think the bank can even use Chinese RMB, as Indonesia and China now have an exchange agreement...but I am not sure on that.

Transfer of foreign money into Indonesian money has to be done at the bank, and not though internet banking (which was what i was originally told). Money transfers over 100,000 dollars also need some forms to be signed at the bank.

The only other advice I would give is to use a small branch. They get use to you, and are much less formal.

Hope all this helps,
Barekarma

[crosskeyscottage]

thanks to everyone, bank account now up and running!