Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

Dear folks, we need help with the following:

1. Is there any Indonesian bank which can issue classic VISA or MASTERCARD debitcards (i.e. not creditcards)? VISA electron is not good for us - can not use internet purchases.
2. Which bank provides full internet banking facilities for USD bank accounts?

Thx

What about BCA?

And BII as well...

And Lippo is a another possibility.

mandiri gives you a visa debit card with a savings account, it's quite handy, works online. and it's a gov't bank so your money is presumably safer there (if you trust the gov't).

Can reccommend Bank Mandiri. I have a deposit account with them and a ATM card and a debit card. I find the service first class

Thanks!

Lestat & Jimbo: can you do overseas internet purchases with your card, or it's visa electron? So far I got the answer that the banks mentioned above only issue the visa electron DEBIT cards, the "real" visa only exists in credit card version.
Regarding the USD backed internet banking: none of the mentioned banks have full internet banking for USD accounts! Mandiri says that with the internet banking for USD accounts you can only transfer money within Mandiri accounts. Even Permata does not permit overseas transfers through internet, if the account is in USD. Please let me know if you have experience with this.

As of April 2, 2008, I have this banking question also. I have Euro and Rupiah accounts at BNI and I asked for debit card. Oh, yeah, they said, make a one hour trip and come down here and pick it up. After half an hour of confusion, I figured out what they mean by debit card cannot be used on internet.

I checked BAC and Amro and nameless others and it seems like no where in Bali does a bank offer this basic service.

I am trying to get hooked up to Premier PayPal so I can receive small payments (100 euro) the easy way. Hah! PayPal says they serve Indonesia now but that must not mean Bali.

Has anybody got PayPal going in Bali and how did you do it?

Dr Deepak

Bank supply "ordinary" credit cards !

I have had a BCA VIsa card.... Good for internet payments. (although a satellite connection through a Pakistan registered IP address caused payments to be refused sometimes)

Paypal is possible, just have to verify you ownership of the card by means of reporting a small payment back to Paypal.

Bert wrote:I have had a BCA VIsa card.... Good for internet payments.

I guess what you have is a credit card and not a debit card. So I am interested to hear what lestat and jimbo have, whether it's really a debit card or not.

With ABN AMRO I was very surprised to hear from them that they do not have internet banking for consumer accounts at all!

Mine is a credit card but here in Indonesia you can use your ATM card to pay for almost everything from electricity to Indovision so it works in a similar way only instantly and it can be done through the Internet.

My account is also through the internet and I transfer monies to it from abroad all the time. Hope this helps.

Jimbo wrote:Mine is a credit card but here in Indonesia you can use your ATM card to pay for almost everything from electricity to Indovision so it works in a similar way only instantly and it can be done through the Internet.

My account is also through the internet and I transfer monies to it from abroad all the time. Hope this helps.

1. I don't think you can use your Indonesian debit card for overseas purchases (e.g. Amazon) unless it is a VISA or a MASTERCARD, but please, correct me if I am wrong.
2. Certainly you can transfer TO your Indonesian USD account FROM overseas, but can you transfer FROM your local USD account TO an overseas bank account via the internet? That's would be the point...

Sorry I have misunderstood. Mine is a Rupiah account for use here. Anything else I use my UK or Saudi Accounts.

“1. I don't think you can use your Indonesian debit card for overseas purchases (e.g. Amazon) unless it is a VISA or a MASTERCARD, but please, correct me if I am wrong.”

That is correct.

“2. Certainly you can transfer TO your Indonesian USD account FROM overseas, but can you transfer FROM your local USD account TO an overseas bank account via the internet? That's would be the point...”

I am not aware of ANY bank here that will allow for an international transaction via the internet. We wire funds internationally all the time, and each transaction requires a personal appearance and a “paper trail.”

That being said, it is possible, (on the internet) by using a VISA or Master Card to send off funds internationally via Western Union.

Roy wrote:I am not aware of ANY bank here that will allow for an international transaction via the internet. We wire funds internationally all the time, and each transaction requires a personal appearance and a “paper trail.”

No.... With BII international internet banking it is no problem........

That is news for me, and many thanks Bert! I see us switching from BCA to BII on Monday. Even Citibank Indonesia will not allow for international internet banking transfers, so this is very welcome news. Cheers, and have a great weekend!