best banks please - urgent!

C

crosskeyscottage

Member
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
Many thanks for all of the info for the bank accounts. Question now definately answered! :icon_mrgreen:

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

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
 
I have a Bni account in my name all I needed was someone that already had an account to vouch for me,
But the account is soley in my name,

Only took 30 min and I find they have one of the widest range of ATMs and a pleasure to deal with
 
Are you sure that your friend has not opened the account which has your name on it? They are happy to put anything as the account name. If your firiend has opened the account, then some time later, he or she could close it or in other ways change it. Not that it is likely at all.
 
ronb said:
Are you sure that your friend has not opened the account which has your name on it? They are happy to put anything as the account name. If your firiend has opened the account, then some time later, he or she could close it or in other ways change it. Not that it is likely at all.
Click to expand...

im certain its in my name i was sure to check , but "my friend" is actually my long term partner

so she has all my money anyway haha lol
 
Barekarma said:
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
Click to expand...

Not sure how this works. I transfer sterling all the time via the internet into my Rupiah account and have done for many years without a problem.
 
I have my pay paid monthly into my Permata bank. ITs US $ and over 10K a month. No problems, although as of about 3 months ago, every time i go into the bank , they are waiting for me to sign a form of "acceptance" that i have recieved this money. When i ask them what it is all about, they tell me its just for "internal" banking records. I never used to have to do this, and am a bit concerned that I have to now as ive heard there are going to be changes to expats doing their banking in INdo, inbound transfers over 10K were going to be tracked and possibly taxed. So far no taxing, but they are beginning to keep records and make you sign.

I use PErmata Bank, dont have a KITAS or anything like that, have a triple currency account (US, OZ, RP). Internet banking is integrated, i can send and recieve money via the internet, i have phone banking via my android phone, can pay bills through my phone banking, and do balance checks and other interesting little things through my phone via sms. Didnt cost a cent to set up, but have to maintain a minimum balance of 500$ OZ in the oz account, 100$ US in the US, nothing in the Rp.

If you have a balance over 50K in your account at Permata you become a "priority" member and when going into branches get to push the "priority" button on the number dispensing machine and never have to line up. Also allowed into branches before and after closing time (within reason).

I have freinds with other accounts, none of them as good in my opinion, the only downfall with permata is there arent as many branches and ATMs around as the biggger banks.
 
Jimbo said:
Not sure how this works. I transfer sterling all the time via the internet into my Rupiah account and have done for many years without a problem.
Click to expand...

Hi Jimbo,
I will check with the bank again. They did say I could use Danamon internet banking, but I found that there was a block when I tried, and when I asked at the bank, they seemed a bit unsure. But they returned to tell me that moving sterling to rupiah needed to be done at the counter at the bank... a government banking rule to control money flows apparently.

As for the money transfers, the proposal to start charging tax on such transfers in Europe is worrying. Do you, or anyone in the Balipod, have any ideas what is being planned? How it effects expats in Indonesia?

Barekarma
 
Exchange cost

Barekarma said:
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%).
Click to expand...

Hi, Barekarma! Do you know what this "exchange cost" is called in Indonesia? When I asked my bank (branch) about it, they didn't know. Also, do you know if it is same for all currencies?
 
as far as BCA is concerned...different costs for different currencies and also costs depends to wich country the transfer is made.
exchange costs is called exchange rate at the BCA bank...unless you mean something different then the costs of changing currency for example transfering EUro into Rupiah.
I did found something though that suggest a baseprice of 5 USD for foreign money coming into the an IDR account at BCA bank.
and if sending IDR into an IDR account at the BCA a basiccost of 35K rupiah.
 
gilbert de jong said:
as far as BCA is concerned...different costs for different currencies and also costs depends to wich country the transfer is made.
exchange costs is called exchange rate at the BCA bank...unless you mean something different then the costs of changing currency for example transfering EUro into Rupiah.
I did found something though that suggest a baseprice of 5 USD for foreign money coming into the an IDR account at BCA bank.
and if sending IDR into an IDR account at the BCA a basiccost of 35K rupiah.
Click to expand...

I was also pondering what "exchange cost" meant. I think I have figured it out.

The image has a bit of spread-sheet. I looked up exchange rates from several banks for US$ a short while ago. I have written in the Buy and Sell price, calculated the mid-rate, calculated the difference (Sell-Buy) and then expressed it as a %age of the mid-rate. And it is true that Commonwealth and BCA are nearly 3%, BRI, Mandiri and Danamon are close to 0.5% and BNI and Mega are in between.

Interesting. For a $5000 transfer you could be as much as $70 better off using Danamon, BRI or Mandiri.

You may wonder why the mid-rate differs. Some banks are only updating once a day I think while others are updating more frequently - so the differences may reflect exchange rate movement through the day.
 

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donfuego said:
Hi, Barekarma! Do you know what this "exchange cost" is called in Indonesia? When I asked my bank (branch) about it, they didn't know. Also, do you know if it is same for all currencies?
Click to expand...

Hi Donfeugo,
The exchange cost, in my terms, is exactly what ronb explained. The percentage difference between the mid-rate quoted on exchange rate sites (like xe.com) and what the bank wil actually give you. So you can look at the mid-rate on your PC, watch how the currency is moving, and work out how much you should actually get when you complete the transaction.

In my experience, at Damamon Bank branch, it takes about 10mins for them to actually set up the transfer. They give you a quote, you say yes, they then start the process, then they give you another quote just before they click the "action" button. The rates quoted are rarely the same. If you are very luckly, the second exchange rate quote it is higher...often it is lower. If you are transfering a lot of money that difference can be significant (say, the cost of a new fridge!)

As for the exchange cost being the same for all currencies, I don't know. But maybe you can do a simple speadsheet calculation for a range of currencies and different banks. I know that Danamon were very interested in seeing my own speadsheet, as they appeared not to have that information at the branch.

Hope that helps, Barekarma
 
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