What brought it to my attention:
Last month I was about to travel to Nepal for WordCamp Pokhara. I was going through a couple of articles on the web about travel in Nepal. I found out there is a conversion charge applicable on cash withdrawals from ATMs in Nepal. The cost was somewhere around 300–500 Rs per card swipe transaction.
In India, we are getting used to paying even 100 Rs by card for coffee. So if I had to buy coffee and pay by card in Nepal, it would become a 400–600 rupee coffee. So paying in cash was the only open option. I checked for Nepali currency, and here’s what happened:
1. Forex Exchange:
None of the Forex operators in India had Nepali currency available. All operators said Indian currency works in Nepal.
2. State Bank of India has branches in Nepal
There’s Nepal SBI, a branch of State Bank of India, and I do have an SBI card. But the article had a special note: check with your branch if your card is valid in Nepal or not. So I visited my home branch and got the scenario titled.
Note: For those who have no idea about SBI, it is a government-owned bank in India where you have to treat SBI staff as the boss to get things done. You can Google “Why SBI is painful” and learn about how bad things can get at SBI. Luckily, my home branch has some sensible staff, except one jerk at the helpdesk. Things go smoothly at SBI for me.
At SBI, I went to the International Banking section. The IB lady told me to check the back of the card. Usually, on the back of the card where you find the CVV code, in small fonts it is mentioned whether your card is valid for international transactions or not. So I checked all my cards, and each of them had the same line: “Not Valid for payment in foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan.” She then offered me a form for a Traveller Card — a kind of prepaid card — which I needed to get activated from Nagpur’s Main SBI Branch on Kingsway.
While heading to Kingsway, I tweeted my lovely banks, which replied after I reached Nepal. Vodafone gave me no network, so my query must still be pending in their systems.
Just found out that none of my international debit cards are valid to transact in Nepal and Bhutan. @ICICIBank @TheOfficialSBI @digibank
— Abhishek Deshpande (@Fitehal) November 19, 2018
At Kingsway Branch, the lady told me to carry cash, as traveller cards also have the same line: “Not valid in Nepal and Bhutan.”
So carrying cash was the only option. But on 8th Nov 2016, old 500 and 1000 notes were removed from the Indian market. Thus, people in Nepal are cautious about Indian high-denomination currency. So carrying cash was not a good idea, especially in 100 and lower denominations, as it was a trip by road. As a last option, I paid for things online and carried a few notes of various denominations — 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 — in my backpack.
On Reaching Nepal
The plan was to exchange Indian currency for Nepali currency at the Indian border. But a co-passenger told me about the standard conversion rule in Nepal. If you are buying something for Nepali Rs 160, you only pay INR 100. 1:1.6 is the standard conversion ratio for Indian currency to Nepali currency. So converting money would create two new issues mentioned below, so I skipped it.
1. The size of the bundle of currency would increase as I was carrying high-denomination notes.
2. I would be losing money to pay a conversion fee, as exchange is a business and they charge a percentage for conversion.
People near the border accepted new 500 and 2000 notes. But in the interior of Nepal, even in Kathmandu, people refused to take them. In the city, I paid with 10, 20, 50 denominations; very few stores accepted those, and a few didn’t. The Indian 100 rupee note is the most widely accepted Indian denomination in Nepal.
Since I was low on 100 Rs notes, I tried one of the Nabil Bank ATMs near my hotel. Voila! My international debit card was accepted, with a highlighted notice that the bank would add a fixed cost of NPR 500 to the transaction. For the first trial attempt, I withdrew NPR 2000; the bank added NPR 500 as charges, so my card was billed NPR 2500 — the Indian equivalent was around INR 17XX, which is far better than carrying a bundle of notes while travelling or trekking.
Closure:
If you are an Indian travelling to Nepal or Bhutan and you just found out your card is not valid for payment in foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan — don’t panic. My international Visa card worked in Nepal despite having a “Not valid” line on the back of it. Bank charges may vary, but it’s not like you won’t get cash in these countries.
Happy Travelling 🙂