segacs

Definitely have both -- foreign cash and ATM cards (preferably more than one). The situation is variable and changing by the day, and giving yourself as many options as possible can't hurt!

I had only a small amount of USD cash on me, and had been planning to withdraw rupees from an ATM when I landed. I was unable to do so until I had been in India for six days, so that small USD stash came in handy; I was able to exchange a bit of it for old currency, and then on the fourth day I managed to convert the old currency to new at a bank. This is no longer possible, but I've heard that some hotels are changing foreign currency for tourists, as well as airport exchange bureaus. (The Delhi airport exchange ran out of cash when I arrived, but I also got there on the first day of the freeze, so that may be different now.)

ETA: Having said all that, you will likely end up relying on your credit card a fair bit. Again, bring more than one, as sometimes Visa was working and not MasterCard, or some people's cards worked but not others, etc.

privacylawyer

I was in India when demonetization hit, and was able to use the small number of 500 and 1000 notes ot pay taxis, happy to take them on the first day.
then, lived on credit card chargeable things and exchanging EUs and USDs.
But without small denomination bills, it became a problem, since they couldn't give you change.
can't buy rupees at all in the US.
returned with singles, $5s, $10s and $20s.
working so far.

FlyerWx

Do you happen to remember the time your flight came in?

gnargel

Flight landed at 1 AM, was through security in 15 minutes (LH first award, so was first out of the plane). One person in front of me at the first money exchange place I saw. Had money at 1:30 AM.

Friend that lives in India told me that I was very lucky though...

segacs

Hearing more and more reports of new 500 rupee notes showing up in ATMs in New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as some other areas. It's slow but it's happening.

Also, yesterday it seems that the limit for withdrawals on foreign cards was lifted in some areas from INR 2000 to INR 10,000. If you can find a working ATM, that ought to significantly.

As usual, YMMV.

FlyerWx

Thanks for the info! I have a flight coming in around midnight in a couple weeks and was trying to gauge the current situation.

Hopefully the money situation as a whole continues to improve.

Keyser

after 25 days i finally got my hands on a few new inr 500 notes....but i had to fight for them at the bank....the teller only wanted to give me inr 2,000 notes but i argued with him stating that they were still very difficult to spend....took me a few minutes but i finally walked away with inr 6k in 2,000 notes & inr 6k in 500 notes....

the situation is still pretty ridiculous....has it gotten a bit better????yes, but barely....this whole thing could have been avoided if it was planned better....

cphan17

Does anyone have photos or know of a link that depicts photos of the old and new currencies? I want to make sure when I go exchange my USD to rupees locally in Delhi that they don't give me any of the old rupees.

Thanks.

shonamac

I am an Indian living in the US and have no way to return to India before 2017; however, I have about 50,000 rupees in cash in a bank locker in India to which I am the only signatory.

I read that this money can be exchanged until March at the Reserve Bank, but could not find any rules or procedures for this.

Does anyone have any reliable information? What are the chances of the government extednding the deadline(s)?

SuperFlyBoy

It's absolutely ridiculous - our company's bank branch of a large (non-nationalized) bank has had *no cash* for 3 days straight!

They told our clerk that even if they gave him a token and he stood in line with the others, that they would not be able to give him any cash.

I then had to write 2 different authorization letters for someone else to get cash (only up to INR 24k per week!) in order to withdraw from personal/company accounts and then got that done. (Was handed wads of Rs.10/- notes for some of the money)

Oh yes, downloaded an app which (correctly) located ATMs near me a few days back and went to it. Then tried withdrawing 10k - didn't work. 4k - didn't work. Gave up.

When I got into my car, my clerk said that ATMs would only dispense 2k (note) at a time! Now *THAT* is a real joke!

And all this time, a Karnataka-based road developer was caught with Rs. 5 crores in new Rs. 2,000/- notes?? Just goes to show you the state of the country...

Keyser

google is your friend....it will show you a picture of both the old & new notes....

here is the wiki link for the new note:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_500-rupee_note

Keyser

march 31st is the deadline at the rbi....

its unlikely that the government would extend the deadline....there have been rumors over the last couple of days that they might reduce the deadline....

B747-437B

I landed in BOM last week at 7pm and all of the foreign exchange bureaux at arrival were out of cash. You could exchange your dollars, but they would only give you a bearer cheque that you then had to take to a bank the next day to try to collect the cash. Prepaid taxi counters were accepting dollars but at a deflated exchange rate. Wasn't an issue for me as I had Etihad's chauffeur waiting and new notes at home, but I can imagine some other phoren-return desi being less fortunate.

Shimon

I'm in India and have one 500 rupee note. What's the best I can do with it? Is it legal to burn it?

GUWonder

Go to a random wedding and give it to the bride and groom. Weddings have become a major money laundering business due to the demonetization and the traditional expectation that newly wedded couples get a lot of cash gifts to deposit untaxed after the wedding.

Want to finance a wedding? Here's a way.

About publicly burning Indian cash in India? Not sure about the legality of that, but keep in mind that ordinary Indian citizens generally don't have the ordinary right to even fly an Indian flag however and whenever they wish to do so even on their own property.