India Guide
Money
Credit cards and travellers' cheques
The easiest way to access your money is with plastic, though it's a good idea to also have some back-up in the form of cash or traveller's cheques. You will find ATMs at main banks in all major towns and tourist resorts, though your card issuer may well add a foreign transaction fee, and the Indian bank will also charge a small fee, generally around Rs25. The daily limit on ATM cash withdrawals is usually Rs15,000.
Creditcards are accepted for payment at major hotels, top restaurants, some shops and airline offices, but virtually nowhere else. American Express, MasterCard and Visa are the likeliest to be accepted. Beware of people making extra copies of the receipt, to fraudulently bill you later; insist that the transaction is done before your eyes.
One big downside of relying on plastic as your main access to cash, of course, is that cards can easily get lost or stolen, so take along a couple of alternative ones if you can, keep an emergency stash of cash just in case, and make a note of your home bank's telephone number and website addresses for emergencies.
US dollars are the easiest currency to convert, with euros and pounds sterling not far behind. Major hard currencies can be changed easily in tourist areas and big cities, less so elsewhere. If you enter the country with more than $10,000 or the equivalent, you are supposed to fill in a currency declaration form.
In addition to cash and plastic (or as a generally less convenient alternative to the latter), consider carrying some travellers' cheques. You pay a small commission (usually 1%) to buy these with cash in the same currency, a little more to convert from a different currency, but they have the advantage over cash that, if lost or stolen, they can be replaced. Not all banks, however, accept them. Well-known brands such as Thomas Cook and American Express are your best bet, but in some places even American Express is only accepted in US dollars and not as pounds sterling.