Exchange Rupees to AUD or USD

[chamarajanaka]

Hey Guys,

I'll be migrating to Australia at the end of this week. Today I went to several banks to exchange some rupees (5 laks) to Australian dollars. Unfortunately, no bank could provide me Aus dollars.
Then I decided to get some US dollars and exchange them to Aus dollars once I arrive in Australia.

Bank people said that it's not possible to get US dollars at the very moment and I need to go through a processes. Deposit money to bank account, Travelling to colombo, get a tax number from central bank.

Is this true? so much trouble for just AUD 5000. One of my friend's told me to exchange money directly at the Katunayake airport and there won't be any troubles. Any one experienced this before?

 

[madhawas1]

Have you tried to get travellers check?

 

[chamarajanaka]

Have you tried to get travellers check?

No, even though I get a travelers check still I'm gonna need some cash in my hand

 

[blacknwhite]

Try Prasanna Money exchange wellawatta.

But there are regulations on how much money you can take with you. check these laws.

 

[chamarajanaka]

Okk, It's been a few months since I arrived in Australia. So, this is how I manged to overcome the trouble of money exchange. Initially, I exchanged Rs. 200000 from Katunayake airport. That's around 2000 AUD and I knew it's not going to be enough for me. I had my Sri Lankan HNB bank debit card with me when I went to Australia and guess what guys I could with draw any amount of money from my SL bank account from any ATM machine in Australia, that is also for a charge of as low as 2 dollars for any amount (maximum amount I withdrew was 800 AUD).

Therefore, keep in mind that all of those SL banks were talking bullshit. You do not have to go through so much hassle to exchange some money.

 

[Rated_R]

I think there are some regulations on how much money you can carry! I think you can't carry something like AUD5000 at once but i dunno exactly.