Indian Money – All You Need to Know

Travelling to India will also mean that you’ll have to pay for all that delicious food and souvenirs with Indian currency, which can get pretty confusing pretty fast for a foreigner. But, there’s no need to worry; here is everything deciphered.
 

You probably already know that the Indian currency is Rupees(₹). Now, according to today’s exchange rates, one USD equals approximately 66 Indian Rupees. Just so you can relate, a regular train ticket in India will cost around  ₹400, and a meal at a midrange restaurant will total between ₹400 and ₹1300.
One Indian Rupee is divided into one hundred paise (p,) similar to the way dollars are divided into cents. There are  ₹1, ₹2, ₹5 and ₹10 coins (very rarely, you’ll see a ₹50 paise coin) and they have notes in the following denominations: ₹5, ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100, ₹500 and ₹1000.

It is a well-known fact that Rupees have a low monetary value, so they have come up with expressions to denote huge amounts of money. It is because of this that you’ll probably come across these two words: “lakh” and “crore.” One lakh equals 100,000 Rupees and one crore is 10,000,000 Rupees.

Quick Travel Tip: when exchanging money in India, the same rule applies as in most countries; exchange rates are usually better in private owned exchange offices than in banks. You can also try to haggle for a better exchange rate in private monetary establishments. Always keep the receipt so you know the exchange rate you got Rupees for (information that will come in very handy when you need to exchange money back before leaving the country- which you will have to, it’s the law.) Another thing: try to only exchange a very small amount of money at the airport, because (as with other countries) you’ll find that rates are much higher than at private exchange bureaus.

FUN FACT: You may be wondering why you have to exchange your Rupees back to your home currency. The reason is the following: you won’t be able to find Indian money anywhere outside the country, and you cannot export Rupees anywhere else, either. The rule regarding this issue is that only Indian citizens can take small amounts of Rupees with them.