Using US ATM debit card to withdraw cash in India

I needed Rs. 10,000 for an immediate cash transaction at a shop in Delhi. Not having US dollars in cash to exchange to Indian rupees, I used my ATM debit card, issued by Bank of America in US, to withdraw the money.

On that day, June 6th 2019, with the exchange rate of Rs. 69 per dollar, if I had to exchange US dollars to Indian rupees, I would have to sell US dollars 144.92 only.

Citibank's ATM was next door and that I used to withdraw the Indian rupees.

After the transaction, I logged-in my bank account online to see how much I paid in fee and what exchange rate did I get. To my amazement, it was a total rip-off:

For Rs. 10,000 withdrawal that I did, the amount deducted from my bank account = $ 147.77

- This equivalent to the exchange rate of Rs. 67.67 per US dollar
- If I had used US dollars in cash, then $ 144.92 equals Rs.10,000 considering the exchange rate of Rs.69 per dollar.
- So, the difference in the exchange rate equals to the loss of = $ 1.33
- Citibank-Basant N,Delhi, International Fee I paid: $ 4.43
- Citibank-Basant N,Delhi, Fee I paid: $5

So, the total cost of this transaction of withdrawing Rs. 10,000: $ 1.33 + $ 4.43 + $ 5.00 = $ 10.76, which is my loss.

NOTE: The picture on top is the actual receipt of my transaction of withdrawing rupees 10,000 using US ATM debit card in India.

For today's US dollar to Indian rupee exchange rates click here.

There are many money transfer companies in the US that can transfer the money online in just a few hours. Using this method of online transfer of money from US to India, you can save a lot of money.

You can follow the same process to know the exchange rate for Canada to India, Europe to India, UK to India, Australia to India, UAE to India