Money Exchange

Only exchange money in a bank or a hotel lobby. It is against the law to exchange anywhere else even if the service is offered. Money exchange services are offered by all the major international banks. Local banks may not offer money exchange. The prinicple unit of currency is the rupee. Coins are in 1 and 2 rupee denominations, and bills are in 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, and 5000 denominations. ATMs are found occasionally, but will not always allow money to be drawn from a foreign account. Credit cards are used only in some upscale places and sometimes the mechanisms for validating sales malfunction resulting in perfectly good cards being rejected.