Forex

Now you will move out from Indian Rupees to Singapore Dollars!

There are various places where you can exchange INR for other foreign currencies like banks, currency dealers or travel companies. Banks - State Bank of India, ICICI, HDFC. Currency Dealers - You will have to go looking for these on streets or have a contact from a friend. Travel Companies - Thomas Cook.


Procedure
1. Check the latest conversion rate in the newspaper or on a site.
2. Check the conversion rate for Singapore $ with various banks or dealers or travel companies. When you want to buy SGD - the rate will be higher than the market rate. If you want to sell SGD - the rate will be lower than market. Eg: Market Rate - INR 33. Rate for buying - INR 33.8. Rate for selling - 32.1.
3. Compare the rates given by all your sources and go for the one which is as close to the market rate. Yes - there is a difference in between the offers made by various sources.
4. Exchange the money and get legitimate receipt for the same. This can be done through cash/cheque/draft etc. I would recommend cash/draft as it is the fastest way. However if the amount is greater than INR 50,000 then you will compulsarily have to give a cheque. You can collect the money only once the cheque is cleared. Get a copy of your Flight ticket and carry your passport with you. They will take a photocopy of your passport and return it to you.

I will recommend not to exchange currency with the dealers who do not provide receipts. Below are the some alarms that I see -
1. You don't know if the source of money is black or white. Just owning this currency might land you up in trouble.
2. Since you will be travelling for the first time, incase you are questioned for the source of SGD, you will not be able to escape the questioning easily.
3. There is difference of hardly INR 0.2. So if you exchange INR 10,000 it makes a difference of only INR 200 = SGD 5.5, which is not significant at all.
At the end when you are travelling the first time, why not travel clean and free of all tensions. Its going to be a dream come true... and you dont want anyone to keep disturbing this fantasy like dream :)

Some observations
1. In banks, SBI is the cheapest followed by ICICI and HDFC being the most expensive. Lot of local dealers will have better rates than ICICI, comparitive to SBI. Thomas Cook rates are slightl expensive than SBI and local dealers.
2. You can check out the rates online of their respective sites. However I will recommend calling and talkin to someone directly. 90% of the time, banks or travel companies give some discount on their published rate.
But overall the rates are in the order of:
SBI - Best Rate
Thomas Cook, Local Dealers - As good
ICICI - Not that great
HDFC - Worst rate
3. SGD is a minor currency. The availability is a problem. So you can change INR to USD which is very very easily convertable to SGD in Singapore. However, if you want SGD then its better to tell the agencies 1 day in advance so that they can manage the currency.

I personally exchanged about 300 SGD and rest in USD fom Thomas Cook, Thane. Again the above information is based on my experience and just to help in your research. Personal opinion - Its better to spend least time on Forex, as lot research gets you profit of maximum SGD 5.5 per SGD 300 which is wiped off in matter of 2 days when currencies fluctuate.