All our prices are changing to Indonesian rupiah (IDR) from 1 Jan 2016. This is to comply with a new law that all companies have to price products in Indonesian rupiah (IDR).

The Indonesian government issued this new law on 31 March 2015, hoping that this will support/boost the value of IDR. The law came into effect on 1 July 2015 but a 6month grace period was given for companies to comply with this law. This means that all companies have to comply by 1 Jan 2016 or risk penalties that include fines and bans from trading.

Moving to the Indonesian rupiah will have a small impact on making deposits and payments with us, and this post describes what you need to know.

As the Indonesian rupiah is an uncommon currency, we also thought that we would provide you with some background information to help you survive your holidays with the Indonesian rupiah!

What is the Indonesian rupiah?

The Indonesian rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia, is commonly shorted to IDR or Rp, and you can find out more about the Indonesian rupiah on wikipedia.

Too many zero’s
The Indonesian rupiah (IDR) is not really very recognised by many people, and those that do visit Indonesia often have difficulty with it because it has so many zero’s – the bank notes include Rp1,000, Rp5,000, Rp10,000, Rp20,000, Rp50,000 and Rp100,000.

There was some good news about this in 2010 when the government announced that it would undergo a re-denomination and remove three zeros starting 2014. However in August 2013 they put these plans on because of other monetary problems gaining higher priority like inflation and foreign divestment.

Largest note too small
The other difficulty that people have is that the largest note is the Rp100,000, and with US$1 worth about 13,500 rupiah (December 2015) it is worth approximately US$7.41. This means that you will have to carry lots of cash if you want to pay IDR cash for a US$500 week-long accomm/dive holiday – this works out to be about Rp6,750,000 (6million, seven hundred and fifty thousand rupiah), or 68 x Rp100,000 notes.

This note was only introduced in 2004 so it was much worse before this time – with the largest note the Rp20,000, you would gave needed 338xRp20,000 to pay IDR cash for your US$500 week-long accomm/dive holiday pre-2004!

Do not despair, you will still be able do make payments and bank transfers in the major currencies like EUR/US$. However, as described below there are a few small changes to our deposit and payment processes.

What is the problem with the IDR?

One thing that you need to understand is that the Indonesian rupiah (IDR) is not a traded currency because the Indonesian government does not allow the free movement of currency and exchange across its borders.

We realise that its a bit ironic that the Indonesian government is bringing in mandatory IDR but still restrict free movement, welcome to the convoluted country of Indonesia!!

This lack of free currency movement means that you are not able to transfer via Paypal, and you may not be able transfer Indonesian rupiah (IDR) via normal bank transfer. It is this that causes issues with both deposits and payments.

Do I have to pay my deposit in IDR?

Before 2016, when you made a booking with us we required a EUR100 or US$100 deposit via Paypal to confirm your booking.

We still want to continue to use Paypal for deposits as its very convenient, and we can confirm your booking within a day because we are credited with your deposit payment almost immediately. However, we cannot change our deposit to Indonesia rupiah because Paypal is not able to transfer Indonesian rupiah (IDR).

This is a bit of a mess, and to try and simplify it we decided to standardise with a deposit of EUR100 via Paypal, and when we receive it we will convert into IDR using the current rate from XE.com.

This should not cause you any issues because Paypal is actually quite a good payment tool – when you make a payment for EUR100 this will be converted into your home-country currency (eg US$ or Malaysian RM) on your credit card or Paypal account.

What about if you are already in Indonesia? Just tell us and we will ask for you to put IDR1,500,000 (about EUR100) into our IDR bank account.

Can I pay by bank transfer in EUR/US$?

When you make a booking we will issue your booking voucher in Indonesian rupiah (IDR). A popular option that most guests find convenient is to make an advance payment via bank transfer of 80-90% of their voucher, and then pay the balance on-site with either cash or credit card.

If you want to do this then you may find that you are not able to make a bank transfer in IDR. If this is the case then we will use XE.com to convert the Indonesian rupiah value of the voucher into your home currency using the current rate from XE.com.

When we receive your EUR/US$ payment, we will convert it into Indonesia rupiah (IDR) using XE.com, and then re-send your voucher to you, updated with the advance payment in IDR.

What currencies can I pay my invoice in?

As per the law, all our locations are required to issue invoices in Indonesian rupiah (IDR), less any deposits and payments that you may have made.

When it is time to pay your invoice, we can convert this IDR invoice into any currency that you like using the rate at the time from XE.com. This will allow you to pay cash in any of the major currencies.

One big advantage of this is that you do not have to bring lots of IDR cash with you!!

What about paying by credit card?
All the swipe machines that the banks provide for aying by credit card will only accept the Indonesian rupiah. This makes it very easy for credit card payments as we do not need to make any currency conversion.

Smooth and easy transition

As you can see, even though we are converting our prices to Indonesian rupiah from 1 Jan 2016, it should not have a big affect on deposits or payments. We also hope that the background information on the Indonesia rupiah will cause less of an impact on you when you next visit Indonesia.

We have also made it a smooth and easy transition for you by including a widget from XE.com on our price pages, this way you can convert our IDR prices into any currency.

Unfortunately this widget takes you to the XE.com website. We could not find an alternative widget that will not do this AND give you an accurate exchange rate!

We hope to see you at one of our locations in 2016!!