Kerala bank and money · Bank and money in Kerala
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Bank and money in Kerala
Bank and money in Kerala
Kerala has one of the excellent banking systems in India, thus cards (both debit, credit and cash cards) are widely accepted in almost all towns and cities. Banks, money exchange facilities and ATMs are widespread. Traveller's Cheques are accepted in almost all banks. Credit and local debit cards are widely accepted in towns. Rural areas traditionally have a cash-based society, though credit/debit cards are widely accepted in tourist-oriented villages and areas. Foreign debit cards are not accepted, though foreign credit cards are accepted in almost all places. However chip-embedded cards are not accepted. There is a cash limit that can be drawn per day, limiting to Rs 10,000 (US$ 200) when drawn thro' ATMs. A surcharge of Rs 50 (US$ 1)is charged for transactions beyond first ten transactions in a month. Foreign currency can be converted into Indian Rupees at any authorised money changers or nationalised banks upto Rs 50,000 in value (in one transaction) and any amount above this, requires a bank account and Indian PAN Card. Foreign currencies are not accepted anywhere in Kerala, except in airports.
The largest Kerala bank is Federal Bank with its headquarters in Aluva-Kochi, with wide range of branches across the state. Major Kerala banks include, South Indian Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, SBT and Dhanalakshmi bank, apart from almost national bank brands. International Banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and CitiBank operate mainly in Kochi and Trivandrum.
Service charges are common in hotels and restaurants which will be normally included in your bill (standard is 10%, which varies depending upon the status and rankings, but not beyond 15%). In addition to this, tipping is common everywhere and its a social norm to pay tip in hotels as well as restaurants which is normally in between Rs 10 to Rs 20. In larger five star hotels or similar large restaurants, the tipping norm is normally 10% or 12% of your bill value. No tip is given for auto or taxi drivers, though over-night taxi drivers have to be pay bata (official tip) which shall be charged separately in your taxi bill.
Currency Exchange is very easy in Kerala, as there are many international money changers as well as forex players across the state.
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Kerala Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.