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Priscilla you are right. People in Asia use bank Apps, in Indonesie use OVO, Gopay, e-money and some others. Other countries also have their own systems so that you need carry less cash and use you Apps to make payments. You'll find that payments like this are in many countries. Its mostly for smaller payments.

I pay cash for everything!  I almost never use my credit cards, especially since they charge interest on every purchase outside of my own country and the exchange rate is dreadful.  I opened up a bank account in Indonesia with a bank that uses Visa Direct and since my bank at home uses Visa Direct too, I can transfer money almost immediately (for a fee of course and it only requires the number on your Indonesian debit card which you register on line with your home bank to set up the transactions).  And when I don’t need money quickly I transfer money using the TransferWise App.  It takes a few days but the transfer charge is low and the exchange rate is awesome!!!  Then I just use the debit machines and my Indonesian bank machine card in Indonesia or when I travel. I save tonnes of money a year this way!  (Disappointed though that I cannot get an Indonesian credit card since I’m over 70!).

Pre paid cards, Flazz and etol/emoney seem the most popular.

Bank debit cards

Credit cards

Gopay and other phone based payment apps are becoming popular.

Cash, of course

Some hotel booking apps no longer accept debit cards, only credit cards.

epayments for online shopping, tickets, etc, paid at Indomaret or Alfamart

Online banking apps for many things including train/air tickets, online shopping, and mobile phone credit.

Chinese epay phone app based payments are illegal here but BI is looking at possibilities for limited use, but only for tourists.

Those of us in international business need to receive and send money from small amounts and large amounts constantly and everyday.

I no longer use banks except for cheques, Bills of Exchange and letters of credit. Why because they are too much profiteering by fees, ( one-eight percent, also with minimum of  USD 20) plus excessive exchange rates. Especially sending money to educate their children overseas you getto send money at excessive queues lining up to fill in forms, and handing over cash only  fees instantly, to get some service. Finally you discover Banks keep your money and from your account and transfer days later.

Why Banks can do this? Because they get licenses to operate in a monopolistic environment by a government department which needs their capital to set up facilities and banking and ATM infrastructure.

As an individual or company you need set up such that you can sit at your PC/laptop online and transfer 20,000 IDR to 2 Bill IDR in any currency with fees as low as free to maybe just 100,000 IDR. No other charges. These are govt licensed businesses with 25 to 30 years track record. Payment is sent on same day in any currency within hours, including cash pickups in remote locations.

You can PM me at *** as I do not like to offer other business' references here.

All other [possibilities in Indonesia have been covered by early responders here, obviously for local payments you can use so many apps for groceries and shopping. But if you use some bank card look out for debit fees done following transaction.

Typically in business customers propose big down payments combined with letters of credit or future cash in return for business discounts from 2 to 10%

A note as this comes up a lot.



The bank of Indonesia is very clear in stating ALL internal transactions MUST be conducted using Indonesian Rupiah.
That means bitcoin, US$, Wepay, and everything else not in Rp is illegal.

Fred gave a good lead in ensuring all of us stick to doing legal activities compliant with the law.
I am enquiring of practices followed:
1. whether payments IDR using international transfer businesses into foreign country's currency are allowed
2. Receipts of foreign currency into Indonesia paid from foreign currency are allowed
3. I guess if you want to send other currencies out you must open a bank account in that foreign currency?

Thanks if any body has experiences or practises allowed or disallowed, please do comment. i am not seeking a legal interpretation.

They are no restrictions in sending money abroad unless the governing body does not allow this due to for example terrorism, money laundering, fraud and many other illegal activities like all countries
You can open various bank accounts within Indonesia and send / receive various currencies and keep as that currency if you wish or transfer to IDR, most common are US$, AUS$, SG$ EURO€, GBP£, and several others but not all banks offer this and some branches are limited so mostly it’s through the Internet
If you don’t have such account you can send IDR to (for example) Australia and it will be converted to AUS$ unless they have the facility within that bank to hold IDR (multi currency account)
Most of these (not all) multi currency accounts only allow you to receive/ send in these currencies but some allow you to convert/ transfer
If two bank accounts are held in Indonesia and you wish to send receive a certain currency they is no restriction
Most issues come from the foreign banks/ authorities if sending for example 2billion IDR equivalent to Indonesia, I know of some friends who are from the USA and have had problems from the police/ FBI etc sending large amounts to Indonesia but never the other way around

Your Indonesian accounts can accept as much foreign dollars, Pounds, whatever you like but you might get a call from the bank asking why you just got a few thousand quid dumped into your account.
They get concerned about terrorism, drug dealing, money laundering, and whatever other crimes so just tell them and that's usually the end of that.  I've had several large private transfers from various UK accounts with no issues save the phone call.
Just one note - Before you can spend a penny using a bank issued credit/debit card, you must have a KITAS/P or you won't be able to open an account legally.
Pre-paid cards, Go-jek and so on don't need an account or any official documents to get hold of.

Seems card payments are falling because of electronic payments

Dear Fred, are card payments failing due to failure in electronic transmission or is it due to the need for 2FA or is it card issuers who fail the users. You are referring to online payments only? Not payments at hotels etc.?

I did not fully understand what you intended. Thank you in advance to help me understand fully the problem faced.

Sorry Fred I just got chance to read earlier post by GWMeath, relating to problems and your earlier response.

The UK government is in the forefront of laws and legal framework on money laundering. The phone calls are promoted basically by lack of public data and private resources at money transfer organisations including bankson "Know your Customers (KYC)". It costs a lot of money for databases and setting up recording on PEP (politically exposed persons). So where labour for manual recording of information is low, instead of paying for legitimate databases, so there is an overkill in calling senders and recipients to check on their particulars and reasons for transfer.

Basically this is heightened by terrorists organisations operating as individual cells and bomb units. Questions arise where is their money coming from? Indonesia has become identified with operating terrorists (even that the government is doing a lot for pinpointing and dealing with such factions.

Ultimately the whole system is tightening up, with the UK authorities spending large budgets to provide seminars and systems to help all governments set up infrastructure to build up the same.

Basically it is to help save the innocents from harm in the long run. My opinion is that in the long run, it will tighten all the loop-holes in the money transmission system, (some call it even the "hundi" system which uses legitimate bank accounts to send money( hundi is a system of friends and relatives all over the world to help with money.

Cope with answering questions since you have legitimate interests only. Indonesia has had an unfair amount of exposure in early days, but from what I see there is great success by the police and government. Bear with it just a while longer.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify with what I know from the UK government's effort. Indonesia does not yet operate a big anti-money laundering legislation and infrastructure. They seem to be working at it!

The piece claims the use of cards is FALLING because of new payment methods becoming popular. I only use debit cards when nothing else is available.