Commonwealth Games 2010 is coming closer, is being held in New Delhi, India in this October. Commonwealth Games 2010 will be organized in 6 main playgrounds of Delhi, more than 4200 athletes will participate in total of 17 Events. Games will be played in 11 days from 3rd October’2010 to 14th October’2010. Opening and closing ceremonies will be held in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
India is a land of rich culture and diversity since ages. Although India is not as developed as EU and North America, people in India are so kind to foreigners and are welcome everywhere.
Before Travelling to India
Here are tips for your Credit Card use and safety.
Take a VISA or Mastercard with you. VISA or Mastercard is accepted in most parts of the world including India. Though AMEX cards are popular, it is still not accepted everywhere in India, except in high profile places.
Before you depart from your home country, call your bank and inform them you are travelling abroad and ask them to permit ATM cash withdrawals abroad (India) AND allow online transactions (to book tickets) in your card while in travel.
Foreign Credit/Debit Cards
Credit Card is one of the most popular way doing electronic money transactions, no matter where you are in the World. Be it for shopping or ATM withdrawals
You will find that if you are from Europe or other countries, most VISA/ MasterCards are issued with a smart chip in the credit card. Be aware if you are a foreigner using those cards in India can cause inconvenience as most shops use a swipe machine that are still not equipped to handle credit card using with those chips. This is because Indian banks only rely on magnetic strips in the credit/debit cards and the technology is yet to come with smart chips. This is a nasty situation and can be sometimes embarrassing. So before you buy anything, make sure you ask the owner of the shop in India, whether they can accept international credit cards like VISA/Mastercard with those smart chips. If their swipe machine doesn’t have a chip processor, you credit card will be declined. As a foreigner this can be ridiculous!
If their swipe machine has chip processor in their swipe machine, ask the owner of the shop to insert the credit card to the chip reader in the swipe machine, pull out and then swipe the magnetic strip of the card once and then enter the billing amount. This way most foreign issued credit cards work in the swipe machines used in India.
If you carry AMEX (American Express) card still many small and medium sized shops in India still can’t accept Amex cards. As a foreigner it is a good idea to take a VISA/Mastercard issued cards. Ask your bank to issue one of them.
ATM Withdrawals
With your international credit or debit card (with or without smart chips), you can easily do a cash withdrawal at over any ATM with Visa or Mastercard or AMEX logo. Most often the card PIN is about 4 or 6 digits long and most bank ATMs very well accept PINs of 4 or 6 digits. The following bank ATMs are very much recommended to do cash withdrawals for foreigners….Look for the logo for VISA, Mastercard and AMEX!
HDFC Bank
HSBC Bank
ICICI Bank
IDBI Bank
Citibank India
You should be able to find ATMs of these banks almost in every corner of the city. It is a good idea to use online ATM locator.
In most cases if you carry a foreign issued debit card, you will be charged a levy for withdrawals abroad by your Bank. Using credit cards for cash withdrawals can be still expensive. Call your bank and check for these exact charges.
For more Cash and Traveling safety tips follow the below link
http://www.common-wealth-games.info
E-Book available for Personal Safety and Travel Security Tips “Common Wealth Games 2010″.