What Indonesian rupiah actually arrives in Indonesia when someone sends Australian dollars, at the live mid-market rate. We explain the process; we never recommend a provider.
| They send (AUD) | You receive at mid-market (IDR) |
|---|---|
| 500 AUD | 6,240,000 IDR |
| 1,000 AUD | 12,480,000 IDR |
| 2,000 AUD | 24,960,000 IDR |
| 5,000 AUD | 62,400,000 IDR |
Mid-market equivalents, not transfer quotes - the sender’s provider deducts its margin and any fees before the money reaches you. STRUCK 11:00 AEST · TUE 13 OCT.
The world's largest archipelago, scattering more than 17,000 islands across the equator. Indonesia packs volcanoes, rainforests and the fourth-biggest population on Earth into the space between two oceans.
Two equal horizontal bands, red over white, the national flag Sang Merah Putih. Article 4 of Law 24 of 2009 fixes it as a rectangle two-thirds as wide as it is long, red above and white below in equal halves, and assigns the colours nothing. The familiar reading of red as courage and white as purity is not in the article, but it is in the official elucidation published with the Act, which says the red symbolises courage and the white symbolises purity. Sang Saka Merah Putih is a different thing in the same law: Article 5 gives that name to the Bendera Pusaka, the single heirloom flag raised at the proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945, which is kept at the National Monument in Jakarta.
A continent pretending to be a country - Australia is the only nation that fills an entire continent, with most of its 27 million people clinging to the coast while the red-dirt interior does its own thing.
A blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, a large white seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it, and the five white stars of the Southern Cross at the fly. Six of the big star's points stand for the states and the seventh for the territories; the Southern Cross marks Australia's place in the southern sky.
The rupiah trades in very large numbers - even a small AUD transfer converts into hundreds of thousands or millions of IDR, so watch the decimal places and confirm whether a quote is per AUD or per 1,000 rupiah. Indonesia requires a purpose code on inbound transfers and recipients are commonly paid into accounts that are checked against it, so a vague or wrong purpose is a more likely cause of delay here than anything to do with the rate.
The exchange rate is set on the sending side - by the service the sender chooses in Australia - so the most useful thing a receiver can do happens before the transfer: share the live mid-market rate on this page so the sender can judge the margin in their quote. How the money arrives in Indonesia determines any local receiving charges - bank-to-bank transfers can pass through intermediary banks that deduct handling fees.
Sending rather than receiving? The sender’s view of this corridor covers the same rate from the other side. The AUD/IDR converter page handles any amount. Receiving money from overseas explains the process end to end.
Bank Indonesia operates BI-FAST itself, around the clock and in real time at both bank and customer level, with individual credit transfer live since 21 December 2021 and bulk transfer, request for payment and direct debit added from 21 December 2024. A proxy address, either a mobile number or an email address, can stand in for an account number, and the central bank's guidance is that one proxy maps to exactly one account, though an account may carry several. Using a proxy is optional; the account number always works.
That proxy is a domestic object. Bank Indonesia states in the same guidance that there is at present no cross-border fund transfer service through BI-FAST, and describes cross-border as an intended future development. A transfer originating outside Indonesia consequently needs an account number, reaches it by way of a correspondent bank, and touches the domestic rail, if at all, only on the final leg. A single BI-FAST transaction is capped at two hundred and fifty million rupiah, and participants may set lower limits inside that.
What lands is rupiah. Regulation 17/3/PBI/2015, dated 31 March 2015 with its non-cash obligation effective from 1 July that year, requires every party in Indonesian territory, resident and non-resident, individual and corporate, to use rupiah for transactions there. The exceptions are a short list, and include bank deposits held in foreign currency and international trade transactions.
Sources: Bank Indonesia, BI-FAST frequently asked questions · Bank Indonesia, Regulation 17/3/PBI/2015 on the mandatory use of rupiah · Bank Indonesia, knowledge base on the rupiah obligation
How much Indonesian rupiah will I receive in Indonesia?
A little less than the mid-market figures above. The service the sender uses in Australia sets the rate and fees; local receiving banks in Indonesia can also apply their own charges depending on how the transfer arrives.
The sender asked for my details - what will they need?
Whatever their transfer service asks for on the receiving side - typically your full legal name and local bank account details in Indonesia. Give the name exactly as your bank records it; mismatches are the most common reason a transfer is delayed.
Why did I receive less than the rate on this page suggests?
A quote is the mid-market rate with the provider’s margin taken out of it. Because that margin is expressed in the rate rather than itemised, it is easy to miss and is usually the bigger half of what a transfer costs. On a bank-to-bank transfer an intermediary bank can also deduct a handling charge in transit.