Paying by QR Code in Bali: Can Foreign Cards and Apps Use It?

QR codes are Indonesia's standard way to pay, and Bali's own rules tell visitors to use them. For Americans there is a catch: the cross-border system that lets foreigners scan those codes with their home banking app does not include the United States. Here is what the central bank says, and what to carry instead.

What the QR codes are

The QR codes at shops and restaurants in Bali belong to QRIS, Indonesia's national standard for QR payments, which is run under Bank Indonesia, the central bank. A customer scans the merchant's code with a payment app, enters the amount in rupiah and confirms. It is a single national standard, not one company's product.

Why visitors keep hearing about it

Bali's 2025 rules for foreign visitors tell tourists to make payments using Indonesia's standard QR code and to transact in rupiah. The province's tourist levy site also lists QRIS among its payment methods. So the system is part of the official picture a visitor is given, even if not every visitor can use it.

Which foreign visitors can scan and pay

Foreign visitors can pay by QRIS only if their home country is connected to Indonesia's cross-border scheme. Bank Indonesia lists the connected countries as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China. A visitor from one of those opens a home payment app, scans, enters the rupiah amount and confirms in their own currency.

How the cross-border version works

Bank Indonesia describes the steps for a foreign user: open the payment application, scan the QRIS code, enter the payment amount in rupiah, confirm the destination and the amount in your own currency, and enter a PIN. The merchant uses the same printed code as for domestic customers. The conversion happens inside the visitor's own app.

Where the United States stands

The United States is not among the connected countries, and it does not appear anywhere on Bank Indonesia's page about the scheme. That means a US bank's app or a US digital wallet has no cross-border route to pay a QRIS code. Scanning the code with your phone's camera will not produce a payment screen you can use.

What an American should carry instead

An American visitor to Bali pays with cards and rupiah cash. Cards cover the official payments: Indonesia's e-visa site accepts Visa, Mastercard and JCB, and Bali's tourist levy site accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB. Cash covers the small purchases where a QR code would have been the local customer's choice.

Cards

Bring two cards on different networks and keep them apart. If your card charges a foreign transaction fee, it applies to every purchase in Bali, so a card without one is worth carrying. When a terminal offers to bill you in dollars, our advice is to choose rupiah.

Cash

Keep a supply of small rupiah notes. Change money only at authorized changers, which Bali's rules identify by a license number and a Bank Indonesia logo with a QR code, or withdraw rupiah from an ATM.

Official fees

The payments a visitor owes the authorities do not depend on QR. The visa fee and the tourist levy can both be paid by card on their official sites before you leave home, which is the simplest way to deal with them. The levy site lists QRIS as one option among several, and a card works in its place.

If a place takes only QR

Ask whether cash is accepted. Bali's rules require transactions in rupiah, and rupiah notes are legal tender. If a counter really cannot take cash or a card, you will need to buy elsewhere.

What about tourist wallets and local apps?

Whether a short-stay American can set up a local wallet to pay by QR is a question we could not settle from an official source. Bank Indonesia's page on the cross-border scheme describes payments from the connected countries and says nothing about a route for other visitors. Press reports describe products aimed at tourists, and we have not verified how they work for a US traveler.

Why we are not recommending a workaround

Without a source we trust on how a visitor would open and fund a local wallet, the honest advice is not to build a trip around QR payment. Plan on cards and cash.

If the list changes

Bank Indonesia has added countries to the scheme over time, and its page is the place to check. If the United States is added, American banking apps that take part would be able to pay a QRIS code the way visitors from the connected countries do now.

Reading a QR code is not paying it

Paying with a QRIS code needs a payment app that is connected to the scheme; a phone's camera can read the code, but that alone does not move any money. Pointing a phone camera at it, or using a generic QR reader, shows a string of characters or an error. If a seller asks you to scan a code and you are an American visitor, the practical answer is to ask for the card terminal or pay in cash.

Be careful with payment links

Our advice applies anywhere: do not enter card details into a web page that a QR code opened unless you can see it is the business's own or a payment provider you recognize. The official sites for Indonesia's visa and Bali's tourist levy are reached by typing their addresses, not by scanning a code on a poster.