My UK high street bank charges a flat fee irrespective of amount. I transferred £10K prior to the Brexit vote and it cost £30. Would SAT be cheaper?Originally Posted by Old git
My UK high street bank charges a flat fee irrespective of amount. I transferred £10K prior to the Brexit vote and it cost £30. Would SAT be cheaper?
For anyone visiting once or twice a year for short periods, just bring cash and exchange it or use your ATM card to withdraw funds when needed. Of course make larger withdrawals rather than multiple smaller ones in order to avoid 200 Baht fee.
For expats and long term visits it may be more beneficial to open a Thai bank account and transfer money from you home country bank.
PS- the OP was specific in his post, he wanted advice on those who bring cash.
christianpfc (January 18th, 2017)
Actually there is not a best answer to this recurring question. The OP apparently is a Brit so his options are probably different than others. As an American, I would never consider exchanging cash and if you mentioned travelers checks you probably came from a different planet. I have never been inside a bank in 20 years (except to open Thai bank accounts here), I use ATM's exclusively and bank online. I get the best exchange rates (VISA/MASTERCARD network and yes better than Superrich), the 200 baht ATM is reimbursed and pay no percentages or foreign transaction fees. I realize many Brits and Europeans don't have these options so as others have mentioned I would use Superrich locations in Bangkok.
francois (January 17th, 2017)
Yeah our class facilitator took us to Bangkok Bank last year where it was too easy to open a savings account with a debit card. I had brought some Thai Baht for my expenses over the first few days but I had mostly Singapore Dollars which I then changed and deposited into my BB account. I did the same thing this year and changed my SGD to Thai Baht at Superrich money-changer somewbere near the night bazaar (we passed by some "lady" bars and got the obligatory "hello hansum man" 5555). They gave us better rates than those exchange kiosks you see everywhere, the money-changer that is, not the lady bars.
That is good advice.
Also getting over 99% is a good target.
Another way is to take a wad of £50 notes, change at one of the best currency exchange shops in town and then pay it all into your Thai bank using one of the automatic paying in machines.
On my recent trip, I got 44.95 baht to the £. The XE rate was 45.35, so I got 99.1% efficiency.
The key is to know what the best level rate is and get close to that, not throw away 2% more. Once you have a good idea where the best exchange rates can be had, it takes almost no effort.
Here is a good starting point.
https://daytodaydata.net/
As I write this today, you do not get 99% efficiency from the best places on that list , but it looks like the pound has rallied after normal Thai banking hours. I guess they will be back to competitive rates swiftly.
Yes I am a brit , and only visit twice a year for approx. 2 or 3 weeks. When I first starting coming it was trav cheques , then went onto using atm but the bank charge of 150 and the uk end charge of 2.75% for overseas use , stopped that , so now I only bring cash , and use the yellow fronted exchange shops in pattaya
Aot871
I do exactly the same but I opened an account at the Kasicorn Bank and after changing my pounds I put the lot into the Bank and use the card to withdraw it whenever I need to.it is so simple to open the account as others have said.
However, I do stay for 3 months in the winter so I don't want all that cash in my room safe.
Up2U (January 18th, 2017)
Indeed I check the spread between buy and sell at money exchange booths. In Thailand it can be under 1%, in airports in Europe I saw spreads of 30%.
In your particular case you might get a better rate than I do, but your method is not generally applicable as it works only for your combination of home currency and home bank.
Currently on Superrich, Euro 100-500 notes: buy 37.6; sell 37.65; that's a spread of 0.13%;
xe.com 37.71 THB for 1 Euro; that means on superrich I lose 0.3% versus xe.com.
The spread at the exchange booths at Bangkok's airports has just got higher and higher. They used to be the same as in town. Now the spread seems to be around 10%. Same at the official money changers in Hong Kong. There, always change cash at a bank's foreign exchange counter for far more favourable rates.
I always thought the xe rates are midpoint interbank rates. So currency exchange buying and selling rates will very.
To answer your original question, I know of two guys who come once a year and both bring cash to exchange. One guy just makes one exchange at beginning of his trip while the other makes exchanges as Thai Baht is needed. A lot may depend on how the exchange rate is trending, up or down.
Reply With Quote
