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Best rate? ATM or stack of cash


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ATM or cash really depends on your personal choice and/or how long and how much you think you will need.

 

The other option is as others have said; open a account here and SWIFT transfer big chunks of cash at a time. This depends on how much your bank charges for the SWIFT transfer and how convenient they make it to do one.

 

I get some baht deposited each month so I am not completely dependent on bringing in USD, but still run short every month so I generally make an ATM withdrawal or two (or three) each month. I use the CITI ATM at Asok/Suk. I did one last Monday (the 28th) and got a net rate of 30.07 with no 150 baht fee at this end. According to OANDA the interbank rate that day was 30.1329.

TH

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The other aspect of 'overseas' Farang opening a Thai bank account is that, presumably, you are earning your money in another currency then depositing it in the Thai bank - I'd be interested to know how happy you folk are with the conversion rate they give you. My bank here in Oz, will sell you just over 26 baht to the dollar (yeah ..) at a time when xe.com is quoting 30.78. I know we are talking 'onshore' vs 'offshore', and you wouldnt get the XE rate over the counter at a Thai bank, but its a significant drop in buying power.

 

Might be easier to simply carry gold everywhere :)

Gobbles, what you are doing wrong there is exchanging your money from Oz to baht, then sending baht.

 

What you need to do, and you can do it electronically or at the bank itself (higher fee at the bank - ANZ $20AUD online c/f $32AUD @ Bank) is to send money in Australia dollars ... if I send it to my Siam Bank, I get about .03 below the cash rate I would get at Vasu travel (30.61 Baht per 1$AUD).

 

You need to especially do this this way if you are intending on buying property :beer:

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As has been beat to death here, work permit not required "legally." But some banks just use that term to turn away foreigners they do not want to deal with.

 

I use K-Bank at Suk & 33. Foreigner friendly, just a long term visa required versus an entry stamp: (retirement, O-B, or O-A or a 60 day tourist), but not a work permit as per the actual law.

 

And I get interest on my accounts (I had to check from old posts from guys saying they did not).

 

Ya, it is a sad rate (0.62% right now), but I get it quarterly and have since the 2001 account opening of that one, looking at my account book. Plus online & telephone banking at no charge. :dunno:

 

YMMV.

 

Cheers,

LK

LK,

 

Same-same here, I also setup my Kasikorn account years ago at Soi 33.

Per the Kasikorn website,they offer over 2.5% interest on their accounts, up to 4.5% in the final months of the plan. It steps up every few months, averaging 2.6% or something like that.

 

When I tried to open an account at Bangkok Bank, they had a Bangkok Bank memo that stated you *** had *** to have a work permit :dunno:

Go figure...

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Gobbles, what you are doing wrong there is exchanging your money from Oz to baht, then sending baht.

 

What you need to do, and you can do it electronically or at the bank itself (higher fee at the bank - ANZ $20AUD online c/f $32AUD @ Bank) is to send money in Australia dollars ... if I send it to my Siam Bank, I get about .03 below the cash rate I would get at Vasu travel (30.61 Baht per 1$AUD).

 

fully agree on that! what you get is the TT rate of the Thai bank you have a account. much better then the rate on cash or the exchange rate of any bank abroad

 

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If you're bringing US bills into Thailand (or Cambodia, or Laos) with the intention of exchanging them, with the intention that they will account for a major portion of your spending money...

 

...you'd better be fucking sure as shit that said US bills are goddamn PRISTINE, motherfucker...

 

Thai, Lao and Khmer currency that looks like (literally) you've wiped your ass and the nearest sidewalk with it will be accepted in the appropriate country, no problem, but god forbid you present a US $20 with a microscopic hair-width tear in the region of Andrew Jackson's nose...!! You could easily end up with, as I have, 100s of completely un-spendable, un-exchangeable US bills for the duration of your trip.

 

Be smart: rely on the ATM.

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'motherfucker' ? Is there something about Corinthian that I have missed in my short time on the board, or is that just the way you kids relate to one another these days ?

 

I have never had a problem exchanging Aussie currency anywhere in Asia, and I dont get offended when they hold bills up to the light to check the watermark. I admit that I was nervous buying USD in Cambo though, but had zero problems. The young girl behind the makeshift counter must have had help waiting in nearby shops for the first person stupid enough to try anything.

 

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