exit2dos Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Just xchanged USD cash at Kasikorn and got: 34.24,xchgd some T/C and got: 34. 07 Pulled some cash from the Kasikorn ATM using my Citibank ATM card and got: 33.60 Looks like cash is king! Plus, Citibank charges a 5% foreign exchange fee on ATM transactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 >Plus, Citibank charges a 5% foreign exchange fee on >ATM transactions. Citibank changes a 3% foreign exchange fee on "regular" accounts. I have "gold" accounts so I pay 1%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mongatu Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 Re the 1% on the Citi gold accounts, my understanding is that that simply represents them passing through the 1% mastercard fee that mastercard charges them. In other words, for regular accounts, they charge the 1% mastercard fee plus 2% added on. For gold accounts, they just pass through the mastercard fee. But it sure sounds like Cash is indeed king these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mongatu Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 But some other things that one has to take into account with respect to cash, would be the interest lost along with the risk of keeping large amounts of cash in Thailand, even in a bank. I've heard some stories of funds disappearing from Thai bank accounts although I personally have never had a problem. Anyway, I can earn slightly over 5% in my US savings account, which adds up on say $10k or $20k pretty quickly. Do any Thai banks pay competitive interest rates on dollar denominated accounts? My guess would be probably not. I guess the best way to go would be to open a dollar denominated Thai bank account and have dollars wired to it periodically as needed. Washington Mutual has an account that doesn't pay interest but offers free international atm usage and free international wire transfers plus the ability to do online transfers into the account from US based outside accounts. So the process would be 1. Do an online transfer from the interest bearing savings account to the WM checking account. 2) THen have WM wire the funds to the Thai bank account for free. 3) Then convert those dollars as needed into Baht, thereby obtaining the cash onshore rate. A bit of a hassle but might be worth it for a long stay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 You guys just have shitty banks. I just took B12k out of the SCB machine in Phrom Pong station (but ATM machine seems to make no difference in my tests). My account in the US was debited $347.36, for an exchange rate of 34.546. Yes, my ATM card is a MasterCard. I never see a fee from my bank. According to the BBL website, they are trading USD big bills at 34.24. According to the Oanda website, the current market rate is 32.939 (obviously the offshore rate). Shop for new banks gentlemen. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exit2dos Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 >Plus, Citibank charges a 5% foreign exchange fee on >ATM transactions. Citibank changes a 3% foreign exchange fee on "regular" accounts. I have "gold" accounts so I pay 1%. I just checked with Citibank. They raised it in November (06) to 5% than, Dec 6 (06), lowered it to the rate you quoted. I have gold also and was pissed and stopped carrying my Citi ATM card anywhere and moved some savings out of Citi. I guess others did likewise. I've been out of touch with the financial scene since I've been traveling so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted June 10, 2007 Report Share Posted June 10, 2007 You guys just have shitty banks. I just took B12k out of the SCB machine in Phrom Pong station (but ATM machine seems to make no difference in my tests). My account in the US was debited $347.36, for an exchange rate of 34.546. Yes, my ATM card is a MasterCard. I never see a fee from my bank. According to the BBL website, they are trading USD big bills at 34.24. According to the Oanda website, the current market rate is 32.939 (obviously the offshore rate). Shop for new banks gentlemen. Cheers, SD OK, Mr. S...what is the name of the bank you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted June 10, 2007 Report Share Posted June 10, 2007 Franklin Bank, a boutique bank with only a few branches catering to wealthy clients (but they let me bank there anyway). I've been with them for 25 years, always been well taken care of and never any dramas with my living abroad and accessing money while overseas. I am sure there are similar banks in the Chicagoland area (and any other major metro area). You just have to search them out and stay away from the conglomerates. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted July 8, 2007 Report Share Posted July 8, 2007 Actually the conglomerates are not all that bad especially if used outside of their HQ country e.g. I've been struggling to find better deals than what citibank offers on many products in europe or asia. That includes fee free international visa debit savings account, but their credit cards do suck majorly with their 1%-5%+ add on fees on foreign currency transactions So only thing to do is to shop around some more Of course AMEX & Diners are the worst suckers around on exchange rates 4% surcharge is the norm, but they of course do their best to hide it or persuade its oh so glamorous to swipe their cards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderlust Posted July 8, 2007 Report Share Posted July 8, 2007 What's this supposed "onshore" and "offshore" rate that I keep hearing? As far as I'm aware the exchange rate you get depends on your bank. For the UK, for example, if you change your GBP into THB at a UK bureau de change you're getting totally scammed. If you use a Visa debit card you get the official Visa exchange rate (about 1% worse than the interbank rate) and then your bank usually charges 2.75% foreign usage fee. You won't see this fee on your statement because it's factored into the exchange rate. On top of that there'll be a £1.50 or so ATM fee. This all still works out better than changing your money in a UK bureau de change. The best thing to do as someone has already said is open a Nationwide account where not only do they not charge any fees but they even absorb the Visa fee so your money gets exchanged at the official interbank rate. Here's a list of ways to change money, cheapest first: Nationwide debit card Bringing cash (GBP) to Thailand and exchanging at a bank's exchange counter Other debit card Exchanging in UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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