where to put money for 3 month trip with little charges?

[WorldFun]

several banks in most decent countries (with decent competetive financial regulations) offer free atm use abroad among other 'perks'.

 

however that is that charge from the card issuer.

whether any ATM would choose or be able to charge a fee direct for a withdrawal transaction is entirely up to the atm owner & current regulations in country.

 

previously no ATM I encountered in LOS did that, but last couple of months several have introduced 20bt fees including the yellow (ayudthaya which previously I was big fan of no more!).

remaining free ones include TMB, KTB, kasikorn, bangkok - at least with my foreign cards ;-)

[br28016]

Thanks for the update on charges by ATM providers. Been about a year since I was in Thailand so interesting to know that several ATMs are charging and irritating to know that this is becoming more common.

 

Do they tell you in advance that they will charge ? Suspect the banks you listed as free are the ones I'm used in the past and hopefully will remain free although suspect that if they current charging banks continue to make money they'll all move to charging.

 

I guess I'm just to used to free banking in the UK and banking at Nationwide I've got used to free bank withdrawals abroad so oppposed to having to pay anything.

 

[robaus]

I mainly use Wizard Clear Advantage MasterCard. It's brilliant - for Aussie residents only. http://www.wizard.com.au/creditcards/task.aspx?id=580. Absolutely no overseas charges, no annual fee, and no need for special bank account with nasty creeping monthly fees (NAB?) - completely free!! and from examining my account I have been getting a better rate than even travellers cheques which pay a higher rate than cash at the Pattaya bank kiosks.

 

I have my money earning good interest in another Aussie bank, then use netbanking and Bpay every so often to top up my Wizard account, so it operates like a debit card and I never pay any overdue fees. No frequent flyer perks etc, but I don't care.

 

Apply well in the advance, because they make you jump through a few ID verification hoops before you can use it overseas. Try it out by withdrawing more than A$500 in one hit at an Aussie ATM before you leave to make sure everything is running smoothly. They'll allow you to take out less than $500 overseas WITHOUT the verification, but if you stuff up... bugger, your card will be frozen. So get the verification before you leave.

 

You can only withdraw max A$1,000 per day

 

[..]

previously no ATM I encountered in LOS did that, but last couple of months several have introduced 20bt fees including the yellow (ayudthaya which previously I was big fan of no more!).

remaining free ones include TMB, KTB, kasikorn, bangkok - at least with my foreign cards ;-)

Odd, I get charged B20 only at SCB (Siam Commercial Bank). I use BoA (the yellow one) often, and K-Bank, Siam City, Bangkok Bank, and no charge yet.

 

Cheers,

SD

[WorldFun]

Yes SCB definitely is one of the banks charging the 20bt as well - might be mistaken about the yellow one - I might retry

cheers

[unit731]

As I have stated before, I take more than one ATM card.

 

One bank machine in Pattaya 'ate' my card and that bank - I forget name - basically had no way to enter machine and retrieve card. This was a real bank machine - not some store ATM. The bank office was up the soi and no one there had the capablilty to retrieve card 'lost' in their ATM machine.

 

One of my other ATM cards did not work at some ATM's - bank ATM's. The one right in front of Landmark Hotel - did not work. The card did work at other bank ATM's.