Bangkok - Exchanging Money (Not Airport)

[Guest]

UPser,

I pay hard currency to avoid the c/c surcharge...I don't think you could get a better price for paying cash as it seems most Thais (at least the ones I have encountered) normally pay cash....

About importing foriegn cash, I am not 100% certain on this as I have not looked at it in a long time but I believe there is a customs limit of 10,000 Baht per person. If you have more than 10,000Baht then you must declare it...I think I have seen this on the customs declaration forms you get on the plane....

Will be travelling to BKK this friday so I will check this out and report back. Weekend of Golf at Royal Springfield in Hua Hin...

Sanukboot.

[CosmicSurfer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Escape Rabbit:

My experience is it is very normal for businesses of every kind in Thailand to add 2-4% to the bill if you pull out a Visa card. If it is against Visa/MC policy (which makes sense), it would be nice if Visa/MC did something about this. Out of principle, I've made it a policy to pay cash if I can and if not walk unless they wave the surcharge.

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You are more patient with this policy than I am... Generaly I refuse to pay the rip-off surcharge and let the manager know that if he insists on charging it to me I will notify Visa & MC etc, and he will lose all ability to take any card in the future.

This usually works. Thai regulating banks must be just as pissed about the lose of revenue as I am about the rip-off... maybe if more places were reported there would be less of this type of fraud.

But I didn't know that AmEx doesn't have the same policy... and as AmEx is my only card these days, I'll continue to apply the same response if I'm threatened with a sur-charge again... I'm sure the Thai managers, who must be aware of the Visa/MC policy anyway, are not that informed about the AmEx policy... if there actually is a differece, which I doubt, as it is not in AmEx interest to let it slide.

CS

[Guest]

The cc surcharge annoys me to no end also, since we can not get away with it here ( usa).

I think if it were a large transaction, of a few 100$$ a complaint to the cc company mite see some action.

But for now, TIT. take it or leave it

( as a travel agent told me when I griped buying a discount ticket with my cc)

Something I was wondering about the $10k limit going out of usa:

what about someone with a say $50K limit on their cc, and taking it to the max over a few weeks ( imagine you condition after spending that much on booze, women, fun, and wasting the rest) how would they ( gov) controll that? ( spending over $10k, not the fun stuff)

I think customs is a bit serious about the $10k limit, as I have been taken aside, questioned, searched. b4 boarding the plane from usa to los. ( guess I looked like I had big plans).

[Guest]

pasathai--

If you're assuming that the 50k is taken out in BKK as a CASH advance.. If so, then the govt (Thai) will know about it. In Thailand any cash payout transaction that exceeds B440,000 (or roughly US$10,000) is reported by the disbursing agent.

If you're talking about EXPORTING more than US$10,000 (in us dollar or equiv in foreign) FROM the us then you DO have to file a US Treasury form 4789 prior to (the cash) leaving the us... Plus you can't intentionally "structure" exports of currency to avoid the reporting requirements (also known as "smurfing") This is a violation of 31 CFR 130.53

Exporting of CREDIT is not regulated by the US, nor is using credit reported in Thailand.

As a sideline comment, most people would be very suprised to learn how viligent the US Customs service is about inspecting OUTBOUND letters/packages from the USA (doesn't matter if going by regular postal service or other carriers) looking for illegal items (currency being one hot item)

--UPSer