ATM usage in Thailand

grahamor

Hi,

Travelling to Thailand for 2 weeks and wondering what's the best option regarding withdrawing cash and paying for tours, meals etc.

Using a PTSB debit card to withdraw cash or do a POS seems expensive so trying to avoid that as much as possible.

Would it make more sense to add a sum of cash to my credit card so it's in credit ? Does this mean i can withdraw cash from an ATM without any costs ?

Finally, what's the best option in Dublin Airport to purchase THB currency ?

Thanks for any advice.

Nody

Your best bet is to exchange the money in Thailand; will give you much better exchange rate. Only do minimal amount at the airport and the rest at your final destination at a bank (airport exchanges are always a rip off). It was a while since I was there but I think you'd incur the same fees using an ATM with a credit card as a normal debit card; once again cash is your best bet even if it carries it's own risk (so make sure to split it and be aware that your hotel room / bags etc. may be checked when you're not there).

grahamor

Thanks for the info, good point about exchanging money outside of the airports.

I spoke to Bank of Ireland and they said if my Credit Card account is in credit then i just pay a 2.25% fee if withdrawing cash, so €5.60 for withdrawing €250.

thomas anderson.

Just back from thailand. Got 1k from aib before going over. Couldnt spend the money. Just used credit card in hotels and paid with cash for everything else

Yggr of Asgard

PTSB will charge you 3.5% of the Euro value of the transaction (min. €3.17 & max. €11.43) if you take out cash out of ATM and 1.75% of the Euro value of the transaction (min. €0.46 and max €11.43) for your Point of Sales transactions in addition to the margin build into the official Visa Rates you can see here.

So your BOI credit card will be cheaper for Cash withdraws (but not POS) if they only charge you the 2.25% foreign conversion fee but remember that you must also have enough credit to cover that fee when withdrawing as otherwise interest applies from the date of the transaction on the fee too.

If you had more time, you could have gotten yourself a Revolut card (or similar), even with their fixed THB rate you would have saved some money.

Also please remember that when you use an ATM in Thailand you will pay a 200 THB ATM fee (which will be added to the amount you withdraw) and several ATM's have a maximum of 20,000 THB per withdraw. Depending on how your card is coded and if you are in Bangkok you could try Citibank or Bank of China to avoid the ATM fee. Also make sure to choose the option of being charged in THB not €, as otherwise you will pay a heavy price.

Your best place to exchange Euro into THB is an money exchange offices, they usually offer great rates, but you need to have your passport and your € needs to be in pristine conditions.

You can usually get good rates at Superrich Thailand or Super Rich International or Vasu Exchange Bangkok .

Changing the money in Ireland is a bad idea, the rates offered here (even those claiming no exchange fee or commission) are usually not great. So you could just change a little bit until you have time to get it done in Thailand for the bus/taxi etc. 

Enjoy your holiday.

grahamor

This is really excellent information, thanks very much.

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

PTSB will charge you 3.5% of the Euro value of the transaction (min. €3.17 & max. €11.43) if you take out cash out of ATM and 1.75% of the Euro value of the transaction (min. €0.46 and max €11.43) for your Point of Sales transactions in addition to the margin build into the official Visa Rates you can see here.

So your BOI credit card will be cheaper for Cash withdraws (but not POS) if they only charge you the 2.25% foreign conversion fee but remember that you must also have enough credit to cover that fee when withdrawing as otherwise interest applies from the date of the transaction on the fee too.

If you had more time, you could have gotten yourself a Revolut card (or similar), even with their fixed THB rate you would have saved some money.

Also please remember that when you use an ATM in Thailand you will pay a 200 THB ATM fee (which will be added to the amount you withdraw) and several ATM's have a maximum of 20,000 THB per withdraw. Depending on how your card is coded and if you are in Bangkok you could try Citibank or Bank of China to avoid the ATM fee. Also make sure to choose the option of being charged in THB not €, as otherwise you will pay a heavy price.

Your best place to exchange Euro into THB is an money exchange offices, they usually offer great rates, but you need to have your passport and your € needs to be in pristine conditions.

You can usually get good rates at Superrich Thailand or Super Rich International or Vasu Exchange Bangkok .

Changing the money in Ireland is a bad idea, the rates offered here (even those claiming no exchange fee or commission) are usually not great. So you could just change a little bit until you have time to get it done in Thailand for the bus/taxi etc. 

Enjoy your holiday.

sector_000

grahamor wrote: »

Hi,

Travelling to Thailand for 2 weeks and wondering what's the best option regarding withdrawing cash and paying for tours, meals etc.

Using a PTSB debit card to withdraw cash or do a POS seems expensive so trying to avoid that as much as possible.

Would it make more sense to add a sum of cash to my credit card so it's in credit ? Does this mean i can withdraw cash from an ATM without any costs ?

Finally, what's the best option in Dublin Airport to purchase THB currency ?

Thanks for any advice.

Get the Revolut (MasterCard debit) card. Fee-free ATM withdrawals in loads of different foreign currencies... up to a certain amount per month. Fee-free spending. Instant top up from your Irish bank account. Foreign exchange rate is within a gnat's eyelash of the spot rate. I used it on a recent trip to south America... saved a packet! I use it on all my Amazon.co.uk purchases. I wish I had shares in the company... what an awesome card!!!

Yggr of Asgard

sector_000 wrote: »

Get the Revolut (MasterCard debit) card. Fee-free ATM withdrawals in loads of different foreign currencies... up to a certain amount per month. Fee-free spending. Instant top up from your Irish bank account. Foreign exchange rate is within a gnat's eyelash of the spot rate. I used it on a recent trip to south America... saved a packet! I use it on all my Amazon.co.uk purchases. I wish I had shares in the company... what an awesome card!!!

THB is treated as illiquid currencies with Revolut which means you will not get the same interbank rates, instead they use their own rate which is significant higher than the interbank rate (and sometimes even the Mastercard/Visa rate) especially as on weekends they also add 1.5% (instead of 0.5%) to the rate determined at Friday 00:00 .

So while Revolut is great usually, for THB the rate you might get from a Money Exchanger is still better.

Also new customers with Revolut now only get free withdraw up to 200£ per month with a 2% fee above that.

So for THB it might make more sense for the OP to use his BOI card in credit than Revolut if he wants the amount he is talking about.

And if he invests the time to go to a Money exchanger he will get even more THB for his €.