RSD1

Yes, that was eventually a dealbreaker for me too. I was using it for a while initially and had it connected to a local Thai bank account. But then eventually, they wanted a photo of me holding up my passport in order for me to continue using their service. Basically, I'm not particularly comfortable sending a photo of me holding up my passport via an app in Thailand to a Thai fintech company for security reasons. So that's when I stopped using it completely. In my non-expert opinion, I feel like it's only a matter of time before these Thai companies get hacked and all their customer data gets compromised. I rather not take the risk of a bunch of hackers getting hold of a photo of me holding up my passport. But now I don't need to use it anyway. I have my Wise digital card saved in my smart phone wallet and in my smart watch wallet and I just make payments wirelessly throughout Thailand that way which is much faster than scanning a QR code from the True Money Wallet app to make a payment. I now just tap my phone or my watch on a payment proximity sensor and my payment is done in a second.

According to the following link, they charge £1.5 for a bank transfer to a Thai bank account: https://www.revolut.com/money-transfer/send-money-to-thailand/ But as a comparison, Wise would only charge you ฿44.76 as a transfer fee. So Wise would be slightly cheaper on the bank transfer fee.

In the past I used to use a BBL deposit for extending my Visa, but when I discovered that it takes a week for them to generate a 12 month bank statement, which requires two trips to the bank, one to order the statement and then a second trip to pick it up, I simply stopped banking with them. Too much hassle. Most other banks can give you a printed twelve month statement on your account within a matter of minutes normally. No one week delay and multiple trips to the bank required like with BBL.

Correct on both. But at this point it seems that the TRD is really only focused on taxing residents on their overseas bank transfers into Thailand.

I doubt there would be any difference in Revolut’s fees between the UK and the USA. For comparison with Wise though, if you exchanged £1,000 into baht within your Wise account, they would charge a fee of roughly 0.54% for the currency conversion, which would be just under £6. Wise would then charge an additional ฿44.76 to transfer the baht from your Wise account to your KBank account in Thailand. With Wise, transfers under ฿50,000 typically take only a few seconds to reach your Thai bank account too. The key difference between Revolut and Wise is that if you transferred £1,000 a second time within the same month from your Revolut account to your Thai baht bank account, Revolut would charge a 1% fee, whereas Wise would still only charge around 0.54%. This means that after the first £1,000 transfer in a month, Revolut is no longer cheaper or fee-free when compared to Wise.

Yes BBL poses many banking inconveniences. And there are lots of better banking options in Thailand; SCB, KBank, and UOB are all good alternatives. So no reason to stick with BBL if you aren't happy with their service.

Yep, no reason for you to switch. Wise and Revolut are essentially the same when it comes to making card payments. Wise charges a small fee of $3 to $5 on your first $1,000 of purchases per month when it involves a currency conversion, while Revolut has no fees on the first $1,000. However, the fee difference is so minimal that it’s not worth switching from Wise to Revolut just to save a few dollars over the course of a month, at least not for me.

Yes, but with the caveat that this only applies to payments in Thailand totaling less than the equivalent of $1,000 per month on a Revolut card. When comparing the card spending costs of Revolut to Wise, which is the focus of the original post, Wise will only charge between $3 and $5 in currency exchange fees on $1,000 worth of purchases made with your Wise card. In my opinion, the cost difference between these two Fintech companies is so minimal that it’s not even worth worrying about. I’m not entirely sure what point you’re making, but I believe there are many foreign residents in Thailand who spend over $1,000 a month for purchases using their Wise debit cards. In fact, I think this number has increased this year. And yes, I am referring mainly to foreign residents in Thailand rather than tourists or digital nomads, because the majority of the people posting on this site are mainly residents. The increase in spending on Wise cards in Thailand is likely due to the recent changes in Thai tax regulations where money transferred from overseas into a Thai bank account is now subject to personal income tax if you reside in Thailand for more than 180 days per year, and this applies to both foreigners and to locals alike. As a result, many people are now choosing to spend money in Thailand using overseas credit and debit cards to avoid transferring funds into their Thai bank accounts and potentially being taxed on that money.

Interactive Brokers is primarily designed as a trading platform for equities and securities rather than a traditional bank. While they offer features like multi-currency accounts, FDIC protection on cash balances, excellent exchange rates, and the ability to hold cash, using the platform purely as a “bank account” may not align with their intended purpose. That said, IBKR generally doesn’t restrict how you use your account, provided you comply with their terms and conditions. However, if your activity involves little to no trading or investing, and instead focuses only on depositing, holding, converting, exchanging, and withdrawing cash, they might take notice, particularly if it is large amounts that might raise regulatory concerns for them. To avoid potential issues, it’s a good idea to conduct occasional trading activity on the account. Their trading fees are very low, almost negligible, so making one or two small stock trades per year, such as trading penny stocks, can demonstrate satisfactory trading activity on the account, but without requiring a financial investment of more than a few dollars.

I spoke with Interactive Brokers earlier, and while Thai baht is listed among the available currencies for conversions on the drop down menu when performing a currency exchange on the platform, this can be a bit misleading. They explained that baht appears on the list because, in some cases, people sell Thai securities, which settle in baht before being automatically converted to the currency of their choice. However, Thai baht is not currently available for standard currency conversions on the platform. That said, they mentioned it could be added in the future, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.

As I explained in another response to another one of your posts, Revolut has a $1,000 monthly limit for fee-free currency exchange. On the other hand, exchanging $1,000 to Baht on Wise only incurs a fee of about $5.40, hardly worth worrying about. Additionally, once you exceed the $1,000 monthly limit with Revolut, fees of 1% start to apply, so the difference becomes negligible. In my case, I keep multiple currencies in my Wise account, allowing me to exchange into Baht when the rates are most favorable for me. While timing an exchange perfectly to get the best rate can be challenging, and you risk getting whipsawed if you’re essentially trying to trade currencies, I’m not under any time constraints. I simply exchange when the rate is good and in my favor, doing so in increments over time. This approach helps me achieve a favorable cost average when converting to Baht over time. And at times when the Baht is too strong, I simply either don't exchange at all or I exchange minimal amounts.

That’s fine, but for many people, Revolut’s $1,000 monthly limit for fee-free currency exchange is quite low. On the other hand, exchanging $1,000 to Baht on Wise only incurs a fee of about $5.40, hardly worth worrying about. Additionally, once you exceed the $1,000 limit with Revolut, fees start to apply there as well at a rate of 1%, so the difference becomes negligible.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe that's correct. All debit card purchases also go through either the MasterCard or Visa card system for processing. And I believe anytime a payment goes through one of those systems, whether it's from a debit card or a credit card, their fees still apply and are levied upon the vendor receiving the card payment.

Yes, perfect. But this topic is specifically a discussion about fees on currency exchange and a comparison between fees from both Wise and Revolut on that specific topic.

Correct, Wise doesn't show account details for transferring Thai baht into Wise because you are not allowed to transfer Thai baht into a Wise account. This is a central Bank of Thailand anti-money laundering policy I believe. But you can exchange any other currency already held within your Wise account into Thai Baht and then further transfer that Thai Baht from your Wise account into a Thai bank account in Thailand for a fee of approximately ฿47 per transfer.

As I already wrote as a response on a previous post, perhaps the source of confusion is that some vendors in Thailand, particularly small businesses or those operating with very narrow profit margins, may charge a 3% fee for payments made with a debit or credit card. This policy is not related to whether the card is from an overseas provider (like Wise or Revolut) or a local bank. The same fee applies regardless of the card’s origin. Essentially, this surcharge is the vendor’s way of covering the fees they incur from Mastercard or Visa for processing card payments, rather than absorbing those costs themselves.

Your welcome. Best wishes with it.

Sorry, but not true. Once you add the Thai Baht currency to your Wise account then you can hold THB in a Wise spending account and you can also create THB jars. At the moment, I have THB in my Wise spending account and I also have multiple jars with THB in them as well. So it definitely works and it's definitely possible.

Interactive Brokers is great for getting the Interbank rate on all currency exchanges without fees or limit, but, as far as I know, they still don't offer exchanges into Thai Baht. Not yet anyway, but possibly they will offer it in the future.

I can't say about Revolut, but I have a Wise card and I use it in Thailand daily and I have never gotten charged any surcharge at all by any vendor for using an overseas card. Perhaps where you're getting confused is that some vendors in Thailand, particularly if they are a small business, will charge a 3% fee for you to use a debit card or a credit card to make payment for your purchase. This policy has nothing to do with the card being from overseas or not and they would still charge you the same fee even if you were using a local card. It is merely the vendor tacking on a 3% surcharge to your purchase to cover their own fees that they will be charged either from MasterCard or Visa when accepting a payment from a customer who is using a debit or credit card. In those cases where the vendor tells me that there is going to be a 3% surcharge for using my card, then I normally just pay in cash or via bank transfer by scanning a QR code. With bank transfer, they won't charge you the extra 3% surcharge because they don't incur any fee for receiving the money electronically using this method.

Wise typically charges around 0.54% to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht. Not particularly inexpensive any longer, but still convenient.

All I know is that they deduct 30% from the interest I earn on my Wise account balances. And the address on my Wise account isn't in Thailand.

That's fine. But my point was this post is really about comparing currency exchange fees between the two services. Nothing to do with transferring money into your Wise account from a pension or to be used towards a retirement visa in Thailand. Just clarifying.

Yes, they both offer the midmarket rate. But Interactive Brokers has no limit on exchanging at the mid market rate without fees whereas Revolut does have a limit and then starts charging fees. See below: When converting US dollars (USD) to Thai baht (THB) in your Revolut account, the fees depend on your subscription plan, the amount exchanged, and the timing of the transaction. Here’s a breakdown: • Standard Plan: • Exchanges up to $1,000 per month are free on weekdays. • A 1% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit. • Plus Plan: • Exchanges up to $3,000 per month are free on weekdays. • A 0.5% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit. The plus plan carries a fee of £40 per year. So Revolut is free on currency exchange only up to a maximum of $1,000 per month on their free standard plan. Revolut also charges a standard 1% fee on all weekend currency exchanges, regardless of plan or account type.

Thanks. Good to know. 👍🏼