RSD1

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. 👍🏼

Great, but none if what you wrote addresses the issue of fees on currency exchange from Wise versus Revolut, which is the point of this whole topic. Perhaps you seemed to miss that?

If you have a Thailand address on your account then the feature to order both physical and digital cards won't be available to you. If you are able to use your UK address on your Wise account as your residence address then the card features will appear. Basically Wise is only licensed to issue cards in the UK, European countries, the USA and possibly a few other countries. That's why it's all based on your residence address on your Wise account.

As far as I know, merchants never charge for using a foreign credit or debit card. The foreign card fees are normally levied by your bank.

As far as I know, IBKR does not offer conversions into THB from other currencies.

First, I transfer a foreign currency (dollars, euros, pounds) into my Wise account. I then convert it to Thai Baht when the exchange rate is most favorable. After that, I maintain a Thai Baht balance in my Wise account to spend from. This ensures that all my transactions are made from my Thai Baht balance, avoiding conversion fees on each individual card transaction. Wise typically charges around 0.54% to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht. Revolut, on the other hand, allows you to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht at the interbank rate with no exchange fee, but only up to $1,000 per month on the free plan. After that, they charge a 1% fee on exchanges. In essence, if you were to spend the equivalent of $2,000 in a month using their cards, the fees would end up being roughly the same (around 1%) with both Wise and Revolut.

30% tax withholding on all interest earned is deducted and paid to the Belgian government. No refunds.

I don't understand what you mean. I make lots of card payments from my Wise account using both physical and digital Wise cards and it never costs me anything to use those cards. No fees of any kind. So how could Revolut be cheaper for this purpose?

In my opinion, neither Wise or Revolut is ideal for exchanging money between dollars, pounds, euros, or for holding cash in multiple currencies. A better alternative is an Interactive Brokers account, which can be set up online quickly. Once your funds are in the account, you can exchange between these three currencies as well as Australian dollars, New Zealand dollars, Canadian dollars, Japanese yen, Hong Kong dollars, and Singapore dollars. In total, Interactive Brokers supports 26 currencies, and all exchanges are done at the mid-market rate with no fees. By comparison, while Wise also provides the mid-market rate for most of these currencies, it charges an average fee of about 0.3% of the amount being exchanged. Additionally, if you hold U.S. dollars in your Interactive Brokers account, they are FDIC-protected, unlike with Wise. For spending purposes, you can transfer funds from your Interactive Brokers account to your Wise account. Interactive Brokers allows one free transfer to Wise per month, with subsequent transfers costing just $1 each. It’s also very easy to link an Interactive Brokers account directly to a Wise account, and transfers typically arrive within 24 hours.