jfchandler

Those with a fair amount of money in a Thai bank are unlikely to be making withdrawals using a foreign debit card. Usually they will be withdrawing cash from their Thai bank accounts.

There's really NO reason to continue debating about this...

For those who MAKE their money in Thailand, it's easy/easier to keep and pull money from your Thai bank accounts.

For those who MAKE their money abroad but live or visit here, ATMs, preferably fee-free, provide an easy means to withdraw funds from foreign accounts while staying here.

However, I think in the real world, you'll find that even those people who make their money abroad, but live here, also have local Thai bank accounts they use for various reasons. But they still need to access their foreign-earned funds here...

For anyone here who has actually paid the 150 baht fee on non-Thai ATM card withdrawals lately, via Kasikorn or any of the others, it would be interesting and useful to know the following:

When the withdrawal showed up in your online banking ledger for your home country bank account, was it listed as a single withdrawal amount only (the cash you took plus the 150 baht amount combined together), or as two separate withdrawal amounts (the cash you took as the first item, and the 150 baht fee as a separate second item)???

That has significance because, for those who have home banks that reimburse for other banks' ATM fees that you may incur, they do so much more readily when the ATM fee gets posted as a separate, distinct charge. Getting your home bank to reimburse the fee when its rolled into your withdrawal amount may be a fair bit more difficult.

Ilgitano...I believe you'll find that "yesterday" in Thailand was Friday (not Saturday), the 15th...

And today is Saturday (not Sunday), the 16th...

unless you've created your own international date line....

www.Choco-schmidt.com - they got glutenfree muffin mixes and bread too I assume..

German Quality!!

I looked at their web site, and reviewed the product list they have online for baking products. I see nothing on their PDF list that shows anything about gluten-free baking products being available there.

Do you have some experience with gluten-free products from them, or are you just guessing?

See the following post in another thread re spelt flour available in BKK...

Just an FYI....

In shopping at Villa Market in BKK the other day, I was surprised to see 2 lbs. (907g) packages of Arrowhead Mills Organic Spelt Flour for sale on the shelf in the bakery section, priced at 255 baht per package.

I don't recall ever seeing that product stocked by Villa before, though they certainly do carry other Arrowhead Mills products, including some cereals.

That price for spelt flour is a fair amount less expensive than the 500g packages of Spelt flour for sale at Verasu's shops...

On the medical side, I do know spelt DOES contain gluten, similar to wheat flours and such. However, some people who are allergic to wheat supposedly can tolerate spelt without problems.

Briggsy... a couple points...

1. The signs on the Bank of Ayudhya ATMs say they will do dynamic currency conversion for U.S. $ and EUR-based MasterCards... not only for U.S. $.

2. Regarding the 150 baht ATM fee, which was originated by the Thai Bankers Assn., I believe the Bank of Ayudhya is a member of that group, but apparently the Government Savings Bank is not... That may be because GSB is essentially an arm of the Thai government.

The OP is a 21 year old female. I don't think she is looking for 'women falling out of the trees.

She MIGHT be....

Government Savings Bank (the pink colored one) appears to still be ATM fee-free.

They have a regular branch on Suk Road near the Emporium Shopping Center, an ATM in the Asoke-Sukhumvit BTS/MRT complex, and another branch (regional office) up on Phahon Yothin Road.

Anyone else spotted other GSB ATM locations around BKK?

Thanks JGM...

Re Government Savings Bank, they also have a regular branch on Sukhumvit Road near the Emporium Shopping Center, around Suk Soi 24.

Anyone else spotted other GSB ATMs around farang areas???

Now that Kasikorn Bank appears to have implemented the 150 baht ATM fee, this becomes a more pressing question re Bank of Ayudhya....

The stickers on their ATMs say Dynamic Currency Conversion (read... BAD EXCHANGE RATE) will occur with MasterCard branded cards....

But, what happens if someone is using a VISA branded card, or an ATM only card that isn't VISA or MC??? Will Ayudhya still apply DCC to those, or a different standard rate???

Someone should try Government Savings Bank ATMs as of Sat or after... and see if they are still fee-free...and not doing any kind of bad exchange rate schemes...

I also netted a 34.18 rate from my Friday night Kasikorn withdrawal... So Ayudhya is definitely LOW.....

This morning/Saturday, there also is a report from another poster in the related thread on this subject that Kasikorn ATM has begun charging the 150 baht fee as of today...

These are the first reports of Kasikorn beginning to charge the 150 baht ATM fee... one here above..and another today by a different poster in the other related thread on this subject. Can anyone else confirm from a transaction today/Saturday??

I used a Kasikorn ATM in BKK last night/Friday, and there was no fee then. But now is Saturday....

To AjarnPim, I used Kasikorn ATM on Friday night in BKK, and there was no fee, same as always... at least until now.

Villa has a couple of kinds of frozen hamburger patties...

--three-patty packs of smaller Thai French burgers for 62 baht (200g, so about 67g each)

--two-patty "hamburger" packs formed like cube steaks (each patty at 113g) for 42 baht

The smaller patties fry up pretty dry and not much taste. But the larger patties, presumably with a higher fat content though the packages don't say, fry up tender, juicy and tasting great... They're my favorite for homemade burgers... Gotta have some fat content in the beef to make a good hamburger.

The prior post, coming from government media, contains yet another backhanded suggestion that the two women drank themselves to death, even though the fiance of the American woman has consistently maintained that they were not drinking alcohol that night. The politicos tour sounds much more like a PR event than any effort at a serious investigative inquiry.

As I mentioned above, I did a Kasikorn atm withdrawal in bKK at midday on tuesday, and am absolutely clear there was no atm fee charged today, or any time previously by Kasikorn. As for the future...no one knows....

I had Kasikorn ATM withdrawal about noon today/Tues., using a U.S. MC logo debit card.

No ATM fee of course. Exchange rate 34.72.

Interesting ...

I had a Kasikorn withdrawal at a ATM at the branch ATM in City Center

(using that description loosely) withdrawal at 12:36pm > today >12/May

NO FEE

But and this made me check and double check the rate was 34.4699949104 using Capital One M/M ATM

jgm, I don't know how to explain that... My Kasikorn withdrawal was in bkK at 12:20 pm Tues...almost the identical time as yours. Mine was in central bkk, but you're upcountry...though that shouldn't make any difference in terms of rates.

I know Cap One doesn't charge any foreign currency fee/cut on their credit cards. but I don't know if they have that same policy re their bank account debit cards. The difference between your rate and mine seems almost about 1% of 34 baht.. ie.... .34 baht... I know my home U.S. bank does not charge me any foreign currency fee when using their debit card here, though MC does take their 1%n cut out of the exchange rate.

[i did a SCB withdrawal on April 18th and the receipt shows the 150 baht fee separately. Fidelity did not refund the fee so it's apparently not coded as an ATM fee, but lumped into the amount.

That's strange.. You might think, if the fee is listed out separately on your paper atm receipt, then it would also show up separately when the charge is posted to your home bank, and you check/see the transaction listed in your online banking.... How did it post in your online banking account???

But I know it doesn't always work that way... back in the early days when scb was doing their 20 baht fee...my receipt showed the fee separately the first time, but it wasn't shown separately when it surfaced in my online banking account...

However, my home bank advised that in those situations, if there was really an atm fee and I had the receipt to show it, I could send them the atm receipt or receipts and they would reimburse based on those... (I never again used an SCB atm after that, so it didn't matter for me. but if I had needed to do that, mailing atm receipts back to the U.s. might be as expensive as the atm fee itself, unless you save them up and mail in batches.

I had Kasikorn ATM withdrawal about noon today/Tues., using a U.S. MC logo debit card.

No ATM fee of course. Exchange rate 34.72.

Ray, I stopped using SCB for ATM withdrawals after they began charging the 20 baht fee, and of course, have not returned since they later upped the fee to 150 baht per withdrawal.

When SCB had the 20 baht fee, it was listed separately as a fee on their paper ATM withdrawal slips. What's happening now with the 150 baht fee, in terms of the paper receipt the ATM machine prints with your withdrawal?

The paper receipt is showing a 150 baht fee as a separate item apart from your withdrawal, or it's only showing your withdrawal amount, given at a reduced exchange rate???

The actual wording in the narration of the video is... threatened to "put down their tools..." and stop working.

I wonder whose tools those ladies might be holding during working hours???

There are several ThaiVisa threads on this subject -- the best information that has emerged is that there are four Thai banks that are not charging the new Thai 150 Baht usury fee at their ATMs if you use a DEBIT CARD from a foreign account. If you're using a CREDIT CARD, the situation is different and that may be why you're paying fees on the Thai side.

I'd expand on this a bit. The new 150 baht Thai fee applies to foreign cards used in ATMs here (except for the 4 or so Thai banks not yet charging it), including both foreign debit and credit cards.

So if someone is using a foreign credit card here in LOS to withdraw month from a Thai bank ATM, they'll either get or not get the 150 baht fee depending on which Thai bank company ATM they use. And then, then they'll usually get a 3% cash advance fee on the amount withdrawn from their home bank, plus possibly an additional % fee or flat amount fee for foreign currency, depending on their home bank's policy. All those fees really begin to add up, especially when pulling money with a credit card. Plus you usually begin getting charged interest from day 1... no grace period.

Regarding Etrade and their Max Rate checking account, as I believe I've also replied before...

E-Trade has a $15 monthly fee unless you meet any of several conditions to have it waived.

Those include:

* Maintain a minimum average balance of $5,000 in your Max-Rate Checking Account

* Set up and maintain a direct deposit of $200 or more per month (A combination of direct deposits totaling $200 does not satisfy this requirement)

* Maintain a combined balance of $50,000 or more in linked E*TRADE Securities, E*TRADE Bank, and employee stock plan accounts (including vested in-the-money options, stock option plan shares, ESPP shares, and released restricted stock) accounts

* Execute at least 30 stock or options trades during a calendar quarter in a linked E*TRADE Securities account

I like E-Trade and am a customer of theirs... But they've been really cutting their interest rates lately, even far below most of their competitors... So now their checking account pays only .4% (4/10s of one percent) interest on balances of $5,000 and above.

Unless you already have other accounts with E-Trade that cause the fee to be waived, it's a lot of money to leave around earning nothing in order to avoid a $15 per month fee. There are other similarly featured deals to be had without all the conditions, such as Schwab's accounts. But if you can avoid the E-Trade fee, it's a nice account to have, and their ACH transfers are quick.

OMR... I don't think we can hope for much from ASN regarding the NBA.... In reviewing their web site the other day, they had programming rights agreements with the NFL and NHL, but nothing with the MLB and NBA.... at least...not yet.

About the NBA online audiocast I mentioned in the prior post, I tried it with the early morning playoff games and it did not work. Whenever I tried the links, I got a recording saying ...try again during our broadcasting hours.... Well, it was two games of NBA playoffs, and I couldn't get any audio feed there any time during the two games. I also tried it both with my local thai internet connection, and with a U.S. based VPN just in case, and it didn't make any difference or resolve the problem.

I did watch the morning NBA games on a Ustream feed.... ustream.tv/channel/ and then something like NBAguy

I also listened to the games at time via ESPN radio online. They didn't do the first game, but did do the second game this morning.

The other day, I also was able to listen to the Lakers game via their Los Angeles radio affiliate...KLAC.