Any problems exchanging currencies of lower denominations?

[JimmyJ]

Exchanging USD for THB I've noticed that the best rates are for 100's and 50's, and a lesser rate for 20's (and 10's ?), and I think that's the lowest the booths take.

 

What about other currencies? Especially of neighboring countries?

Do I get stuck with lower denom bills?

Will gold shops that exchange take all denoms?

[jackdd]

In general they don't take coins.

Money exchangers will probably also not exchange very small denominations, but where they set the limit does of course depend and might vary from one company to another (If you have notes like 1000 Laos Kip or 500 Vietnam Dong you will probably not find anybody who wants them, you might use them to light your cigars)

For example Superrich list it on their website, they exchange 1 USD notes https://www.superrichthailand.com/#!/en/exchange

Edited September 5, 2018 by jackdd

[Burma Bill]

From my experience money exchanges at Don Meaung (DMK) will not take low denomination notes from Laos (Kip), Vietnam (Dong) and Cambodia (Riel). On return from Burma I was left in possession of many "Chats" which I could not exchange in Thailand. Before leaving Burma, change your "Chats" at many of the street money exchanges into the currency of your destination country. 

[JimmyJ]

SuperRich would not take 5k denom VND bills of which I had 4 (total spot value 86 cents USD).

 

They took 10k's.

 

I assumed because they were too small but was told "They"re too old".

 

They paid 0.12 with market being 0.14 so I lost -~ 15%.

Luckily I didn't have much and lost about $30 USD vs. market.

 

Same rate for all bills they accepted - 1 million to 10k.

[jackdd]

1 hour ago, JimmyJ said:

They paid 0.12 with market being 0.14 so I lost -~ 15%.

Luckily I didn't have much and lost about $30 USD vs. market.

Your numbers are wrong, you can't use a fictional number like market rate to calculate your loss when exchanging money (the current market rate for VND is higher than the selling price of VND from Superrich, so if you could get this rate you should buy all VND from Superrich and become rich ;))

Superrich is buying VND for 1.38 (for 1000) and selling for 1.40. So the spread is 0.02, when you make a transaction you lose half the spread.

When you sold your VND to Superrich you lost 0.01/1.38*100 = 0.72% which meas you lost a bit more than 1 USD

 

 

[JimmyJ]

6 hours ago, jackdd said:

Your numbers are wrong, you can't use a fictional number like market rate to calculate your loss when exchanging money (the current market rate for VND is higher than the selling price of VND from Superrich, so if you could get this rate you should buy all VND from Superrich and become rich ;))

Superrich is buying VND for 1.38 (for 1000) and selling for 1.40. So the spread is 0.02, when you make a transaction you lose half the spread.

When you sold your VND to Superrich you lost 0.01/1.38*100 = 0.72% which meas you lost a bit more than 1 USD

 

 

Thanks for explaining.

 

I'm trying to understand the derivation of your numbers to get a better understanding of how this works.

 

SuperRich told me they are paying .0012 THB for 1.00 VND.

 

This does not mean they are buying VND for 1.20 THB/1000, which is what I was paid, but for 1.38/1000?

 

[jackdd]

I took the numbers from their website https://www.superrichthailand.com/#!/en/exchange#rate-section

According to their website some of their branches are buying for 1.33 and some for 1.38 today, none as low as 1.20

Calculating with a 1.33 buy rate you would have lost about 0.035/1.33*100 = 2.6%

Edited September 11, 2018 by jackdd

[JimmyJ]

43 minutes ago, jackdd said:

I took the numbers from their website https://www.superrichthailand.com/#!/en/exchange#rate-section

According to their website some of their branches are buying for 1.33 and some for 1.38 today, none as low as 1.20

Calculating with a 1.33 buy rate you would have lost about 0.035/1.33*100 = 2.6%

As previously stated, I was quoted .0012 and I was paid at .0012.

 

VND was not quoted on their TV screen.

I may have never seen VND on any exchange's screen in Thailand.

 

I never checked the website because I never considered that individual offices use different prices.

 

Was I cheated here?

 

Staff at this office skimming?

 

This occurred earlier today in CM on Rathviti across from the UN Pub.

Edited September 11, 2018 by JimmyJ

[jackdd]

There are many companies who copied the name "Superrich".

It seems that "Superrich Thailand" doesn't have a branch in Chiang Mai, so you used another Company, which does have nothing to do with "Superrich Thailand" and probably just gave you a worse rate.

[JimmyJ]

55 minutes ago, jackdd said:

There are many companies who copied the name "Superrich".

It seems that "Superrich Thailand" doesn't have a branch in Chiang Mai, so you used another Company, which does have nothing to do with "Superrich Thailand" and probably just gave you a worse rate.

Yes, thanks for spotting this.

Looks like I got suckered.

 

I've noticed the many Super Rich versions but when I was here in July, for some reason I no longer recall I thought this was a real branch.

 

It appears that Superrich Thailand is only located in Bangkok.

 

Ugh!

I'm going to Bangkok in a month and would've waited if I'd realized it.

 

At least I know to wait to change my MYR of which I have a lot more.

 

Outside of using Superrich Thailand in Bangkok, I'd do best by using an ATM in the future for USD to THB in other cities in Thailand.

And saving other currencies for visits to Bangkok.

Edited September 11, 2018 by JimmyJ