Nationwide Bank Atm Withdrawals

[markhuahin]

On Friday the 26th of January the Thai Baht for some reason was very

strong against other currencies. It went from 69.5 baht to the

UK pound to 65.4 in one day and an all time low against the dollar down to

33.4. This of course certainly gave me a nervous weekend as like a great

deal of other expats here all my income is in Pounds Sterling. Thankfully

on the Monday the 29th of January it went back to 69.00 baht to the pound

and has been around the 70 baht figure up to now.

This was a very strange occurrence and I don't know why this happened if

any one does I would be grateful for their input.

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not but ever since the 26th of January I have had some

problems with the rate of exchange when I make withdrawals from my UK

Nationwide Bank Flexaccount. I have used this account for the last two years making several withdrawals every

week from all the major Thai Bank ATM's. As many people are aware the good thing about this particular bank

account is that there are no extra charges for withdrawing money and the rate of exchange is the same as the

buying rate (onshore rate) here e.g. todays rate is 69.52 Thai Baht to the UK pound

therefore if I withdrew money from my Nationwide account I would

normally get that rate. Unfortunately since the 26th I have been getting

anything from 2 to 4 Baht less than the buying rate e.g on the 30th of

January I withdrew money and got a rate of 65.5 Baht to the pound and the

actual rate in Thailand was 69.3. I have made a few more

withdrawals since then and all have been way out. Has anyone experienced

similar problems? If anyone has an explanation I would be obliged if they

would post their comments.