Withdrawing cash and opening bank account in Pattaya

[jbob]

Normally I stroll on over to my local TMB atm and withdraw 30k at a time but to my surprise it was not there anymore so I decided to try one of these over the counter withdrawals from Bangkok bank in Central Festival and try and open a bank account while I was there.

 

Getting the cash was super easy, just took my ATM card and passport to the counter, asked for 30k, signed receipt and passport copy and done with no 220b atm fee. 30k cost me US$948.07 ($1:31.64b) and my bank will charge me 3% so $28.44 making my effective rate 30.72b. Today google says 1 USD = 31.74 for what its worth

 

Opening a bank account on the other hand was a pain, waiting took 30 mins and they wanted 7000b. 5900 for some BS travel insurance that I found out (from my real estate agent) you don't need (very misleading) then they deposit 700b and give you a debit card so I guess that costs 400b. Once I work out what to say to not pay the insurance for which I already have cover from travel insurance they just want passport and copy of contract (not residency certificate like the first time I did it under business visa, this time is just METV). Not looking forward to that but it will allow me to use transferwise which I am looking forward too ????

 

Googled this up this morning and didn't find any recent good info specific to Pattaya thus this post

[jbob]

Day 2: Wanted another 40,000 so checked my card limits then went to the same bank with the same card just asking for 40,000b this time and as the lady is swiping the card my pocket vibrates, "Unusual activity detected on your card" bugger! So I open the app, verify all the charges and ask her to try again. She comes back almost straight away and says "No accept your card". Don't you love bankers and their universal "we don't care because we don't have too" attitude. 

Plan B, I went to TMB and tried to do the same thing but they told me "no have machine" fair enough, Kasikorn Bank same thing. Pro tip, show the lady giving out the que tickets your card to save quite a bit of time. Krungsri directed me to their exchange booth out the front and the man said they charge a 200b fee and use Visa rate no mastercard.

That left me with 3 options, walk to the next bangkok bank and try again, use TMB atm and get 30k +220b fee, or Krungsri.

I wanted to know the real difference between TMB ATM (and didn't want to risk another decline) so I opted for that and the end result was as follows:

Initial bank charge US$954.72 + 3% $28.64 + Bank charged ATM fee of $5 = $988.36 vs $976.51 yesterday or US$11.85 more

Well I just paid $11.85 to learn what not to do... once all the fees are processed I will know for sure but it seems that withdrawing cash from Bangkok bank over the counter at any amount is quite a lot cheaper any other way I know.

[Kerryd]

From the sounds of it, you'd be far better off (next time) to wire transfer a large sum into your Thai account and use the local bank ATM instead.

 

What I did in the past was to make a large payment on my credit card, wait for it to process, then get a cash advance on it and deposit the money into my Thai account. Not the best way to do it, as the Visa will still charge you a "cash advance" fee even though you have more credit on your card than the amount being advanced. Saved getting advances every couple of days though or paying the extra charges to use my (Canadian) ATM card - which also has a low daily limit.

With my (Canadian) bank, I can't do a wire transfer unless I'm physically standing in a branch office - in Canada. (Though I can log into my bank account and buy/sell stocks and mutual funds from anywhere.)

So I have to fly back to Canada, go to my bank and wire transfer cash to my Thai account, but at least then when I'm in Thailand I can withdraw it from any ATM (from "my" bank) anywhere in the country without hassle or extra fees.

Don't know about your bank, but with my (Canadian) bank (and credit card, which is from a different bank) - if they ever get declined for any reason - I have to call them (during their working hours of course ), answer a bunch of questions and get them to manually unlock the card or it won't work anywhere at all.
 

[jbob]

6 hours ago, Kerryd said:

From the sounds of it, you'd be far better off (next time) to wire transfer a large sum into your Thai account and use the local bank ATM instead.

That would be great if I has organized and patient but I go through this every year and wanted to map out my in a pinch options and which is the cheapest for me. Ideally I would do that I did years ago before they closed my Bangkok bank account and wire USD to the New York branch with my account number and it deposits the funds to my Thai account. These days TransferWise will be my go to but right now I need about 90k for all the trappings associated with renting a nice condo and that takes too long from a standing start.

[Peter702]

Get a Schwab card that 3% fee is killing you what bank are you with.  With a Schwab card no 3% fee and atm fee is rebated.

Edited April 3, 2019 by Peter702

[jbob]

On 4/4/2019 at 12:27 AM, Peter702 said:

Get a Schwab card that 3% fee is killing you what bank are you with.  With a Schwab card no 3% fee and atm fee is rebated.

as a non american that would require buying a return plane ticket which is more than years or fees so something local is the only option such as opening bank account and wire/transferwise (still requires a week and a rental contract before you see some baht). Unless you can do it from Singapore of Hong Kong. Many times I have wished American banks had headquarters in Bangkok