A Time Senstive Exchange Question

[up-country_sinclair]

i've read all these threads about currency exchange and money transfers, onshore/offshore..... and i'm about to have an aneurism.

i sincerely tried to figure it out by myself, but for any number of reasons i can't.

here's my situation....

i have approx. 100k of purchases to make in the next week, but like a jackass i've let my thai bank account to drop to half of that. the last few weeks i've been waiting for the baht to depreciate in order to transfer funds, but it just hasn't happened.

btw, i'm in thailand now, will be travelling to the US in a week, and returning to thailand a month later. i had hoped to do a SWIFT when i was there, and/or bring back the maximum allowable in cash.

so, taking my travel plans into consideration ...do you think i should use the credit card, ATM, or SWIFT transfer for the current 100K worth of purchases?

Edited March 13, 2007 by up-country_sinclair

[sonicdragon]

Do you mean 100k baht or US$ ? I assume baht.

In my experience the best rates are available from the grey market money changers (gold shops) in china town or saphan kwai - so you would bring US dollars with you and exchange here.

Failing that, send it by telegraphic transfer (swift) but make sure you specify the correspondent bank in the instruction otherwise your bank might convert to baht at the offshore rate first. If you are transferring a large sum you might need to show proof of what the funds are for.

[up-country_sinclair]

thanks for your reply.

yes, definitely 100k in baht.....but i need to make the purchases before i go to the US next week.