Use TransferWise or Home Country ATM Visa Debit Card?

[bbi1]

If someone wishes on withdrawing 30,000 baht as that's the ATM limit here in Thailand. Is it better to use TransferWise or my Home country ATM Visa debit card (Australia). Which would end up being cheaper? If using ATM then there's a 220 baht foreign card fee and about a 50 baht fee by the home country bank on top. What would people here choose?

Edited September 25, 2019 by bbi1

[4675636b596f75]

I regularly withdraw 5000 US Dollars at a time from my USA bank account.

 

Fees:  0

 

Exchange: TT rate.

 

Still crappy.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just now, 4675636b596f75 said:

I regularly withdraw 5000 US Dollars at a time from my USA bank account.

 

Fees:  0

 

Exchange: TT rate.

 

Still crappy.

 

Not with a Thai ATM, you dont....
 

[4675636b596f75]

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Not with a Thai ATM, you dont....
 

Did you see the word ATM in anything I wrote?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

OP, there's no set answer to the question you're posing...

 

It all comes down to a comparison of the details between an Aus to TH Transferwise transaction that has different fees depending on how you fund it vs. a 30K baht Thai ATM withdrawal using your Aus. debit card that probably will incur a 220b Thai ATM fee for using a foreign card.

 

You can go to the Transferwise website, and mock up a transfer in the amount you want that will give you all their details.

 

And you can do the same with the VISA card network currency exchange website, provided you know what % amount foreign currency exchange fee, if any, that your Aus. debit card has. And whether your Aus. debit card charges any flat fee of its own when you use a foreign ATM.

 

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just now, 4675636b596f75 said:

Did you see the word ATM in anything I wrote?

 

I didn't see any explanation or information in your post about how you/did do the transactions at all... so kind of pointless for the OP's question.

[gk10002000]

2 minutes ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

Did you see the word ATM in anything I wrote?

OK, so where do you withdraw the 5000 from your USA account?  What country?  What bank? What type of account?

[4675636b596f75]

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

OK, so where do you withdraw the 5000 from your USA account?  What country?  What bank? What type of account?

I use Bangkok Bank.  Their TT rate is usually most favourable.

[4675636b596f75]

3 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

What type of account?

I missed this one.

I don't have a Bangkok Bank Account.  I withdraw plenty from BB but those dopes won't give me a bank account.

[gk10002000]

5 hours ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

I missed this one.

I don't have a Bangkok Bank Account.  I withdraw plenty from BB but those dopes won't give me a bank account.

So you don't have an account but you withdraw money.  That doesn't seem to make sense.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

So you don't have an account but you withdraw money.  That doesn't seem to make sense.

 

The other way to withdraw money from a Thai bank here, apart from using their ATMs, is to do a so-called counter withdrawal or cash advance transaction via the bank tellers. You hand them your home country debit or credit card, and tell them you want to withdraw XXXX baht against the card.

 

Oftentimes, the Thai bank will not have any local fee for that kind of withdrawal, though a few now have started charging a similar fee to their ATM fee for counter withdrawals. And not all branches seem willing or able to do that kind of transaction. Sometimes, the tellers will tell the customer to use the ATM instead. They'll also want to see and make a copy of your passport if they do the transaction.

 

And then lastly, you have to be careful about those kinds of transactions with what home country bank card you use.  Credit cards often have VERY high transaction fees for cash advances against the credit card and begin charging high interest on the amount withdrawn immediately.  Debit cards usually don't have those kinds of fees, but of course, you can only withdraw up to the amount you have available in the checking account linked to that debit card and/or to the card's daily withdrawal limit.

 

And as always, you'd only want to use a home country credit or debit card here that either either no foreign currency fee on foreign transactions, or a very small one like 1%.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[gk10002000]

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The other way to withdraw money from a Thai bank here, apart from using their ATMs, is to do a so-called counter withdrawal or cash advance transaction via the bank tellers. You hand them your home country debit or credit card, and tell them you want to withdraw XXXX baht against the card.

 

Oftentimes, the Thai bank will not have any local fee for that kind of withdrawal, though a few now have started charging a similar fee to their ATM fee for counter withdrawals. And not all branches seem willing or able to do that kind of transaction. Sometimes, the tellers will tell the customer to use the ATM instead. They'll also want to see and make a copy of your passport if they do the transaction.

 

And then lastly, you have to be careful about those kinds of transactions with what home country bank card you use.  Credit cards often have VERY high transaction fees for cash advances against the credit card and begin charging high interest on the amount withdrawn immediately.  Debit cards usually don't have those kinds of fees, but of course, you can only withdraw up to the amount you have available in the checking account linked to that debit card and/or to the card's daily withdrawal limit.

 

yeah, I get it.  My debit cards all have $1,000 USD daily ATM limits and an additional $1,000 USD Point of Sale cash withdrawal limit.  Have to admit I have used that now and again here in the states when at a casino and the cashier/machine setup charges somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks for the 1,000 for those POS cash take outs.  I would not do it with a credit card, since the fees and interest are there. 

 

  I have been with Etrade as my primary bank and broker for decades almost now, and I am pretty sure I could increase those Debit card limits (checking and Money market checking ) accounts, but I don't have any need to do that, and the 1K limit probably can help fraud or theft as they could only take out so much per day and I usually am on top of my accounts and Etrade lately has upped their security transaction monitoring and I get texts on my phone now more than I used to as I move around the USA

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

41 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

yeah, I get it.  My debit cards all have $1,000 USD daily ATM limits and an additional $1,000 USD Point of Sale cash withdrawal limit.  Have to admit I have used that now and again here in the states when at a casino and the cashier/machine setup charges somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks for the 1,000 for those POS cash take outs.  I would not do it with a credit card, since the fees and interest are there. 

 

 

I've never done any kind of cash withdrawal at a casino in the U.S.  But I've heard those particular transactions have specifically higher fees, probably to discourage folks from blowing all their money on gambling.

 

Here in Thailand, with most U.S. debit cards, the only things you've have to watch out for are whether the Thai bank has a counter withdrawal fee, and whether your home country debit card has a foreign currency fee. In E*Trade's case, I believe, they have a 1% fee on foreign transactions.

 

[KhunBENQ]

I haven't made up the math for Australia but for the Euro.

With the 220 Baht fee and 50 Baht home country fee, Transferwise would come out a "bit" better. Like 200 Baht more for the money.

 

At this moment 30000 Baht with Transferwise would cost 1463.85 AUD.

(that is receiving 30000 Baht effectively)

So about 10 AUD worse (208 Baht or so).

 

According to VISA (UK) site a 30270 THB/AUD transaction would cost 1473.11 AUD.

(simplified: just added 220 + 50 to the amount)

 

That's somewhat consistent with math I have done for the Euro.

 

https://transferwise.com/

 

https://www.visa.co.uk/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

 

 

Edited September 26, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[KhunBENQ]

Other example.

Three ATM withdrawals (receiving 90000 Baht).

 

VISA: 4419.35 AUD

TW:   4384.90 AUD

 

Edited September 26, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[4675636b596f75]

7 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

So you don't have an account but you withdraw money.  That doesn't seem to make sense.

It does if you can think logically.  Since no one has asked me the correct question, you haven't gotten the correct answer.  

 

I never withdraw using an ATM.  It costs about 16 Dollars in fees on both sides of the ocean.  

 

I now pay 0 to get my money from my USA account. 

 

0 fees and I get the TT rate.

[4675636b596f75]

Some of you got it.

 

I have two USA bank cards, not credit cards.

 

I do a cash advance at BB which costs nothing.  It costs nothing at my bank since it isn't a cash advance on their end, it is a direct debit.  

 

My two cards each have a 5000 Dollar limit per transaction.

 

I would estimate I have save easily more than 1000 Dollars in fees over the last 3 years.

Edited September 26, 2019 by 4675636b596f75

[gk10002000]

7 hours ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

It does if you can think logically.  Since no one has asked me the correct question, you haven't gotten the correct answer.  

 

I never withdraw using an ATM.  It costs about 16 Dollars in fees on both sides of the ocean.  

 

I now pay 0 to get my money from my USA account. 

 

0 fees and I get the TT rate.

Or you have been deliberately obtuse about what you did, but that is fine.

[4675636b596f75]

On 9/26/2019 at 10:28 PM, gk10002000 said:

Or you have been deliberately obtuse about what you did, but that is fine.

Regardless, it hasn't cost me one cent to move $$$ to Thailand.

[JimGant]

On 9/26/2019 at 3:17 PM, 4675636b596f75 said:

It does if you can think logically.  Since no one has asked me the correct question, you haven't gotten the correct answer.  

 

I never withdraw using an ATM.  It costs about 16 Dollars in fees on both sides of the ocean.  

 

I now pay 0 to get my money from my USA account. 

 

0 fees and I get the TT rate.

But a Schwab Debit/ATM cardholder also pays 0, with the facility of using an ATM machine. 

 

And you don't get the TT rate, which is for EFTs. You get the card network rate, which is usually a little better than the TT rate, e.g. Friday, 27 Sept, the TT buying rate was 30.48 at Bangkok Bank. The MasterCard rate was 30.62 -- and the Visa rate was 30.56

 

Try and think logically -- or at least do a little homework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 minutes ago, JimGant said:

But a Schwab Debit/ATM cardholder also pays 0, with the facility of using an ATM machine. 

 

And you don't get the TT rate, which is for EFTs. You get the card network rate, which is usually a little better than the TT rate, e.g. Friday, 27 Sept, the TT buying rate was 30.48 at Bangkok Bank. The MasterCard rate was 30.62 -- and the Visa rate was 30.56

 

Try and think logically -- or at least do a little homework.

 

And Schwab isn't the ONLY U.S. debit card that's available that has no foreign currency fee and reimburses the Thai banks' ATM charges. There are others available as well, though Schwab is probably the best known of its kind when it comes to international transactions for Americans.

 

[sead]

From all different services I found transferwise to be the best, period. I'm sending money from Denmark