Puzzling Exchange Rates

[Expat2B]

I normally use XE.com to estimate exchange rates for conversion into GBP. XE.com has always proved highly reliable for this purpose across a broad range of countries. Since using my Visa card I get something very close to the commecial exchange rate, the XE.com rate is typically highly accurate.

XE.com has been reporting an exchange rate of c. 1 GBP = 65 THB for some time. Whlst I was quite surprised at the rate given recent Thai economic problems and the relative strength of the pound I have never really queried it. 2 weeks ago my other half had to make a Western Union payment into Thailand and obtained a rate of c. 1 GBP = 67.5 THB. I thought this was strange after all why would Western Union give a higher rate than the commercial rate shown on XE.com.

I started looking at the Thai Bank websites and noted that their exchange rate was closer to 1 GBP = 68 THB which was again puzzling since this is above the rate quoted by XE.com. Finally earlier today I checked Visa International's currency exchange estimator which tells me that I can reasonably expect a rate of 1 GBP = 69 THB, yet still XE.com shows the rate as 1 GBP < 65 THB.

Does anyone have any understanding of why this is happening? Either XE.com is just getting its sums completely wrong for conversions to THB or the bulk exchange entities (e.g. VISA, The Thai Banks, Western Union etc.) are somehow getting a much more generous rate via some sort of parallel market.

[Maestro]

I should like to suggest that you start by reading this recent topic on ThaiVisa:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...c=122955&hl

The situation discussed there for USD and EUR applies also to GBP.

--

Maestro

[Jimjim]

Yes, you can read that link and it will tell you all about there being 2 rates. On shore and off shore. For me, just to know that there is an on shore and off shore is almost enough. The details are just details.