WISE Card is accepted in supermarkets?

[bernard75]

Without fees on both sides?

[Onerak]

I have not quite comprehended the benefits of using a Wise Card. I am from the USA and never use any debit card for ATM withdrawal, though I have two that does not charge (or refunds) any foreign ATM withdrawal fees. Have plenty of credit cards (more than 100) and a few don't charge any foreign transaction fees. A few even gives me cash back for all foreign transactions. I don't understand the advantages of using a wise card. Can somebody explain to me please that benefits of using a Wise debit card. 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Onerak

[bernard75]

From what i have gathered, it is possible to load your Revolut card with Baht very cheaply.

And since you withdraw Baht there is no atm fee.

Edited November 18, 2022 by bernard75

[Laphroaig27]

Cash works best and faster too.

[bernard75]

Assuming you have a licensed money printer at home...

Edited November 18, 2022 by bernard75

[Lee65]

41 minutes ago, bernard75 said:

 

 

1 hour ago, Onerak said:

I have not quite comprehended the benefits of using a Wise Card. I am from the USA and never use any debit card for ATM withdrawal, though I have two that does not charge (or refunds) any foreign ATM withdrawal fees. Have plenty of credit cards (more than 100) and a few don't charge any foreign transaction fees. A few even gives me cash back for all foreign transactions. I don't understand the advantages of using a wise card. Can somebody explain to me please that benefits of using a Wise debit card. 

 

Why only "more than 100" credit cards?  Shirley you're missing something?

Edited November 18, 2022 by Lee65
Accidental quote inclusion; don't know how to delete it ...

[Phulublub]

On 11/13/2022 at 6:23 PM, K2938 said:

But is the Wise rate also better than the Visa or Mastercard rate for THB/EUR if your foreign card does not add any commission on top which exists?

If you load the Wise card with THB, then you have already converted, at whatever rate was when you did this.  If you use a foreign CC, then you will get the rate at the time the transaction is made.

 

PH

[K2938]

28 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

If you load the Wise card with THB, then you have already converted, at whatever rate was when you did this.  If you use a foreign CC, then you will get the rate at the time the transaction is made.

I checked myself over the last few days and the Wise rate - at least on the two days I checked - was indeed better than the Visa / Mastercard rate.

The fact that with Wise the funds are already converted I would however not view as an additional advantage since the exchange rate can go up as much as it can go down over time, so that can go both ways.

[Adumbration]

On 11/13/2022 at 1:53 PM, lyskamm said:

The headline was meant to be a question, sorry for exclamation mark).

 

<crossy> fixed it ???? 

Hello

 

Did you get you wise card sent to your Thai address and if so how did you do that?

[Banana7]

If you want a cash withdrawal in THB in Thailand from a WISE card, with a balance in THB, go to a bank that provides/issues/accepts VISA cards. Do not go to their ATM. I was told they should give a fee free cash withdrawal in THB over the counter.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Banana7

[lkn]

6 hours ago, bernard75 said:

From what i have gathered, it is possible to load your Revolut card with Baht very cheaply.

And since you withdraw Baht there is no atm fee.

They have a slightly better rate than Wise, but then they add a “rare currency fee” of 1%, so it ends up being cheaper going with Wise.

 

The ATM fee is for “foreign payment cards”, so you will pay it even if you have a THB balance.

[lkn]

6 hours ago, Onerak said:

I have not quite comprehended the benefits of using a Wise Card. I am from the USA

Credit card reward programs, cashback, etc. is a U.S. thing. So when “we” (people outside the U.S.) select payment cards, it’s not about rewards, but things like better exchange rates, e.g. the “benefit” with the Wise card is that it is a multi-currency card and you generally get a better rate than by using your bank’s card.

 

VISA/MasterCard has a forex rate, where Wise is probably a little better, but your bank may add an additional “hidden” fee, often 1-2%, making the exchange rate much worse than by going with Wise (or outside Thailand, Revolut).

[lkn]

Since people can use their Wise card in most major stores/chains now, I wonder, does it also work with Apple Pay?

 

Haven’t been to Thailand since COVID-19, so curious how the situation is now. I had a PayWave (contactless/NFC) card from Krungthai last I was in Thailand, and it was not exactly widely accepted, though worked in Big-C. I heard that PromptPay is what took off during the pandemic (rather than PayWave/NFC/contactless), but also read that 7-Eleven waived their minimum purchase amount to accept (contactless?) cards.

 

The “problem” is that vendors typically pay 3% for accepting VISA/MasterCard. First time I was in Thailand, pretty much everyone wanted me to pay 3% extra, if I wanted to pay by VISA. A Thai debit card does not have this steep fee, which is why many shops started to take Thai debit cards, but still didn’t want to take the foreign cards.

 

As for Thai debit cards, you may have seen some stores have a row of payment terminals like the photo below, that’s because if they use the bank’s own machine to take payment, there is no (or low) fee.

 

[bernard75]

31 minutes ago, lkn said:

They have a slightly better rate than Wise, but then they add a “rare currency fee” of 1%, so it ends up being cheaper going with Wise.

 

The ATM fee is for “foreign payment cards”, so you will pay it even if you have a THB balance.

People, even in this thread, confirmed that there is no fee on the ATM side for Revolut/Wise cards.

But thanks for checking it out and getting the confirmation out.

 

Without this they might be slightly better at exchange rates, but absolutely worthless, if it doesnt at least save me the impertinent 200B.

Edited November 18, 2022 by bernard75

[lkn]

12 minutes ago, bernard75 said:

People, even in this thread, confirmed that there is no fee on the ATM side for Revolut/Wise cards.

I read the thread and only saw one speculate about it. I am quite sure that Thai banks would not waiver their “foreign card” fee.

 

Thai ATMs even have fees for Thai debit cards if either you are in another province than your branch, or you make (I think) more than 3 withdrawals per month not in your bank’s ATM (and some ATMs are not even part of this network, so they will always have a fee).

[Pmbkk]

1 hour ago, bernard75 said:

People, even in this thread, confirmed that there is no fee on the ATM side for Revolut/Wise cards

 

Many people - including me - say you DO get charged a 220 ATM fee for WISE at the ATM. This was only a few months ago.

I don't believe you're correct to say there is no fee !

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Pmbkk

[bernard75]

4 minutes ago, Pmbkk said:

 

Many people - including me - say you DO get charged a 220 ATM fee for WISE at the ATM. This was only a few months ago.

 

Unless there are some people, that understand the system better, i rest my case.

Would have been too good, to once beat that exploitative system.

[bernard75]

4 hours ago, Pmbkk said:

 

Many people - including me - say you DO get charged a 220 ATM fee for WISE at the ATM. This was only a few months ago.

I don't believe you're correct to say there is no fee !

4 hours ago, Pmbkk said:

 

Many people - including me - say you DO get charged a 220 ATM fee for WISE at the ATM. This was only a few months ago.

I don't believe you're correct to say there is no fee !

 

 

I am pretty new to this thread, but thanks for the heads up about no way to go around that extortion.

Edited November 19, 2022 by bernard75

[Onerak]

11 hours ago, Lee65 said:

Why only "more than 100" credit cards?  Shirley you're missing something?

It's very comfortable to have access to a million plus (dollar)  in credit. 

[Onerak]

6 hours ago, lkn said:

VISA/MasterCard has a forex rate, where Wise is probably a little better, but your bank may add an additional “hidden” fee, often 1-2%, making the exchange rate much worse than by going with Wise (or outside Thailand, Revolut).

Not convinced. Any cards asking for money to get it and then using Visa/MC network to authenticate has to pay a fee to Visa/MC. Visa/MC is not altruist organizations to enable any cards to access their network for free. Also, what kind of fraud protection it provides? All my cards provide 100% fraud protection. One call and it will take the charges off from my cards and I have done it multiple times. 

[bernard75]

20 minutes ago, Onerak said:

One call and it will take the charges off from my cards and I have done it multiple times. 

You mean at least 100 calls for the hundreds of cards you use.

[Onerak]

39 minutes ago, bernard75 said:

You mean at least 100 calls for the hundreds of cards you use.

1. I don't use all cards in Thailand. Only a handful that does not charge foreign transaction fees and that give me cash back for every charge. 

2. All cards don't incur fraudulent charges at the same time. 

[treetops]

5 hours ago, Onerak said:

Not convinced. Any cards asking for money to get it and then using Visa/MC network to authenticate has to pay a fee to Visa/MC. Visa/MC is not altruist organizations to enable any cards to access their network for free. Also, what kind of fraud protection it provides? All my cards provide 100% fraud protection. One call and it will take the charges off from my cards and I have done it multiple times. 

I have a couple of fee free cards from the UK.  My understanding is that the Visa and MC exchange rates are slightly below the interbank rate that Wise use.  That slight difference gives Visa/MC their fee when I use an ATM.  The banks providing my cards have full protection.

Edited November 19, 2022 by treetops

[lkn]

7 hours ago, Onerak said:

Not convinced. Any cards asking for money to get it and then using Visa/MC network to authenticate has to pay a fee to Visa/MC. Visa/MC is not altruist organizations to enable any cards to access their network for free

I am not trying to convince you, I am just telling you why some like the Wise card.

 

As for the fees though, there is no forex done by VISA/MasterCard if the card provide a sufficient balance in the requested currency, thereby forging them.

 

But yes, the network is not offered for free, when you use it in shops, the shop pay the fee, if you use it in an ATM, you have a quota of free withdrawals per month (sans the potential ATM fee) which Wise is covering out of their pocket.

 

Anyway, use whatever card you like!

[KannikaP]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:01 AM, bernard75 said:

You and because your post about Revolut and Europe.

Of course they work there, they are from there.

No, I am English, but once upon a time I went to Italy, which is in Europe, and used the Euro balance on both my Revolut and Wise cards with no problems.

[jacko45k]

On 11/18/2022 at 10:25 PM, Banana7 said:

If you want a cash withdrawal in THB in Thailand from a WISE card, with a balance in THB, go to a bank that provides/issues/accepts VISA cards. Do not go to their ATM. I was told they should give a fee free cash withdrawal in THB over the counter.

I had been told this was getting more difficult.. some years ago actually. Some were told simply to go use the ATM machine outside. Previously this was being used with foreign ATM cards to bypass the 220 baht surcharge. Have you done this yourself?

Edited November 20, 2022 by jacko45k

[K2938]

On 11/19/2022 at 1:53 PM, treetops said:

My understanding is that the Visa and MC exchange rates are slightly below the interbank rate that Wise use.  That slight difference gives Visa/MC their fee when I use an ATM.  The banks providing my cards have full protection.

1) The Visa and Mastercard exchange rates are generally indeed slightly worse than the Wise rates.  The difference on various days I looked ranged from approximately 0.1% to 1.0%.

2) Visa / Mastercard have two fee earners, a) the vendor fees, b) the foreign exchange rate mark-up.  So even if foregoing the foreign exchange rate mark-up due to the lack of a foreign exchange element with Wise, they still make money from the vendor fees.

[lyskamm]

On 11/18/2022 at 9:54 PM, Adumbration said:

Hello

 

Did you get you wise card sent to your Thai address and if so how did you do that?

I requested the Wise card while still in Europe.

[Banana7]

On 11/20/2022 at 11:59 AM, jacko45k said:

I had been told this was getting more difficult.. some years ago actually. Some were told simply to go use the ATM machine outside. Previously this was being used with foreign ATM cards to bypass the 220 baht surcharge. Have you done this yourself?

If you use a foreign Debit card at a Thai bank, the Thai bank determines the exchange rate, and withdraws the foreign funds from the foreign bank. Thai bank exchange rates are not as good as WISE exchange rates.

 

I have not tried the cash withdrawal in Thailand using a WISE card with a THB balance. I only obtained a WISE card in Sept. this year. WISE did provide me with the info, I previously posted, about fee free cash withdrawal process. 

 

The great feature of WISE debit cards is that the holder gets to choose the date of exchange. Whenever I have used a foreign credit card in Thailand, the transaction posting and conversion dates is about 1 to 5 days later after the actual transaction date, and usually on the date when I get the worst exchange rate in a 5 day period after the actual transaction date. One loses control of the actual exchange date using a credit card in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

[damole]

The only meaningful rate is the amount withdrawn/purchased divded by the amount debited from your foriegn bank account.  For instance Western Union in India doesn't charge a fee but has a worse rate than Wise which does charge a fee.  In the UK some place offer commsion free foreign currnecy which is just a marketing tool as the only thing that matters is the effective rate.  

 

The other way to look at it is if I send £100 for example how much do I receive in Baht.  XE usally shows the mid rate.  Sometimes Wise shows a better rate than that which can only be because they are not always using live real-time rates.

 

I have a Halifax Clairty credit card which has no foreign exchange fee or cash withdrawl feel and I used to use to withdraw cash and then check online in the app to see how much was expected to be debited and immediately pay that much to the card to avoid the interest on the cash withdrawals which they do charge.  It was just complicated when I was using it for purchases as I would have to clear the whole balance.