Yesterday I withdrew 40K baht from a US Capital One MasterCard ATM.  While waiting for my number to come up, I checked the current xe.com conversion for 40K and it indicated $1,149.05.  Shortly after doing the transaction,  I received a text from my bank indicating a $1,152.32 transaction on my account. So it cost $3.27 to do the transfer over the xe rate. Is this a good esy to get money in or is there a better way?

 

Capital One has no foreign transaction fees on their cards.

That's as good as you're going to get. I bank with USAA (get ATM fees reimbursed so I don't really care about the rip off 220 they charge each time).

 

Which local bank did you go into? Good ifo to keep on file if ever needed...

6 minutes ago, Sandboxer said:

That's as good as you're going to get. I bank with USAA (get ATM fees reimbursed so I don't really care about the rip off 220 they charge each time).

 

Which local bank did you go into? Good ifo to keep on file if ever needed...

The XE site exchange rate is the current mid rate.

5 minutes ago, Sandboxer said:

Which local bank did you go into? Good ifo to keep on file if ever needed...

I use a Bangkok Bank branch in Pattaya. I do keep the 800k for retirement in an account there, so maybe that helps. Some tellers complain about no raised numbers on the card, but a little pushing solves that.  I used this method to fund the 800k for retirement. At $5000 daily limit, it took a number of days, but was probably the cheapest way.

 

I won't specify the exact branch I use, as the waits for service are long enough now, and would be much longer if they were inundated with customers trying to do this.

From https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

 

20 Dec/0% bank fee

 

MC has their rate, the XE rate is irrelelvant.

 

I think this is one of the better methods to obtain local currency at a good rate without cash in hand.

 

 

1 Thai Baht = 0.028808 United States Dollar
Your transaction amount of 40,000.00 THB = 1,152.32 USD in your card currency

8 hours ago, gargamon said:

Some tellers complain about no raised numbers on the card, but a little pushing solves that. 

Can you tell more about the "pushing". Because I had the same situation when they refused to do withdrawal because of no raised numbers and their "new machine". 

1 hour ago, JoseThailand said:

Can you tell more about the "pushing". Because I had the same situation when they refused to do withdrawal because of no raised numbers and their "new machine". 

1) Ask to see their machine that needs the raised numbers(embossed) to work. Explain that embossing hasn't been needed for at least 10 years.

2) Escalate to the branch manager.

3) Complain to visa/mc providing bank and branch.

 

This is really a Thai bank scam to force you to use their ATM at 200+ baht a pop.

On 12/21/2022 at 9:57 AM, Sandboxer said:

That's as good as you're going to get. I bank with USAA (get ATM fees reimbursed so I don't really care about the rip off 220 they charge each time).

 

Which local bank did you go into? Good ifo to keep on file if ever needed...

USAA ATM fee reimbursement is down to $10 a month, so if you are making more than one withdrawal then you are going to pay some of the fee for the second withdrawal.