Us Dollars To Thai Baht

[khunandy]

Hi,

I am confused by a post on a different forum, read below.

Biggest problem when transferring funds to Thailand is that they use the offshore rate. Which currently is 33 something Baht to the Dollar! Way less then what you'd get when sending dollar to Thailand.

When I send money to Thailand I just send US dollars via internet TT to a Thai account (in this case Siam Commercial) I look at the exchange rate SCB is advertising that day and just send the money and expect this exchange rate minus minor charges.

Today I read the above statement and wondered if there is a different , better way I could be doing this. I simply don't understand what this onshore/offshore business is and how you can access each one. In what I am doing now which rate am I getting. The US dollars are coming from a US dollar account in Hong Kong

In my case, what gives me the best bang for my buck?

Any enlightening information will be gratefully recieved.

Khun Andy

[monty]

Better I explain since the quote was written by me

If you buy Thai Baht anywhere outside of Thailand you will have to pay the offshore rate. Which means it'll end up being more expensive.

For example many banks give you the option to send money to Thailand in either your home currency or in the target currency (Thai Baht).

In the fist case your home currency arrives in Thailand where the receiving bank will exchange to Thai Baht using the onshore rate.

In the second case, since you order your bank to acquire Thai Baht first and then send it to Thailand, you'll pay the offshore rate and the acquired Thai Baht will get sent to Thailand.

In your case it's important that in the case of transferring funds using banks, to order them to send the required amount in your home currency to Thailand, and not for example saying, well I need 500,000 Baht in Thailand so I'll just tell my bank to send 500,000 Baht. Big difference in exchange rate!

If you bring cash or traveler cheques, this is not important since every exchange will be done in Thailand at the onshore rate!

My quote was taken from a post discussing how paypal handles the transfers. Even though your Thai paypal account will be denominated in US$, it still seems that when you want to withdraw those funds into your Thai bank account, Paypal will acquire Thai Baht first at the offshore rate and then transfer into your bank account! Unlike with a normal bank you can't tell paypal how to do the transfers!

[khunandy]

Better I explain since the quote was written by me

If you buy Thai Baht anywhere outside of Thailand you will have to pay the offshore rate. Which means it'll end up being more expensive.

For example many banks give you the option to send money to Thailand in either your home currency or in the target currency (Thai Baht).

In the fist case your home currency arrives in Thailand where the receiving bank will exchange to Thai Baht using the onshore rate.

In the second case, since you order your bank to acquire Thai Baht first and then send it to Thailand, you'll pay the offshore rate and the acquired Thai Baht will get sent to Thailand.

In your case it's important that in the case of transferring funds using banks, to order them to send the required amount in your home currency to Thailand, and not for example saying, well I need 500,000 Baht in Thailand so I'll just tell my bank to send 500,000 Baht. Big difference in exchange rate!

If you bring cash or traveler cheques, this is not important since every exchange will be done in Thailand at the onshore rate!

My quote was taken from a post discussing how paypal handles the transfers. Even though your Thai paypal account will be denominated in US$, it still seems that when you want to withdraw those funds into your Thai bank account, Paypal will acquire Thai Baht first at the offshore rate and then transfer into your bank account! Unlike with a normal bank you can't tell paypal how to do the transfers!

Thanks very much Monty,

Thats what I thought and can tell you from bitter and expensive experience I learnt that lesson the hard way. Last month I needed 300,000 baht and foolishly entered this as remitance currency on the TT from my US dollar account. I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I clicked "proceed".

All I can say is that is was early in the morning and I wasnt thinking clearly

The exchange in the end was 30 baht to the US dollar A big mistake indeed.

I made another transfer the next day and sent $US dollars to the Thai account and recieved 33 baht to the dollar which was the exchange rate on the Thai bank website at that time. Lesson well and truly learnt.

A 10% difference may not mean much for a night out drinking but my god, who got the 30,000 baht on the previous exchange?

Nice earner for the bank.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain and confirming my thoughts. It seems that to send $US to a Thai account is the best (only?) option for sure. Is there any time that the offshore rate is better than the onshore rate?

Khun Andy

[lpkitten]

following that logic, would it be better for me to buy u.s. dollars with thai baht offshore as opposed to onshore? I currently have about 100,000 baht that I want to convert to dollars but I'm not sure if i should do it while I'm in Thailand or when I go to the U.S.?