ATM withdrawl limits?

[retarius]

My limit is 30K per transaction. If you want more you have to take your card out and start a new transaction then you can take out another 30K. I think the day limit is 300K, but I've never tried doing it 10 times over, I'm sure it would 'eat' my card. One point though is that I wanted to buy a car last year in BKK. I went with the dealer and my missus to pay for the car (over million baht). They two thais went to explain inside that we wanted to make a large withdrawal....they answer was fine, a cashier stood at the ATM while I inputted my data, and the transaction went through sending the money to the dealer's bank account. 

[khagai1]

I use Charles Schwab Bank which reimburses your ATM fees at end of month. The standard maximum is $1,000 per account withdrawal in one day. I have been told that you can negotiate a higher amount if needed.  If for any reason I need additional money in a single day I maintain multiple accounts so that I can withdraw 30,000 Baht from each account. Of course this means separate ATM cards and an additional bank charge on each withdrawal, but you get the money back at the end of month. I only use this approach when I want to make larger cash purchases. Do not have a Thai bank account even though I have been a 6-month expat in Thailand for over 20 years.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, retarius said:

My limit is 30K per transaction. If you want more you have to take your card out and start a new transaction then you can take out another 30K. I think the day limit is 300K, but I've never tried doing it 10 times over, I'm sure it would 'eat' my card. One point though is that I wanted to buy a car last year in BKK. I went with the dealer and my missus to pay for the car (over million baht). They two thais went to explain inside that we wanted to make a large withdrawal....they answer was fine, a cashier stood at the ATM while I inputted my data, and the transaction went through sending the money to the dealer's bank account. 

 

Most Thai banks I'm familiar with allow the accountholder to set varying maximum amounts of ATM cash that can be withdrawn PER DAY. In my experience, those options can range from very low amounts up to quite huge amounts into the hundreds of thousands of baht PER DAY.

 

Those PER DAY withdrawal limits are separate from the physical limits that banks set for their ATM machines, which typically allow a maximum of anywhere from 25 to 30 bills PER TRANSACTION. Those machine-based per transaction limits are NOT adjustable in any way by the card holder.

 

[khunjeff]

On 8/1/2024 at 6:09 PM, yabbra said:

No worries...It seems 30k is the limit & only Krungsri ATMs are capable of this (for overseas cards), unless some of the lesser known banks I haven't tried also have this limit.

 

ATMs from Krungsri, TMB, CIMB, and Citibank all allowed 30k withdrawals using a foreign card. There are no CIMB or Citibank machines left now, and I don't know whether UOB kept that limit when they took over from Citi, but TTB definitely maintained the 30k limit on its legacy TMB machines.

 

As of now, then, I'm only aware of Krungsri and TTB still permitting 30k pulls. Some people have posted here that they were able to get that amount from Kasikorn as well, but that was never my experience in the past - I haven't tried recently, though.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, khagai1 said:

I use Charles Schwab Bank which reimburses your ATM fees at end of month. The standard maximum is $1,000 per account withdrawal in one day. I have been told that you can negotiate a higher amount if needed.  If for any reason I need additional money in a single day I maintain multiple accounts so that I can withdraw 30,000 Baht from each account. Of course this means separate ATM cards and an additional bank charge on each withdrawal, but you get the money back at the end of month. I only use this approach when I want to make larger cash purchases. Do not have a Thai bank account even though I have been a 6-month expat in Thailand for over 20 years.  

 

As I mentioned above, some U.S. financial entities will allow their accountholders, upon request, a temporary (one-day?) increase / waiver of the normal card daily withdrawal limit. I wouldn't be surprised if Schwab might allow that kind of request.

 

But as a general proposition, I try to keep my Thailand ATM transaction activity entirely separate from / away from my U.S. brokerage accounts and related cash accounts.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

but TTB definitely maintained the 30k limit on its legacy TMB machines.

 

Thanks for that update and news!

 

In the old days, Krungsri and TMB used to be the two Thai banking companies I relied on for 30K baht ATM machines....

 

But once TMB merged into becoming TTB, I had no idea whether the new entity still kept that same policy for their legacy TMB ATM machines.

 

Do you know / does that mean that ATMs that formerly belonged to the other party in that merger, Thanachart, now still have a lower per withdrawal limit? I don't think Thanachart was in the 30K club before...

 

 

 

"TMBThanachart Bank Public Company Limited (“TTB”) is a business merger between TMB Bank Public Company Limited (“TMB”) and Thanachart Bank Public Company Limited (“Thanachart”) to bring about the unique strengths of TMB and Thanachart to raise financial well-being for Thai people. In this regard, the Company is one of the major shareholders of TTB with the equity stake of more than 20 percent and at the level which allows the Company to participate in the conduct of business of TTB."

 

https://www.thanachart.co.th/en/thanachart-group/associated-companies/tmbthanachart-bank

 

[Photoguy21]

Ask in the bank as they can, within limits, increase the amount per transaction you can get.

[rickudon]

I do a counter withdrawal every month at Krungsri. Most Krungsri branches allow this without a fee. You will still have to pay the fee of your card issuer. I use a credit card and have no problem withdrawing 50,000 baht a time.

[Liverpool Lou]

On 8/1/2024 at 9:41 AM, Jerzy Swirski said:

Number of withdrawals per day is set by the banks both in TH and at home

Cash withdrawals from Thai accounts in Thailand is limited by the daily withdrawal amount, set by the customer, not the number of daily withdrawals.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

18 minutes ago, rickudon said:

I do a counter withdrawal every month at Krungsri. Most Krungsri branches allow this without a fee. You will still have to pay the fee of your card issuer. I use a credit card and have no problem withdrawing 50,000 baht a time.

 

U.S. folks, and expats in general, I think need to be cautious about using foreign country credit cards to make counter withdrawals here.

 

One reason for that is that, AFAIK, most U.S.-based credit cards will treat that kind of transaction as a cash advance on the card. And cash advances on U.S. credit cards typically carry a flat percentage transaction fee (like a 5% of the advanced amount) plus usually a much higher interest rate if the balance is carried over. There also could be additional/normal foreign currency conversion fees, depending on the card.

 

There are a few U.S. credit cards that don't charge cash advance fees and don't charge foreign currency conversion fees, but those are in the vast minority. And to the best of my knowledge, the credit cards typically issued by the various U.S. mega-banks don't typically carry those advantages.

 

At least with a U.S. debit card, there's not going to be any cash advance surcharge, and no card interest accruing on the balance to worry about. Some Thai banks will do the same kind of counter withdrawal transaction using a foreign VISA or MC debit card, though others won't.

 

Here's an example of the kinds of cash advance fees charged involving one Bank of America credit card:

 

 

 

Source:

 

 

[Qman]

4 hours ago, retarius said:

My limit is 30K per transaction. If you want more you have to take your card out and start a new transaction then you can take out another 30K. I think the day limit is 300K, but I've never tried doing it 10 times over, I'm sure it would 'eat' my card. One point though is that I wanted to buy a car last year in BKK. I went with the dealer and my missus to pay for the car (over million baht). They two thais went to explain inside that we wanted to make a large withdrawal....they answer was fine, a cashier stood at the ATM while I inputted my data, and the transaction went through sending the money to the dealer's bank account. 

I use Kasikorn and this is the same as my account.  Of course you can take whatever you want inside the bank in person.  If someone is using a foreign ATM card at a local bank the rules will probably be different. Also local use with Kasikorn is free but when traveling around in Thailand there are fees when using branches outside your main location.

[acepredator]

20 hours ago, acepredator said:

Whenever I need money to live on, I take 20,900 baht from a Bangkok Bank ATM. That's 20 x 1,000 baht notes, plus one 500 baht note and four 100 baht notes. That's a total of 29 notes from the ATM. I have never had the slightest problem taking those 29 notes from the ATM slot. Your assertion that 18 notes is difficult to remove and that the machine could not dispense more than 20 notes seems very bizarre to me in that it is totally contrary to my experience using Bangkok Bank ATMs for 17 years. 

Sorry. I submitted this post very late at night (or actually very early morning) so my math was a little bit off. I should have said that I withdraw 25 notes without any problem, rather than 29. Any confusion generated by my post is perfectly understandable. I regret the erroneous nature of my original calculation. 

[rickudon]

TallguyJohn; Obviously if you intend spending a lot of time out of your home country, look for and get a card with free foreign use. My credit card allows fee free foreign cash withdrawals and purchases. Just need to pay off the debt quickly or the interest mounts up. Been doing the counter withdrawal ever since they introduced the Thai ATM fee. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 minutes ago, rickudon said:

TallguyJohn; Obviously if you intend spending a lot of time out of your home country, look for and get a card with free foreign use. My credit card allows fee free foreign cash withdrawals and purchases. Just need to pay off the debt quickly or the interest mounts up. Been doing the counter withdrawal ever since they introduced the Thai ATM fee. 

 

Rick, indeed, good to use home country bank cards that do NOT have any foreign currency fees...

 

About your counter withdrawals, does your U.S. credit card also have no flat fee transaction charge when used for cash advances?

 

I know of a couple U.S. credit unions that have credit card products with no cash advance fees. But those are very uncommon in the U.S. credit card market....

 

 

Edited August 3 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[rickudon]

Mine is from the UK, no flat fee, just MC exchange rate, which compares quite well to Wise when you factor in their fees.

[khunjeff]

On 8/3/2024 at 5:06 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Do you know / does that mean that ATMs that formerly belonged to the other party in that merger, Thanachart, now still have a lower per withdrawal limit? I don't think Thanachart was in the 30K club before...

 

That's a good question, and I don't know. There weren't many Thanachart ATMs prior to the merger (at least in any areas that I go to), so all of the TTB machines that I've used are ones that previously belonged to TMB. If I happen to see a legacy Thanachart ATM (and can recognize it as such), I'll try it out and see what happens.

 

Edited August 5 by khunjeff