2 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

I'm not buying this excuse at all. This is BS stories and most people using crypto to change to THB because it is more fast and free, I do that since years. Sure a percentage of the transactions likely is laundering but that is just as much in any other type of transfers / business too.

And why would they be buying Thai Bonds at 1.36% (10 year). There are plenty of currencies offering much better rates.

On 9/21/2025 at 4:33 AM, Bobthegimp said:

 Frozen British pensions have driven the geezers into the money laundering business! 

Lol. I don't think those worrying about frozen pensions are going to have huge sums in cryptocurrency.

This idea of a "Baht Surge" I find slightly odd.

I am a regular tourist to Thailand and here are the past cash rates that I've experienced from exchanging UKP usually in TT exchange:

 

I found an old document from April 2017 showing that 42.68 was the average cash rate 

Jan - Mar 2019 average 40.9

No figure for 2020 and didn't visit until 2024

Feb - Mar 2024 average 45.22

Feb - April 2025 average 42.69

 

Today 22-9-25  42.55 (from TT website)

So for a Brit tourist, it's actually better now than it was in 2019.

 

Just to quantify, in 2024, £1000 got me 45220 Baht.

Today it would get me  42550 Baht

A difference of 2670 Baht averaged over exchanges over a 2 month period

 

Yes it's got a little stronger, but isn't "surge" a little over dramatic...for tourists anyway.

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

On 9/21/2025 at 5:59 AM, NanLaew said:

 

With the added collosal financial impact on the Thai baht due to British pensioners gaming the system by using agents to facilitate their broke-assed squatting here.

If immigration was so bothered about the use of agents they would have got rid of them, but then the revenue stream would stop for the greedy ones.

 

I was taking the piss.

5 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

What difference does it make to the Thai economy if they don’t have the 800000 baht, they will be spending it elsewhere in Thailand.

 

As I said earlier, I was taking the piss.

 

Maybe I should use emojis?

On 9/21/2025 at 4:59 AM, NanLaew said:

 

With the added collosal financial impact on the Thai baht due to British pensioners gaming the system by using agents to facilitate their broke-assed squatting here.

Skint Farangs have feelings too ye know.

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

 

As I said earlier, I was taking the piss.

 

Maybe I should use emojis?

Or make your posts clearer perhaps!

Whatever the reasons, it is great to finally see that over the last month or so, there has been a lot of media stories talking about the high Baht.  The new BOT Chairman starts 1 October and he believes that interest rates must be cut to stimulate growth, and that the Baht has been too high for too long and is hindering tourism and exports. 

 

I think we can all finally look forward to a long lasting decline in the Baht - hopefully back to where it was before the Junta forced it up in 2014/2015 (to pay for all the military equipment and infrastructure projects they bought from their overlords in China).  I just hope the decline is well managed and it does not happen too quickly - but more likely they will screw it up and it will crash. 

1 hour ago, VBF said:

This idea of a "Baht Surge" I find slightly odd.

I am a regular tourist to Thailand and here are the past cash rates that I've experienced from exchanging UKP usually in TT exchange:

I found an old document from April 2017 showing that 42.68 was the average cash rate 

Jan - Mar 2019 average 40.9

No figure for 2020 and didn't visit until 2024

Feb - Mar 2024 average 45.22

Feb - April 2025 average 42.69

Today 22-9-25  42.55 (from TT website)

So for a Brit tourist, it's actually better now than it was in 2019.

Just to quantify, in 2024, £1000 got me 45220 Baht.

Today it would get me  42550 Baht

A difference of 2670 Baht averaged over exchanges over a 2 month period

Yes it's got a little stronger, but isn't "surge" a little over dramatic...for tourists anyway.

Below is the current XE online exchange rate comparison. 

10 years ago it was 55 Baht per Pound.

10 years ago it was 27.5 Baht per Aussie Dollar - now it is 21

10 years ago it was 36 Baht per USA Dollar - now it is 31

In October 22 it was 38 Baht per USA Dollar - now it is 31 (I think that is the huge increase referred to). 

 

 

 

Just now, DezLez said:

Or make your posts clearer perhaps!

 

You mean as clear as my piss (taking)?

1 minute ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

Below is the current XE online exchange rate comparison. 

10 years ago it was 55 Baht per Pound.

10 years ago it was 27.5 Baht per Aussie Dollar - now it is 21

10 years ago it was 36 Baht per USA Dollar - now it is 31

In October 22 it was 38 Baht per USA Dollar - now it is 31 (I think that is the huge increase referred to). 

 

 

 

OK - you're probably correct

 

To be fair you quoted    "10 years ago it was 55 Baht per Pound." and no I did not go back that far (2015)

Looking at it over that period, yes I can see the vast difference, but then  if you go back to the Asian crash in (I think) 1997 I recall that £1 bought you 80 Baht!!

I remember it halved almost overnight because a friend in Phuket was about to buy a car and he was delighted!

A massive surge due to extraordinary circumstances.

 

So from that perspective yes there has been a surge over 28 years!

I was thinking more about more recent changes.

 

Oddly enough, when I first visited Thailand in 1985 (40 years ago - help!!!) I recall it being "forty-something" to the £

So, somewhat flippantly, and from that perspective it hasn't really changed over 40 years!

On 9/20/2025 at 10:51 PM, dinsdale said:

China and Russia are the suspects that spring to mind for me. 

 

 

THIS

They would have known before hand that the cyrpto money coming in was not going to be from legal sources. 

 

Why did they introduce it ? It clearly benefits some, especially those in the property sector to save it from collapse.

 

The average person on the street will suffer as it will push prices up, and reduce tourism. It's not going to bring in any taxes or anything for the Thai economy either. 

On 9/20/2025 at 5:51 PM, dinsdale said:

China and Russia are the suspects that spring to mind for me. 

 

Add North Korea, and various terror groups who rely on  a series of complex money transfers for funds.  Also there are the usual hi so members of the wealthy class who are washing their ill begotten gains in this manner.

4 hours ago, VBF said:

OK - you're probably correct

To be fair you quoted    "10 years ago it was 55 Baht per Pound." and no I did not go back that far (2015)

Looking at it over that period, yes I can see the vast difference, but then  if you go back to the Asian crash in (I think) 1997 I recall that £1 bought you 80 Baht!!

I remember it halved almost overnight because a friend in Phuket was about to buy a car and he was delighted!

A massive surge due to extraordinary circumstances.

 

So from that perspective yes there has been a surge over 28 years!

I was thinking more about more recent changes.

 

Oddly enough, when I first visited Thailand in 1985 (40 years ago - help!!!) I recall it being "forty-something" to the £

So, somewhat flippantly, and from that perspective it hasn't really changed over 40 years!

Yes 1997 was not normal - for about 2-3 years after. I hear you about the past, but it was 2014/5 when the Baht started to appreciate. Check it out at XE against all currencies. I first traveled to Thailand in 2012 and it was 32 THB for 1 AUD.  Unfortunately, all the currency exchange mobs dont do 25 years comparison anymore - only over max 10 years - unless you pay and become member. 

6 minutes ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

Yes 1997 was not normal - for about 2-3 years after. I hear you about the past, but it was 2014/5 when the Baht started to appreciate. Check it out at XE against all currencies. I first traveled to Thailand in 2012 and it was 32 THB for 1 AUD.  Unfortunately, all the currency exchange mobs dont do 25 years comparison anymore - only over max 10 years - unless you pay and become member. 

I quite believe you without checking it out.

It does show that the time period over which one compares has a massive effect on the perspective one gains.

 

If you were to take my previous intentionally flippant comment "......... from that perspective it hasn't really changed in 40 years!"  seriously, without paying attention to what happened during that period, you'd end up with a very distorted view of the situation, 

 

I could say to people, "Oh the Thai Baht is worth about the same against the UKP as it was in 1985" which is actually true in its literal form. But we'd be ignoring the "Asian crash", political events, deaths of monarchs, Covid etc etc.

 

And, if you take a "snapshot" of any 5, 10, 15 year period in that timescale then the results would be different again.

 

And this is how politicians and their ilk, the world over, can manipulate and present facts without telling the whole truth.  Why, the very title of this article including the phrase "Baht Surge" becomes suspect.

 

Does all this come into the "thinking too much" category, do you think?  🤔

 

They just wanted people to use crypto. 

9 hours ago, VBF said:

This idea of a "Baht Surge" I find slightly odd…

 

In Thai news, " Baht surge" and similar slogans are always a reference to th USD/THB exchange rate.

Off topic troll post removed @TroubleandGrumpy 

18 hours ago, Purdey said:

Devaluation. 

One way to make the Baht cheap.

To do that, the Thai government needs to buy shait loads of bankrupted currencies - EUR, USD. While it might work on a short term, eventually they will lose even more as the clown western world heads where it belongs - in the history of losers…

14 hours ago, reflectionx said:

To do that, the Thai government needs to buy shait loads of bankrupted currencies - EUR, USD. While it might work on a short term, eventually they will lose even more as the clown western world heads where it belongs - in the history of losers…

No - on all counts you said.  To devalue the Baht they have many methods - including selling the Baht (which lowers the value) - or limit the amount of gold exported out of Thailand being paid in Baht (which raises the value). 

if they really wanted to  clamp down on fraud ...........when a foreigner spends a large amount or a local spnends a large amount funded by a foreigner it raises a question...........where did the money come from, only way to answer that is to contact the revenue dept of the home country, chances are said person has been on benefits last 15 years and quite obviously should not have  had  those funds   

 

the Thai police need to do a bit of police work to combat fraud, the first place to start is where did  the that money come from, revenue dpt  from home country. can explain - or not