Holiday Money Confusion

[mark henry]

The Wife and i are going to Thailand next month with a week in Cambodia as well. Being easily confused i can't work out if its better (rate wise) to take sterling travel checks, take English pounds and/or buy Thai Baht here in the UK? Also, is it the case Cambodia only accept Dollars and Thai baht/Cambodia (Rile?) for small stuff? I hear it's better to change money at the airport for the best rates? true or not?

Your help/thoughts appreciated.

Mark

[londonthai]

spread your money - some travel cheques, cash £, bank cards.

don't exchange in the uk

rates at the thai airports will be the same as at banks

to cambodia thai baht, not that many atm

[citizen33]

spread your money - some travel cheques, cash £, bank cards.

don't exchange in the uk

rates at the thai airports will be the same as at banks

to cambodia thai baht, not that many atm

Or, as has been said ad infinitum on this forum, get a Nationwide ATM card and get a better rate straight out of the machine. The most important point already made is don't buy baht outside Thailand - the offshore exchange rate is less good for you than the onshore rate.

[Nignoy]

What ever you do DONT GET TRAVELLERS CHEQUES (does not matter whichBank)many places in thailand and europe will not accept them any more Nignoy

[dominator]

The Wife and i are going to Thailand next month with a week in Cambodia as well. Being easily confused i can't work out if its better (rate wise) to take sterling travel checks, take English pounds and/or buy Thai Baht here in the UK? Also, is it the case Cambodia only accept Dollars and Thai baht/Cambodia (Rile?) for small stuff? I hear it's better to change money at the airport for the best rates? true or not?

Your help/thoughts appreciated.

Mark

As said, don't buy baht in the UK. All major banks in Thailand accept travellers cheques and give a better rate than cash. Cambodia....US dollars are best, so i've heard. Have a good holiday.

[Zpete]

My offering as a regular visitor to Thailand.

Travellers cheques, a no no.

Banks charge you for them, and you are charged to cash them = lousy exchange rate.

NEVER buy Baht outside Thailand.

Yes, airport seems to give best rates.

Being aware, rates change all the time, Baht is one of the better performing currencies.

I always bring cash and change it at Swampypool, outside of airside, as soon as I arrive.

For safety, run a bank account and cash card in Thailand. I don't LOL

If you run short, just use your UK Bankcard at ATMs. rarely used by myself.

Make sure your cash card has the "Plus" symbol on the back.

My NZ bank charges $NZ5.00 each transaction, + 1% FX fee.

Check with your home banks, get the cheapest.........LOL.

Going to Cambodia, get SMALL nice clean $US bills.

Baht is also accepted there.

Any change you get in Cambodia will be local, spend it all.

Riel is useless outside Cambodia.

Word on credit cards.

Unless absolutely vital, DO NOT USE IN SHOPS, it may be compromised...... read COPIED.

Never let it out of sight, even out of your hands.

Everytime I have had to use mine, my bank slaps a maximum transaction of 500 bucks on it.

I book everything and pay in advance of leaving home, online.

Nothing to lose, all bookings, E_Tickets etc will be in your email folders, if needed, cyber cafés are everywhere...... so cheap, about 20 Baht an hour.

Free in most accommodations.

Gofrit, happy travelling.

[aussiep]

My offering as a regular visitor to Thailand.

Travellers cheques, a no no.

Banks charge you for them, and you are charged to cash them = lousy exchange rate.

NEVER buy Baht outside Thailand.

Yes, airport seems to give best rates.

Being aware, rates change all the time, Baht is one of the better performing currencies.

I always bring cash and change it at Swampypool, outside of airside, as soon as I arrive.

For safety, run a bank account and cash card in Thailand. I don't LOL

If you run short, just use your UK Bankcard at ATMs. rarely used by myself.

Make sure your cash card has the "Plus" symbol on the back.

My NZ bank charges $NZ5.00 each transaction, + 1% FX fee.

Check with your home banks, get the cheapest.........LOL.

Going to Cambodia, get SMALL nice clean $US bills.

Baht is also accepted there.

Any change you get in Cambodia will be local, spend it all.

Riel is useless outside Cambodia.

Word on credit cards.

Unless absolutely vital, DO NOT USE IN SHOPS, it may be compromised...... read COPIED.

Never let it out of sight, even out of your hands.

Everytime I have had to use mine, my bank slaps a maximum transaction of 500 bucks on it.

I book everything and pay in advance of leaving home, online.

Nothing to lose, all bookings, E_Tickets etc will be in your email folders, if needed, cyber cafés are everywhere...... so cheap, about 20 Baht an hour.

Free in most accommodations.

Gofrit, happy travelling.

You are correct. never buy Thai Baht outside Thailand.

Travelers cheques are good value in Thailand.

AMEX cheques ( I get AUD in $200 cheques ) are usually bought for 1.1% commission.

To cash them in Bangkok it is 33 THB per cheque, you need passport to cash.

Only once upcountry was I asked for the receipt of purchase.

The Bangkok bank to day is cash 29.22 and Travelers cheques 29.57 (Australian Dollars )

In Cambodia it is easy to get local money but is good idea to have small notes in USD$

Hope this helps.

[bkkmick]

Get US$ before you go to Cambodia as ATM's are hard to find (if there are any at all - there weren't when I last went there, years ago).

[t.s]

use a bank card in thailand, atms are everywhere.

for Cambodia bring usd in cash, travellers cheques if you are concerned about being ripped off.

[Nignoy]

My offering as a regular visitor to Thailand.

Travellers cheques, a no no.

Banks charge you for them, and you are charged to cash them = lousy exchange rate.

NEVER buy Baht outside Thailand.

Yes, airport seems to give best rates.

Being aware, rates change all the time, Baht is one of the better performing currencies.

I always bring cash and change it at Swampypool, outside of airside, as soon as I arrive.

For safety, run a bank account and cash card in Thailand. I don't LOL

If you run short, just use your UK Bankcard at ATMs. rarely used by myself.

Make sure your cash card has the "Plus" symbol on the back.

My NZ bank charges $NZ5.00 each transaction, + 1% FX fee.

Check with your home banks, get the cheapest.........LOL.

Going to Cambodia, get SMALL nice clean $US bills.

Baht is also accepted there.

Any change you get in Cambodia will be local, spend it all.

Riel is useless outside Cambodia.

Word on credit cards.

Unless absolutely vital, DO NOT USE IN SHOPS, it may be compromised...... read COPIED.

Never let it out of sight, even out of your hands.

Everytime I have had to use mine, my bank slaps a maximum transaction of 500 bucks on it.

I book everything and pay in advance of leaving home, online.

Nothing to lose, all bookings, E_Tickets etc will be in your email folders, if needed, cyber cafés are everywhere...... so cheap, about 20 Baht an hour.

Free in most accommodations.

Gofrit, happy travelling.

You are correct. never buy Thai Baht outside Thailand.

Travelers cheques are good value in Thailand.

AMEX cheques ( I get AUD in $200 cheques ) are usually bought for 1.1% commission.

To cash them in Bangkok it is 33 THB per cheque, you need passport to cash.

Only once upcountry was I asked for the receipt of purchase.

The Bangkok bank to day is cash 29.22 and Travelers cheques 29.57 (Australian Dollars )

In Cambodia it is easy to get local money but is good idea to have small notes in USD$

Hope this helps.

As far as amex and travellers cheques are concerned, we had difficulty, trying to cashboth sorts in Phuket, Bkk and Chiangmai,before xmas and in octoberand november banks and financial institutions in france ,austria and germany would not even look at them!! amex atZurich airport warned us that their cheques were not being accepted anywhere in western europe, and then Suncorp Metway in Brisbane had the nerve to try and charge us 540 dollars to pay the cheques back into our account in Brisbane Nignoy

[true blue]

barclays visa sterling travellers cheques best bet.62.20 today bangkok bank .30 bht service charge, no worry if stole, and any left over paid back in to account, no charge. not sure about cambodia. never visited.

[kolasaab]

Hello, i am a regular visitor to thailand and i always take about £50 in thai baht and the rest in £200 pound sterling travellers checks, my bank, lloyds tsb dosnt charge for travellers checks and the charge for cashing them in thailand is about 30bht per check

[intumult]

I have to agree, Sterling trav cheques and $ also do get a lousy rate when you work it out with all the charges involved.

As others have said, good old cash and exchange at the airport for the better rates and then deposit in a Thai bank.

Back-up of visa card for ATM withdrawals. Abt 5.7% charges on visa but worth it if in need.

Better still, look at the threads for Nationwide Bank.

[Briggsy]

Option 1 I disagree with the all the posters who claim travellers cheques get a lousy rate. They are often the most effective way to change money. Usually if you buy say 1000 pounds of tc's in uk you pay an extra 1% that's 1010 pounds. Then change your sterling tc's to baht at any bank in Thailand you lose another 1% in exchange so total loss = 2%.

Option 2 Compare to credit cards. Most UK credit and debit cards charge an initial 2.75% foreign exchange fee. This is 'hidden' in the exchange rate so with credit cards you're worse off already even before you've added any transaction charges.

Option 3 Now compare to bringing cash sterling. You lose around 1.5% on the exchange rate. So this beats tc's but you have the risk of carrying a wad around with you.

Option 4 The other excellent alternative is the Nationwide ATM card which may well also beat tc's and of course not carry the risk of carrying large amounts of cash.

As almost all posters have said, never buy baht in the UK. The offshore exchange rate is worse and the banks in the UK simply steal your money on the margin.

For Cambodia, they operate a 3-currency system, baht, US dollars and riel. Take Baht and US Dollars. Best buy them here not in the UK. Sterling can be a pain in Cambodia but some banks will cash Sterling tc's

I hope this is clear. I have tried to make it as simple as I can. Some of the other posts are incorrect. I have not gone into this as I don't want an internet argument.

[mark henry]

Just read my replies today. Thanx all for your time and info on what is i guess a well trodden subject here. It seems travel cheques, dollars (nice clean ones?!) and uk cash is the way to go. I will not by Baht here as advised which i always did in the past. Plus i will change at Sawunapoom.

Thanks again

[Ping]

I think it has been indicated adequately that travellers' cheques should be purchased in the home currency and converted upon encashment. It is only ฿30 per travellers' cheque to cash them - irrespective of the face value of the TC. Therefore, in my case, a $200 traveller's cheque, where the exchange rate is B30:1 costs 0.5%. Where inital purchase of the TCs cost 1.09% of value, the total loss for conversion is therefore 1.59%. Cash usually gets a less favourable exchange rate than TCs - but the differential varies from day to day. For example, at post 7 the difference was ฿0.35 (35 stang) which is over 1%, whereas as I post, the difference is only 8.5 stang (or less than 0.3%). The variation can be as great as 2% or more. I have always used TCs. Some places provide them fee free, but this is only useful if you can require that they are all in the highest available denomination, since the encashment amount per TC remains the same and therefore the margin for the exchange service provider is far greater for lower valued TCs.

Prepaid (debit) travel cards all (as far as I know) have fees for creation and initial/further deposits, fees for each withdrawal transaction, and fees to close and redeem unspent amounts. They are the most convenient option, since they can be used at many ATMs. Most cards ultimately have an expiry date (often 3 years) and attract monthly fees when dormant (not in regular use).

I would only ever take cash if I was staying for a very short period of time, at one hotel and that hotel is a highly reputable one. In any other case, I would opt for TCs over a card, since you are not carrying them all at once, therefore cannot be lost or stolen from your personal possession all at once, and they cannot be swallowed by an ATM.

[MrJay]

Dont bring casH, lower rate than travellers cheques,and if it gets stolen,you will not get it back,ive had no probs all over thailand in 5yrs with 200 pound sterling cheques,order them from your bank in england,you can get these replaced in bangkok if stolen,bring a atm card for on the safe side,bear in mind they dont always work ive got numerous friends who go to the atm with there visa card ect and come back empty handed,so go with the travelers cheques...and look for a siam bank purple colour they are all over the place, you get a quick service unlike some banks will keep you waiting...