3 Things that will make your relationship successful in Thailand

[davejonesbkk]

2 weeks ago I flew back to the uk, before I left I withdrew about 20k in baht from my Thai account. I was under the impression that I would get a better rate changing from baht to gbp in the uk as the offshore rate (like on xe.com) is usually less baht than onshore, just like it is with US dollars. Anyway I at the airport in the uk the rate was 68 baht to the pund!! So I reckon I lost out on about 50 gbp!! Why was it like this??

Now I am coming back to the uk in a few days time, should I change my gbp to baht here or at Bangkok?

[N47HAN]

not sure but possibly because you were in the airport and ot a high street bank ?

commisions and profit etc etc

[Sophon]

2 weeks ago I flew back to the uk, before I left I withdrew about 20k in baht from my Thai account. I was under the impression that I would get a better rate changing from baht to gbp in the uk as the offshore rate (like on xe.com) is usually less baht than onshore, just like it is with US dollars. Anyway I at the airport in the uk the rate was 68 baht to the pund!! So I reckon I lost out on about 50 gbp!! Why was it like this??

Now I am coming back to the uk in a few days time, should I change my gbp to baht here or at Bangkok?

The exchange rate you see on xe.com is the interbank rate which you could say is the "true value" of the currency. However, no business sells or buys goods at the true value, then there would be no profit for them and they wouldn't be in business long.

So when buying or selling cash (or any other financial instrument such as bank transfers or cheques) the banks add a margin to cover their costs and profit. The margin added to cash is bigger than on other financial instruments, because handling cash is fairly expensive for the banks (cash doesn't earn interest, has to be transported safely, has to be insured etc.). The margin varies from currency to currency depending on how much demand there is for that specific currency, so the bigger the demand the smaller the margins.

So now we come back to your question. THB is an exotic currency in the U.K. and the banks don't have much demand for it, so their margins on THB are extremely high (especially for cash but also to a smaller degree for other financial instruments). GBP on the other hand is one of the major currencies all over the world including in Thailand, so the Thai banks margins on this currency are considerably lower. So even though the off-shore interbank rate on GBP (against THB) was/is marginally better than the rates in Thailand, then that is more than off-sett by the higher margins charged by U.K. banks making Thailand a better place to do the exchange.

With regards to your last question I assume what you meant to say was:

"Now I am coming back from the uk in a few days time, should I change my gbp to baht here or at Bangkok?"

If so, you should absolutely change your GBP in Bangkok. This time your will have both the advantage of the better on-shore exchange rate as well as the lower margins charged by the Thai banks.

Sophon

[mikethevigoman]

2 weeks ago I flew back to the uk, before I left I withdrew about 20k in baht from my Thai account. I was under the impression that I would get a better rate changing from baht to gbp in the uk as the offshore rate (like on xe.com) is usually less baht than onshore, just like it is with US dollars. Anyway I at the airport in the uk the rate was 68 baht to the pund!! So I reckon I lost out on about 50 gbp!! Why was it like this??

Now I am coming back to the uk in a few days time, should I change my gbp to baht here or at Bangkok?

Definatly in thailand !, uk for exchange is a rip off ,.