Getting 53-54b To The Pound ££

[BEDBANDIT]

Hi guys I'm returning to Thailand very soon, I normally use my credit card and debit card, just drawing out Money from the ATMs when I need it, I normally spend around 5 to 6000, on my vacation.

this year instead of using the ATMs I was thinking of transferring 5000 pound to my Thai account. A quick look on the exchange rate page on Thai visa shows a rate of -GBP Pound Sterling 53.3903 THB -.

Right now if I could get an exchange rate of 53THB I would be happy. My friends holidaying in the PATTAYA at the moment are getting 49THB . And I have also read some posts on Thai visa about people transferring money at 53THB.

To get the best exchange rate are you guys just transferring money from your normal bank account in England to your normal bank account in Thailand or is there something else you're doing to get this exchange rate.?

also , how much do you pat in bank charges ?

the difference from 49b to 53b would give me an extra 20.000b , that might not be a lot of money , but it would make a big difference in accommodation i could rent , or an extra 400 Sangsom/coke i could drink

I have accounts with most major English banks but only one thai bank account with a AYUDHYA ( could open hsbc account)

Thanks for any input /advice

jay

[mrtoad]

I don't know why you don't think of using travellers cheques as an option.

As for rates, I got 51 last week transferring from my Nat West account in the UK, but the rates have slightly pushed up, as you say in to the 53 range. Don't think there will be any significant upword movement on the value of the pound, so if you are happy now, check with the bank and tx it, if you don't want to risk waiting and seeing the pound drop back to 48/49.

[BEDBANDIT]

thanx for the replay mrtoad

i had thought of using travelers cheques but they could only be worht 48.49 next month too ..... or am i missing something ?,

i am going to get £1000 pound worth of US $$ traveler cheques for my trip to Cambodia thou

[patklang]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

[Merangue]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

Forget Cash. It is utterly gone if you are robbed, you get a worse exchange rate and it is more bulky than TC's.

[endure]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK HMRC will want an explanation before you can travel.

[endure]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

You can order £2500 worth of T/Cs from the Nationwide website. The only charge (if you pay by debit card) is £3.50 next day delivery and this includes Sterling T/Cs. Most sellers make a charge for Sterling T/Cs as they can't make any money on the exchange rate.

[yabaaaa]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK the Excise will want an explanation before you can travel.

Keep your mouth shut limit is €10000 tell them nothing. Only if you are over this do you have to declare it.

[endure]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK the Excise will want an explanation before you can travel.

Keep your mouth shut limit is €10000 tell them nothing. Only if you are over this do you have to declare it.

Heathrow has dogs which are trained to sniff out large amounts of money.

[Merangue]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

You can order £2500 worth of T/Cs from the Nationwide website. The only charge (if you pay by debit card) is £3.50 next day delivery and this includes Sterling T/Cs. Most sellers make a charge for Sterling T/Cs as they can't make any money on the exchange rate.

I know mate but you can get £500 TC's and the charge is only 30baht per TC. Thats a charge of 0.06 Baht per £1, which is negligible really. With LloydsTSB you will get that postage charge unless you pick them up at a branch. Not sure if nationwide offer the same thing.

[southerndown]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK HMRC will want an explanation before you can travel.

there is no restriction on movement of sterling from the uk

[chiang mai]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK HMRC will want an explanation before you can travel.

there is no restriction on movement of sterling from the uk

In theory that's correct but in practice things are different. Any cash transaction over £10k has to be explained and accounted for, the US has a similar $10k rule. What that means is that possession of funds over that amount require an explanation, where did it come from, where's it going etc - if the answers aren't up to snuff the banks can refuse to accept the deposit and holders of that amount can find it being impounded until the correct answers are given. Easy to imagine being stopped at Heathrow with £11k in your bag and the police taking it away from you because your answer, I just raided my piggy bank", wasn't good enough.

[dave2]

endure.

Heathrow has dogs which are trained to sniff out large amounts of money.

Thailand has the same but they are called bar girls here

dave2

[chiang mai]

See what a little shopping around at Thai banks can do for your exchange rate:

http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

[parryhandy]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

Forget Cash. It is utterly gone if you are robbed, you get a worse exchange rate and it is more bulky than TC's.

This is definitely your best option if you have time.

[bangon04]

See what a little shopping around at Thai banks can do for your exchange rate:

http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

Just comparing Pound:Baht in lower Sukhumvit, I find that the Kasikorn FX booth on Soi7 opposite the beergarden has fairly consistently better (20 satang or more per pound) rates than all the others, including the other nearby Kasikorn ones.

I thought the bank sent the exchange rates out to the booths on a regular bulletin, so how can one booth be out of step by so much for most of the time?

[yabaaaa]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK the Excise will want an explanation before you can travel.

Keep your mouth shut limit is €10000 tell them nothing. Only if you are over this do you have to declare it.

Heathrow has dogs which are trained to sniff out large amounts of money.

So can the dog sniff the difference between €10000 and €10001? Can it sniff out €100 notes as this way you could cram more in illegally as say €20 notes? can it sniff out a cheque? If you had €10000 in €10 notes it would not be illegal would the dog know this as the amount of notes would be large a s opposed to it in €100's. I think your talking "suitcases " full.

[yabaaaa]

why not bring the cash,keep it in your hand luggage and cash gbp periodicaly and the rate may go up,but it may go down.couple of good places in pattaya for exchange and you dont need your passport.

If you're found to be taking several thousand in cash out of the UK HMRC will want an explanation before you can travel.

there is no restriction on movement of sterling from the uk

You have to declare anything over €10000 doesnt mean you cant take more they just want to know if you are carrying more than this, what its for and where it came from.

I usually tell em firearms , drugs, and people trafficking.............. get thru quickly then!!

[typhoon]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

Forget Cash. It is utterly gone if you are robbed, you get a worse exchange rate and it is more bulky than TC's.

Lloyds TSB now charge for £T/Cs as from about 4 months ago.

[Mario2008]

You have to declare anything over €10000 doesnt mean you cant take more they just want to know if you are carrying more than this, what its for and where it came from.

I usually tell em firearms , drugs, and people trafficking.............. get thru quickly then!!

Actually it is the cuurency worth more than 10,000 USD, not Euro, that yoy have to declare.

[Chivas]

Will if they have dogs sniffing hand luggage for cash then Ive never seen them in exiting Heathrow over 120 times for Thailand alone !!

(Am assuming no cretin puts 10k in his checked luggage)

Chivas

Edited January 17, 2009 by Chivas

[egg6447]

If you are in the UK. Open a Nationwide account, Transfer your money directly into the account and use the ATM's over there to draw your money when required.

You will get the better rate and there are no charges to worry about.

I would also back it up with some high denomination £ TC's as a back up in case of emergency.

My Main bank (Lloyds TSB supply £ TC's free of charge so you cannot lose. )

Forget Cash. It is utterly gone if you are robbed, you get a worse exchange rate and it is more bulky than TC's.

this is the best advise. read and digest.

[phutoie2]

Plus do not forget To inform Nationwide that you intend to use your debit card in Thailand!!.

I picked up my new Debit card in September 08 and after two ATM withdrawals at the local Tesco's I found out later that they had blocked its further use.

After a lengthy telephone call back to their HQ at Swindon all was sorted out!. Do not assume you are dealing with experts either, though a lovely speaking female assistant I had to explain that the local currency of Thailand is the Thai Baht.

PS. A recent visitor for Christmas had his Lloyds-TSB card blocked too despite informing them of his visit to Thailand. Their reply was that the computer overrides this info and everytime it see's the word 'Thailand' automatically blocks the card.

He was bonkers with them, demanding reimburesment of telephone calls/loss of exchange rates etc.

[JimsKnight]

Yep and the NW won't issue refunds cause I had the same thing happen!

Pound needs to climb!

Climb baby climb!

[theoldgit]

Last year I had similar problems with HBOS blocking my card, I had a number of lengthy calls to their call centres and things seem to have been ok since.

I asked for compensation and they offered me £100, I thought I would try my luck and told them it wasn't enough, they asked me how much I wanted and I said £200, to which they immediately agreed and it was in my account the next day.

I say I have had no problems since, on Friday I tried to draw 15,000 Baht from an ATM in MBK, it declined the transaction and blocked the card. I called their call centre again and they told me that the card had been blocked because I had attempted to withdraw more than the daily limit of £300, 15,000 Baht was £304 by their reckoning. Hells bells I used to be able 20,000 at a time - those were the days, anyway they unlocked it within minutes.

Off to Korea tonight, fingers crossed.

[mickba]

Friend of mine brought back 2 years worth of spending money in TCs last time he went home a year ago. He won't put the 800k in a Thai bank for his retirement extension because he would lose the interest he earns in the UK bank, so he pays 25k "dodgy" for a visa stamp (800k in and out).

As it happens, if he'd t/f the 800k a year ago he would have been at least £4k better off, plus the 25k THB, and he wasn't happy when I pointed out that he'd lost the potential UK interest anyway. We don't mention it any more.

My point is, if you bring large amounts of TCs, don't forget that the amount exits your bank a/c the minute you get them and not when you cash them. I know that's obvious to most people but the extra 2 baht you get for TCs is quickly negated by the lost interest and yet a bank somewhere still has your cash. Right?

I t/f lumps if the rate is right and it suits me to do it for a visa or whatever - haven't done since it was 66 so I'm definitely getting worried now.

Otherwise it's the good old Nationwide FlexAccount. Good rate and never had a problem here, Cambodia or Oz - so far.

I've also used my Kasikorn at ATMs in Cambodia to draw USD, which I didn't think of first time. I presume I could use it elsewhere?

To answer the OP's Q, you get the full offshore rate by bank to bank t/f (t/f in £s obviously) but you have to allow for the £21 or so charge. Then I think someone (Naam?) said that the onshore rate was running ahead of the offshore rate and I got confused.

I've read in another TV thread that you can also t/f large amounts with your Nationwide card by going inside the bank and using a swipe and sign method.

Edited January 18, 2009 by mickba

[Familyonthemove]

I've noticed that when I use my UK visa card, the bank calculates the exchange rate at a much lower rate than the one shown by on-line exchange rate sites for the same time/day as the transaction date in the statement. They are currently using around 47-THB to the pound. So in addition to the handling charge they are making money on the exchange rates.

I've just set up a local Standard Chartered account ..... it'll be interesting to see their rates ... and I also noticed that they don't charge the 20 THB fee to use their cash machines either.

[mickba]

I've noticed that when I use my UK visa card, the bank calculates the exchange rate at a much lower rate than the one shown by on-line exchange rate sites for the same time/day as the transaction date in the statement. They are currently using around 47-THB to the pound. So in addition to the handling charge they are making money on the exchange rates.

You don't say which bank, but not true of Nationwide.