Thaivisa Currency Quotes

[Pib]

I see the ThaiVisa currency quotes in the upper right hand corner of the screen and under the MORE pull down menu now reflect the TT Buying Rate versus Mid Market Rate. I noticed the change this morning and thought for a second the dollar/eur/pound had made big appreciation overnight...one can hope.

Good change as I think the majority of expats living in Thailand would prefer to know the TT rate as that is what they usually try arrange when converting/transferring currency. Good change.

[joe7]

Awesome - how would I take advantage of the TT rate?

I have £1000 in a UK bank account and would like to get it to Thailand somehow

[BB1950]

Awesome - how would I take advantage of the TT rate?

I have £1000 in a UK bank account and would like to get it to Thailand somehow

Easy. Open a Thai Bank account. Transfer money to it via SWIFT.

[Renbe]

I am going to Thailand soon, and need a lot of Baht to buy a car etc. Is it better to bring cash Euro money and exchange that, or deposit the money on my Euro bank account

and transfer it to my Thai bank account?

Thanks for any help

[Stjohnm]

I am going to Thailand soon, and need a lot of Baht to buy a car etc. Is it better to bring cash Euro money and exchange that, or deposit the money on my Euro bank account

and transfer it to my Thai bank account?

Thanks for any help

Swift it to your Thai Bank account, if you change cash you'll get the sight bill rate along with Traveller Cheque rate they aren't good & some banks will charge to deposit cash into a foreign currency account so getting the TT rate that way won't save you any.

[Pib]

I am going to Thailand soon, and need a lot of Baht to buy a car etc. Is it better to bring cash Euro money and exchange that, or deposit the money on my Euro bank account

and transfer it to my Thai bank account?

Thanks for any help

Swift it to your Thai Bank account, if you change cash you'll get the sight bill rate along with Traveller Cheque rate they aren't good & some banks will charge to deposit cash into a foreign currency account so getting the TT rate that way won't save you any.

The typical funds exchange:

- Gets the Notes buying rate when exchanging cash.

- Gets the Sight Bill buying rate when exchanging traveler cheques.

- Gets the TT buying rate frrom the Thai bank when wiring/SWIFTing/ACHing money. Almost always better to wire the funds in your home currency and let the Thai bank automatically exchange the funds at their TT buying rate versus letting the sending bank convert to baht before sending as that usually results in a 1 to 3% lower exchange rate (nice little profit made at your expense by the sending bank)...send in home currency and let the Thai bank exchange automatically at the TT buying rate.

Don't think the OP was talking about transferring home country currency into a foreign currency account. For medium to large sums of currency exchange wiring funds and getting the TT rate is the best way to go/get the most bang per buck/euro/pound. Cheers.

[ianguygil]

I am going to Thailand soon, and need a lot of Baht to buy a car etc. Is it better to bring cash Euro money and exchange that, or deposit the money on my Euro bank account

and transfer it to my Thai bank account?

Thanks for any help

Swift it to your Thai Bank account, if you change cash you'll get the sight bill rate along with Traveller Cheque rate they aren't good & some banks will charge to deposit cash into a foreign currency account so getting the TT rate that way won't save you any.

The typical funds exchange:

- Gets the Notes buying rate when exchanging cash.

- Gets the Sight Bill buying rate when exchanging traveler cheques.

- Gets the TT buying rate frrom the Thai bank when wiring/SWIFTing/ACHing money. Almost always better to wire the funds in your home currency and let the Thai bank automatically exchange the funds at their TT buying rate versus letting the sending bank convert to baht before sending as that usually results in a 1 to 3% lower exchange rate (nice little profit made at your expense by the sending bank)...send in home currency and let the Thai bank exchange automatically at the TT buying rate.

Don't think the OP was talking about transferring home country currency into a foreign currency account. For medium to large sums of currency exchange wiring funds and getting the TT rate is the best way to go/get the most bang per buck/euro/pound. Cheers.

All correct, I will just add a few items and will provide a link to our service at Bangkok Bank at the end for those transferring from the UK.

The rates you see on this site, or on any bank site are all "indicative" which means they were correct at a point in time during that day and are approximately the rate you will receive (I am not sure where this site is sourced from, many source a frame from BangkokBank.com, mainly newspaper sites such as the Bangkok Post etc.). Most retail transfers for consumers are given the "street rate" which is set periodically during the day. The frequency of the rate is based on the volatility of the currency that day. In times of high volatility it can be many times per day, on other days it can be once or twice.

The rates are always set by the treasury in each bank. This is one of their primary activities. The FX Traders are in the Treasury.

As stated, the TT (Telegraphic Transfer) Rate is used for SWIFT or other types of international wires. You would get the "buy" rate as you are asking to sell your home currency (GBP, USD, AUD etc.) for the Baht. So you are selling that currency in question and the Bank is buying the foreign currency. Which explains the Buy side from the Bank perspective as we are setting the rate, and you are coming to us and asking us to buy it and sell you Baht.

If you have a larger amount, probably more than 50,000 USD, you an approach a bank and ask for a FX deal rather than taking the street rate. That can be spot, or forward, but in some locations forwards are not available to consumers. In this case the bank will fix a rate for you so there is no risk. If it is a forward it locks you in and protects you against currency risk. But if your currency goes up you lose out.

The reasons banknotes get a worse rate is that there is manual processing involved and the funds are locked up until we can sell those banknotes on.

The different between the Buy and Sell rates for a currency pair is the "spread' and that is how the banks make money on buying and selling currencies. As commercial operations banks need to make a profit on services. I am sure all understand that.

I do hope this demystifies things. I know "banker speak" can be kind of confusing. We create our own world....

For the original posted who wanted to send funds from the UK to Thailand, you can do via our Bangkok Bank branch in London (right next to the Gherkin) and send the funds to us via BACS which will be cheaper in general than a normal SWIFT payment. The link for that is here

http://www.bangkokba...0from%20uk.aspx

Please PM me if you have specific questions. i am writing this quickly over lunch at my desk so I trust I have not make major errors. Thanks

Good luck.

Edited September 13, 2010 by ianguygil