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Foreign Exchange Rates


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Apologies if this has been discussed previously, upon looking at Bangkok Banks Foreign Exchange Rates web page I'm confused as to which units would apply.

The units in the table are classified as Bank Note Buying Rate, Bank Note Selling Rate, Buying Rates Sight Bill, Buying Rates TT and finally, Buying Rates Bill - DD -TT.

If for example I wished to exchange GBP £1000.000 to THB inside a Bank Branch, would I be correct in assuming that the unit above would be classified as Bank Note Buying Rates?

Also could anyone expand on each different unit above? Thanks in advance for clarification on this matter, I have always wanted to understand what these different classifiications mean.

Many thanks!:jap:

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Should you bring cash to a Bank for Exchange, the Bank will apply the Bank note buy rate. (buy versus sell is always from the Bank perspective). This rate is generally the least attractive offerred by Banks. In theory Banks are required to buy the cash, parcel it up and send the physical notes back to their country of origin to get reimbursement. The costs in doing this include shipping, Insurance and the Exchange risk that they may occur while waiting reimbursement. Often however the bank can resell this money to customers that are wanting to travel overseas. However, surpluses do occur and the repatriation of the notes does occur.

If a customer arranges to bring funds into the country via SWIFT, electronic transfer, no physical cash changes hands. It is book entries between the Banks. All parties, customer and Banks, have almost immediate access to the funds and can do what they wish. From the Banks perspective they have funds available to say satisfy a sell order for say an importer wishing to pay his account overseas. The TT buy rate is applied

The sight bill buy rate quoted is for customers lodging overseas cheques into their accounts or travellers cheques. Also not the most attractive as the Bank will need to send the cheque back to its country of origin to get the funds for customer or to reimburse themselves if they have paid out to customers with travellers cheques.

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Should you bring cash to a Bank for Exchange, the Bank will apply the Bank note buy rate. (buy versus sell is always from the Bank perspective). This rate is generally the least attractive offerred by Banks. In theory Banks are required to buy the cash, parcel it up and send the physical notes back to their country of origin to get reimbursement. The costs in doing this include shipping, Insurance and the Exchange risk that they may occur while waiting reimbursement. Often however the bank can resell this money to customers that are wanting to travel overseas. However, surpluses do occur and the repatriation of the notes does occur.

If a customer arranges to bring funds into the country via SWIFT, electronic transfer, no physical cash changes hands. It is book entries between the Banks. All parties, customer and Banks, have almost immediate access to the funds and can do what they wish. From the Banks perspective they have funds available to say satisfy a sell order for say an importer wishing to pay his account overseas. The TT buy rate is applied

The sight bill buy rate quoted is for customers lodging overseas cheques into their accounts or travellers cheques. Also not the most attractive as the Bank will need to send the cheque back to its country of origin to get the funds for customer or to reimburse themselves if they have paid out to customers with travellers cheques.

Daveroc, thank you kindly for taking the time to write a detailed explanation outlining the different rates and descriptions of each, it is much appreciated and really helps me to understand clearly each different unit rate and how they are applied. You are a gentleman thank you for your time.

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If you are in Bangkok, just go to Super Rich. You will get the T/T buying rate for cash money.

ExpatOilWorker, thank you kindly for your suggestion! Their website displays a competitive buying rate, I noticed that at the bottom of the web page it states that rates displayed are available at the Rajadumri branch only, perhaps worth noting for other readers. Thank you for your advice, I may well visit and post feedback experience.

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Correct, when exchanging home country currency into baht you would use the "Buying" rate, which means the Thai agency/bank is buying your home country currency from you and they are willing to pay X-amount of baht per home currency unit.. Ex: buy each pound for 48.XX baht, but each USD for 30.XX baht, etc.

When wiring/SWIFTing money to your Thai bank account the Thai bank will use the TT Buying Rate in the conversion to baht (assuming you didn't have your home country sending bank convert to baht before sending which almost always results in a lower exchange rate than if you had let the Thai bank do the conversion/exchange).

And when you need to go the other way and exchange your baht for pounds, then the Selling rate is used. That is, the bank will sell you pounds for so many baht.

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Correct, when exchanging home country currency into baht you would use the "Buying" rate, which means the Thai agency/bank is buying your home country currency from you and they are willing to pay X-amount of baht per home currency unit.. Ex: buy each pound for 48.XX baht, but each USD for 30.XX baht, etc.

When wiring/SWIFTing money to your Thai bank account the Thai bank will use the TT Buying Rate in the conversion to baht (assuming you didn't have your home country sending bank convert to baht before sending which almost always results in a lower exchange rate than if you had let the Thai bank do the conversion/exchange).

And when you need to go the other way and exchange your baht for pounds, then the Selling rate is used. That is, the bank will sell you pounds for so many baht.

:) Thank you Pib for the info, much appreciated.

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