Avoiding The 150B Atm Fee

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Looks like a decent starting-point resource: Link

Those with knowledge of those banks for various "home" countries that refund the fee should probably pitch in for those googling later on.

e.g. Charles Schwab in the US.

keywords - banks, banking, ATM, fees, exchange

[farang000999]

just get a thai bkk bank account. you will get a better rate for your transfers which as an american can be made via the ach system.

Edited June 15, 2012 by farang000999

[BigJohnnyBKK]

just get a thai bkk bank account. you will get a better rate for your transfers which as an american can be made via the ach system.

For the sake of inbound travelers, not expats. . .

[mrjohn]

Not sure if this helps, but there are no fees for cash withdrawals using a foreign card inside a bank, over the counter.

You will, however, need your passport and 5-10 or 20 minutes or so to do the transaction.

You can also do this at exchange booths (which tend to be quicker) as well as the bank branches in all the big shopping malls which are open longer hours.

Apart from paying no fee, the other advantage is that you can also withdraw larger amounts, whereas ATM’s are usually limited to 10,000 bht a time.

[aneliane]

Fabulous I did not know some banks did not charge a fee

[YipYipYa123]

Not sure if this helps, but there are no fees for cash withdrawals using a foreign card inside a bank, over the counter.

You will, however, need your passport and 5-10 or 20 minutes or so to do the transaction.

You can also do this at exchange booths (which tend to be quicker) as well as the bank branches in all the big shopping malls which are open longer hours.

Apart from paying no fee, the other advantage is that you can also withdraw larger amounts, whereas ATM’s are usually limited to 10,000 bht a time.

its 20k now in all the banks i use

[inthepink]

The limit is often down to your home bank. For example I can only withdraw £300 a day but I'm sure I've heard of people taking out 50k baht with a credit card..

[JusMe]

AEON - no 150 baht fee, and limit is 40k baht

[BigJohnnyBKK]

I've put in a link back to here for readers of that site to get these excellent tips here.

Still looking for other Charles Schwab like deals where the home bank let you use any ATM with no fees internationally, especially from the UK and down under. Or maybe there just aren't any?

[KhunBENQ]

AEON ATMs can technically pay 100000 Baht (100 notes).

I yesterday withdrew 90000 (the limit is from my visa card).

No fee of course.

On these withdrawls AEON only pays multiples of 1000 Baht (from my experience, don't have a source of proof).

The german bank that I use would reimburse the fees of other banks on request, but I simply want to avoid the effort, so stick to AEON as long as it is free.

Exchange rate for european Visa Plus cards can be found here:

http://www.visaeurope.com/en/cardholders/exchange_rates.aspx

("conversion fee" depends on issuing bank, mine is 0).

US customers:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp?src=ex_rez

Limit of 10000 is nonsense.

20000 or 25000 limit is true for some banks due to technical limitation of the ATMs (simply the "mouth ist too small").

[geriatrickid]

Not sure if this helps, but there are no fees for cash withdrawals using a foreign card inside a bank, over the counter.

You will, however, need your passport and 5-10 or 20 minutes or so to do the transaction.

You can also do this at exchange booths (which tend to be quicker) as well as the bank branches in all the big shopping malls which are open longer hours.

Apart from paying no fee, the other advantage is that you can also withdraw larger amounts, whereas ATM’s are usually limited to 10,000 bht a time.

Huh? Most ATMS allow 20,000 and Bangkok Bank is 25,000.

[meand]

just get a thai bkk bank account. you will get a better rate for your transfers which as an american can be made via the ach system.

For the sake of inbound travelers, not expats. . .

Nice link.

It is also noteworthy for travelers that capitol one credit cards doesn't charge you points internationally. So travelers could use that option as much as possible. To me this is modern day war.... give the banks an inch and they will make you pay. Discussions like this help us fight back, and most importantly to not give in to these charges, which is what the banks want of course. And the more you do give in, the more they will charge you.

Edited June 16, 2012 by meand

[Soutpeel]

AEON - no 150 baht fee, and limit is 40k baht

THB 150 correct...but limit ? Single transaction or daily limit....? as I have withdrawn 80k at AEON ATMS

[KhunBENQ]

Please read my post above!

The technical limit is 100k.

As Soutpeel I have done 80k to 90k on multilpe occasions (like yesterday).

Today I will try 98k which results from my card's daily limit of 2500 Euro.

(rate today is 1 THB = 0.025282 EUR -> 39.554 Euro/Baht).

Edited June 16, 2012 by KhunBENQ

[pattayadingo]

I now use change booths all the time and I am getting a good rate with no 150 Baht fee. Credit card, passport and address needed.

In fact the other day the listed rate at the booth was 48.61 and I was actually given 48.7 when I checked my on-line statement.

As an aside I now use Halifax Clarity CC because there are no charges for withdrawing money abroad. I'm quids in all round now.

[Jayman]

just get a thai bkk bank account. you will get a better rate for your transfers which as an american can be made via the ach system.

For the sake of inbound travelers, not expats. . .

Nice link.

It is also noteworthy for travelers that capitol one credit cards doesn't charge you points internationally. So travelers could use that option as much as possible. To me this is modern day war.... give the banks an inch and they will make you pay. Discussions like this help us fight back, and most importantly to not give in to these charges, which is what the banks want of course. And the more you do give in, the more they will charge you.

capitol one makes up for that fee (rather lack of fee) via the currency conversion rate.

[meand]

just get a thai bkk bank account. you will get a better rate for your transfers which as an american can be made via the ach system.

For the sake of inbound travelers, not expats. . .

Nice link.

It is also noteworthy for travelers that capitol one credit cards doesn't charge you points internationally. So travelers could use that option as much as possible. To me this is modern day war.... give the banks an inch and they will make you pay. Discussions like this help us fight back, and most importantly to not give in to these charges, which is what the banks want of course. And the more you do give in, the more they will charge you.

capitol one makes up for that fee (rather lack of fee) via the currency conversion rate.

I checked that one time and could have sworn I got a very good rate. I stopped checking after that. If you are correct, thanks for the heads up. Anybody else with the same experience?

[Jayman]

capitol one makes up for that fee (rather lack of fee) via the currency conversion rate.

I checked that one time and could have sworn I got a very good rate. I stopped checking after that. If you are correct, thanks for the heads up. Anybody else with the same experience?

I have a capitol one credit card that I got just cause they don't charge a fee on international purchases. I was quite disappointed when I saw they jacked me on the exchange rate. This was several years ago and I have not tested it again since. I found it easier to just get a Thai credit card that pays me 1% to use it.

I just found this page where this is being discussed

http://www.bargainee...redit-card.html

as you will see under the comments

"DCC fees CAN be charged to a Capital One Visa; I’ve just confirmed it."

EDIT:

So, more research is showing me that the fee charged when doing the currency conversion is NOT charged by Capital One but rather by Visa/MC. It seems that fee is a standard 1% of the purchase. That being said Capital One does seem to be the best CC option for US CC holders to use overseas but there is no getting around the V/MC fees if your card is a visa or mastercard. There are others that claim by using the Capital One card you won't get charged the 1% v/mc fee either. So, YMMV. You will have to check in realtime to see if what you were billed is the same as what you were charged based on the days exchange rate.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Jayman

[meand]

capitol one makes up for that fee (rather lack of fee) via the currency conversion rate.

I checked that one time and could have sworn I got a very good rate. I stopped checking after that. If you are correct, thanks for the heads up. Anybody else with the same experience?

I have a capitol one credit card that I got just cause they don't charge a fee on international purchases. I was quite disappointed when I saw they jacked me on the exchange rate. This was several years ago and I have not tested it again since. I found it easier to just get a Thai credit card that pays me 1% to use it.

I just found this page where this is being discussed

http://www.bargainee...redit-card.html

as you will see under the comments

"DCC fees CAN be charged to a Capital One Visa; I’ve just confirmed it."

EDIT:

So, more research is showing me that the fee charged when doing the currency conversion is NOT charged by Capital One but rather by Visa/MC. It seems that fee is a standard 1% of the purchase. That being said Capital One does seem to be the best CC option for US CC holders to use overseas but there is no getting around the V/MC fees if your card is a visa or mastercard. There are others that claim by using the Capital One card you won't get charged the 1% v/mc fee either. So, YMMV. You will have to check in realtime to see if what you were billed is the same as what you were charged based on the days exchange rate.

Well, at the very least i'll be more wary of this, but I have had good luck, but my capitol one card is US based (not sure if that matters, probably does). I'll notice sometimes a hotel or something will try to charge me in dollars, and then give me their own exchange rate. When that happens I simply say no thanks and pull out cash. There is the other one of course where you can get a 3% fee for using any credit card here, but those are to be avoided of course.

In any event, you are right, Thai CC seems a better choice if you are able.

[JusMe]

AEON - no 150 baht fee, and limit is 40k baht

THB 150 correct...but limit ? Single transaction or daily limit....? as I have withdrawn 80k at AEON ATMS

Hey, that's great. Maybe there's been an improvement. I know there's no 150 baht fee, but if that limit has been raised, wonderful. Makes life just that little bit easier. I'll try it out next time I need some cash.

[HaruHaru]

How about CC interests? Will this be waived if you pay back within grace period? I have a Capital One credit card but have never used it for ATM. I only used it to purchase something.

Edited June 16, 2012 by HaruHaru

[Jayman]

How about CC interests? Will this be waived if you pay back within grace period? I have a Capital One credit card but have never used it for ATM. I only used it to purchase something.

The grace period only applies to purchases. If you use your cc at an ATM to pull cash then that is considered as a cash advance and the juice starts at that moment.

[HaruHaru]

The grace period only applies to purchases. If you use your cc at an ATM to pull cash then that is considered as a cash advance and the juice starts at that moment.

Thank you. That's what I thought. Just double checking.

Edited June 16, 2012 by HaruHaru

[Soutpeel]

AEON - no 150 baht fee, and limit is 40k baht

THB 150 correct...but limit ? Single transaction or daily limit....? as I have withdrawn 80k at AEON ATMS

Hey, that's great. Maybe there's been an improvement. I know there's no 150 baht fee, but if that limit has been raised, wonderful. Makes life just that little bit easier. I'll try it out next time I need some cash.

It hasnt been rasied as far as I am aware its always been that way and of course whether you can draw the maximum at the Aeon machine is also related to the withdrawal limit set by your own bank.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Since we've gone a bit off-topic (tips for people passing through vs locally-based expats).

Anyone know of better deals on the stored-value type travel cards, where you "fill it up"?

Apparently they've currently shut down transactions in Thailand?

I'm guessing due to the FATF blacklist issue, so along with the Merrill Lynch problem someone else recently had, it's possible we'll start seeing more such problems between western-cooperating institutions and the Thai processing system.

However I'm sure this too shall pass pretty quickly once it becomes a more major issue, so recommended vendors where the processing fees and exchange rates are favorable would be most welcome.

[astral]

IME daily limits are usually set by the home bank, not the ATM.

[Jayman]

IME daily limits are usually set by the home bank, not the ATM.

Indeed daily withdrawal limits are set by your home bank 100% of the time. The amount you can pull out of a single machine in one transaction however is determined by that machines settings. I know for a fact that I can't pull out more than 20,000 thb at 1 pull from my SCB account using my SCB atm card. I can however keep putting my card in and pull out 20k each pull for a maximum of 200,000thb in 1 day.

The AEON machines seem to allow a much larger pull amount as has been stated in this thread.

[ebmzlm]

Mosts banks have a maximum 250,000 baht withdrawal fee over the counter. You can do this using a visa card etc regardless of your home countries withdrawal limit. By your bank back home the way the transaction is done, it is classed as a purchase.

[Jayman]

Mosts banks have a maximum 250,000 baht withdrawal fee over the counter. You can do this using a visa card etc regardless of your home countries withdrawal limit. By your bank back home the way the transaction is done, it is classed as a purchase.

There is no way I would pay a fee that large. And for debit cards the purchase and cash limit are both set by your bank. Regardless of if you go into a bank our use the ATM, the charge must be approved by your home bank.

Also there is no way you will pull cash from you credit card from a bank and have it charged as a purchase. It will most certainly be a cash advance.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Jayman

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Mosts banks have a maximum 250,000 baht withdrawal fee over the counter. You can do this using a visa card etc regardless of your home countries withdrawal limit. By your bank back home the way the transaction is done, it is classed as a purchase.

None of this makes any sense to me.