ATM conversion rate/ Which bank best?

[purushanti]

Using an American ATM card for withdrawal,

which bank gives the best deal: BB, K-Bank, TMB, SCB, Krungthai, etc?

And better to take the conversion to home currency rate option , or not?

Will answers here vary over time, or is there some sort of stability in how things work?

Thank you in advance. Economics obviously not my strong point!

[purushanti]

PS---And the over-the-counter rate? I notice at Bangkok Bank a lot of people bring their passports, rather than use the ATM machine.

[Langsuan Man]

Review these threads:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/654140-best-no-fee-low-fee-bank-cards-for-americans-2013/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/483106-banking-for-americans-in-thailand-101/

[Pib]

Assuming your ATM/Debit/Credit Card is a Visa or MasterCard, you will generally get the exchange rate set by "Visa/MasterCard"; not any bank specific rate unless you accept the bank's Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) rate. You can determine the Visa/MasterCard exchange rate by using their exchange rate web pages. Visa Exchange Rate Page. MasterCard Exchange Rate Page.

Now two important things to consider when using your card.

(1) Many cards carry a "foreign transaction fee" of X-percentage like 1, 2 or 3% which effectively reduces your exchange rate. Some banks/credit card companies may call this fee a currency conversion fee, international transaction fee, cross-border transaction fee, etc. This foreign transaction fee is set by the "bank/company which issued the card," not by Visa/MasterCard. Now while it's true Visa/MasterCard do charge approx. a 1% currency conversion fee whether your card-issuing bank absorbs or passes that fee along to you is strictly up to them. So, if your bank says it charges a 1% foreign transaction fee that usually means they are passing along the Visa/MasterCard fee to you and not absorbing it....if they charge a 3% fee then that means they are passing along the 1% Visa/MasterCard fee and adding 2% more on top for profit. You need to know what foreign transaction fee your applies to your card....and once again, your home country "card issuing bank" sets this fee; not Visa/MasterCard.

(2) Never, ever use the DCC exchange rate...or what you are referring to as processing the cash withdrawal or item charge in your home country currency because you will get approx. 3 to 4% lower exchange rate from the "local bank processing the transaction." Say you are using Thai bank ATM "XYZ" and they offer you the option to use "their rate, process in your home currency, or some other weasel-worded warm & fuzzy name"...they might even use the correct terminology of DCC. Or if you were using a debit/credit card to process a foreign Point of Sale (POS) transaction with a merchant (i.e., buying something), be sure to have the transaction processed in "Thai baht" and not your home country currency of USD, Euros, etc., because if you do process the transaction at the ATM or with the merchant in your home country currency then you will get the local processing bank's DCC exchange rate which will usually be 3-4% lower than the Visa/MasterCard exchange rate. DCC bad, very bad for the customer; DCC good, very good for the merchant/processing bank. And to add insult to injury when using DCC, if your card-issuing home country bank does apply a foreign transaction fee then they will most likely still charge their fee not because they were involved in the currency conversion but simply because it was a foreign transaction. So, if you used DCC and say got a 4% lower rate and your home country card issuing bank still applies its 3% foreign transaction fee you have just got hit with a total of 7% in lower exchange rate/fees.

If you do an over-the-counter Visa/MasterCard cash withdrawal vs just sliding your card in an ATM, then you will still get the Visa/MasterCard exchange rate unless you accept a bank teller's offer to process the transaction in your home country currency (a.k.a., a DCC transaction) versus Thai baht. Based on numerous ThaiVisa posts it will vary from bank to bank as to if they will do an over-the-counter card withdrawal...apparently many will just point you to using their ATM which of course would include a foreign card use fee of Bt150 for Visa and Bt180 for MasterCard. If using an AEON ATM (a Japanese company) they do not charge a foreign card fee like Thai bank ATMs. When you do/if you can do an over-the-counter withdrawal then the foreign card fee is usually not charged...that's why some people like to use it...or some people are afraid to use ATM in fear of an ATM error occurring. And how much you can withdraw per day or per transaction is primarily set by your home country card-issuing bank although the local bank processing the transaction may have a lower limit for such withdrawals.

But a first step for you is to know what, if any, foreign transaction fee your home country card-issuing bank charges...there is no standard, banks-wide fee...it will vary from bank to bank from 0% to X%...and some may even include a separate flat-fee. Or just charge a flat-fee only...like say $5 per foreign transaction. So, first determine what, if any, fee(s) your home country bank charges for foreign transactions. While you would still get the Visa/MasterCard exchange rate, when the transaction hits your home country bank account it would be either directly adjusted downward by your home country bank effectively giving you a lower exchange rate....or they may just apply the fee in a separate charge which has the same effect as reducing your exchange rate since you must consider the "total" charges/fees hitting your account.

Too many people blame Visa/MasterCard for a crappy exchange rate given for a foreign transaction; they couldn't be more wrong. It's the foreign transaction fee applied by their card-issuing bank or using DCC that caused the low exchange rate. Many, many, many threads/posts on ThaiVisa about exchange rates and DCC. Just use the ThaiVisa search function to pull them up. Cheers

[fletchsmile]

oh good another thread on ATMs fees for Americans... I guess the other 2 running escaped your notice ...

[Pib]

oh good another thread on ATMs fees for Americans... I guess the other 2 running escaped your notice ...

Oh no, I contribute to those also. Besides, just because the OP is using a U.S. card doesn't mean the info it not informative to folks using cards from other countries as Visa and MasterCard and banks around the world pretty much follow the same rules for ATM/Debit/Credit Card exchange rates.