proof of residence for British passport renewal

[st11x]

G'day,

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.

I have a need to make a purchase and have available THB to cover the cost. I can also opt to pay with the credit card (USD) that when converted gives me about the same or better rates as changing cash at the local banks.

Assuming either currency sits in a savings deposit if unused, what would you prefer to use? I think keeping the THB is better as Thai banks have better savings rates (compared to say BoA), correct?

thanks

Matt

[chiang mai]

If you use your credit card and pay in USD, do you have USD available to settle the bill, if so I'd pay with USD since the THB is capable of earning interest at 3.6% whereas the USD is probably earning less (I would guess).

[st11x]

If you use your credit card and pay in USD, do you have USD available to settle the bill, if so I'd pay with USD since the THB is capable of earning interest at 3.6% whereas the USD is probably earning less (I would guess).

Yes I do have the USD to settle the bill. I suspected the THB could earn more interest, didn't know it could be that much more.

thanks

Matt

[Pib]

Assuming your card is a no foreign transaction fee like you mention, a lot depends on do you plan to pay off the credit card when the monthly bill arrives? If not, then of course you will be paying interest on the purchase which can range from around 8% to 25% depending on the card you got. How much interest does your U.S. bank account pay which you will use to pay the credit card bill?...if it's like most U.S. "checking" accounts its probably paying paying around 0.25% (or lower interest)...maybe 0%)...if it's a U.S. standard "savings/money market" account which you can easily move money into/out of it's probably paying around 0.5%; a typical Thai bank savings account is paying around 0.65%...higher for some other accounts...even up to to around 3.5% on some fixed accounts but these fixed accounts you may not be able to mess around with without losing interest earned by withdrawing money before they mature. Basically, does the U.S. account pay more than the Thai bank baht account?

If paying with baht will you have to replenish the Thai bank account by doing a wire transfer from the home country which will incur some fees. Is the card a cash back rewards cards?....I use a credit card for many of my day-to-day living costs (as much as I can) in Thailand because it's a no foreign transaction fee Visa card, exchange rate I get is plus or minus a few stang of the TT Buying Rate given for wire transfers, I pay the bill in full each month (no interest charge) and I get 1.5% cash back on every purchase (it use to pay 2% on most purchases and 1% on everything else but it recently changed to a flat 1.5% for any purchase)...and let me tell you 1.5% adds up to a nice chunk of money after a while....ends up effectively making a 100 baht purchase cost 98.5 baht. Heck I recently got a 3 year anniversary email from my credit card company saying thanks for being a customer over the last 3 years and reminding me I had earned over $523 in cash back over those three years (I always have the cash back reward credited to my account when it builds up to $25)....yeap, it adds up...to me, $523 is a good chunk of money. Just wish I could use my credit card at Makro also since I do a lot of grocery shopping there, but Makro just only takes cash or their credit card which I think is a CitiBank credit card.

Quite a few factors to consider as to which is better to use....cash/baht or foreign credit card....will "vary for each individual" since the individual will have all the details which can make all the difference in deciding the best way to pay.

[55Jay]

So many variables and lacking info here. If you've got your consumer finance ducks in a row here, the transaction could end up about the same as using cash - as long as you paid off the credit purchase w/o incurring interest fees, no other bank fees, FT fees, etc. You didn't say.

You didn't indicate if this is a big ticket item. Some credit cards have lines up to and exceeding 10,000 USD. Or if your savings here, or in the US, is providing you a primary or secondary stream of income to live on. Naturally reducing the nest egg in any significant way would reduce the amount of income stream. You need to run the numbers out and make the cost/benefit decision.

As Pib routinely advises, best case for credit (and ATMs for that matter) is to obtain a No Fee US credit card, even better if it has a reasonably good Rewards/Cash Back feature. You will always take a hit on FOREX, MasterCard/Visa don't work for free, however a Cash Back program can bend the loss curve a bit back toward your favor. The expat strategy is to be "same as cash" or as damn close to that as you can get.