Aeon Bank now charge 150 B ATM fee

[Genericnic]

.

"Schwab ... they reimburse the 150 baht fee (unless you over use this feature, and don't use the attached brokerage account you signed up for"

Schwab doesn't require you to open a Brokerage account - they simply give it to you when you open a No-Fee Checking Account, but they don't even require that you place funds in the account. There are no strings attached with Schwab and they don't penalize you if you don't use the Brokerage account.

.

Correct SurfRider. I've had my Schwab account for years and never put a dime in the Brokerage account. Always reimbursed for ATM fees.

David

That's a good sign for Schwab account holders... Thanks for sharing that info.

I've had Schwab accounts for years too, but have almost never had any ATM fee incurred or reimbursed by them.

However, now with the recent loss of AEON as a no-fee ATM option, I may finally start to use the fee reimbursement feature from time to time. Modestly, and with care.

Even though Schwab reimburses me, I generally used Aeon when possible. It seemed like the right thing to do.

David

[SurfRider]

.
"I don't know, but I'd bet that an active brokerage account, or at least one with a good balance, is going to be helpful for the long-term survivability of a checking account with frequent ATM refunds"

I must be suffering from the same strain of paranoia that your are - For that reason, I funded my Brokerage account but don't use it for investing or trading. I have much less expensive accounts for that.

I have several friends who also live here and use Schwab to import funds. They believe that the composite aggregate of funds placed into all Schwab Checking Accounts around the world are invested by Schwab, thus producing cash to cover ATM fees and then some. By law, Schwab can only invest a portion of the funds on deposit, but with millions of those accounts in play, they could be making a tidy sum off of those investments. And who knows better how to invest than Schwab? - that's their livelihood.
.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just to recap here a bit... Thus far, AFAIK, there seem to be mainly four economical/sensible options for moving funds here post the loss of AEON:

--Do Thai bank ATM withdrawals using a no foreign currency fee debit card from a bank that also reimburses other banks' ATM fees, such as the 150/180 baht ones charged by Thai banks. Fee reimbursing, no FCF banks include Schwab, Fidelity, State Farm and others. In this method, it certainly makes sense to pull the maximum amount of funds available from the particular ATM machine being used. But also best to try not to abuse/over-use the fee reimbursement privilege in any particular account.

--Do a counter withdrawal at Thai banks using a no foreign currency fee and no cash advance fee DEBIT card like those from Schab, Fidelity, State Farm and others. It's pretty clear that at least some Thai banks will permit those. It's less clear whether the cooperating banks will allow those for any amount, or only for amounts that exceed the withdrawal limits of their ATM machines (20K, 25K, 30K, depending on the bank).

--Do a counter withdrawal at Thai banks using a no foreign currency fee and no cash advance fee CREDIT card. There probably are more Thai banks willing to do credit card cash advances, especially with larger withdrawal amounts. But there are also probably fewer home country banks that actually offer no foreign currency fee and no cash advance fee CREDIT cards. Examples include Pentagon Federal Credit Union and State Department Federal Credit Union. If you have one, consider yourself lucky.

--If you have connections to the U.S. or UK, you can use the special Thailand funds transfer system set up by Bangkok Bank. For U.S. customers, that involves ACHing your funds to BKKB's New York branch, and then they send your funds onward to your Thailand BKK Bank account. The downside is, there usually is handling fee by the New York branch and a 200 to 500 baht receiving fee by the Thailand branch. Still, this method is more economical than traditional wire transfers, is likely better than bank cards that charge foreign currency fees, and is particularly good when someone needs to be sending very large amounts in a single transaction.

I'm deliberately NOT including traveler's checks, traditional wire transfers and things like Paypal in this list, because each tend to have greater fees that will eat into your net proceeds.

Have I missed anything in the "good options" category???

Edited February 17, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

.

"I don't know, but I'd bet that an active brokerage account, or at least one with a good balance, is going to be helpful for the long-term survivability of a checking account with frequent ATM refunds"

I must be suffering from the same strain of paranoia that your are - For that reason, I funded my Brokerage account but don't use it for investing or trading. I have much less expensive accounts for that.

I have several friends who also live here and use Schwab to import funds. They believe that the composite aggregate of funds placed into all Schwab Checking Accounts around the world are invested by Schwab, thus producing cash to cover ATM fees and then some. By law, Schwab can only invest a portion of the funds on deposit, but with millions of those accounts in play, they could be making a tidy sum off of those investments. And who knows better how to invest than Schwab? - that's their livelihood.

.

Well...Schwab sure is NOT paying out any meaningful money as interest payments on their deposit accounts.

[ubonrthai]

Just to follow up to my post earlier, there was no fee at my home bank and a relative who works at the bank said it does come through the same as an ATM transaction. So for me the issue is solved. Use my debit card, ask for a cash advance in the bank and there's no fees and a better exchange rate than what AEON gave.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

TMB (blue) ATM 30,000b max and 150b fee

Bangkok Bank (dark blue)25,000b max and 150b fee

AEON (grey/purple) 20,000b max and 150b fee

Kasikorn (green) 20,000b max and 150b fee

SCB (purple) 20,000b max

Kruengthai (light blue) 20,000b max

Ayutthaya (yellow) 30,000b max and 180b fee

GSB (pink) 20,000b max and they claimed their fee was only 100b but their ATM's won't take my card.

Re the use of MasterCard debit cards at Thai bank ATMs:

Ubon, the first time I read your post here, I was focusing just on the other bank ATM withdrawal limits that you list here, now that AEON is charging the 150 baht fee. Because if you're going to have your U.S. bank reimburse you for a 150 baht charge, you presumably want to pull as much money as you can for the price.

But now on second reading, I'm focusing on a different detail in your great post -- and that being that apparently, various of the Thai banks still are NOT charging the higher 180 baht rate for MasterCard withdrawals. I had the impression the 180 baht fee was pretty widespread, based on posts by other members here. But your info seems to contradict that.

Re the Thai ATMs that are NOT charging the higher 180 baht fee against MasterCards from the U.S., at least, I can confirm AEON and Citibank are NOT. Likewise, I can confirm that Ayudhya as you said IS charging the 180 baht fee against MasterCards.

The fact that your info shows BKK Bank, Kasikorn and TMB are not charging the 180 baht fee comes as quite a surprise!!

-----------------------------

BTW, how did you obtain the info you posted above about the ATM withdrawal limits and ATM fee amounts of the various banks???

For example, I'm seeing different past posts where members are talking about getting a 180 baht fee from BKK Bank and Siam Commercial when using a MasterCard.

Bangkok Bank

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/684437-are-there-any-visa-atms-that-dont-charge-uk-cards-150-baht/?p=7084970

Siam Commercial

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/684437-are-there-any-visa-atms-that-dont-charge-uk-cards-150-baht/?p=7085240

Edited February 18, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Langsuan Man]

One of the mantras from all that used a card that would reimburse foreign ATM fees was always to use it sparingly in case overuse would cause the issuers to end the reimbursements.

That was easy to do when AEON was an option but I wonder what the impact will be to Schwab, State Farm and USAA if they are suddenly inundated with re-reimbursement requests from Thailand ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Ideally, depending on a person's spending habits, one fee-reimbursed withdrawal per month of say the maximum withdrawal amount of 30,000b from an Ayudhya ATM ought to go a long way. And that would match pretty closely with home country bank cards that have $1000 daily withdrawal limits.

Alternatives would include spreading the fee reimbursement requests among a couple of different accounts, so you don't have more than one per account per month. That shouldn't be out of line with ATM reimbursements being done by the vastly larger population of domestic U.S. users who also are getting charged ATM withdrawal fees and having them reimbursed.

And of course, supplementing or replacing fee-reimbursed ATM withdrawals with Thai bank counterwithdrawals, which have no fee on the Thai end.

[JimGant]

Use my debit card, ask for a cash advance in the bank and there's no fees and a better exchange rate than what AEON gave.

Aeon doesn't 'give' exchange rates but uses the Visa or MC network rates. That you could do better than an ATM pull (excluding the 150 baht ATM owner fee) at the counter would be interesting -- implying the fees your issuing bank charges for ATM transactions doesn't apply at the counter. Hmmmmm -- that would be peculiar.

[Pib]

Use my debit card, ask for a cash advance in the bank and there's no fees and a better exchange rate than what AEON gave.

Aeon doesn't 'give' exchange rates but uses the Visa or MC network rates. That you could do better than an ATM pull (excluding the 150 baht ATM owner fee) at the counter would be interesting -- implying the fees your issuing bank charges for ATM transactions doesn't apply at the counter. Hmmmmm -- that would be peculiar.

Yeap, excluding any foreign transaction fees a person card may have, ATMs give you the exchange rate based on the card logo you are using...that is, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc. You only get that local ATM rate if knowing or unknowing accept a bank ATM's offer to use their Home Rate, Bank Rate, or some other warm & fuzzy name which is just an alias for their Dymanic Currency Exchange (DCC) exchange rate (ripoff) which will usually be around 3 to 4% lower than the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate. And I have never-ever run across an AEON ATM that offered a DCC type exchange option...AEON use the exchange rate offerred by the card being slide into it...Visa logo card--Visa exchange rate.......Mastercard logo card--Mastercard exchange rate. So many misconceptions out there about ATM exchange rates.

[Pib]

However, from initial postings - it seems like my bank (USAA Savings Bank) is going to reimburse the fees same at they do with domestic ATM charges They reimburse monthly - so it remains to be seen when the postings and statement come out... but for now - seems good for me.

Well, Pib can back me up on this, as we both had the same experience. USAA would NOT reimburse us for our international ATM transactions -- until we pinged them, and sent them a copy of our ATM receipts. Then, yes, we were reimbursed (maybe they've improved since then....).

Yeap, back in mid 2011 I did one small test Bangkok Bank ATM withdrawal using my USAA debit card fully knowing it had the 1% foreign transaction fee but I wanted to ensure the debit transaction would indeed work since you don't know if a debit transaction will fully process/spit money out of the ATM slot until hitting that final Continue/Submit button when the money is suppose to spit out. A person can successfully log onto an ATM and select the amount of the withdrawal but you don't know if it will actually complete the withdrawal process until doing the last step.

Anyway, that test was back in mid 2011 and here's link to one of my earlier posts describing how the reimbursement went...and actually the post don't tell the whole story as it was preceded by several calls to USAA Customer Service asking about the reimbursement. Where is it?...When will I get it? Etc. Each rep had a different story...all tried to blame the foreign bank ATM as not breaking out the Bt150 fee separately...lumping it into the total withdrawal amount, etc. But I knew that was all BS because I had done another test withdrawal from a Bangkok Bank ATM around six months earlier using my Bank of America debit card and on my Bank of America account it clearly showed the separate ATM fee. USAA, repeat, USAA was intentionally lumping the local ATM fee into the total withdrawal amount to help cover tracks I figure. Debit/credit card transactions are transmitted with all types of coding, country coding like TH for Thailand and US for the United States, bank owning the ATM, the specific ATM number, any ATM fee, etc. Yeap, getting USAA to finally reimburse ended-up me submitting an online secure mail with copy of the ATM receipt...about a week later I got reimbursed. Maybe it's easier now. But due to the 1% foreign transaction fee and painful foreign ATM reimbursement process I experienced, the USAA Debit card now lives in the dark (i.e., my safe). Verg good bank...I like them a lot...but their debit card is not a good deal for foreign withdrawals...better than many other cards that might hit you with even a 2 or 3% fee, but still not as good as other cards like the Schwab, etc.

[MrWorldwide]

Just a quick question for the 'We have to find some way of taking more than 10K cash into Thailand' brigade - are you seriously willing to take the risk of carrying a lot of cash and shop around to get a few points over the best ATM rates on a given day ? These are the AUD-THB rates today : unless we are talking serious one-off purchases early in your stay, I'm not sure that its a risk I'd be prepared to take, but each to their own. They key to the overall 'transaction cost' seems to be finding an ATM that will allow you to withdraw 30K baht in one transaction - even if the CITI ATMs do start passing on the 150baht fee, I'll wear it if I can get ~30K out each time I visit an ATM.

Super Rich notes - 29.25

TMB TT rate (ATM) - 29.145

Visa daily rate - 28.944

MC daily rate - 28.943

Ayudhya notes - 28.87

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/

http://usa.visa.com/personal/card-benefits/travel/exchange-rate-calculator.jsp

http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

[Pib]

By the way, has anyone been able to "select an earlier date" using the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator in Mr Worldwide's link above? I sure use to be able to select an earlier date but for the last week or so I can't...I've only been able to use the current default date....can't change the date. I tried it on all three of my computers and even my Android tablet. If you click the sublink which takes you to the Visa rates for European bank issued Visa cards that calendar works fine...you can select an earlier date but those rates only apply to European bank issued Visa cards not Visa cards issued in the other parts of the world like the U.S. Is it just me or are other folks experiencing this problem? Thanks.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Pib

[JimGant]

By the way, has anyone been able to "select an earlier date" using the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator in Mr Worldwide's link above?

Me neither. Pulled it up a half hour ago (11:40) and got a USD fx of 32.28 for Feb 17th. As of noon (10 minutes ago) the new Feb 18th rate rolled in -- 32.17. And I can't pull up earlier rates.

As a point of curiosity, if you used your Visa atm card this morning, it would have gotten the 32.28 rate (pin transactions are "online," thus near real time. A POS (swipe and sign) is offline, and, in my experience with Visa, you'll get the finalized rate 24-48 hours down the road).

But, anyway -- pull up the MasterCard fx table. Its Feb 17 rate is 32.09 -- 19 satang worse than you would have gotten with Visa, assuming ATM pulls with both cards were done this morning.

A lot of this is due to timing -- Visa's rate comes out 12 hours ahead of MC, and is more predictive than a snapshot. And, interestingly, Visa predicts Monday's rate late Friday night in New York. And this rate is backfilled into Sat and Sun. So, if you had done an ATM pull with your Visa card (hopefully, a fee free version), on Sat afternoon, all day Sun, all day Mon, and Tues morning -- you would have gotten their 32.28 rate. But, as said, this rate was predictive -- and didn't factor in Chalerm (as did MC, with their snapshot rate on Monday).

Anyway, by running the comparative numbers over several months, this smooths out the timing anomalies, and MC comes out at least 10 satang behind Visa (at least it did last time I ran the numbers).

Oh, I haven't the foggiest what rate you would have gotten with your MC ATM card had it been used on the weekend. I don't use MC anymore, so I don't have a number to look at. Maybe it's a hybrid off Friday's rate (I dunno), which was a pre-Chalerm rate of 32.33 (don't know what Visa's Friday rate was 'cause I can't plus in that date in their chart).

Anyway, just some more useless information until happy hour.

[Groongthep]

If you have a safe place to store it, exchanging cash at the better money exchange outlets like the Green Super Rich or Vasa (in Bangkok) has once again become a viable way to save money converting money.

As has been mentioned many times before however, this is only practical if you are exchanging large amounts. It doesn't make sense to run all over the city to save a few baht on small transactions.

But you first have to get money over to you from your home country. Fine to do above if making short visits to Thailand and you brought along a lot of money to cover the time you would be in-country, but for folks staying long term they still need to get/replenish money from their home country and figure out the best/lowest cost way to get that money transferred over.

I am in the former group. I come to Thailand about 3 or 4 times a year for usually between 30 and 50 days each time so now that there are no longer any fee-free ATM machines I will bring cash to pay the biggest expense which is always lodging. I can safely keep the money in the building's safe deposit box without worries.

[Groongthep]

Now it is obvious that the AEON option is gone now too. I believe I will now go back to using cash and travellers checks as I used to in the 80s and 90s. What a pathetic hassle.

It's been donkeys years since I ever handled traveler's checks. And they're probably more suited to tourists vs. expats.

But, the other night, I was passing by a TMB exchange booth near my supermarket that had a big sign up about "no fee" exchanges, whatever that means. And not a great exchange rate to boot.

When I looked closer, though, they had a paper sign pasted in the window talking about their fees for handling traveler's checks. And although I just looked quickly, I thought the sign said 150 BAHT PER CHECK and then the smaller per check fees about stamps and whatever.

Are per TC fees really 150 baht per check in Thailand these days???

No place that I know of charges 150 Baht per Travellers check. If I did run into such a place I would simply go to one of the hundreds of other exchanges that charge one small fee per total transaction.

[Bkungbank]

Overseas card normally 6 digits for password but now Aeon accept only 4 digits like Thai cards so I cannot even withdraw, last time the system can accept 6 digits ,I don't mind for 150 Baht but disperse only 1000 Baht bills, Krung Thai bank better can even check balance on my account.

[Groongthep]

However, from initial postings - it seems like my bank (USAA Savings Bank) is going to reimburse the fees same at they do with domestic ATM charges They reimburse monthly - so it remains to be seen when the postings and statement come out... but for now - seems good for me.

Well, Pib can back me up on this, as we both had the same experience. USAA would NOT reimburse us for our international ATM transactions -- until we pinged them, and sent them a copy of our ATM receipts. Then, yes, we were reimbursed (maybe they've improved since then....).

But, that really doesn't matter, because you'll be better off ACHing dollars thru Bangkok Bank NY to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand. And then using your Be1st Debit/Atm card to get your cash. Why? Because USAA charges 1% for foreign ATM transactions So, yeah, 1% isn't too bad, in comparison with other banks.

Sorry to truncate your post but I just wanted to agree with you that USAA does ideed reimburse my Thai ATM fees but they still charge an International Transaction fee, although it is less than what most the major banks charge.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

By the way, has anyone been able to "select an earlier date" using the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator in Mr Worldwide's link above? I sure use to be able to select an earlier date but for the last week or so I can't...I've only been able to use the current default date....can't change the date. I tried it on all three of my computers and even my Android tablet. If you click the sublink which takes you to the Visa rates for European bank issued Visa cards that calendar works fine...you can select an earlier date but those rates only apply to European bank issued Visa cards not Visa cards issued in the other parts of the world like the U.S. Is it just me or are other folks experiencing this problem? Thanks.

VISA seems to have redone their U.S.-based currency exchange website recently... because the other day, the saved bookmark I had for it didn't work, and I had to search for and find the new website.

When I tried it this afternoon, I couldn't get the calendar pop-up window to pop, nor could I manually type in any different date.

Presumably, it's a glitch, because they're still showing the little "calendar" icon there, suggesting there's at least the continuing intention to allow for the selecting of past dates.

BTW, I tried in Firefox and IE, and it didn't work in either.

Edited February 18, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Now it is obvious that the AEON option is gone now too. I believe I will now go back to using cash and travellers checks as I used to in the 80s and 90s. What a pathetic hassle.

It's been donkeys years since I ever handled traveler's checks. And they're probably more suited to tourists vs. expats.

But, the other night, I was passing by a TMB exchange booth near my supermarket that had a big sign up about "no fee" exchanges, whatever that means. And not a great exchange rate to boot.

When I looked closer, though, they had a paper sign pasted in the window talking about their fees for handling traveler's checks. And although I just looked quickly, I thought the sign said 150 BAHT PER CHECK and then the smaller per check fees about stamps and whatever.

Are per TC fees really 150 baht per check in Thailand these days???

No place that I know of charges 150 Baht per Travellers check. If I did run into such a place I would simply go to one of the hundreds of other exchanges that charge one small fee per total transaction.

If you noticed the followup post I did on the subject, I confirmed and posted a photo of the TMB exchange booth in lower Sukhumvit that had the 150 baht per traveler's check fee schedule pasted in its window.

So I can't speak to all the other banks, but clearly it's occurring at least with TMB's exchange booths.

I'll try to check and see if that kind of fee is showing up elsewhere.

[paz]

By the way, has anyone been able to "select an earlier date" using the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator in Mr Worldwide's link above? I sure use to be able to select an earlier date but for the last week or so I can't...I've only been able to use the current default date....can't change the date. I tried it on all three of my computers and even my Android tablet. If you click the sublink which takes you to the Visa rates for European bank issued Visa cards that calendar works fine...you can select an earlier date but those rates only apply to European bank issued Visa cards not Visa cards issued in the other parts of the world like the U.S. Is it just me or are other folks experiencing this problem? Thanks.

VISA seems to have redone their U.S.-based currency exchange website recently... because the other day, the saved bookmark I had for it didn't work, and I had to search for and find the new website.

When I tried it this afternoon, I couldn't get the calendar pop-up window to pop, nor could I manually type in any different date.

Presumably, it's a glitch, because they're still showing the little "calendar" icon there, suggesting there's at least the continuing intention to allow for the selecting of past dates.

BTW, I tried in Firefox and IE, and it didn't work in either.

Visa Europe works for any date at this time.

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

For today, Visa US and Visa Europe respective rates for THB/USD are 0.031082 and 0.031085. I assume the difference would be similarly small for any previous day too.

[grin]

In the US most ATM cards double up as DCs and as mentioned earlier on this thread DCs have less protection than CCs at least in the US. As I never use this feature of any of my DCs my solution is to set the DC limit on all of my ATM cards to zero.

One other thing to be aware of for US cards is that if you do not pay off your CC every month and carry a balance then your payment is usually applied to the lowest interest items first. I.e. you usually have different rates for purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers.

This really comes into effect with the promotional zero APR balance transfers that usually have a 3% fee. For example if you want to pay off a balance transfer over a year or 18 months you are better off paying off all of your purchases before doing the balance transfer and then not using the CC for purchases until you have the balance transfer paid off.

I bought a car this way as the 3% fee was lower than the interest on the loans offered by car dealers in Thailand plus I knew I could easily pay it off in 18 months. Also this seemed better than liquidating any equities with more earning potential.

Grin

[Pib]

By the way, has anyone been able to "select an earlier date" using the Visa Exchange Rate Calculator in Mr Worldwide's link above? I sure use to be able to select an earlier date but for the last week or so I can't...I've only been able to use the current default date....can't change the date. I tried it on all three of my computers and even my Android tablet. If you click the sublink which takes you to the Visa rates for European bank issued Visa cards that calendar works fine...you can select an earlier date but those rates only apply to European bank issued Visa cards not Visa cards issued in the other parts of the world like the U.S. Is it just me or are other folks experiencing this problem? Thanks.

VISA seems to have redone their U.S.-based currency exchange website recently... because the other day, the saved bookmark I had for it didn't work, and I had to search for and find the new website.

When I tried it this afternoon, I couldn't get the calendar pop-up window to pop, nor could I manually type in any different date.

Presumably, it's a glitch, because they're still showing the little "calendar" icon there, suggesting there's at least the continuing intention to allow for the selecting of past dates.

BTW, I tried in Firefox and IE, and it didn't work in either.

Visa Europe works for any date at this time.

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

For today, Visa US and Visa Europe respective rates for THB/USD are 0.031082 and 0.031085. I assume the difference would be similarly small for any previous day too.

Thank guys for confirming it just wasn't me not being able to select a past date on the Visa rate main calculator, except on the European bank Visa rate page which still allows a person to pick earlier dates. I noticed the European Visa calendar does not have a little colored day dot on it and the main Visa calendar does have a day dot on it...maybe that little dot means you can not select any date you want...it's stuck on the current date...but with no dot on it you can select different dates. I've found the European bank issued Visa cards usually have just a little better exchange rate than the Visa cards issued in the rest of the world...and a few times it been significant like around a 0.20baht/USD difference.

But maybe that was being possibly caused by the rates changing at a different time during the day...I can't say for sure the European bank issued Visa card rate changes are linked to U.S. Eastern Time...maybe the European Visa cards change rates at a different time. Maybe if I remember I'll check that over the next few days if I happen to be using my computer around high noon Thailand when the main Visa rate page changes to reflect the next 24 hour rate...see if the European card calculator also changes.

I think I have noticed this non-selectable date issue on the main calculator before...so hopefully the feature will come back.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Pib

[Pib]

Here you go....a Visa Exchange Rate webpage in Australia I think that still allows a person to change the date. Link

[iang]

I've never tried an under THB20k over the counter transaction. I imagine though that if you did, they'd direct you to their ATM outside! So just withdraw larger amounts & if necessary, deposit the funds in a local Thai bank account, with an ATM card / debit card attached to it. You can then withdraw smaller sums at your leisure, without getting hit for fees.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[iang]

I think they're just fobbing you off - not wanting to do the work. Or perhaps they're simply poorly informed? Either way, this has not been my experience with my Oz bank.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Pib]

I think they're just fobbing you off - not wanting to do the work. Or perhaps they're simply poorly informed? Either way, this has not been my experience with my Oz bank.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

What's your Oz bank got to do with it? we are talking about getting money from "Thai" banks/ATMs regardless of where your card may be issued from (Oz, US, UK, etc). Of course it wouldn't be a problem in getting a cash advance in Australian dollars in an Australian bank...nor a cash advance in US dollars in a US bank...etc.

[bushman1666]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

Yes, find a cheap exchange service. Still pay charges and have to allow 4 days to get money

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Now it is obvious that the AEON option is gone now too. I believe I will now go back to using cash and travellers checks as I used to in the 80s and 90s. What a pathetic hassle.

It's been donkeys years since I ever handled traveler's checks. And they're probably more suited to tourists vs. expats.

But, the other night, I was passing by a TMB exchange booth near my supermarket that had a big sign up about "no fee" exchanges, whatever that means. And not a great exchange rate to boot.

When I looked closer, though, they had a paper sign pasted in the window talking about their fees for handling traveler's checks. And although I just looked quickly, I thought the sign said 150 BAHT PER CHECK and then the smaller per check fees about stamps and whatever.

No place that I know of charges 150 Baht per Travellers check. If I did run into such a place I would simply go to one of the hundreds of other exchanges that charge one small fee per total transaction.

Well, I've got news for you. The times are a changin', and anyone who thinks they're going to do better by using travelers' checks has another thing coming.

As I previously posted here, the Thai Military Bank exchange booth near my home is in fact charging a handling fee PER TRAVELER'S CHECK of 153 baht and I posted a photo of their sign earlier in this thread. And as I discovered today, they're not the only Thai bank charging the new 153 baht per check rate, which seems to be coming into effect right now at various banks.

Today, I was out and around for other reasons, so I took the opportunity to stop in at every place that presented an exchange booth opportunity, and here's what I found:

--The Bangkok Bank exchange booth near my home has a sign up in its window advising that they're going to be charging the 153 baht per traveler's check fee effective this March 1.

--I stopped at two Siam Commercial booths. One already had a sign up in its window listing the 153 baht fee. The other had no sign, but the staff there also told me the fee was 153 baht, and when I asked what happened to the former 33 baht fee, the staff there said theirs had changed effective Feb. 1.

--Thai Military Bank exchange booth had a sign posted advising 153 baht per check fee, effective Feb. 1.

That's the bad news. The good news, although I suspect it's only a temporary reprieve, is that the following banks still as of today were listing the 33b per check fee:

--Kasikorn

--Ayudhya

--Krung Thai

If there's already the change to 153 baht per check afoot at all the previously mentioned banks, you can pretty well bet that these three will be likely to follow at some point.

I guess they figured, if you liked the 150/180 baht ATM fees, you're going to love the 153 baht per traveler's check fees.

Amazing Thailand, Welcome to Tourists, courtesy of the Thai government and/or the Thai Bankers Assn.

BTW, for those handy with math, the increase from 33 baht to 153 baht per check works out to almost 470% fee increase.

Edited February 18, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

Yes, find a cheap exchange service. Still pay charges and have to allow 4 days to get money

BTW, while I was out and around today, I also stopped by at the local VASU exchange shop just to check.

And, as I suspected, the staff there said they only will exchange actual currency. They won't do any kind of advance against credit or debit cards.