Aeon Bank now charge 150 B ATM fee

[ubonrthai]

Ugh. So what ATM's have highest limit?

CIMB and Ayutthaya both do 30,000b?

Make sure you contact your home country bank and tell them to increase the daily ATM withdrawal limit if you haven't already.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Charlie Cheap]

I accidentally stumbled across that particular ATM machine well over two years ago. At first I thought it was a mistake when I didn't receive a fee. Once I realized they were not charging a fee, I was hooked.

It's true, all good things must come to an end. I'm going to miss my occasional trip to big C.

Did anybody else just stumbled across it by accident?

[grant rankin]

Ugh. So what ATM's have highest limit?

CIMB and Ayutthaya both do 30,000b?

Make sure you contact your home country bank and tell them to increase the daily ATM withdrawal limit if you haven't already.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

open a bank account

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[sgtsabai]

Too bad, didn't have to pay the $5.00 USD and got a good rate. Maybe for some of the more 'well to do' here it doesn't matter, but $5.00 USD a whack adds up, especially when my money comes at 3 different times of the month. It will be back to my bank for withdrawals now which means I have to make a trip downtown, find a place to park, hope nobody runs into me, wait in line, the cops don't have too many roadblocks and I don't head to the bar area to have that proverbial 'one beer'. Having 2 debit cards I can draw 40,000 baht at the bank at one time, no fee. It was really handy being able to leave money in my stateside accounts until needed as I tend to over spend, along with being 'over-served' on occasion if I have too much baht in the wallet, yea I know-self control. The banksters win again.

[PattayaPhom]

You still have the option of going in branch with passport and withdrawing for free.....minus any charges your own bank levies

[bender92]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

[dinom]

Very sad to hear, will also try my luck at Bank of Ayuttaya. 30k better than 20...

[WinnieTheKhwai]

that is bad news. Now AEON can watch a significant drop in ATM usage from farang's taking money out as there is no incentive anymore

I doubt they care. They weren't making ANY money on the transaction. So there was no incentive for them before to let us take money out.

Well, they'd be making money on the conversion from foreign funds into Thai baht. They can charge any exchange rate they like.

(e.g.: Someone shows up at their ATM requesting for example THB 20,000. They now get to decide how many GBP, EUR or USD that translates to.)

Edited February 11, 2014 by WinnieTheKhwai

[WinnieTheKhwai]

<deleted>????????? Worst news all year

Let me be the first to congratulate you on having a pretty good year so far.

[Nowisee]

What are alternative options for getting money from US bank accounts?

Is it now just better to spend the $35 on a wire transfer?
I know bank of bangkok charges 1% on deposit of US currency into their FCD accounts. Then of course you pay what ever exchange rate they give you back into baht.

I'm ok with paying a certain amount for living out of the US and for doing business abroad, but I don't like to be and want to avoid being <deleted> in the ass.

SO... what are we to do? What are our options?
How can we get money from our US accounts to here paying the least amount of usury fees?

[dinom]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

not if your monthly salery is deposited in another country and you need to get to it.

[Bender]

that is bad news. Now AEON can watch a significant drop in ATM usage from farang's taking money out as there is no incentive anymore

I doubt they care. They weren't making ANY money on the transaction. So there was no incentive for them before to let us take money out.

actually you are wrong, when you use an atm with your foreign credit card, your bank do charge a fee( mine is 3% + 3 euro).

Then this fee are shared between your bank and the thai bank. SO AEN Bank get paid for their services.

Just now they want 150 baht more like the others thai bank, because in thailand its a common practise to fleece the farang.

Yes this is an extortion or an official scam!

[Charlie Cheap]

<deleted>????????? Worst news all year

Let me be the first to congratulate you on having a pretty good year so far.

^ that's funny! ^

Thank you for the chuckle!

[Sam Gold]

Could this be the result of excessive talking about this on forums such as this one? Someone was bound to pick it up at some point and report it to the relevant bodies. The loss of income was probably huge and it was bound to happen.

[Jubes]

<deleted>????????? Worst news all year

Let me be the first to congratulate you on having a pretty good year so far.

only 40 days in and all down hill from here 555

[Charlie Cheap]

Could this be the result of excessive talking about this on forums such as this one? Someone was bound to pick it up at some point and report it to the relevant bodies. The loss of income was probably huge and it was bound to happen.

Are you a motivational speaker?

[Searat7]

I use my USA ATM card for cash whenever I travel in Asia and my bank rebates all fees charged by other banks. Not to overdo a good thing I have savings and FX accounts at Bangkok Bank. The same USA bank lets me go online and transfer $10,000 to account here for a $10 Fee. At this end I pay about $16 to accept dollars into FX account.

[drjin911]

It's time to go to the Citi Bank!

AEON in Mega Bangna was so useful, but now I need to take BTS to get to Asok station...ha.

[Charlie Cheap]

<deleted>????????? Worst news all year

Let me be the first to congratulate you on having a pretty good year so far.

only 40 days in and all down hill from here 555

Words of advice:

Stick with DTAC, don't fall in love, always use a condom, beware of street cart food, don't complain about Russians, get used to hearing Free Bird and Hotel California, always ask how much something cost beforehand, get a Thailand drivers license from the DLT immediately, buy a cheap secondhand moped and don't take any crap!

[KBTexas]

Actually AEON was not losing money. Nowhere do they post an exchange rate that I could find, and when I tried them a few times because they did not charge a fee, the transaction saved me a few cents once, was about the same once, and actually cost me more three times, even including the banks 150 baht fee. Suffice it to say, I did not use them again. So if they use an exchange rate that is lower than the going rate, they DO make money on it, especially if the suckers-err, customers, cannot see what that rate is before saying accept and do not bother to do the math on the amount debited.

I always use this site: http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx to check the daily rates when I need cash. MOST times it is accurate, though there have been minor descrepencies, up and down, in the past. Usually due to a rate change before I can get to the ATM I think. But at least you have a good idea of what the exchange rate will be for the transaction, unlike AEON.

My two cents...your milage may vary.

KB

[Gillyflower]

Surely this business of the 150 baht has been going on for some years. I'be been hearing my friends talk about it for ages. it didn't seem to matter what bank. I almost always use the TMB - so all my friends trooped off there. Only to find that the 150 baht still applied. Then we realised that it's because I use an Am Express Credit card.. I withdrew money yesterday and I didn't pay. Keeping my fingers crossed that whatever deal they have with Amex still exists.

[Jubes]

<deleted>????????? Worst news all year

Let me be the first to congratulate you on having a pretty good year so far.

only 40 days in and all down hill from here 555

Words of advice:

Stick with DTAC, don't fall in love, always use a condom, beware of street cart food, don't complain about Russians, get used to hearing Free Bird and Hotel California, always ask how much something cost beforehand, get a Thailand drivers license from the DLT immediately, buy a cheap secondhand moped and don't take any crap!

er........thanks ?

[smotherb]

I don't believe it is the local banks which keep the B150, it is your issuing bank. Talk to them. I have two debit cards I use at ATMs here, each time I am charged B150, but both my issuing banks reimburse me the B150.

[deepcell]

I used AEON last July in Western Bangkok and Nakkhom Phathom and I was not charged even a cent. If it is true, they need to update ALL ATM machines, is a big job, but when the subject is money, I mean +-US$5 per withdrawn, they will do it fast.

So Sad! ;(

Are there any other institution that allow withdrawns without US$5 charge?

[Pib]

It is too bad that Aeon made the change. I'm not concerned with the ATM fees since I have a Charles Schwab card that refunds any ATM fees I get charged but I still tried to not incur charges if I didn't need to. Since Aeon has started charging, I have no reason to use them over any other bank here. A bank just down the street has a 30,000 baht limit and so one transaction there will pretty much cover me for a month.

David

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I've got a Schwab card also, but I wonder once Schwab sees how much money they may be sending on you for ATM reimbursement especially if you use the card frequently that they may find a reason to close your account...maybe gives them more incentive to see if a person is living in Thailand full time and then close the account for that reason...but they will tell you that you can instead open an International Schwab brokerage account with debt card which has high opening and balance requirements.

[yourauntbob]

didnt realize so many people were using overseas cards. why not open an account here? you could do large transfers every few months from you account back home to an account here and just use your local card to take the cash as needed. this would reduce the fees a lot.

[JusMe]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

What an idiot comment!

I suppose you recommend plucking it off a tree first, and then putting it into the Thai bank. Yup, that'd be easy.

[Pib]

Actually AEON was not losing money. Nowhere do they post an exchange rate that I could find, and when I tried them a few times because they did not charge a fee, the transaction saved me a few cents once, was about the same once, and actually cost me more three times, even including the banks 150 baht fee. Suffice it to say, I did not use them again. So if they use an exchange rate that is lower than the going rate, they DO make money on it, especially if the suckers-err, customers, cannot see what that rate is before saying accept and do not bother to do the math on the amount debited.

I always use this site: http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx to check the daily rates when I need cash. MOST times it is accurate, though there have been minor descrepencies, up and down, in the past. Usually due to a rate change before I can get to the ATM I think. But at least you have a good idea of what the exchange rate will be for the transaction, unlike AEON.

My two cents...your milage may vary.

KB

You get the Visa/Mastercard/AmEx exchange rates minus any foreign transaction fee your card-issuing bank may apply and of course minus any local ATM fee like the Bt150/Bt180 fee Thai banks and now AEON charge.

Although the link you mention above does say just use a bank TT Buying Rate to determine their ATM rate that is a totally bogus statement and its been covered before...as mentioned the bank ATM uses the Visa/Mastercard/AmEx rate. But if people knew this a lot less people would visit the site, the site's page hit count and ad revenue would go down; however, the specific rates (i.e., TT, Notes, etc) they do post are correct...it's just that statement about just use the TT rate for the ATM rate that is bogus.

Now some bank ATMs will also offer their Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) exchange rate with no local Bt150/Bt180 fee but they will probably call it something warm & fuzzy like Home Rate, Bank Rate, etc...this rate will be around 3 to 4% lower than the higher Visa/Mastercard/AmEx rate...the local bank basically applies a hidden fee via its lower DCC exchange rate. Plus if your home country bank card charges a foreign transaction fee you'll still most likely will get hit with that fee also...not because they were involved in exchanging/converting the currency but simply because it was a foreign transaction. Not considering above factors is why you've never been able to get the exchange rate to match...you should be able to get the exchange rate to match to the second or third decimal place.

In closing, you notice on Thai bank web sites they do not publish their ATM rates...that's because they use the Visa/Mastercard/AmEx exchange rates. Well, SCB does list its DCC exchange rate for "credit" cards.

[ubonrthai]

Just put some money in a Thai bank. Easy.

Easy to wire money if you have a large sum of money to draw on. If you receive monthly amounts, that's not a solution.

[Pib]

didnt realize so many people were using overseas cards. why not open an account here? you could do large transfers every few months from you account back home to an account here and just use your local card to take the cash as needed. this would reduce the fees a lot.

But with a no foreign transaction fee debit card like the Schwab debit card (there are other cards also) and when there was no Bt150 fee being charged by AEON, a person could get money instantly in hand from their home country bank account "with absolutely no fees along the way." Doing the bank transfer thing took a day or three to get the money posted to your Thai bank account and you had the transfer fees in the $10 to $40 ballpark to pay to your home country bank and/or local Thai bank. Heck, I hadn't done an funds transfer in over 2 years because I was just using a couple of no foreign transaction fee debit cards. And the Visa/Mastercard exchange is real close to the TT Buying Rate used for wire transfers...and the Visa exchange rate was quite often better than the TT Buying Rate.