Which travellers cheques for Thailand ?

[Tuvoc]

The only way to avoid poor rates, and/or excessive charges is a by bringing cash.

The exchange rate on cash is usually worse than travellers cheques.

[sustento]

Perfect, thanks for the link. I'll go with the Amex ones. Haven't used these for years !!

Free from the Post Office up to GBP2,000 and Amex are here to replace if lost or stolen.

They're only free if you buy non-sterling TCs. If you buy sterling there's commission to pay.

[baneko]

Its getting more difficult to change travellers cheques. The last time in the UK I went to M&S who said they were being fazed out for pre pay cards.

My mate came back from Samui and said it was only a few banks that would exchange.

Load up your bank card. Use it. Tell your bank before you leave where your going with a contact number. This can be done online.

Take a credit card incase of problems. Again inform the bank.

Take a few quid English incase of major problems. Keep it in the safe or deposit box.

Take 10000 / 15000 out at a time as theres a 150 baht charge this end and possibly a charge from your bank.

In any case keep an eye on your wallet.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Edited April 7, 2014 by baneko

[asanee]

The exchange rate on cash is usually worse than travellers cheques.

NONsense. In fact this is generally not true-sometimes. AND once the now 153 THB per TC is withdrawn-you loose more.

A 100 eur (a sensible currency) TC would bring ca. 4453-153=4300 THB, (IF the rate would be 44,53), cash would be in the range 44,33-44,63 (1,5 THB less at airport), but no fee to subtract. This means you pay about GBP 3 or US$5 per TC, plus the expense/fee you have to pay in your homecountry.

AgaiN: people think this whole world runs on the same clock. it does not; in my country it makes no sense at all to call the cred cd comapny to warn them of trips to TH. They have different systems to check. Banks : bankcards need to be unlocked-onlne-for travels out of the EU. Can set that to a specific period, thus also minimising risk.

Can you USAers now start to think out of your small box? Its widely known you are the general oddity.

[Tuvoc]

"The exchange rate on cash is usually worse than travellers cheques."

NONsense. In fact this is generally not true-sometimes. AND once the now 153 THB per TC is withdrawn-you loose more.

Yes you are right. I subsequently checked this out.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Tuvoc

[eddyxwb]

I am traveling to Laos and Thailand next month and I am planning on using my ATM. Should I be concern or going the alternative of doing all three, TC, cash, ATM?

[Thongkorn]

Take some cash bigger the bill the better the rate to change. You get a better rate at a money changer, I have done this for years. Don't rely on one card many get taken by cash machines. Never let it out of your site, Tell your bank where you are going, because you will be taking small amounts out in comparison to your Country. They will block it thinking its been cloned.

Edited April 8, 2014 by Thongkorn

[baneko]

Take some cash bigger the bill the better the rate to change. You get a better rate at a money changer, I have done this for years. Don't rely on one card many get taken by cash machines. Never let it out of your site, Tell your bank where you are going, because you will be taking small amounts out in comparison to your Country. They will block it thinking its been cloned.

All good advice! What I would add is you would be better taking large amounts from your ATM. There is a 150 baht charge for all withdrawls. Plus what your home bank charges.

Take 10 or 15000 out at a time. When you go to Laos also take a good amount of baht with you. You dont want to be stuck with lots of Laos money.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Thongkorn]

Take some cash bigger the bill the better the rate to change. You get a better rate at a money changer, I have done this for years. Don't rely on one card many get taken by cash machines. Never let it out of your site, Tell your bank where you are going, because you will be taking small amounts out in comparison to your Country. They will block it thinking its been cloned.

All good advice! What I would add is you would be better taking large amounts from your ATM. There is a 150 baht charge for all withdrawls. Plus what your home bank charges.

Take 10 or 15000 out at a time. When you go to Laos also take a good amount of baht with you. You dont want to be stuck with lots of Laos money.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

If you take large amounts of Money, into Thailand meaning £50 notes or Big Dollar bills, Money changers give you better rates, usually over and above the bank rates. The must be clean , meaning no writing on them.

[Carmine6]

I am traveling to Laos and Thailand next month and I am planning on using my ATM. Should I be concern or going the alternative of doing all three, TC, cash, ATM?

I have used all three in one trip before. But now I bring cash in case I have problems with the ATM card. I never have, but that first time will suck without a backup. I actually bring two ATM cards to leave one in the hotel since I'm that paranoid about needing alternatives, but that's just me.

Traveler's cheques are a good backup, though small denominations are a waste of time with the per cheque fee. However, as a backup the cheques are safer than cash, and you can just take them home and put them back into your account and not worry about exchange rate issues. Big denominations are ok since the net rate is not too bad. However if your are robbed of your passport and ATM card, I'm not sure how easy it is to cash traveler's cheques. AMEX will pay as long as the signatures match, but not sure how that works in practice in Thailand or Laos, unless you go to one of their travel offices.

I've given up stressing over the difference in exchange rate and just use high denominations of whatever I'm using, to get the best rate. Max ATM withdrawal, high denomination currency, high denomination traveler's cheque. The rate often changes more day to day than the effective difference between those on a given day. I also find that transportation costs to and from a money exchanger will eat up most of the difference between that and the ATM rate. Though I get my ATM fees rebated, or the cash rate would be clearly better.

[smokie36]

Get 200 pound travellers cheques from your bank for free...and yes Amex ones and definitely not some chit from your travel agent.

Rate of exchange is better too...all these use your card muppets are modern yeah but they are also throwing their money away....up to them lmao

[smokie36]

Take some cash bigger the bill the better the rate to change. You get a better rate at a money changer, I have done this for years. Don't rely on one card many get taken by cash machines. Never let it out of your site, Tell your bank where you are going, because you will be taking small amounts out in comparison to your Country. They will block it thinking its been cloned.

All good advice! What I would add is you would be better taking large amounts from your ATM. There is a 150 baht charge for all withdrawls. Plus what your home bank charges.

Take 10 or 15000 out at a time. When you go to Laos also take a good amount of baht with you. You dont want to be stuck with lots of Laos money.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

If you take large amounts of Money, into Thailand meaning £50 notes or Big Dollar bills, Money changers give you better rates, usually over and above the bank rates. The must be clean , meaning no writing on them.

Better if they are clean...but there are places which give good rates and will change them with writing on them too.

[alfalfa19]

Hi guys. I'm trying to make financial plans for my next trip to thailand. In the past, I always used ae tc, obtained for free from my chase bank. What I am hearing now concerning the 150 baht fee, makes me want to avoid this route. 5 bucks to cash a 100 dollar check, does not sound reasonable to me. I've heard that schwab cards carry no fees in thailand for paying bills or withdrawing cash. Can anyone verify this? Do I need some kind of special account, i.e. brokerage, etc? I have also heard that Chase visa cards carry no charges. Can anyone advise me? thanks in advance.

[Carmine6]

Hi guys. I'm trying to make financial plans for my next trip to thailand. In the past, I always used ae tc, obtained for free from my chase bank. What I am hearing now concerning the 150 baht fee, makes me want to avoid this route. 5 bucks to cash a 100 dollar check, does not sound reasonable to me. I've heard that schwab cards carry no fees in thailand for paying bills or withdrawing cash. Can anyone verify this? Do I need some kind of special account, i.e. brokerage, etc? I have also heard that Chase visa cards carry no charges. Can anyone advise me? thanks in advance.

To get a Schwab bank account, you must also have a Schwab brokerage account. Even if they rebate ATM fees, I have a hard time believing that using it for purchases will have no fee. Visa or Mastercard take a 1% fee off the top even if your financial institution doesn't. It won't be an explicit fee, but if you check the net rate versus say the TT rate on a Thai bank website at that time, it will be about 1% more dollars for the baht. That's also about the same as you'd get if you changed cash at a Thai bank, but worse than if you change at a money changer.

So right now the TT rate (if you were wiring money) at Bangkok bank is 32.06, but $100 cash gets you 31.81, or less than a 1% difference. 3,181 baht for your $100 bill. A "fee free" credit card transaction for that 3,181 baht would cost 3,181/32.06 = $99.22 but Visa would add 1% so it would cost $100.21.

It never works out exactly 1%, since the rates are always moving, but it is like that every time I've calculated it. But it has been years since I've used a credit card because of the 1%. If your bank tacks 1% or 2% on top, then it is really bad.

Take that $100 bill to Superrich, and you can get 32.05 baht/dollar right now, so just about the TT rate. Go to the ATM and it will also be about that, except with the 150 baht tacked on. Plus it always seems a bit less than the TT rate, like 1/2% less. So with the ATM fee rebated, cash can still do better, except for the transportation costs to/from the money changer.