Transferring money out of Thailand. Exchange in Thailand, or country of receipt?

[Canada]

Hi. Just as the title reads. Is it better to buy CDN dollars in Thailand and send them or send thai baht and exchange in Canada?

May be a dumb question, but I don't know the answer. I guess the smart guy would check the rate at both ends and then decide. Right?

[chiang mai]

Never buy or sell THB outside of Thailand, foreign banks don't want Thai Baht, Thai banks want foreign currency. Plus, foreign bank charges are far higher than Thai bank charges, especially on foreign currency spreads.

[Pib]

Convert to CDN dollars in Thailand...you'll get a better rate than outside Thailand where baht is considered on par with monopoly money.

For example, if you were to convert 100,000 baht here in Thailand see below chart to see how many Candian Dollars the Thai banks/money exchanger would give you. Look under the Quantity Rate column....you could get 3,305 dollars at SuperRich on the high end and 3,265 dollars at SCB on the low end.

Now look below what the Royal Bank of Canada would give you...only 3,083 dollars....way below the worst rate in Thailand. Yeap, baht is like monopoly money outside of Thailand...basically not used/needed outside of Thailand.

[Canada]

Well. It didn't take a whole lot of brain power for me to figure that out on my own. What did take a lot of brain power was believing the results of a little investigating and some basic math. On 500,000 baht, I saved about 30,000 baht by exchanging it in Thailand then sending it abroad.

[chiang mai]

Well. It didn't take a whole lot of brain power for me to figure that out on my own. What did take a lot of brain power was believing the results of a little investigating and some basic math. On 500,000 baht, I saved about 30,000 baht by exchanging it in Thailand then sending it abroad.

It's worth noting that you wouldn't be able to send THB abroad anyway, it's a restricted currency.

[Pib]

Well. It didn't take a whole lot of brain power for me to figure that out on my own. What did take a lot of brain power was believing the results of a little investigating and some basic math. On 500,000 baht, I saved about 30,000 baht by exchanging it in Thailand then sending it abroad.

It's worth noting that you wouldn't be able to send THB abroad anyway, it's a restricted currency.

That restriction helps to maintain its monopoly money status outside of Thailand.

[chiang mai]

I prefer to think in terms that it better allows BOT to retain control of the value of the currency, prevent speculation and allows better control of the economy.

[Pib]

No doubt BOT rules also have that affect.

[Canada]

Could have been a bank officer that did not know, but she said there was no need to exchange it to dollars first. I insisted.