Online purchases and banking currency conversion question

[yzak]

I am making an online purchase with my card and it gives me a choice to pay in USD or baht. Which is the best for me? 

Example:

 21.42 USD(US Dollar) 
Today exchange rate is = 30.6730 Baht / 1.00 USD(US Dollar) 
(Currency Conversion Fee is 3.75%, this amount will be shown in your Credit/Debit card statement.) 


 657.00 Baht
(The figure shown in your Credit/Debit card statement will be converted to your Credit/Debit card currency.) 

 

I am hoping someone who has experience living here and doing this can help me out and give me some advice. Thank you kindly!

[craigt3365]

Let's move this over to the banking and finance forum.

 

Topic Moved.

[topt]

OP depends what currency your card is in - and what the currency of the retailer is?

That exchange rate by the way is poor - currently you can get around 32/32.2 baht to $US. 3.75% if extra also seems very high.

If the original price quoted is 657baht I would just do it in baht and let your card provider make the exchange.

[yzak]

OP depends what currency your card is in - and what the currency of the retailer is?

That exchange rate by the way is poor - currently you can get around 32/32.2 baht to $US. 3.75% if extra also seems very high.

If the original price quoted is 657baht I would just do it in baht and let your card provider make the exchange.

 

Thanks! exactly what i did =D

[Pib]

Pay in baht/the local currency.  In enticing you to pay in dollars/your card's home country currency, the company is basically attempting to get you to accept a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) rate which is usually 3 to 4% lower than the card network (i.e., Visa/Mastercard) exchange rate.  DCC bad for the customer; good for the merchant.   Even Visa/Mastercard recommend against use of DCC but merchants/some ATMs still push their DCC rate because quite a few customer's don't understand what is being asked and just accept the offered transaction.   Visa/Mastercard recommend against DCC because it results in a higher charge for the customer and the customer usually blames Visa/Mastercard for the crappy exchange rate although it was the merchant (actually the merchant's local transaction processing bank) that gave the lower rate.  And just to rub salt in the DCC wound if your card-issuing bank applies a foreign transaction fee, which many do in the 1 to 3% ballpark, you will probably still get hit with that exchange rate fee/reduction "on top of" the the lower DCC rate simply because it was a "foreign transaction" and not because you paid in XYZ currency.  To repeat, DCC bad for the customer; good for the merchant.  Just say No to DCC.