Increase of surcharge on None Thai ATM Cards to 220 baht

[Pib]

1 hour ago, sweettea21 said:

I withdraw money from a US card on a weekly basis, pretty sure Bangkok Bank ATM (By far the best exchange rates, too. I find) still charges Baht 200. 

Where you say "by far the best exchange rates" every ATM (regardless of bank) uses the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate "unless the ATM offers you a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) exchange."   DCC is that local bank's ATM rate which will be around 3 to 4% lower than the Visa/Mastercard rate.  

 

Now highly, highly unlikely the ATM will call it a DCC transaction on the screen....instead, it will probably just be called bank rate or some other vague name....maybe say they are making the conversion for your convenience (really to put more profit in their pocket at your expense.

 

DO NOT accept a DCC offer...DO NOT accept their offered exchange rate...press the appropriate button to continue on to get the Visa/Mastercard rate.

 

Like below Krungsri ATM DCC offer you would press "Continue without Conversion" to not accept Krungsri DCC offer/rate and continue on to get the higher Visa/Mastercard rate.   Seems folks with Mastercard are more likely to get a DCC offer vs folks with Visa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sweettea21]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Where you say "by far the best exchange rates" every ATM (regardless of bank) uses the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate "unless the ATM offers you a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) exchange."   DCC is that local bank's ATM rate which will be around 3 to 4% lower than the Visa/Mastercard rate.  

 

Now highly, highly unlikely the ATM will call it a DCC transaction on the screen....instead, it will probably just be called bank rate or some other vague name....maybe say they are making the conversion for your convenience (really to put more profit in their pocket at your expense.

 

DO NOT accept a DCC offer...DO NOT accept their offered exchange rate...press the appropriate button to continue on to get the Visa/Mastercard rate.

 

Like below Krungsri ATM DCC offer you would press "Continue without Conversion" to not accept Krungsri DCC offer/rate and continue on to get the higher Visa/Mastercard rate.   Seems folks with Mastercard are more likely to get a DCC offer vs folks with Visa.

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I read about this. I tried it out last year and found the offered rate better than the "continue without conversion" rate. Or at least that's the case with Bangkok Bank. 

 

I also tried different Bank ATMs, Bangkok Bank seems to offer better rates. Like it seems to me they use the fx rate (slightly higher). 

 

[Pib]

7 minutes ago, sweettea21 said:

Yeah I read about this. I tried it out last year and found the offered rate better than the "continue without conversion" rate. Or at least that's the case with Bangkok Bank. 

 

No way the Bangkok Bank DCC rate is better than the Visa/Mastercard rate.  The Bangkok Bank DCC rate would have been around 3% lower than the Visa/Mastercard rate.

[sweettea21]

1 minute ago, Pib said:

No way the Bangkok Bank DCC rate is better than the Visa/Mastercard rate.  The Bangkok Bank DCC rate would have been around 3% lower than the Visa/Mastercard rate.

I'm not saying it ain't. I'm saying when I proceeded without conversion I ended up getting a worse deal that one time. I may try again tomorrow if I'm feeling adventurous. 

 

[Pib]

Just now, sweettea21 said:

I'm not saying it ain't. I'm saying when I proceeded without conversion I ended up getting a worse deal that one time. I may try again tomorrow if I'm feeling adventurous. 

 

Now, if your card carries a foreign transaction fee/cross border fee which can be typically around 3% (that fee is from your card-issuing bank) there is a possibility you may have made out a hair better by accepting a DCC transaction "if", repeat if your card issuing bank does not charge the foreign transaction fee when the charge hits your account in your home currency.

 

Some card-issuing banks do not charge a foreign transaction fee when the charge arrives your account already exchanged; others still charge the fee simply because it was a foreign transaction regardless of currency used/hitting your account.  Depends on your card-issuing bank.

 

Now Thai banks don't publish their DCC rates offered at the ATM, but some do publish the their DCC rate if you use a foreign credit card to purchase an item with a foreign credit card.  

 

SCB publishes it's DCC rate for credit card transactions (and I expect their ATM DCC rate is the same for debit or credit card use in an ATM).  Take a look in the lower left hard corner of their exchange rate page for their DCC rate in USD.   For a quick comparison the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate is always plus or minus a few stang of the Thai bank TT Buying Rate used for incoming foreign funds transfers. You can get the Visa/Mastercard exact rate by visiting their exchange rate webpages but you'll see it will be pretty close to the TT Buying Rate on most days.

 

Look at SCB's  TT Buying Rate and then look at their DCC rate in the lower left hand corner.  Today the difference is tad over 3%....that is their DCC rate is 3% lower.  Other Thai banks are the same way.

 

http://www.scb.co.th/scb_api/index.jsp

[siam2007]

I just want to bring back to TV members' mind that BANK OF CHINA still does not charge a withdrawal fee.

There were only five ATMs or so a year ago in the entire kingdom, but the number obviously rising continually, particularly in the provinces. Only MC worked for me though, not Visa and no debit cards. But still better than nothing.

google for it

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, siam2007 said:

I just want to bring back to TV members' mind that BANK OF CHINA still does not charge a withdrawal fee.

There were only five ATMs or so a year ago in the entire kingdom, but the number obviously rising continually, particularly in the provinces. Only MC worked for me though, not Visa and no debit cards. But still better than nothing.

google for it

 MasterCard-logo debit cards work just fine. It's VISA cards that apparently don't.

 

Just as an aside, was shopping at Mega Bangna this past weekend, and happened past the BofC branch there, which is in the banking section with the other Thai bank branches. Strolled over to take a look at the two BofC ATM machines there, and both had paper taped over the screens indicating they were out of order. Asked one of the staff standing around when they might be back in service, and he said by the start of the new week (this past Monday). I've had similar issues elsewhere. They don't seem to keep up with their ATMs as well as might be expected.