ATM exchange rates

I went to draw money my US bank account via ATM this morning. Having noticed a couple of weeks ago when withdrawing from Siam Commercial that their ATM exchange rate was one Baht under their posted rate to the dollar so I first tried Krung Thai. Their lowest posted rate is 32.52=$1-2 but their ATM rate was 31.52. I then tried Kasikorn. Their lowest posted rate is 32.54=$1-2 but their ATM rate is 30.54. BKK bank doesn't show their exchange rate on their ATM screen prior to your acceptance as of yet. Now if you factor in the 150B plus what you'd loose on withdrawing say 15,000B it adds up. Then you have what your US bank charges so you might end up paying $20+- per withdrawal depending on the amount of your withdrawal. Has anyone else noticed this?

I went to draw money my US bank account via ATM this morning. Having noticed a couple of weeks ago when withdrawing from Siam Commercial that their ATM exchange rate was one Baht under their posted rate to the dollar so I first tried Krung Thai. Their lowest posted rate is 32.52=$1-2 but their ATM rate was 31.52. I then tried Kasikorn. Their lowest posted rate is 32.54=$1-2 but their ATM rate is 30.54. BKK bank doesn't show their exchange rate on their ATM screen prior to your acceptance as of yet. Now if you factor in the 150B plus what you'd loose on withdrawing say 15,000B it adds up. Then you have what your US bank charges so you might end up paying $20+- per withdrawal depending on the amount of your withdrawal. Has anyone else noticed this?

Funman wrote:I went to draw money my US bank account via ATM this morning. Having noticed a couple of weeks ago when withdrawing from Siam Commercial that their ATM exchange rate was one Baht under their posted rate to the dollar so I first tried Krung Thai. Their lowest posted rate is 32.52=$1-2 but their ATM rate was 31.52. I then tried Kasikorn. Their lowest posted rate is 32.54=$1-2 but their ATM rate is 30.54. BKK bank doesn't show their exchange rate on their ATM screen prior to your acceptance as of yet. Now if you factor in the 150B plus what you'd loose on withdrawing say 15,000B it adds up. Then you have what your US bank charges so you might end up paying $20+- per withdrawal depending on the amount of your withdrawal. Has anyone else noticed this?

I don't use my US debit/ATM card for anything but cash advances. I get the bank exchange rate posted inside, and my US bank does not charge for the transaction. Makes for a very nice and relaxed banking experience.

Thanks again, papaguido for that great heads up a year ago!

Ahhh, so that's how it's done then? Been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to beat these excessive bank/ATM fees. I don't use mine for anything but the ATM and I'm getting raped!.

That's a good point and something to watch out for Funman.

Though I suppose in the defence of the Thai banks, the rates they quote on their websites and in-branch noticeboards seem to be commercial rates or very close to commercial rates. Whereas in the UK for example, if the commercial rate, BBC website rate, or Thai bank rate was say 49 baht to £1, you would get a very different and much lower "tourist rate", resulting in you being very lucky to get 46 to £1.

I guess they all get their (little) bit in different ways.

PS. You seem to have posted exactly the same new topic twice, so I have merged them into one.

Just got notice from my U.S. Bank of Guam. No more free checking, interest dropped .5% atm fee $2.50 $5.00 outside U.S. $5.00 for incoming wire transfer $1.50 fee for balance inquiry at ATM penality for 6 or more withdrawls. Thank you Mr. Obama for going after the banks guess they won't be making as much now. Or maybe I'm paying for it.

Arjay, what happened is I logged in, typed out the post, went to submit and was told I had to login to post even though I was already logged in. So I logged in again and submitted and lo and behold it was posted twice. You tell ME what happened! LOL

Funman
If you're using I.E. as your browser this happens a lot. To solve the problem clear your cache. No problems if you use Firefox

No problem Funman. I guess it had taken the first post before it rejected you being signed on.

Something else I've noticed is that whilst the Thai banks exchange rates are very close to the commercial rates quoted for example: Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC etc, they are invariably slightly lower, usually about 40 satang lower (e.g 48.70 as opposed to 49.10).

Also any changes/updates in the rate quoted by the Thai banks - Bangkok Bank tend to lag well behind the changes being shown in the commercial money markets, e.g. as seen on Bloomberg, BBC News, CNBC etc. They seem to drag their heels particularly when the rates go up.

Only use foreign credit cards in Thailand as a plan B -- last resort.
Open a Thai bank account and dump your money into it monthly (or fewer, larger dumps).
Then you're not riddled with excessive fees and multiple transfer fees and constantly fluctuating exchange rates. Sure it defeats the purpose of dollar-cost averaging, but in the long run you'll save in excessive, multiple fees.

Be sure to use your foreign credit card occasionally though (once or twice a year), or your bank might deactivate it for non-use.

Lepo, I AM using Mozilla/Firefox.

WB Alum

I'm not sure I'm following you. I also use my US bank ATM/Debit card to withdraw money from my checking account in the US. My bank does not charge me a service charge. The exchnge rate around town is usually a little less than the posted rate inside the bank except for Kasikorn. The ATM rate at Kasikorn was about 2.5B below the posted rate. I went into the bank to ask why the low rate and was told that Master Card in Australia sets the rates. Additionally, I assume you are also being charged the 150B service charge at this end. I now use TMB to handle my cash withdrawals. Their rate seems to be about right. I would like to try AEON because I understand they do not charge a service fee, but so far have not been able to locate an ATM.

man, you really got to change that edit limit...........feel free to delete 1st post, keeping this one:

ok, i'm not supposed to be posting, pm occasionally, but WTF.........too many friends are getting none or inaccurate information.

fdmike.........there is an AEON branch on prosi rd, between makro side and mcD, not even halfway, go slow, it's easy to miss. as there is a large advert, not theirs, in front of where you would see their office, machines are inside, but open early and close late. july 23 the office will move to UD TOWN , in lotus building. they have a couple atms around town, mostly at shopping centers, but i prefer a branch during hours in case my card gets eaten.

the past month i've been averaging 32.35 and no fees, no usa or thai bank fee. cash advance is also a good way to go, but know the rate before processed. if moving large sums, wire transfer, my bank charges 15 bucks, but doesn't do int'l, jp morgan does for them, and adds 20, so 35 ttl for wire transfer, again, know the rate before hand, don't believe the thai banks, the charges are instant, and rate posted immediately for all transactions at my usa bank, and doesn't change later. wire transfer is the way to go with large amounts, as just a tad better rate, on unlimited funds. 10-20-50-100 k dollars, still 35 usd to transfer, breaks down to minimum charges. i usually check yahoo finance's for rate, then withdrawal, maybe 0.1 but not more then 0.2 baht difference on yahoo posted rate and exchange rate. for those that don't know, AEON is not a thai bank, but japaneses credit and payment center, maybe that's why no atm bank fee. don't go during thai payday, quite crowded as locals deposit payment, which take a few more minutes.

been using them for at least a year, i think, only one incident where charged when machine crapped out, got
'contact issuing back msg' but no funds, but charge went thru, my bank charged back and i was credited. those .5, 1-2 bahts start adding up, plus fees. after all, it is your money, not like they are giving you interest, but are making money on it. good luck. i don't even have a thai bank account, tho may change soon. like udon immigrations accepting the income statement and that's it, done. use to hate withdrawal funds to deposit, then pay for a letter to verify what i already had a notarized statement saying i had it.

ok, back to my cave

There is “AEON” on the second floor of Carefour, but get a good exchange rate like I did before 150 Baht stuff, not a chance, seems to be about a little more than a Baht difference per dollar from the going rate on say “Yahoo” and other listings. For example, last ATM transfer, rate on my widget was 32.33, and the rate I got was 31.23. Doesn't seem to be any difference on rate with other ATM's, but you save the 150 baht ($4.60) fee charge.

When looking at the transaction on my account it listed the rate before, now it is all zeros, which leads me to think that the exchange happens here in Thailand, while before it happened at my bank. Also before there was a difference in the rate between different US banks, now they seem to be the same.

fdimike wrote:WB Alum

I'm not sure I'm following you. I also use my US bank ATM/Debit card to withdraw money from my checking account in the US. My bank does not charge me a service charge. The exchnge rate around town is usually a little less than the posted rate inside the bank except for Kasikorn. The ATM rate at Kasikorn was about 2.5B below the posted rate. I went into the bank to ask why the low rate and was told that Master Card in Australia sets the rates. Additionally, I assume you are also being charged the 150B service charge at this end. I now use TMB to handle my cash withdrawals. Their rate seems to be about right. I would like to try AEON because I understand they do not charge a service fee, but so far have not been able to locate an ATM.

I incur no charges on either end and have received a very favorable exchange rate when doing a cash advance transaction with SCB. However, the last time I tried to do a cash advance at two different branches of Kasikorn (they used to do it all the time), they now claim that they either have no Point Of Sale terminal to execute the transaction or that their POS terminal "will be broken for long time" and sent me to the ATM so that they could get their fee. I will be moving the bulk of my deposits out of Kasikorn at the end of this month if that "policy" continues. I'll give them one more shot, and that'll be it.

In a related note, I got a big song and dance from them about US currency that had "stains" or writing on it. Kasikorn refused the money even though all of the funds were being deposited into my account with them, not simply exchanged. SCB took the same US currency without question and was happy to receive it.

I had considered Kasikorn to be very expat friendly for about the last year, and then I ran into these snags that have caused banking with them to be an inconvenience.