Thailand is one of the more tricky countries for travellers to handle their travel money at minimum cost. We normally tell our readers just to get money out at ATM s or cash points, but in Thailand, that costs a lot. Just withdrawing cash from an ATM in Thailand can cost you half a day’s budget, so you need a little insider information and a trick or two up your sleeve which we’re happy to share with you here.
There is a way to get Thai Baht, without the fees from local Thai banks. A round up on money in Thailand, how to take money into Thailand and the best travel tips on travel money and exchange.
The Best Way to Get Thai Baht?
Bring some cash in your home currency with you. Changing pounds or dollars in a currency exchange office on almost any street in Thailand gives you a better rate than most anywhere else. Airport rates are lower, don’t exchange all your cash at the airport.
You will get a better exchange rate in Thailand than in your home country, almost without exception.
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Travellers’ cheques do give you a better rate in Thailand than cash and they’re easy to exchange, but these days they’re rarely used.
Airport Rate in Bangkok Airport last week: 41Baht : UK£
Currency Exchange Office in Bangkok, same day: 42Baht: UK£
Where to check standard currency exchange rates? Use for example, FCexchange
Save on Every Electronic Payment
Always ask for funds to be withdrawn in Thai Baht. You can do this with Agoda, at ATMs or in any shop. The currency conversion rate will be better at your home bank. This goes for every country I can think of, charge in the local currency.
Prepaid Travel Money Cards
Every time you use a cashpoint (ATM) in Thailand you will be charged 200 Baht. Although some shops will accept them with no fee, so they’re worth bringing as back up. They are a good buy if your home currency is experiencing a real high that you expect to drop for your holiday period. Lock in that good rate! Check with your own bank to buy these or take a look at this guide to independent prepaid travel money cards, some have fees, some don’t.
Free Cash Points or ATMs in Thailand
These existed up until a few years ago. We would use the internet to search ” free ATM machines near xxx” and usually find a Thai machine with zero local charges. To the best of our knowledge this no longer works. EVERY cash machine in Thailand now seems to charge a flat 200 Baht fee per cash withdrawal and that’s a lot, around £5 or $8 per transaction.
On top of that fee you’ll pay your home bank’s fee for international cash withdrawals, plus lose a fraction in currency conversion.
Withdrawing Cash Without Fees in Thailand.
There is a way, and we can share it with you!
Go to any bank and ask at the counter for a cash advance. You will need your passport and your card. The bank official may only accept a card with your full name printed. The official will take a potocopy of card and passport, you will sign this along with the withdrawal slip. You then take these documents to the cashier to pick up your cash. It’s a 5-10 minute job and everywhere we’ve tried, it’s been fine.
UPDATE: In 2017 they’ve changed everything around again. Cash advance is no longer free for Visa, only for Master Card credit cards. This is what they’ve told us in several banks now and as we only have visa, we’re being stung with a 200 Baht ( $6) fee every time we get a cash advance. But this method does still save you your own bank’s fees.
Limit Cash Usage
You will need cash in Thailand for most markets, tuk tuks, taxis, songtaews and small food outlets. Try not to use it for the big purchases. Book accommodation and pay for it online, we normally use Agoda for Asia as they are reliable specialists for the region.
It’s annoying to have to find a bank and withdraw cash when you’re travelling, so use your card where you can.
Should You Tip in Thailand?
There are no hard and fast rules about tipping in Thailand but it’s always nice to give something to a service provider doing a good job. Aim for around 10% and tip in Thai Baht, cash.
For Americans
You’ve got it lucky! Certain US bank accounts refund cash withdrawal fees in foreign countries, including Thailand. I believe, but don’t know for sure, that you need to submit proof of fees. We’re not American, so this isn’t something we can fully cover here. Investigate Charles Schwab.
British Credit, Debit and Bank Cards That Give You Zero Fees in Thailand
The UK’s Halifax bank has a card and account that can help you avoid foreign transaction fees.
Cumberland Building Society’s Plus account offers no fees on SOME ACCOUNTS ONLY.
NatWest and RBS Reward accounts offer a summer fee waver for a limited time.
Starling Monzo and Revolut
These 3 app banks, Starling, Monzo and Revolut offer free current accounts.
Starling has no foreign fees whatsoever on foreign transactions and pays interest on your balance.
Monzo and Revolut allow cash withdrawals and transactions of up to £200 a month without fees.
There is also Loot card, it gives your first 2 transactions free in 210 countries worldwide.
Source : Guardian Money 2018
Payoneer Works Well in Thailand ( It’s a blogger thing!)
My new best friend, my Payoneer Card, serves us very well in Thailand.
What is Payoneer? A Payoneer card is the ONLY way we bloggers can collect our international affiliate earnings. Income from, for example, Amazon, goes straight onto the card so that you have, effectively, a pre-paid debit card. If you are a blogger you 100% need a Payoneer account.
Sign up to Payoneer here for a $25 cash bonus.
The good news? I get a $25 bonus too. I wouldn’t suggest you use one if I didn’t have one myself and use it regularly.
We’ve used our Payoneer card in 7-11 stores, in restaurants, shops and to pay for accommodation in Thailand. There are no fees and the exchange rate is good. Do not use it to withdraw cash, ever, you’ll pay for that service.
There is more information on Payoneer and affiliate income in this post.
The Old Rule, Don’t Carry Too Much Cash
It’s the oldest piece of travel advice out there, don’t get a big wodge of cash out of the bank and stick it in your pocket, it could be stolen or, more likely, you could lose it. We always feel very safe in Thailand, we don’t worry about theft, but if you’re heading to the big beach tourist spots and enjoying the nightlife, this could be more of an issue. You could consider some of the money concealment devices below.
If there are 2 of you split the cash between you, some in wallet, some in bag, some elsewhere, is always a great idea. Just remember where you put it!
We do not use any of the devices below, but you may feel safer with one or more.
Concealed Neck Wallets
Concealed Waist Wallets
We have a full post on anti theft bags and devices such as this one below.
Travelon Anti-theft Heritage Hobo Bag, Pewter, One Size
For Pinterest..
Hover over the image above and a red Pin It button will appear for you to use.
Back to our complete Thailand Travel Guide page or suggested itinerary page, we hope you have a great time in Thailand and can put our tips for handling your cash to good use in travelling cheaper and smarter.
David says
What is the current status of the cash advance service? Is it still free for Mastercard? Everywhere? Thank you!
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
Last time we were there it was David, but it could have changed as it did above. We’ll be back in the autumn to find out.
Rachel says
It’s the same in Laos now. Cheapest we found was BCEL at 20,000 kip (2.50 USD) – everyone else charged 40,000 kip (USD 5). Made worse as you can only withdraw 1,500,000 kip at one time….
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
yep, it’s getting harder and harder to get money out without paying fees.
Ray says
I have a Santander zero card for purchases in Thailand as it iswhat it says on the card , zero fees
Derek says
In UK it’s Worth looking at “Starling Bank”, one of the new challenger banks. Works on an app and Debit card can be used to withdraw cash with no charges throughout the world at ATM’s displaying the MasterCard sign. (Except charges levied by ATM’s). Account can be topped up simply by using the app whilst on your travels.
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
It’s the ATM charges that are the problem though Derek, in Thailand they’re huge and now there really seems to be no way of avoiding them without getting either a Thai bank account or an account that refunds ATM charges, one of the Australian banks have recently started doing this and there are a few US banks and the British one Amy mentioned.
Heather Fraser says
Can you use your Canadian visa or how would we go about getting money exchanged in Thailand without paying the big fees thank you
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
Canadian Visa should be fine, Visa is international. Master Card can sometimes be problematic.
marcin says
what is the point of this?
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
The point is to dodge the huge atm fees in Thailand Marcin.
Lee says
If I may add, this blog post refers to transferring money to Thailand using Bitcoin and Transferwise, including how to get cash sent to the Thai bank without a bank account.
https://mrcheapasia.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/the-new-way-to-transfer-money-abroad-transferwise-bitcoin/
Josh says
I’m pretty sure using Bitcoin in Thailand is still a bit of a “gray” area legally. Not only that, but any Bitcoin exchanges tend to rip you off with purchase fees.
There are a number of new(er) online currency brokers that make international transfers to Thailand easy, but I’ve never heard of this Payoneer service before so I’ll have to give that a look. Where do they make their money if you just use the debit card and don’t take cash out??
Alyson Long World Travel Family Blog says
If you use it for cash there is a fee, also there is an annual fee, about $30. Well worth having as it’s the only way people who earn online and travel can receive some payments ie. Amazon. We also use it for a number of other affiliate schemes.
Mike says
We currently use Revolut prepaid card, usually we find an ATM without charges, have not tried it in Thailand though.
Obviously the exchange rate you get is just as important as any fees, Revolut give interbank rates!
alyson@worldtravelfamily says
Yes Revolut is a good choice for everywhere except Thailand! It doesn’t give the interbank rate on Thai Baht. I think this one is UK only. We have British accounts, so may give this card a try soon for European travel, although we have a Metro Bank card, that has zero fees in Europe, if the pound is up, it’s worth locking that rate in. Cheers!
Michelle says
I’m from the US and recently spent 4 months in Thailand. We opened a Charles Schwab account and were never charged any fee and were refunded any fee charged to us by the local atms. It made handling money so easy. We travel for a year to 14 countries and used the card everywhere. We were even refunded over $1000 when money was withdrawn from our account in Sri Lanka by someone using a skimming device a month after we left the country.
alyson@worldtravelfamily says
Yes, we know about that system in the States, unfortunately it is only available on American bank accounts. Nothing similar exists ( ie. the refund system) on any UK or Australian bank account that we can find. Hence the above dodge.
katy helliwell says
Alyson, I just phoned about a Charles Schwab account and you CAN open an account that reimburses for world wide ATM if you are a UK citizen. Sadly they won’t let me apply as I am Canadain….and here I thought we were good neighbors!! So maybe you’ll be in luck.
Alyson Long for World Travel Family says
Us? we don’t need that, we’re happy with doing it our way. What are the requirements on the Charles Schwab in terms of fees, address, income etc? We have Metro because it’s free throughout Europe, suits us fine.
Amy says
Great tips. We’ve saved a fair bit of of cash in Thailand through avoiding ATMs and withdrawing cash from banks instead, there have only been a couple of occasions where we’ve been denied and told to use an ATM instead. Luckily, there are loads of different banks to try in Thailand if one doesn’t work. We also have a UK current account with N&P, which is the only bank we found in the UK that doesn’t charge you a penny for using your card abroad. That has also saved us a lot of cash over the last four years of travel!
alyson@worldtravelfamily says
We use Metro Bnk Amy, which has zero fees throughout Europe. We’ll take a look at the N&P for sure.