Foreign exchange costs

First on the agenda here in Hua Hin was to get some more Thai baht cash. We had made an agreement with our host here to pay him for our accommodation in cash, and in exchange we got a healthy discount. But that discount is partially offset by the fact that it actually cost us money to get that cash.

Almost all Thai banks charge a fee of 220 baht ($6.20 USD, $8.40 CAD) for the privilege of using their ATM.

However, there is one Thai bank, Aeon, that charges a slightly lower fee of 150 baht ($4.25 USD, $5.75 CAD) which saves a couple of bucks. If you can find one!

My google maps showed one location in a shopping mall a couple of kms away, so we walked over there to get the cash.

Community relaxing space at our condo.

The pool area is really well done, with lots of greenery.

So we got to the bank in the big shopping mall, and sure enough, it was an Aeon bank. But they didn't have an ATM! How dumb is that? So we had no choice but to use one of the other ATMs.

So, we paid 220 baht ($6.20 USD, $8.40 CAD) to take out 12,000 baht ($338 USD, $456 CAD).

But the cost doesn't end there. Many people don't realize that all of the major Canadian banks charge a 2.5% foreign exchange fee (except for TD Canada Trust, which charges 3.5%!) on international ATM transactions. They also use the official Visa or Mastercard exchange rate, which in itself is always slightly higher than the official rate, so that the banks can pocket even more of your money without letting you know.

To get that 12,000 baht in cash, my account was debited a total of $479.64 CAD.

So the actual cost of the foreign exchange transaction was over $23 CAD. Approximately $9 of that went to the Thai bank, and $14 went to our home bank in Canada. 

Many people would ignore that cost (or even pretend that it doesn't exist), but we actually include it as an expense in our monthly report, under the "miscellaneous" category. 

Street food restaurant for lunch.

Yummy, for only 50 baht ($1.40 USD, $1.90 CAD) each.

Back at the condo, we did a half hour workout in the exercise room, then went for a swim.

We've tried various other methods of saving money on ATM fees. We have an EQ Bank Canada card which pays you 2.5% annual interest on any money kept in the account, as well as lower costs for transactions. But it takes five days for any transfer amounts to become available to use. Overall, not a bad option.

And we have a Wise card, which has good foreign exchange fees, but a monthly free limit of $350, so it's not ideal either. We tend to use a variety of these methods in our daily travel life!

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