condotown Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 07 March 2007 How many baht is a dollar worth today? 32.7986 - www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi 32.63 - www.thailandfriends.com/index.php?name=Portal 34.88-35.53 - www.bangkokbank.com 35.20-25 - www.bangkokpost.com 35.53 - 32.63 = 2.9 baht per dollar difference depending on where you are buying and selling This is totally ridiculous. There needs to be one exchange rate. Somebody in the Thai government or central bank is doing some major skimming in front of the eyes of the international community. I wouldn't mention this out loud if I could get a piece of that action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrickbseattle Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 The exchange rate is constantly moving against the dollar and baht as the dollar is totally free floating and the baht is for the most part too. Also, rates of exchange vary on WHO is buying or selling, investment banks trying to hedge their bets by buying into the baht by the billions get the lower end of the rates and joe smith changing a 100 usd get the other end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave40 Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 07 March 2007How many baht is a dollar worth today? 32.7986 - www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi 32.63 - www.thailandfriends.com/index.php?name=Portal 34.88-35.53 - www.bangkokbank.com 35.20-25 - www.bangkokpost.com 35.53 - 32.63 = 2.9 baht per dollar difference depending on where you are buying and selling This is totally ridiculous. There needs to be one exchange rate. Somebody in the Thai government or central bank is doing some major skimming in front of the eyes of the international community. I wouldn't mention this out loud if I could get a piece of that action. Someone is getting rich but it ain't me, The Bank of Thailand will give you a different rate as well!!!It's needs to be higher!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Sassy Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 yah... this has been stressing me... I get paid in USD, no fixed payment... last time I converted money into Thai bath was about 32 baht something. :cry: This is good for "some people".. but not for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anenglishman Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 All depends where u convert, how much and so on. As an example: if u buy goods in foreign currency using an Ames card u get a much better exchange rate than with VISA or Mastercard. Banks generally rape u, to the point that my Swiss bank manager actually admitted to being embarrassed at what I was being charged. Surprisingly the best rates for dollar/baht exchange seem to be at the aiport, but that is not practical for most. However, for those with a longer term point of view, start selling those baht. A year from now we will be back somewhere close to 40/USD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primetime Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 I have been wondering about this also. Last week I was getting 34.5 or so. It surprised me to see the rate on TF. I will check the US Wall Street Journal and my Bloomberg terminal tomorrow that are pretty accurate for interbank conversions of billions. I understand for my small $100 they must give me a little worse rate, but 3 baht is crazy. My Mastercard charges me 3% for conversion so I don't use it. Used the ATM a week ago and surprise, this year the Thai ATMs are charging 1% conversion fee...last year no fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelostring Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 yes the rate for USD/RMB getting change too, when i went to the bank yesterday i was shocked, it came down to 1 USD=7 RMB, two months ago it was like 1 USD= 7.8 RMB. might good for my country but not for me. .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizardo Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 i get paid in THB...tremendous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Sassy Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 I have a question, I get paid in the USD and will have to make a payment request before the end of March. Payment will be sent to my Paypal account then converted to THB (Bangkok Bank), which I choose U.S. Dollar as my Primary currency. Is it possible to have it changed to GBP or EUR or money will be converted from USD to THB anyway? My last payment was nasty due to the fluctuation. I have checked xe.com and tried to convert, lets say 250 USD+ to EUR, GBP, THB and SGD.. the differences are not that much but I prefer to get money as much as possible. CAD, JPY, CNY, HKD, MYR seem to give lower exchange rate so I will stick to USD/EUR/GBP/SGD. Or am I wrong? I hate Maths *sigh* Any advice about my paypal account or currency exchange? I have 2 choices to get my income - paypal (1 week) AND a cheque from Canada (which takes 4-6 weeks) :roll: repeat: money will be paid in USD and sent directly to Paypal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anenglishman Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 I have a question, I get paid in the USD and will have to make a payment request before the end of March. Payment will be sent to my Paypal account then converted to THB (Bangkok Bank), which I choose U.S. Dollar as my Primary currency. Is it possible to have it changed to GBP or EUR or money will be converted from USD to THB anyway? My last payment was nasty due to the fluctuation. I have checked xe.com and tried to convert, lets say 250 USD+ to EUR, GBP, THB and SGD.. the differences are not that much but I prefer to get money as much as possible. CAD, JPY, CNY, HKD, MYR seem to give lower exchange rate so I will stick to USD/EUR/GBP/SGD. Or am I wrong? I hate Maths *sigh* Any advice about my paypal account or currency exchange? I have 2 choices to get my income - paypal (1 week) AND a cheque from Canada (which takes 4-6 weeks) :roll: repeat: money will be paid in USD and sent directly to Paypal. U don't want to screw around. If u convert from USD to another currency and then into thai baht u will be paying a series of transaction costs that will outweigh any curency gain. Also, a lot of the Thai banks only accept money in USD or baht...meaning that if u bring in, say, GPB, they convert to USd and then to baht. Is this robbery? Yes. Given that u spend a lot of time in KL u might want to consider converting USD into Malaysian currency but I don't know what the value of that currency versus USD is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zdownlow Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 As for the differing rates, you get a better rate depending on the amount or bill size. So you get a better rate with a $100 bill than you do with a $20. I notice some online purchase sites use xe.com which seems transfer it at the $1 rate. Here's the bangkok bank rates, as an example, for buying baht w/dollars. USD1 USD : 1 33.98 USD5 USD : 5-20 34.36 USD50 USD : 50-100 34.84 You get the best rates if you transfer via TT (tele transfer) from one account to another. That rate is 35.11 (but then you have to do an amount large enough to make sense, because the flat fee for TT is like $30-$35, or whatever the banks charge). My apologies to all those adversely affected by mismanged US fiscal policy, but I didn't vote for the idiots who are running the show now. For currency rates this site seems pretty good. http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok+Bank/Personal+Banking/Foreign+Exchange/FX+Rates/default.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
condotown Posted March 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 At which rate would you rethink "I'm staying in Thailand forever!!!"? :twisted: Doesn't matter, I keep half my resources in each country. I'm just trying to figure out how to capitalize on the situation. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rilly Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 I was lucky in this regard... transferred a great sum of money over when the buck was at about 40 to 1. so now transferring it back. Hope it will rebound, or this is not such "good luck" afterall. But i don't think anyone really cares about that. So i'll stop. -RilinJUH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aniMAL Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Yeah, i read somewhere yesterday that the baht reached a 13 year high against the $. But the thing is...noone seems to know how and why the baht is so strong, given the current situation in LOS. It'll be interesting so see where it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Sassy Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 a lot of the Thai banks only accept money in USD or baht...meaning that if u bring in, say, GPB, they convert to USd and then to baht. Is this robbery? Yes. ahh... I really have no clue how currency exchanging works.. but if it goes like this, I should stick with USD>THB with no other currencies involved. Given that u spend a lot of time in KL u might want to consider converting USD into Malaysian currency Like I said, money will be transferred directly from the company :arrow: Paypal :arrow: my bank - electronically. I checked Paypal, it say that I can send/receive payments in: Australian$ / Canadian$ /Czech Koruna /Danish Krone/ Euros / HKD / Hungarian Forint / NZD/ Norwegian Krone / Polish Zloty / Pounds Sterling / SGD / Swedish Krona / Swiss Franc / U.S. Dollar / Yen ........ No Malaysian ringgit *sigh* and MYR >> THB doesnt make much difference anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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