Thread: Baht into dollars or Euro? Best way to exchange

Originally Posted by Butterfly

one famous one FIBRE CHEM

which one, NCPS or TECH ? oh, wait I see SGX delisted both of them

any thoughts over Gaoxian , Innotek and Sinopipe ?

^ sure, let me check my files

Originally Posted by Ripley

Uh Oh just noted this on bottom of the page

Amount greater than USD 20,000.- or equivalent , please contact treasury department, Telephone 662) 296-4361-70

Calling this # today (Mon Oct 11 10 AM )gets a rate of 30.1

A friend tried to explain through a bunch of math which I cannot pretend to understand, gist was the Ayudyha rate offer from Fri was about 6 times what it should be. Which would make the Govt Offer also bad.

I didn't get passed around at all when I called which makes me think she might not have had authority to quote or had no idea what I was talking about.

Mmmmmm

they have raised the incoming min to 50,000 USD instead of 20,000 USD

and possibly the same for outgoing,

I am not sure what you are still puzzling over, you already lost 100,000 THB waiting to make a decision when it was 29

On Friday I changed 600,000 baht into 20,000 dollars at super rich. It took 5 minutes no paper work and I had a nice stack of hundreds when I walked out.

Originally Posted by aging one

On Friday I changed 600,000 baht into 20,000 dollars at super rich. It took 5 minutes no paper work and I had a nice stack of hundreds when I walked out.

was the rate better than the other banks ? I always found my interbank rate during a transfer to be better than those advertised here

and why would you want to take the risk to hold bank notes ?

Originally Posted by aging one

On Friday I changed 600,000 baht into 20,000 dollars at super rich. It took 5 minutes no paper work and I had a nice stack of hundreds when I walked out.

I just don't have that luxury.

Others think that Fri as low as would go too?

My friend thought keeping baht was not a bad idea it is getting some interest, and counting in the dollar and EU demise.

Seems everyone agrees, it is extremely complicated but seems kinds basic too, If I'd sold Fri, I'd have a nice little profit , today not so nice, tomorrow..?

I think I need, we all need - to get to a home that is sustainable.

One good solar flare and all this electronic money is shit.

And so is a lot of information

Food , land shelter and water will be the only thing with any real value.

And information
Save your books..

Originally Posted by aging one

Originally Posted by Ripley

Chinese money house? Sounds dubious. So get the cash and walk it in ? ( Make appointment first so as to assure robbery ?)

Super Rich, so damn easy. The wife is changing 930,000 baht for me today.

Originally Posted by aging one

On Friday I changed 600,000 baht into 20,000 dollars at super rich. It took 5 minutes no paper work and I had a nice stack of hundreds when I walked out.

AWhhhh Embellishing !!!! And you got 30 when it was at 29.5 ...


I need magic money dust I do wish I'd listen to everyone 5 years ago when they said buy gold

Originally Posted by Butterfly

and why would you want to take the risk to hold bank notes ?

why not, I trust the dollar a lot more than the baht. Just hand carry the money home.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

they have raised the incoming min to 50,000 USD instead of 20,000 USD

and possibly the same for outgoing,

I am not sure what you are still puzzling over, you already lost 100,000 THB waiting to make a decision when it was 29

I still don't understand..


If I SELL BAht And BUY Euros
Which rate do I get as it is quite a difference.

Buy or Sell ?

Originally Posted by aging one

why not, I trust the dollar a lot more than the baht. Just hand carry the money home.

^ nothing wrong with holding the USD, my question was why bother with notes ? a bit risky,

From a friend ..



When buying or selling a currency, the bank will hit you with a transaction few per unit.
When you change currencies, you should expect to pay a small amout per unit in order to convert.
This is a spread and typically should be small. However, when you buy hundreds of thousands of units,
even a small spread will add up fast. Toying with the spread is how banks try to rob you. Bank of America
does this to me all the time. I am usually overcharged by a $1000.00 or so and I have to threaten to sue them
to get half of that back. I do not mind them screwing me. I do mind when it hurts.


For your problem lets look at two examples, buying THB with USD and buying USD with THB.
Today, the THB/USD exchange rate is 0.0335. This means that to buy THB with USD you would in theory get
29.85 THB per USD. In fact you will likely get 29.41 THB per USD (or less) since practically
you will be paying at least 0.0005 per unit. The bank link is offering only you 28.72 THB per USD.

It is not clear if this includes the transaction fee. That offer makes the practical exchange rate THB/USD as 0.0348.
That gives the bank a (highly profitable spread) of 0.001318, not 0.0005. As you can see it is over twice a reasonable spread.
Now look at buying USD with THB. Again the exchange rate is 0.0335. This means to buy USD with THB you would in theory
get 0.0335 USD per THB or 3.35 USD per 100 THB. In fact, if we again consider a 0.0005 transaction charge per unit
you would see 0.0330 USD per THB or 3.30 USD per 100 THB.

The bank however shows a "selling THB to buy USD" rate of
30.17 per 100. This means you would see 0.03017 USD per THB or 3.01 USD per 100 THB.
This offer makes the practical exchange rate THB/USD as 0.03017. This gives the bank a spread of 0.00333 not 0.0005. It makes their "selling THB to buy USD" spread six times what it should be. Perhaps if you are in fact selling THB to buy USD you should consider another bank.

Like them or not politically, Sarkozy's and Merkel's governments in France and Germany have done a better
job managing the EU's economy than our government has done managing ours. The spread between the USD and the Euro reflects
this. The USD/Euro has gone from 1.2975 ( 23 Jan 2009) to 1.3971 today.

The relative spread on the THB between the USD and the Euro has gotten even worse.
The THB/USD has gone from 0.0286 ( 23 Jan 2009) to 0.0335 today. This means even if you sold THB at the bank's
rate of 0.03017 you would be ahead in realative terms against the dollar.

Contrast this with the Thai Baht's performance against the Euro.
The THB/Eur has gone from 0.0221 (23 Jan 2009) to 0.0240 today. That is not much of a change and makes conversion from
THB to Eur not worth the effort at this time. This means that the Thai government is doing at least as good a job on their economy
as Sarkozy and Merkel are doing in Europe (with no help from the Greeks).

Most economic problems are compared to what type of issues. The question of converting Baht
is relative and depends on what you are trying to do. You live in a Baht zone, i.e., Thailand, and a strong Baht is good for you.
In fact, however, the Baht is only strong against the US Dollar. The Baht is neutral relative to the Euro. Personally, I think this is good.

If you are paid in Euros, at the present time I would keep Euros.

Likewise, if you are paid in Dollars, at the present time I would stay in Dollars.
The Euro is now up against the Dollar. Recently, due to the mis-management in Greece, a Euro zone country, the Euro had declined
against the Dollar. It had been as low as $1.19 per Euro. Ironically, that would have been the best time to convert dollars to Euros.
During Bush's mis-management of the economy,the Euro went as high as $1.58. After the US economic crisis stablized, the Euro went back down.

Originally Posted by Ripley

My friend thought keeping baht was not a bad idea it is getting some interest, and counting in the dollar and EU demise.

Seems everyone agrees, it is extremely complicated but seems kinds basic too, If I'd sold Fri, I'd have a nice little profit , today not so nice, tomorrow..?

hence my original question of your motivations for doing the transfer. You can't simply FX speculate with cash, you need a trading account for that kind of activity, not bank accounts.

^ BF, Thanks for your help so far. Can I ask please,

what trading company would you recommend?

recommendation for exchange transfer or holding USD ?

I suspect the THB appreciation is done, it reached it's annual target, it might actually retrieve in the next 12 months back to 31 or 32, unless someone is playing the "THB", also possible, but it's going to stabilize, 11% in one year is quite a lot.

Hopefully the government will do something irrational, and push the THB back to 35

when the SET reaches 1000, a lot of investors are going to "cash" their profits, and wait or transfer back to USD.

Currently trading at 970

I am thinking of buying Forward Currency contracts to "hedge" against my USD expenses

Can you recommend a ForEx account company? so many online .......

^ wouldn't recommend any of them actually as it's a dodgy business for those online platforms, many are hidden scams. I am using my "prime broker" for that.

Banks in Singapore - best vehicles with which to do the FX thing locally. But, as Butterfly previously posted, one needs to have a sponsor for HSBC etc. My wife opened hers here getting docs validated at the main branch on Rama IV and posting to Singapore.

A call lto DBS where I hold foreign currency accounts says best to exchange first because they exchange into do a Sing $ first and then to EU or USD ..

She also warned me about some Thai bank's agent fees


Shit BAck to square one - or keep in Sing $, but not living in Singapore
IS Sing floated or pegged ( whatever that means)

wire to your USD account in the US ? what's wrong with that ?

No such animal .. when I got out I got all the way out, no accouts there anymore
I have a 3000 US dollars in a separate savings account at DBS as requisite for other currencies and that's it.

Maybe I should call back ..Why can't I wire baht to that account ?