Thailand forum

Changing Chinese Yuan to Thai Baht

Preacher

newbie
Posts: 3

I live in China and am coming over in Feb.

Is it possible to change large amounts of Chinese Yuan in Bangkok?

I'll have to change a bit at the airport to get into the city, but once I'm there are banks my best bet?

Thanks

#1 Posted: 21/1/2010 - 17:31
mm716

longtail driver
Posts: 6

Hi Preacher, I'm on the same boat as you, going in Feb from Shanghai. I did some research and here is what I found out:
It's better to exchange Chinese Yuan at black market or some privet money exchange place like Super Rich in Bangkok, you get a better exchange rate.
Chinese yuan get a pretty low exchange rate though in general, so it's better if you exchange your CNY to USD, and than do the exchange to THB once you're in Thailand. But from what I've read, the best way is to have a Chinese bank card that allows you to withdraw money abroad, that's pretty much the standard for all bank cards in china right now, but to be safe, you should ask your bank. Every bank charges a different fee for taking money out. Bank of China charges 15kuai for every transaction, Hua Xia Bank is the best deal, they let you take the first 3 transactions of the day for free. The exchange rate is just the standard atm exchange rate of the day. From what I've heard this seems to be the best deal, and you don't have to carry all that cash with you. What I'm gonna do is exchange a bit of THB in Bank of China, bring two bank cards and put them in different places, just in case one get stolen, and I think that should be good enough. If you can't exchange THB in your city, there's ATM machines right at the air port.
I hope this helps,have a great holiday!

#2 Posted: 24/1/2010 - 10:16
christay2009

adventurer
Posts: 407
Located in:
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don't forget though that even if your Chinese bank doesn't have very high transaction costs the Thai bank whose ATM you are using might.

I can't recall the sum but it has been mentioned here a few times as being quite high

#3 Posted: 24/1/2010 - 17:59
christay2009

adventurer
Posts: 407
Located in:
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http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/thailand/6007_new-bank-charges-for-atm-withdrawls Thai bank charge chat

#4 Posted: 24/1/2010 - 18:06
mm716

longtail driver
Posts: 6

Yeah I've been wondering about that ATM charge. From the Chinese posts I've read, no one seem to mention an ATM charge for some reason, and these are pretty recent posts talking about first hand experiences of exchanging money in Thailand, so I'm a bit confused about that. Is it possible that Chinese ATM cards don't get charged??

#5 Posted: 24/1/2010 - 21:41