Originally Posted by
arlflyer
But you're referring to the difference between dollars-to-baht at an exchanger in Thailand versus one in another country, correct?
Only if by "in another country" you mean the interbank rate.
Taking 4/6/2007 as an easy example to find, the in-country rate buy rate for dollars posted by Bangkok Bank was 34.17* while OANDA.com shows a historic forex market rate (not a bad proxy for the interbank rate) of 32.14. Not a huge spread (ISTR it being as much as 3 baht per dollar at the worst) but starting to be significant especially as it coincided with a relatively big drop in the relative value of the dollar. Nowhere near as dramatic as the advantage of the informal exchange markets in Argentina, of course!
(
* look at the date on the currency widget, not the page itself -- and a sell rate of 34.82)
I didn't know about the better exchangers back then, so I'm not sure how much they were beating the big in-country banks by.
So the ratio of baht produced by an equal number of dollars used in each geographic location. But wouldnt a big bank on an ATM network still have used a bank rate? Why would cash have been preferable at that time either? Now I'm just curious...
No, this isn't like Argentina where there is an official rate the banks had to use; even the bank exchange booths gave the better in-country rate.
Ah, very interesting. Any idea what the language for this is phrased like so I know what to look out for?
ISTR it displayed something like"10,900 THB = US$ xxx" and had buttons for
(process withdrawal with account currency)
(continue withdrawal in Thai baht)
I can grab a mobile phone picture (or someone else can) next time I'm there if it makes the offer; there's nothing more personal on-screen than the withdrawal amount.
(I always withdraw x900 baht if the ATM lets me -- not as bad as some places, but breaking big notes can necessitate a stop in at 7-11.)
I'm just wondering, because, I mean, at the end of the day you're always getting out baht and being charged in dollars (that's all that's in the account after all), so what exactly do they say to indicate that they, rather than your bank, will be doing the exchange? It must be somewhat nuanced.
You kind of need to infer the rate they're using and know roughly what you should be getting. Smartphone calculator apps are handy...
