On my Desktop Exchange converter I downloaded at www.mioplanet.com I enter 1 for USD and it says that the THB is 41.31. Does that mean when I get off the airplane in BKK I will get exactly 41.31 Baht for every dollar I give the exchange counter? Does the exchange counter give you less than what the exchnage coverter says? Are there any fees for exchanging? Does using an ATM card from the USA provide bypass any type of exchange manipulation? Thanks in advance.

The rate you'll get at the counter is always somewhat less than the conversion rates you'll see posted online. The rate you'll get varies from one exchange counter to the next.

By the way, I honestly don't think the exchange rate on the ground here is anywhere near that high. I don't think you will currently get 39 baht for the dollar, much less 41+.

Manos.

Yahoo is currently showing an exchange rate of about 37.3: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=THB&submit=Convert . I don't know where that program gets its rates, but it sure seems way off...

I just updated the program and now it say the exchange rate is 33.67 baht for $1 while yahoo says 37.645. What will I actually get if I bring $1000 to the airport? Is there a major difference or is it minimal?

Bangkok Bank lists the rate as 37.31 to the Dollar so you would get 37,310 baht for a thousand obviously.. The airport exchanges will only be at most about 0.1 baht per dollar less than those in the ity. No big deal. You will lose 10 baht for every 1K US at the airport .

The best rate I've found for exchange in Bangkok (indeed, Thailand) is a place a short walk north of the Hyatt Erawan, which has a margin between the buy and sell rates of 0.2 to 0.25 baht to the dollar. By comparison, airport exchange margins are typically 0.8 to 1.0 baht to the dollar, margins at exchanges in U.S. airports run several baht.

You can find more information about this exchange in a previous post I put in the discussion group at ClubHombre.com: Asia: Thailand: Bangkok: Currency Exchange or:

https://www.clubhombre.com/discus/messages/1365/69225.html?1141948736

The website http://xe.com, I have found, is consistently right on the money (no pun intended) for the current midmarket rate (the rate midway between buying and selling), and in fact I use their subscription service to get exchange rates in my email daily. The baht/dollar midmarket exchange rate as of 2006.08.17 20:09:33 UTC (GMT) was:

Currency Unit.........USD per Unit.......Units per USD
==================================================
THB Thailand Baht...0.0265786961.....37.6241180433

which means at the exchange I referred to, I could probably have gotten 37.5 baht to the dollar, but at the Bangkok airport I'd probably get 37.1 baht to the dollar (i.e. when selling dollars).

As for your credit card, my rates are generally fairly good as I recall (similar to airport exchange rate), but the stickler for many bankcards is that they now impose a foreign exchange transaction fee of anywhere from 1 to a few dollars for each international transaction (either fixed fee or % fee or both) which effectively knocks down your exchange rate significantly. Check with your credit card company before going to find out exactly what the fee and margin is, so you don't have any surprises.

Now that I know that the actual costs of the exchange is very minimal with cash, I heard travelers checks give you a better rate. How much do they cost at the bank when you buy them?

The exchange rate itself is typically better at the airport (not at the place near Erawan I mentioned, called SuperRich, don't think they take Traveler's checks, but then 99% of the customers are Thai), but you pay a fee on top of the exchange at the airport exchanges that you don't pay when exchanging cash. I don't recall the fee, just remember that it worked out such that using cash (or specifically $50 or $100 bills, the rate is poorer with smaller bills) gave me a better end result in my pocket than traveler's checks. Maybe traveler checks would be better for large transactions, I just don't recall. However, I usually save my larger exchange transactions for the better rate at SuperRich.

Oh yeah
Huge fee for Traveller's checks . I think it's like 13 baht per check. OMG I'm geting robbed !! More than made up by the higher exchange rate in my experience.

Get American Express TCs -- 1% service charge unless you are a Gold card member. That obviates the advantage in exchange rates in most cases. Visa TCs not taken in most Pattaya exchanges.

If you are using the MIOPLANET Desktop Currency converter you should always put the THB on Top and the USD on the bottom. This will give you an accurate exchange rate. Today yahoo said it was: 1 USD to 37.36 THB, The Desktop Converter said it was: 1 USD to 37.49 THB. A small fraction off. That was the reason for the erroneous number in the first post. Great software when used correctly!