Revolut and Thailand and 7/11 and...

Hi everybody !

Who is using its Revolut or N26 card to pay at 7/11 in Thailand ? Some good or bad experience to share ?

Same for BTS and MRT !

Also, I’m ready to try to send some money to my Bangkok Bank account via Revolut (change is not great these days, but it seems still better than the 200 bahts fee charged by the ATM with foreing cards) : do some people know if the Bangkok Bank is charging you when you receive money by transfer ?

Thanks !

Are you sure is 7/11 in Thailand are accepting payment by foreign card? Last time I was in Bangkok (February this year) they didn’t.

Well, no, I’m not sure… but they have a machine to use card, some people use it (but I’m not sure they use bank card, I never take care !) and:
https://coconuts.co/bangkok/lifestyle/swipe-it-7-eleven-accept-credit-cards/

Nobody to share experience ?

@Tra
I was using both, Revolut and N26 in Thailand. Honestly I havent used it in 7/11 yet, because amounts spent there are always so low, that I dont remember to use it. As far as I know, you need to spend 400 THB or more to be able to use a card. I believe I used my own banks card one time with no problem.

Regarding transfering money to Thai bank account with Revolut, I have to say, that since Revolut switched from their Barclays bank to some other bank, there was a significant difference in money transfers to Thailand.
What I noticed is that before (eg. January 2017) when I sent money to thailand, I was charged zero from Revolut, and zero from intermediary banks (if any at all). When money arrived to Thai bank account (Bangkok Bank), Bangkok Bank charges for incoming wires (about 300 THB/transaction). Which is not that cheap.
I prefered using Citibank for this, as Citibank did not charge any fee, and money arrived to Thailand in full without any charges.
Since Revolut switched from Barclays to something else,…despite them claiming transfers are not subject to any fees, I guess this new bank uses different intermediaries, and when the money arrives to Thailand it is 350THB lighter + because they use different system, Citibank charges 100THB for incoming wire - Totaling 450 THB for transfer.
If you use Bangkok Bank instead, I believe you will be charged the 350 THB + 300 THB (BKK bank charge).
Not cheap at all.
I actually calculated, that since this happened, for amounts lower than about 1500 EUR it makes more sense to use service like Transferwise. However, amounts larger than that, might benefit from the fixed fees mentioned above.

This is my experience, and the above charges might be different when you try to send money. Basically each transaction is sort of an unknown gamble, because you never know how much money will arrive to Thailand with all the intermediary bank charges, but number should be more or less correct.

Try it yourself and post here what results you get !
Read more on transactions in Thailand here: Paying and ATMs in Thailand

Cheers

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Mike, thank you so much for your help : I really appreciate it !

Thanks also for the link, but I had already read your previous post (and even writen a reply !)

It seems using N26 Black (no N26 fee) and paying a 220 bahts fee for 30 000 bahts could be the best deal for a mix between keeping it easy and not losing too much : mastercard exchange rate is better than the bad one by Revolut. Just right now, XE gives me 39,37 and Mastercard 39,36

I’m reluctant to put to much money on my Bangkok Bank account : a surprise with the bahts is still possible… Ok, maybe I’m a little parano, but I’m happy like this !

Thanks again, I’ll post about my experience withdrawing with N26 at Krungsri bank.

@Tra no problem.
Keep in mind, that there are many ATMs that will not dispense more than 20 000 THB at once, which of course makes 200 or 220 THB fee even less reasonable.
Citibank and Aeon ATMS do give you 30 grand, so I guess that is OK.

The reason I use bank transfer with Revolut instead is because I can take advantage of good exchange rate while I am in Europe, because usually when I am in Thailand, the rate is worse. In the future, I think I will transfer between 3 to 5k EUR to Thai bank, and take advantage of good rate and relatively OK fee for transfer.

N26Black is verry good option, but if you don’t use it at least 3 times per month in an area where you would otherwise pay the fee (eg. Thailand) it doesn’t make economical sense. I do however use a basic N26, but not in Thai ATMs, just on POS.

I generally quite trust Thai banking system, perhaps I shouldn’t, but haven’t had bad experience in the past 10 years, and I know guys using Thai banks without problem for 20+ years…
I wouldn’t exactly keep house money on that account but for 5 to 10 k eur is fine I guess.

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@Mike
Yes, I know, most of ATMs dispense only 20 000 THB but I know where find some with 30 000 THB.

I’m always in Thailand, so taking advantage of good exchange rate while I’m in Europe is not an option… but anyway, I’m not sure to understand what you mean ?

N26 Black could also be interesting for its insurance…

I don’t have problem with the Thai banking system, I also didn’t get a bad experience in more than ten years, but a possible sudden devaluation of the baht, like that already occurred in 1997 could happen again… well, may be…

Thanks again for your help.

I was in Thailand last Feb, I used Revolut to successfully withdraw money from ATMs without incurring in commissions but I had to avoid all small ATMS and most ATMs of local banks, which were prompting high transaction fees before completing the transaction. I refused and moved on every time, until I found the right ones :slight_smile:

@nicola

Thanks Nicola ! But I don’t understand you at all : Revolut charge a 2% comission after 200€ and ALL ATM charge a 200 bahts fee.

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@Tra @nicola

All ATMs charge the fee. Until last August, Citibank ATMs in Bangkok were the last ones to introduce the charge.
Now only AEON ATMs charge slightly less than the rest. I think AEON charge is 150 THB, but it might have increased to 180 THB.

The only way to avoid the charge is to have Thai bank account.
I also tend to bring with me some more significant amount of cash and go to SiamExchange where I get a great rate, and deposit it to my Thai bank account. Then I withdraw as needed.

@Mike

Unfortunately, I learnt Citibank ATMs didn’t charge in July 2016 ! I was able to make one 20 000 withdraw without fee. I was very happy… and very disapointed when I tried again :disappointed:

oh. that is bad news. i planned to use revolut to transfer to thailand, for the same reasons as you explaind.
i was aware of the fee of the Thai banks, but if the transfer has an other fee it get really unattractive, compared to transferwise. as revolut exchange rate for thb anyway is not that good. but i prefere to know and see the exachnge rate before sending.

is that for all the case that 350 THB get removed? i expected the transfer have no fees. :frowning:

@Adi yes, those are unfortunately the charges. It still makes sense if you transfer larger amounts.

Regarding the Revolut conversion rate, my experience is that during the working days, rates are as good as Forex. What I discovered is, that you actually have to put in the Revolut app the Thai bank information and continue with the transfer. It will actually show you the exchange rate in that part of the app before you confirm the transfer, and that is the real exchange rate you will get (basically Forex rate)

If you just go to currency conversion part of the app, the rate will be something completely different (worse). That my experience.

thanks for the quick answer. it tooks until today to find some time to test for me.

just checked now and actually for me it show exact the same rate in the bank transfer section like on the currency conversion page.

CHF-THB
Forex: 34.47
Revolut rates & conversions: 34.123
Revolut bank transfer: 0.0293 = 34.129

so still 1% loss, quite similar like other money transfer service, just with the additional bank fee. :frowning:

@adi
Forgot to mention one little thing. When you go to bank transfer, put in lets say 20.000 THB and your conversion rate will be €513,42
XE currency shows ideal rate would be 513,14€ which is basically no difference.
Sometimes when you put in small amounts, eg. 1€ the rate will be different.
Perhaps the issue is that you try with CHF, because my experience is only with €.

Above rate was tried moments ago, and should be working fine.

@Mike
Yes, I noted that already before, so tired with 34000 THB (around 1000 CHF)

fun fact:
i found out that EUR has better rate. So if i i convert my CHF first to EUR and send them them then as THB i would get around 300 more THB.

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Hey, I’ve got a few questions I’m hoping someone can help me with.
I want to send Baht from a Thai bank account back to my lloyds account in the UK. Does anyone know if it’s best to:
A) send it straight to my lloyds account
B) send it to my Lloyds account via my Revolut account, or
C) take the cash home with me and exchange it in the uk

I saw recently that Revolut have added Thai Baht accounts to the user interface, does this change the answer at all?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

@kyle1803 Depends a lot about what kind of cash are you talking about.
option A would be good in case you plan to send funds in excess of 10.000 EUR, because it is safest.
Option C is is very good for amounts lower than 10.000 EUR, but I would suggest, that you withdraw THB in Thailand, and use local exchange shop (like SiamExchange or Superrich) and use their great rate to get back your GBP or EUR. Take home cash, and deposit to Lloyds.
I dont suggest you do the exchange in the UK, because THB has horrible rates outside Thailand.

I think option B is not possible, because you cannot deposit funds in THB to Revolut, so this option would be pointless.

Thanks for your response. In the end I exchanged my baht for pounds in Thailand and got a great rate, pretty close to the interbank rate!

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