Thai baht and extra charges

I’ve stopped using Revolut for THB transactions because of the additional charges you apply due to it being an illiquid currency. Halifax Clarity mastercard seem to manage ok and don’t add on extra charges, why can’t Revolut?

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Start noticing this past week. Before that it was great. Now, I literally can’t find a bank or a card, that would have worse exchange rate than Revolut.

Revolut, you should fix this!

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I used it ok last year in Thailand. And got a very good rate with no charges at ATM. Did you select not to accept the ATM conversion rate when withdrawing monies?

I am going to Thailand next week and was going to use Revolut. Has something changed since last year?

Yes. It is much worse.
I go to Thailand 6 to 8 times a year, and also deal with banking there. During the past week, the rate has significantly worsened. Still waiting for Revolut team to explain why.

Read more in my other post: Why is THB - Thai baht exchange worse than a week ago

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Yes they have added in charges. I don’t think its worth using now. I use Revolut and my Thai bank account. Revolut is just last resort backup

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I just don’t understand this. A week ago it was awesome. The rate was competitive and it worked great. Now it is disaster. The rate is horrible, and I am not talking a few cents different. The rate is literally worse than virtually any regular bank Visa/Mastercard.

Revolut should address this immediately, and offer some really competitive rates if not “interbank”

This hasn’t just happened in The last week or so, they changed it months ago. Used to be the interbank rate. Maybe you did a transaction at the weekend which is even worse. I compared the rate on one day a couple of weeks ago andvthe Revolut was around 1% worse than the Clarity rate.

My main complaint is its not transparent what adjustment they are making. I’d be tempted to complain to the FCA or whoever is the regulator, I’m actually not sure there is one. My solution is just to not use it for THB

Well, I started experiencing this last week.

about 10 days ago, the “interbank” rate was around 39,04 THB per EUR
and Revolut exchange was 39,02.
This is still within the acceptable margin.

But yesterday, the situation was this;
XE currency rate: 38,75 THB/EUR
Thailand local exchange/ major bank office: 38,50 to 38,70 THB/EUR
Visa/Mastercard international official exchange rate: 38,44 THB/EUR
Revolut rate: 38,13 THB/EUR

The difference is amazing. And for me, this is a big disadvantage, as 80% of my travels (outside of EURO-zone) is Thailand.

I would expect Revolut to be able to offer at least the same rate as Mastercard if not better, but as you can see above, the difference is quite big.

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I am actually quite surprised, that none of the Revolut team replies to none of this posts about THB.
I would be cool, to hear their side of the story on what the reason for change in the past week has been ???

I’m not surprised, the idea of this community/forum is we can do their work and answer questions.

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This is an absolute disgrace. I spoke with virtually every possible moneychanger in UK like Moneycorp, World first, Transferwise. And all of this services provide far better exchange rate on THB than Revolut.

Dont tell me, that the THB rate Revolut is offering right now is “the best they can get” this is simply not true. If they bought THB from any of the services I listed or even if they got it from Mastercard, it would still be a much better rate.
As I am quite sure that the Currency Cloud provides Revolut with much better rate than it is offered to the customers, the only explanation left is, that Revolut takes a huge % of fee on THB. And yes, 2% is a huge fee.

Revolut, I urge you to address this and get us a better rate for THB

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Is it possible to withdraw dollars on any international ATM’s in Thailand? Do they exist?
My only tough around this problem is to withdraw in dollars/euros and find the best rate you can get while you there.
Of course that this would not be a solution for card payments.

But I think that they should indeed try to find a way to give better rates since their rate is below average.

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I’ve not seen or heard of USD ATM, but if there is one its in Bangkok.
Best option is to bring £, Euros or USD and change at kiosks (not banks) and/or get a card with no charges. I do both.

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No foreign currency atms in Thailand I’m affraid. There might have been one in the BKK airport on international departures, but even for that I’m not sure if it’s still there.

I guess I will continue doing what I did before the Revolut - use my prepaid Visa on Citibank atm in Bangkok to avoid the fees, and get Visa exchange rate which is still a lot better than Revolut.

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Best place to change currency is Siam Exchange next to National Stadium in BKK. They have a website.
Exchange rate is like 10 cents (satang) below the forex which makes it the best rate out there since Revolut stopped offering Interbank rate on THB.

Hi,

There are some illiquid currencies such as Thai Baht and Russian Ruble which are difficult for us to trade. For these currencies we will give you the best rate we can. You can check all these rates within the app.

Also, be aware that for illiquid currencies like Russian Ruble and Thai Baht, there is 1.5% mark up on weekend.

I did a comparison today, Revolut 44.68, Bangkok FX booth 45.25, Mastercard 45.5, so Revolut is nearly 2% worse than MasterCard used by Halifax Clarity.

AndreasK, can you find out if Revolut can improve processes so they can offer better THB rates? In the meantime I’m using cash and Halifax Clarity card.

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Tbh @scubascuba3 you need to compare apples with apples , Revolut is a pre paid option that doesn’t cost anything to get , no credit checks and no APR like your Halifax Card.

Where your Halifax Card may have a slightly better rate 0.8 bhat more to the £ unless your spending loads of money it’s not going to make too much of a difference , well you might be able to get a free can of coke with every £100 unless you don’t pay off your balance in full then Halifax charge you 18.9℅ in interest .

Just my opinion and I’m happy with the rate Revolut are offering , for a card that didn’t cost me anything to get , that I can manage easily on my phone, who’s rate is better than most of the other currency cards out there and who’s customer support have been ace so far I’m not going to complain .

And hey at least I can’t run up more debt on my revolut card.

It’s a beer sure. But if we make lets say 500€ worth of transactions while on vacations the difference will be around 10€ with that 0,8 rate difference, which is significant. I know that we don’t pay the other fees that most other banks and cards charge but the rate is pretty off.
@anon33247966
Like said before, is it possible that revolut can “borrow”/use Mastercard rate for this currency?
Keep up the good work :slight_smile:

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We can agree to disagree. The big thing with Revolut is good exchange rates, THB is very poor. I spend a fair amount of time in Thailand so getting a good rate is important. As for Clarity, you make a cash transfer equal to the withdrawal the same or next day so you pay zero interest.

Revolut need to work out how to offer a more competitive rate, otherwise its best to use Mastercard Clarity or cash.

And don’t forget, Revolut have been sneakily adding in a 1.5% charge at the weekend for ages now. I.e not been transparent about it at all apart from the post above. So approx 3.5% worse rate than Clarity.
Still think its good value for THB?

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