Travel Banking
When we travelled to Thailand, we took with us 4 travel cards.
These are the same travel cards we now take away with us to any country, as they’ve never let us down; not once!
Out of these 4 cards ...
- 2 live in my wallet
- 1 lives in my big rucksack
- 1 lives in Cazzy’s big rucksack or day bag
Why do we take 4 cards with us? And why do we place them in different bags?
Well, simply because if any of them get lost or stolen, then we always have back ups.
A few times over the years we have left our cards in ATMs, so have always been grateful that we’ve had spares.
What are the best banks in Thailand?
Before I take you through our chosen travel cards, here’s a quick note on withdrawing cash from banks in Thailand.
First up, it really f**ks me off that Thailand has ridiculous withdrawal fees absolutely everywhere.
They charge a fixed fee per withdrawal no matter how much you take out.
When we visited, this was around 200 Baht.
Also, the maximum you could take out at any one time was between 10,000 and 20,000 Baht.
Meaning that you basically have to suck it up and lose a lot of money on ATM fees regardless.
I’ve yet to find another country in the world that has the policy and it’s pretty annoying, especially as Thailand is typically quite a backpacker budget friendly destination.
Okay, that’s my little rant over!
So, with regards to ATMs, there are lots of different banks all over Thailand, and we had success with both Visa and Mastercard in almost all of them.
They all seem to charge roughly the same fees; but do be warned that these may well have gone up now.
In the year between Cazzy’s visits, the fees had gone up and there’s no reason to say they’re not even higher now.
So feel free to test a few banks when there before accepting their fees; but don’t be surprised if you find there’s no way to avoid them.
If you do come across any ATMs that are now cheaper, then let me know in the comments below and I will update this section.
Which travel cards do we use?
The two travel card providers that we now use are Monzo and Revolut.
These are UK-based countries and I’m not sure whether you can get one if you come from outside the UK; so you’ll need to check.
Though I imagine there must be similar companies cropping up in all countries now, as they are so much better than traditional banks.
Both Monzo and Revolut allow you to withdraw currency and use your card in normal transactions, just like your regular banking card.
The benefit is that they don’t charge you any currency conversion fees, but instead give you the best rate possible.
The only fees you need to pay are when you withdraw above a certain amount each month.
If you’re interested, just download the app and check it out.
From there, you then apply for a card and they send you it for free.
Read Also: Monzo vs Revolut: Which Is Best For Travel?
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