What are the best practices for withdrawing cash from a US bank in Thailand using a debit card?

Who cares

I've taken my debit card to a Thai bank and had them do the transfer, but you will have to pay the conversion fee when you do this (good for large amounts) At the ATM I always choose "do not convert" and my bank refunds me for the ATM fee. I just setup Wise to transfer a large amount for my Non-O funds, the fee was USD $115. It just went through, so I'm not sure yet if my bank will refund any of those fees. Took three days BTW.

Fidelity Debit Card reimburses atm fees too.

I called Charles Schwab and they suggested withdrawing 10,000 baht 3x for a total of 30,000 baht allowable per day.

The 750 ATM fees will be reimbursed.

You know you can walk into the bank go to the teller and take your money out with no atm fee....

You might need to put a travel notice on your card. You can do it in the Schwab app or call customer service. The rate is visa’s closing rate the previous day. You can look it up on their website. If the USD drops since the close, you will get a better rate than the current rate!

What's that "Welle Fargo Charge: 782.22 (Baht)" ???

Is that the 3% foreign exchange conversion fee WF charges ?

Back to trying the Schwab card - 0 foreign conversion fee.

Next time do yourself a favor bring the cash with you and open up a Thai bank account you can transfer funds from the US to your Thai bank account My First Fidelity account which is not the greatest one they charge $60 for international wires if you're going to wire a large sums of money but MoneyGram is another option you could utilize they only charge a dollar 99

Do not take the ATM conversion. My Schwab card has worked fine for the last year, try another ATM

I'm very happy with my schwab debit card, back in the States、Taiwan、Paris、and Bangkok ! 😃

Schwab card is better that the wise card and you also get a very good conversion rate. You don’t pay anything for the card and get all your fees back. I find it much better than wise

The only/main risk of resident expats here (as opposed to short-term tourists) relying too much on the Schwab and/or Fidelity cards is that if you're an ongoing resident here and doing, for instance, regular monthly foreign withdrawals on those ATM cards, at some point, Schwab or Fidelity (more likely Fidelity) might come knocking asking whether you're really still "living" in the U.S. and thus remaining eligible to have their U.S.-based accounts. Fidelity in the past has in fact purged various of its accountholders that it determined to be residing abroad and no longer eligible for its accounts.

There's another difference between the ATM w/ds vs. wire transfers approach to accessing foreign funds, and that's the potential Thai TAX implications.

Nowadays, the Thai Rev Department is monitoring foreign fund remittances via wires as potentially Thai taxable transactions, for those who stay in Thailand at least half of the calendar year. Supposedly, anything totaling more than 1 million THB during the year.

Thus far at least, there's no indication that they're actively tracking ATM withdrawals as potentially taxable foreign fund remittances, and not even clear that they really have the ability to do so effectively, since the U.S. isn't part of their broader CMS financial data sharing regime.

So with Schwab and Fidelity cards, not only are you getting the full VISA exchange rate and the Thai bank ATM fees reimbursed, but you're also creating less potential Thai tax exposure compared to doing monthly or other periodic foreign wire transfers that the banks and TRD do track for potential Thai tax liability.

Choose ” no conversion ”

You have to accept the international fee, which Scwab refunds you. The next question will ask if you want to accept the conversion rate. Hit the NO button to proceed. The bank then gives you your money and the conversion rate is somewhere between the Thai’s aweful rate offered and the Visa rate reported by XE. I’ve found the difference to be consistently $11-12. On 20,000 baht or $600.00

Take your card and passport to a fx booth or bank and get a cash advance. no fee's. I never understand why people do not do this them post regarding ATM fee's.

ATMs will give you the current international exchange rate. Just be sure to DECLINE the conversion offered by the ATM which is not a good rate.

Wise card

Use ATMs at a (Kungsri) bank if you can. Then if the machine swallows your card and doesn’t return it, you can get the bank to open up the machine.

FYI. I didn’t take my own advice and used the Kungsri ATM on Beach Rd, somewhere near Soi I think 2025. The card was compromised at that ATM. I called Schwab and they cancelled the card.

Luckily I remembered to take A SECOND DEBIT CARD.

I transfer monthly US$2400 cash pick up using western union

Received b32 per dollar today

Cost of transfer $15

Exchange rate is set by VISA Deline Currency Conversion at ATM.

Never never never accept the conversion rate.

Take your time + read that screen, can be confusing at first.

Also...WAIT FOR YOUR CARD.

Last thing at an ATM here is give u card back. REMEMBER THIS!!

I have used this card many times on several trips to Thailand. Always continue without conversion. The rate you'd get from Schwab is always excellent and always way better than if you choose conversion from local ATM. However, I have started using Fidelity cash management ATM card now. Same benefits as Schwab with unlimited ATM fee rebate, plus even better conversion rate.

Select continue without conversion

Also remember to take your card. They give the receipt first and it’s easy to walk away without your card.

The ATM will offer to do the conversion for you and allow you to withdraw in USD. Reject it. You want to be charged the transaction in baht. Same goes if you ever use a credit card anywhere and they offer to charge you in USD. Always reject it and accept the baht charge. They offer horrendous conversion rates.

Do be careful though, some of the ATMs use very confusing wording so you think you are rejecting it when you hit "No" but you are actually accepting the conversion. So just read it before you choose the option.