What is the best way to transfer money from the US to Thailand for living expenses?

Wise transfers in a second

Wise rocks. Great exchange rates. Fair levels of fees. Really easy to use, helpful apps/websites (there are two - the conversion app for price checking and the account app which is like your bank’s app) and a transaction card that is accepted anywhere that Visa cards are.

Wise

Bangkok Bank has an office in NYC and so easy to transfer directly through them and a BKK Bank account here. That is easy to do.

Carry as much CASH as you feel comfortable with. This is the best way to reduce exchange costs.

wise is good up to around $2,000

after that use swift to ur local thai bank

Wise.com

If you have no interest in trying to open a Thai bank account, you should open a Charles Schwab account.

You can google for the specific details on the exact type of account and how to open it, but this is the best account to have if you travel a lot and you're from the US.

This account refunds all ATM fees and you'll get a very good exchange rate when you use ATMs overseas.

So open the Schwab account, transfer money from your primary account to the Schwab account, then go the ATM and withdraw whatever money you need.

I've used it in Thailand many times, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, etc.

The ATM fee in Thailand is 220 baht per transaction with a foreign card, and you'll get it all refunded.

I usually try do one big withdrawal per month if I can find one of the ATMs that lets you do 30,000 baht. (The ATMs are not limited by amount of money but by the amount of bills they will dispense. Many ATMs are maximum 20 or 25 bills, but some will do 30, so 30,000 maximum)

If you do want to try and open a Thai account, it makes paying for things SUPER easy in Thailand because every business accepts bank transfer which is free to do and instant, you just scan the QR code they have at the business and put in the amount and it's done.

You can fund your Thai account using Wise (previously Transferwise) and you'll know the entirety of the fees and transfer rate before you ever even transfer. This is what most long term expats do.

More and more places are starting to accept credit cards in Thailand, though you won't find street food stalls or markets that accept credit cards, but many places that do accept them will charge you between 3-5% additional fee.

Wise.