Thank you, dealer does seem to be the recommendation here. The nightmares were incorrectly completed paperwork, or hidden faults on the car?

Paul the income has to be passive, it can't be salary, for the pensioner ltr.

Doing a degree at a Thai university would give you 3 or 4 years. One of you can be in as the spouse, but unable to work so could study too. Running a business in Thailand is not straightforward, (and I believe that's an understatement), so uni would also be a great way to learn about professional Thailand and build contacts.

I think they should take the idea a bit further: increase duration the further out of season it is. Peak season you get a month; arrivals now, two months; mid year, three. Must be value to the country in keeping infrastructure and staff busy.

Figured I may as well do it once and for all.

I understand what you're saying, but you are mistaken. I've checked in some detail - see below. You get, for example, Bangkok Bank's TT rate, which has more margin in it than Wise's commission.

Auto convert within Wise - £10.94 on £2000

Spend THB with Wise card: free

Transfer Wise THB balance to Bangkok Bank: 31.70 Baht (79p) per trx, any amount

Convert and transfer: sum of above (eg £2000 => ie, 10.94 + 0.79)

So rarely any reason to just convert - you may as well set up an automated transaction a percent or two better than the current rate, depending on how much of a rush you're in, turn your phone off and forget about it, and Wise will snipe the better rate whenever a peak comes along.

Global Reach (a dedicated broker) just gave me a quote, £20k 6th Dec 5pm gmt+7, 42.59 no fees, so 851,800 (haven't clarified but assume 500 Baht receiving fee would also apply when they SWIFT THB to Bangkok Bank)

Interbank rate, at time 42.7467 (I miss this rate!)

Bangkok bank TT buy at time 42., net 845,950 Baht

Wise at time 42.7570, £110 fee (0.5%), net 850,430 Baht

Currency club 849,867

Currency fair 851,923 (assume receiving charge of 500 Baht to come off too)

Remitly is good if you're American.

Looked into a few others, including moneygram and XE, nothing comes close to these. monito.com gives you some quotes.

Alternative currency brokers much like Global Reach are Currencies Direct, TorFX and Moneycorp (but they refused to give me a spot rate without passing all the 'know your client' checks).

So Global Reach better than Wise but only by 900 Baht / 0.1%. They could probably push things though - this was just a spot rate reluctantly shared.

Currency Fair was better than Wise by 1,100 Baht / 0.13%. EDIT: Checked again a few weeks later, once amid a sinking market and once amid a strengthening rate, and on both occasions CurrencyFair was worse than Wise. I also tried CurrencyFair, and after conversion, had a week of paperwork proving source of funds before they'd release my converted funds, by which time I'd lost a fair bit on the rate and had to send money by another means. (My money was from savings, so I couldn't provide a wage slip.) They threatened to keep the money if I couldn't provide a wage slip, got it in the end by sending statements from 4 banks. Wise always easy.

On CurrencyFair and Wise, you can put a limit order, or automated transaction, that triggers if a rate reaches a given level. These need time and care, but are great for grabbing a rate that is only available briefly due to a momentary spike. With Wise, they leave a THB balance in Wise, which can be spent on the card absolutely free, or transferred to a Thai bank for 32 Baht (fixed charge, regardless of amount).

Santander Zero claims to be a zero fee card, but actually adds a 0.83% margin to the Mastercard rate, which already has a 1-2% margin on GBP.

Halifax is genuinely a zero fee card, gives you the Mastercard rate, but as mentioned that currently includes 1-2% for GBP.

The Visa rate is best, adds just 0.3% to the ECB interbank rate, which is what Wise gives. So spending on card too, Wise comes out a percent or two better than even fee free Mastercards. EDIT: MasterCard were adding a percent or two margin, just to GBP, probably due to the recent chaos in the UK. Visa and MasterCard are now competitive with each other, and it varies by day which edges ahead. So worth checking MasterCard and Visa rates on the day.

MasterCard rates:

Visa rates:

These are apparently the ATM limits:

Citi: THB 50,000, so THB 220 is 0.44% (plus MC 1%)

Krungsri: THB 30,000, so 220 is 0.73%

Bangkok Bank: THB 25,000, 0.88%

Krungthai: THB 25,000; (max 50,000 p/day)

SCB: THB 20,000, 1.1%

But if you're withdrawing money on a card, far better to go into the bank if you've time and do it over the counter. That way you are not subject to your card daily ATM limits, the Thai bank's transaction limits or the ridiculous 220 Baht fee.



If you use this to open your Wise account, you get fee free transfers for your first £500. If I get three people to transfer £200+ in one go, I get £50.

This is not charged for transfers from Wise, because they transfer locally into your account.

Incorrect, Wise has the best rate, including for large sums, unless you want to spend time working with a foreign exchange agent.

Thanks both