@Floyd *****

2000B isn't about $200 if you mean US dollars. It's $62. Thai fee is 0.25% min 200B, max 500B. There can be an intermediate bank fee but that is usually only going the other way and wouldn't typically be more than $20. It's strange if you are being charged 2000B but your account doesn't add up.

Your bank is almost certainly charging you to send it, they are just hiding the charges in the exchange rate. This is normal, it's not something peculiar to your bank. If they tell you a number in THB though the Thai bank should only take 200-500.

@Fl***

do you mean 200 baht rather than $200? There is a standard 200-500B receiving fee on the Thai bank end for international transfers.

If you are sending THB with a US bank, they are probably not giving you a very good exchange rate either. They say "no fee" but then actually take the fee out of the exchange rate.

Generally, sending in USD and having the Thai bank convert it is preferable. The issue with this is you won't know exactly the THB amount but if you look up the exchange rate and just send a reasonable margin over, you can be sure it will be at least 65,000. Also, some banks will charge you more if you send in USD, as they can't do you on the exchange rate any more. Some banks, and brokers in particular will do genuinely free international wires in USD.

Wise does allow you to specify exact THB amounts and you get the full amount, and a good exchange rate, although they can have issues with the transfers not appearing as international. You can work around this by getting a letter from the bank it went through but it's more hassle.

@Mau****

I wouldn't worry about the TM30 unless you need something from immigration. It's not your responsibility anyway, it's the landlord. You just need it done before your 90 day and most hotels/guesthouses will do it without you asking. You can ask and confirm. Although I don't recommend it, and I would try to do them, if you are never doing an extension it is unlikely you would face any consequences for missing a 90 day report anyway, they don't care about it on exit or entry, only if you need to deal with immigration in country. I prefer to follow all regulations regardless but just pointing out. Worst case if it did come up it's a 2,000B fine, which never increases.

@Pe***

this is indeed the law, it needs to be done, but it's the hotel that does it, and they typically only look at the last report for a 90 day report. He's on a DTV so it would be a 180 day extension but very unlikely he can do that anyway.

@Ph**

"first" 90 day report is on a per entry basis. I have a long term multi entry visa where I get a new stamp each entry and tested this, I wasn't able to do my first after re-entry online, it was rejected saying go to immigration (Chiang Mai).

So DTV, every entry has a new first 90 day, and you'd need to go to immigration for a renewal anyway (if you get that, which seems next to impossible). It's true that after that, you could do your third online, but that's the only possibility (there won't be a 4th) and you're unlikely to get that far.

@Jo**

that explicitly says "special characters are not accepted" and he was rejected for leaving off a hyphen (not an alphanumeric character, and omitted by their own OCR). He followed the instructions exactly.

Noun

special character (plural special characters)

(computing) A symbol that is not an alphanumeric character; a nonalphanumeric character.

@Ph**

DTV it's always the first as it's a 180 day stamp. Can't be done online.

@Bi**

I'm aware. It's for the non-Americans: "I know my British friends use something, but I don’t know what they use."

@Bi**

the refunding Thai-side ATM fees has few equivalents outside the US. The larger component though is the home bank fee, on an average card that is far larger than the 220B charged Thai-side. If you can avoid that with a zero-fee card, good enough, and many countries including the UK and Australia do have good options there.

Regular HSBC debit card will charge 2.75%+£5 which is ~766B on a 20,000B withdrawal. Credit card is even worse, 5.98% which is 1,198B. Regular US cards if you don't shop around often charge $5+3%. So most important thing is to get one that eliminates or at least reduces the home-side fee, this is much more important than the Thai-side refund.

Starling Bank is an example of a zero-fee UK card. Some fintech cards like Wise or Revolut have zero fees on spend but do charge on ATM use, although it can be less than a regular bank charges. Best to shop around and get zero if you can, although this isn't possible in every country.

@Jo**

as is Elite, but it allows bank accounts and is specifically advertised as "residency".