How well does george get around in thailand?

[Guest]

I was just curious. I see a lot of people post about converting to, and / or spending BHT.  On other travel posts I've seen people mention dollars. I know in a lot of "first world" countries they prefer their own currency.

In some countries they are perfectly OK with getting dollars and some even prefer dollars, and may give you a discount for spending US$.

I've never seen anyone mention Benjamins in Thailand.

Does anyone use US$ there? Is it allowed? Prefered? Not prefered?  What's up?

[olekunde]

i think not prefered. there are atms everywhere in los now, so why use foreign currency.
in the shopping malls it should be ok i guess, but in the bars where they do not have the exchange rate, they might not accept it. maybe the bigger gogos do, since some of the accept visa.

[stogie bear]

Foriegn currency (including US$s) is not accepted in any retail establishments. This is NOT Cuba! You may find that in an emergency some hotels and/or individuals may accept your currency for an extremely bad axchange rate.

ATMs are ubiquitous and even if you can't be arsed to go to an ATM the hotel will make change for you.

[BAM]

I've exchanged US, Swiss, Canadian, and Australian dollars at the Marriott hotel when I've arrived from various places in the world. To me it's just a quick and easy way to unload the other currency and get loaded up on Baht before I hit Nana.

I just didn't want to be bothered finding a Thai bank to exchange it or be seen in the airport exchanging loads of cash. The Hotel charges a 10% fee.

[Tomcat]

The Hotel charges a 10% fee.

10% is a bit to high if you ask me and if my Hotel charged that i would soon uplift somewhere else.

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask when he robbed the rich.


TC

[Bravo]

Banks have exchange booths everywhere and they all open late into the evening. They offer much better rates than the hotels and lower fees. All major credit cards are accepted and travellers cheques are easily exchanged. Why risk bringing cash and losing it when you can get travellers cheques replaced within a few hours? Banking and financial systems do exist outside the U.S.A. I really wouldn't depend on your greenbacks being worshipped given current U.S. interest rate uncertainty.

[Snick]

ATM is the best rate and most convinient.

In Thailand, use Baht....HOWEVER if you go to Cambodia use dollars ! They prefer dollars to their own currency. Also no ATM in Cambodia

[Guest]

I was just curious.

Honestly, (ironically) although I can do geometry and figure out algabraic formulas when I need to solve a problem, I suck at basic math.

The prospect of constantly dividing by 41 seems like enough to make me lose my boner even with Ming sucking it like a Hoover.

When I was in Tijuana, I was constantly on edge whenever buying something. Things would sound like a good deal because the NUMBER sounded right, but then you think "wait a minute, that's not so cheap in dollars".

At any rate, I'm sure eventually you get used to it.

[rob69in]

Buy baht in the LOS, you will get scammed using hard western currency. If you manage to open a bank account just Swift or Western Union to it prior to your arrival. It will be there waiting for you, exchanged at the correct rate at the time of transfer. If not just change at the bank & money changers, hotels just don't give good rates & are greedy!!

[Guest]

never had a hotel i was a guest at charge me for exchange!where the hell are you people staying???