Quote:
Originally Posted by FWWM
If you want to save a few bucks, buy your sim in jomtien or anywhere that is not the airport, cell data costs like nothing in TH outside the airport. Generally exchange rates at the airport are also terrible yes, but the superrich exchange has good rates, very small spread, same as everywhere else, you just need to find it, it's a bit hidden at the basement.
sim card also costs nothing at the airport. yes, it's more expensive than a year long (or 3 month) contract, but if he only stays 5 weeks, i'd just buy it at the airport.
i think his 2 options are basically: pay 999 thb for a 30 day tourist sim with unlimited speed and 50-100gb data or go to a dtac/ais/true shop and pay 600 thb for a 90 day phone contract (=200 monthly) with 10mbps. yes, the latter is cheaper, especially on a monthly basis, but the difference is minimal for 5 weeks and he saves an hour of his time and will have data on his cab / bus ride to pattaya and on his first day. just not worth it to sweat about the price difference, imho, especially on a first trip.
yes, superrich is good, but in the basement, as you say. that's why i said "don't exchange in the arrival hall".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Namaste90
Trontron- RE Songkran: I don't mind water it's gonna be hot anyways :P
As for cash, would you recommend doing something like getting $2k usd worth of thai baht here in USA and just bringing into Thailand or wait till I get there and then convert?
yes, it's hot outside. but as soon as you sit under air condition with wet clothes, you'll quickly be very cold. and sitting on a motorbike that gets hit with super soakers and crashes, is also not a great thing, hehe. but yeah, you'll be fine, mostly.
your cheapest & by far best option in regards to money is to get a US bank account that reimburses all atm fees and charges you interbank rate. charles schwab is the most well known account for that, but there are a few other options.
the 2nd cheapest option, but far less convenient, is to bring usd cash with you and exchange it (vasu exchange in bkk or superrich main branch in bangkok have the best rates, but nearly all other options are very good as well). you'll pay around 0.5% compared to interbank rate. the downside is that you will need to carry / bring all of your cash with you in advance.
the most expensive option is to just always use ATMs with an account that doesn't reimburse fees and charges you a bad exchange rate on top of it, this will cost you between 3-6% compared to perfect solution.
no need / use to exchange THB back home. either use ATM at the airport or just exchange a few thousand thb at the airport to give you enough cash for transport and arrival.
yes, long term you should have open a bank account. afaik it's currently quite difficult on a tourist visa, even with an agent. but maybe that has changed. but if you come long term, then certainly open a thai bank account.
yes, i'd prearrange transport if you head to pattaya directly. there are lots of services that offer it.
https://cherrytaxiservice.com/ is one of the cheap / popular ones. airport to pattaya will be 1000 thb. you can just write them in line and a driver (respectively handler) will wait for you at the airport).
most other similar services charge you 1200 for it. all those established options are fine. no reason to pay more than that.
if you go to bangkok first, just take a normal taxi, they'll use a meter.