A first-timer's money checklist for Thailand

Article updated: 2026-09-16

Best rate USD: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details

Most of what goes wrong with money in Thailand happens in the first twenty-four hours, while you are tired, unfamiliar with the notes, and standing in front of the most expensive exchange counter in the country. Almost all of it is avoidable with about ten minutes of preparation before you fly.

This is the short version of everything the rest of this guide section covers, arranged in the order you will actually need it.

Before you leave home

Bring cash, and bring the right cash. Thailand is unusual in that changing physical foreign notes is genuinely competitive — a good exchange counter will beat a card transaction on anything mid-sized. US dollars, euros, pounds, yen, Singapore dollars and Hong Kong dollars are all handled everywhere and priced tightly. Minor currencies are handled in fewer places and priced more widely.

Bring large denominations. This is the single most common first-timer mistake. Thai counters quote different rates for different denominations of the same currency, and the gap is not small. A hundred-dollar bill gets a better rate than five twenties, which get a better rate than ten tens. The same pattern applies to euros and pounds. Ask your bank for the largest notes they will give you.

Bring clean notes. Torn, taped, heavily creased or ink-marked notes get downgraded or refused outright. This is stricter in Thailand than in most countries. Check the notes when your bank hands them over, not at the counter in Bangkok.

Tell your card issuer you are travelling, or set it in the app, so the first ATM withdrawal is not declined.

Check your card’s foreign transaction fee before you go. If it is 2–3%, plan to rely mostly on cash. If it is zero, the card is a reasonable everyday option.

Do not buy baht at home unless you have a specific reason. Rates for baht outside Thailand are consistently worse than rates inside it, sometimes dramatically.

What to bring, in one list

• Passport (physical, not just a photo)
• A photo of the passport ID page on your phone, as backup
• Cash in large, clean notes of a major currency
• One debit card and one credit card, from different networks if possible
• A small amount of your home currency kept separate, for the trip home
• Somewhere in the room to leave the bulk of your cash — hotel safe or locked case

How much to change at the airport

Enough to get you into town and through the first evening, and no more.

Airport counters in the arrival hall are the worst rates you will see on the whole trip, typically several per cent behind the city. But you cannot arrive with nothing, and hunting for a better counter with luggage at midnight is a bad trade.

The rule: change roughly 3,000–5,000 baht on arrival. That covers a taxi or train, a meal, water, an eSIM or a local SIMAd and a convenience-store run. Do the rest the next day in the city, at a counter you have checked in advance.

At Suvarnabhumi there is a middle option worth knowing: the counters down at floor B near the Airport Rail Link are run by city operators and price much closer to city rates than the arrival hall does. If you are taking the train anyway, you walk past them for free. The Suvarnabhumi page has the detail, and airport versus city rates has the arithmetic.

What the counter will ask for

Your passport. Licensed money changers in Thailand are required to record identification for every transaction. Staff will scan or photograph the ID page, or type in the number. A phone photo is often accepted for small amounts and often refused for larger ones, so carry the document itself when you are changing a meaningful sum.

They will not ask for a Thai bank account, a local phone number, a hotel booking or a return ticket. Anyone with valid ID can walk in.

You will be given a receipt. Take it, and count the baht at the window before you walk away. Staff expect this; nobody is offended.

When a bank beats a booth

For the currencies most visitors carry, private exchange shops beat Thai bank branches comfortably, and the shops keep far longer hours — evenings, weekends and public holidays, while bank branches do not. For a normal holiday, the booth wins.

Banks are the better option in three specific situations:

1. Unusual currencies. If you are carrying something outside the common list, a large bank branch may handle it when a small booth will not — though a big independent such as Damini Exchange, which keeps a broad currency list, is often the better first try.
2. Very large sums. A mall kiosk may simply not hold enough baht on hand. For the equivalent of several thousand dollars, go to a head-office or flagship branch of a major exchange chain, or a bank.
3. When everything else is shut. Bank counters inside airports and some malls run longer hours than branches do, and a poor rate beats no baht at all.

Note that bank-operated kiosks in tourist areas are not the same thing as a bank branch, and their rates are usually closer to the branch than to a competitive exchange shop.

A simple day-one plan

1. Land. Change 3,000–5,000 baht in the arrival hall. Ignore the board; you are buying convenience, not value. Decline any offer to be charged in your home currency.
2. Get to the hotel. Pay the taxi or train in cash. Keep small notes for this — nobody wants a thousand-baht note for a short fare.
3. Check in and put the bulk of your foreign cash in the safe. Carry what you need for the evening.
4. Look up rates near you before you go out again. Pick two or three counters within walking distance rather than one “best” one across town.
5. The next morning, change the main amount at whichever of those is open and quoting well. Large notes, passport in hand, count at the window.
6. Keep 500–1,000 baht of small notes aside permanently. Street food, motorbike taxis, markets and 7-Eleven all prefer them, and breaking a thousand-baht note for a 40-baht meal is a daily annoyance otherwise.
7. Set your card rule now: always pay in baht, never in your home currency, at every terminal and every ATM for the rest of the trip.

Three things that quietly cost money

• Accepting the “pay in your own currency” offer. It adds 3–7% and it appears at ATMs, restaurants and hotel desks. Always decline.
• Many small ATM withdrawals. Thai ATMs charge a flat 220 baht per withdrawal to foreign cards, so five small withdrawals cost five times what one large one does.
• Changing money where you sleep. Hotel front desks, and the counters inside hotel lobbies, exist for people who did not plan. You have now planned.

Once you are settled, compare the counters near you on the shop directory rather than walking to whichever sign you saw first.

→ Rates