Pattaya money exchange: Second Road, Central, Jomtien and Naklua
Article updated: 2026-09-16
Best rate USD · Pattaya: 33.15 — AG : Again Pattaya Branch · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
Pattaya is one of the easiest places in Thailand to change money and one of the easiest places to do it badly. The city is dense with counters — dozens of them within a few minutes’ walk of each other along the main strip — and because they are so close together, the rates between them are competitive. The catch is that the counters closest to where tourists actually stand are not always the competitive ones, and the difference between a good counter and a lazy one is a real amount of money on a holiday-sized transaction.
This guide covers the four areas most visitors use, which operators you will find in each, and when walking further is worth it.
Who operates in Pattaya
T.T. Currency Exchange is the name most visitors recognise. The yellow-signed branches are everywhere: Naklua in the north, the length of Second Road, the Central Pattaya area, and down into Jomtien. There are around sixty of them in the greater Pattaya area, which is more than any other operator by a wide margin.
The important detail, and the one most guides miss, is that T.T. branches do not all quote the same rate. Rates are set by branch group, so the Naklua counters, the Second Road counters and the Jomtien counters can differ from each other on the same afternoon. “Go to T.T.” is therefore only half a decision. The useful decision is which T.T., and that is what the live Pattaya tables are for — every branch is listed separately rather than lumped under one brand.
SuperRich 1965 (the orange brand) operates a counter at Terminal 21 Pattaya on the M floor. It is a partner of the Bangkok chain and tends to be strong on the major Asian currencies. See the brand page for how its pricing behaves across the country.
Superrich Thailand (the green brand) has a counter at Central Pattaya on the ground floor, near the Hilton side of the building. It handles a wider list of currencies than most Pattaya counters, which matters if you are carrying something other than dollars, euros or yen.
Damini Exchange sits on Soi 13/2, the street most people still call Soi Post Office. It is a long-established independent with an unusually broad currency list, and it is the one to try if a mall counter tells you they do not handle your notes.
There are also many unbranded booths, particularly near Walking Street and along Soi Buakhao. Some are perfectly fine. They are simply harder to check in advance, because they do not publish rates.
Area by area
Second Road (Pattaya Sai Song) — The highest concentration of counters in the city, and as a result the most competitive stretch. You can stand in one place and have four or five options within two hundred metres. If you are staying anywhere in central Pattaya, this is the default place to change money.
Central Pattaya and Terminal 21 — Both malls put several operators under one roof with air conditioning, security cameras and staff who handle foreign notes all day. Rates here are genuinely competitive, not the marked-up mall rates you might expect. The trade-off is mall hours: the counters open when the mall opens and close when it closes, so they are no use late at night.
Jomtien — Convenient if you are staying there, and there is no reason to taxi into central Pattaya for a small amount. Rates tend to run a little behind the Second Road cluster, simply because there are fewer counters competing on any given street.
Naklua — The quieter northern end, popular with long-stay residents. Coverage is thinner than the centre but the counters that exist are used to regulars rather than one-off tourists, which generally works in your favour.
Walking Street and the surrounding sois — The advantage here is hours, not rates. Some booths in this area stay open very late, and one or two effectively run around the clock in high season. If you run short at two in the morning, this is where you go — and you should expect to pay for the convenience.
How far is it worth walking?
The honest answer for most visitors is: not very far, but check first.
Within central Pattaya, the gap between the best and worst published rate on a given day is usually meaningful on a large transaction and trivial on a small one. On the equivalent of a few hundred dollars, the difference between two decent counters on the same road is often lunch money. On several thousand dollars it can be worth a couple of hundred baht or more — enough to justify a ten-minute walk, not enough to justify a taxi across town.
A practical rule: compare before you leave the hotel, then walk to whichever of the nearby good options is closest. Do not walk past three competitive counters to reach a fourth that was marginally better an hour ago. Rates move during the day, and the counter you arrive at may no longer be the one you saw listed.
The same logic applies to Bangkok. Bangkok’s best counters generally beat Pattaya’s best counters, but not by enough to justify a trip. If you are in Pattaya, optimise within Pattaya.
Opening hours
Pattaya’s counters keep longer hours than almost anywhere else in Thailand, which is one of the genuine advantages of changing money here.
- Mall counters follow mall hours, roughly 10:00 to 22:00 depending on the centre.
- Street counters on Second Road typically open around 09:00 and many stay open until 21:00 or later.
- Tourist-zone booths near the nightlife areas run latest of all.
- Sundays and public holidays are normal trading days for private exchange shops, unlike bank branches.
If you land late at U-Tapao or arrive by bus in the evening, you will still find somewhere open. See the U-Tapao airport page for what is available on arrival.
Practical notes
- Bring large, clean notes. Pattaya counters apply the same denomination penalty as the rest of Thailand: small and worn notes get a worse rate, sometimes noticeably worse. A stack of twenties will not be treated like a stack of hundreds.
- Carry your passport. Licensed shops record identification for every transaction. A photo on your phone is accepted at some counters and refused at others; the physical document always works.
- Count at the window. Count the baht before you step away, every time, at every counter. This is normal behaviour and nobody will be offended.
- Do not change everything at once if you are staying a while. Rates move, and carrying a month’s spending money around Pattaya is not a good idea for other reasons.
- Ignore the counters inside hotels. They exist for guests who have not planned, and they are priced accordingly.
If you want to see which specific branches are quoting well right now rather than which chain has the best reputation, start from the Pattaya city page or the full shop directory.