Wise, Revolut or a plain debit card: priced on a real week in Thailand
Article updated: 2026-09-17
Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
Card advice for Thailand tends to arrive as a recommendation rather than an explanation, which is unhelpful because the right answer genuinely depends on which country issued your card. A US traveller with a no-foreign-fee credit card, a British traveller with a high-street debit card, and an Australian traveller with a bank that charges 3% are three different situations.
So rather than a verdict, here is the structure of the costs, then a week of realistic spending run through it.
The four charges
The exchange rate applied. WiseAd and Revolut convert at or near the mid-market rate. A Visa or Mastercard transaction converts at the network’s daily rate, which is also close to mid-market. This is the part most people worry about and it is rarely where the money goes.
Your issuer’s foreign transaction fee. A percentage your own bank adds to every foreign-currency transaction. This varies enormously by country and by product:
- United Kingdom. High-street debit cards commonly charge around 2.75–3%. Several digital banks charge nothing.
- United States. Many credit cards charge 0%, and this is the single biggest reason a US traveller can often ignore this entire subject. Debit cards from large banks frequently charge around 3%.
- Australia and New Zealand. Around 3% is common on both debit and credit, with a few fee-free products.
- Canada. Around 2.5% is standard on most cards.
- Eurozone. Varies widely by bank; check the specific account.
Look this figure up for your own card before you do anything else. It decides the answer.
The Thai ATM fee. A flat 220 baht per withdrawal, charged by the Thai bank operating the machine, applied to essentially every foreign card at essentially every machine in the country. Flat, not a percentage:
| Withdrawal | 220 baht as a % |
|---|---|
| 5,000 baht | 4.4% |
| 10,000 baht | 2.2% |
| 20,000 baht | 1.1% |
No card avoids this. Wise does not avoid it, Revolut does not avoid it. Some cards refund foreign ATM fees as a perk; check yours. Details in Thai ATM fees.
Dynamic currency conversion. When a terminal or a machine offers to charge you in your home currency, the operator picks the rate and adds 3–8%. This is the largest avoidable cost in the list and it is free to avoid: always choose Thai baht. See dynamic currency conversion.
A realistic week
Take a week in Bangkok for two people at a mid-range level. Roughly: a hotel paid by card, restaurant meals and a few bars by card, street food and markets in cash, taxis and the BTS in cash, one day of attractions, and a couple of shopping stops.
A plausible split is around 60% of spending on card and 40% in cash. The cash side means either withdrawing or changing money.
Option A: plain debit card from a bank charging 3%, cash from ATMs. Card spending carries 3%. Cash comes from, realistically, two withdrawals over the week — 440 baht in Thai ATM fees, plus the same 3% from your own bank on each withdrawal, plus any withdrawal fee your bank adds. This is the expensive path, and it is the default path for a lot of British, Australian and Canadian travellers who did nothing before flying.
Option B: Wise or Revolut, cash from ATMs. Card spending converts near mid-market with a small stated fee, so the 3% disappears. Withdrawals still cost 220 baht each at the machine; both apps have a monthly free-withdrawal allowance after which they add their own percentage, so take fewer, larger withdrawals. Materially cheaper than Option A for anyone whose home bank charges 3%.
Option C: Wise or Revolut for cards, cash changed at a counter. Card spending as in Option B. The cash side comes from bringing foreign notes and changing them at a competitive Bangkok counter, which sits within about 1% of the mid-market rate. No 220-baht fee at all. This is usually the cheapest combination available to a visitor, and it is what experienced travellers converge on.
Option D: US credit card with no foreign transaction fee, cash changed at a counter. Card spending at 0% plus the network rate. Cash at roughly 1% from a counter. There is no meaningful saving available from adding Wise or Revolut to this, which is why US readers frequently find the standard advice does not apply to them.
The pattern across all four: the card conversion rate is not the problem. Your issuer’s percentage and the flat ATM fee are the problem, and changing cash at a counter sidesteps both.
What Wise and Revolut are actually for
They are good at converting money and holding balances. They are worth having if your home bank charges 2–3% on foreign transactions, if you want to lock in a rate before you travel, or if you are spending in several currencies. Both let you hold Thai baht and spend from that balance.
They are not magic. They do not remove the 220-baht ATM fee, they do not beat a competitive Bangkok cash counter, and neither is a substitute for carrying some cash in a country where a great deal of daily life is cash.
Two practical notes. Both are card issuers rather than banks in most markets, so keep a conventional card as a backup in case an account is frozen for a verification check at an inconvenient moment. And both apply weekend or out-of-hours surcharges on some currency pairs; converting on a Tuesday rather than a Saturday night is free money if you are moving a large amount.
Where cards do not work
Thailand is more cash-based than Europe or North America. Street food, most markets, songthaews and motorbike taxis, small guesthouses, temple donations and entry fees at many sites are all cash. Some restaurants add a surcharge for card payment. A card-only plan will work in a Bangkok mall and fail on a Chiang Mai side street.
The practical combination almost everyone ends up with: a card for hotels, malls and restaurants, cash for everything else, cash obtained by changing notes at a counter rather than by repeatedly using an ATM.
Who does not need to change anything
- US travellers with a no-foreign-fee credit card. You already have the cheapest card in this article. Add cash from a counter for the cash economy and you are done. Signing up for a new fintech account saves you approximately nothing.
- Anyone on a short trip spending a small amount. On a four-day visit spending a few hundred dollars, the difference between the best and worst options here is tens of dollars. That is not worth opening an account and waiting for a card in the post.
- Anyone who already banks somewhere with no foreign transaction fee. Several digital banks across the UK, Europe and Australia charge nothing. Check before assuming you need another card.
- Anyone travelling mostly on cash anyway. If your plan is to bring dollars or euros and change them at a Bangkok counter, your exchange cost is about 1% and no card product improves on that. Carry one card as an emergency backup and stop optimising.
- Anyone who opened the account and did not get the card in time. Do not let this become a source of stress. Bring cash, change it at a good counter, decline DCC, and take one large ATM withdrawal if you run short. That plan costs a few per cent more than the theoretical optimum and works perfectly well.
Compare what counters near you are quoting before you decide how much to bring in cash: the Bangkok page, the shop directory, and the reference rate published alongside every board.