Monday, June 3, 2013

Baht and ATMs

I made a discovery today. I can use my Starbucks app here!
Ok, I don't really go to Starbucks that much anymore and it's ridiculously expensive here, but still, an exciting find!
Since all of my money has to be converted I end up paying several fees every time I take money out. Flat fees for my bank, their bank, and a percentage of whatever I take out. And I really hate paying fees, for anything. So any chance I get to avoid them I'll take.
I had to laugh though. I didn't have quite enough on my card and I owed 3.06 baht. They seemed totally perplexed (I don't think they'd ever seen their machine asking for hundredths of a baht before, actually I'm not even sure they have a coin for that, or if they do they don't use it.)
Using cash has other draw backs too. Since I've been taking out larger amounts of money when I go to the ATM it gives me 1000 baht bills. This really isn't that much money, but still, the street vendors can't break them. I didn't have any small bills when I went to the walking market on Sunday so I decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant so that I could get change. Unfortunately they didn't have change either and the owner had to go out on his motorbike and change the bill, oops!

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