A few months back, I travelled to Thailand for business. And I think like most people, I normally don't pay too much attention to the conversion rates when exchanging money, other than it feels like I am being taken to the cleaners. But this instance was interesting, as it was a fully paid trip, I did convert soe currency just in case, but ended up converting it all back when I got home, so I had the paperwork to trace back this insanity!
Firstly, the market rate at that time was approximately 30 Baht = AUD$1. Travelex sold me the currency at 24.5930 baht to AUD$1. Which is 18% less than the market rate. They bought it back at the market rate because I bought the insurance on it which was 30 Baht.
Additionally there was an $8.87 commission for every exchange I did.
When I left Australia, I converted AUD$600 which bought me 14,550 Baht (including the commission). Even with the insurance, when I come back with 14,550 Baht, that would have given me $485!!! So they made $115 on that transaction. Insane!
If I didn't take the insurance, then I would have to had bought back Australian Dollars at about 35 Baht (their rate), or in other words, for my 14,550 Baht, that would have given me $415 plus another $9 commission. So from my original $600, would have diluted to $406 just for converting it back and forth. Or to put it simply; I would have lost $194 or a full 1/3 of my money just to convert from AUD to TBT and back to AUD.
There has to be a better way!!!
