Hey all, this may be a fairly random question, but am travelling to Thailand shortly, and am wondering whether I'd be better taking travellers cheques in dollars or sterling? Also, need to get from Bangkok airport to Cha-Am (Hua Hin) - what would be the best and easiest way of doing this?

I haven't used travelers checks for perhaps a decade or more. If you have an ATM card and a credit card, take some emergency cash and you're set. Do inform your bank and your credit card issuer of where you will be and when so they don't think the foreign activity is fraudulant.

There are a number of booths for transport outside the customs area at the Bangkok airport. Talk to someone at one of the booths and they will arrange a car or van for you.

Cash is king- hardly anyone takes travelers checks. Cash only for small cafes, markets, skytrain, boats, taxis, tips and on and on and on.

Don't bother with travellers checks - as the above posters said bring a small amount of cash (Sterling or $ - doesn't matter), an ATM card and credit/debit card.

I've had no problem using sterling t/checks in Thailand

Outside of hotels and major restaurants and - maybe department stores- I'm not sure these will work anywhere else.

One more tip- do not bring in any badly wrinkled or torn bills. Some in Asia will not accpet these- I have had to go to a bank and exchange these old notes for newer ones!

BillT; When you say cash, are you talking about $'s Baht or what?

Best Regards,

Vic

I have taken traveler checks for three decades of travels and still do. Stolen cash is not replaceable. I take some cash, but quite a few traveler's checks.And I have never used my ATM card abroad.As for what currency to buy...I'm American so it's dollars...it was 41 baht to a dollar...end of August. Happy Travels!

Take a variety of money combinations..You NEVER know what might happen.Oh, by the way...I tried exchanging cash US$20.00 bills to Singapore dollars...at my hotel in Singapore... to pay my hotel bill... a couple trips back...and the receptionist put them all through their detecting machine...which they will do... to make sure that they were real and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was rejected! All of those bills came out of a large U.S. bank...which I won't name.So I used my traveler's checks to pay the bill since I really didn't want anymore expense on my credit card at that point.The machines can be very sensitive. They were supposed to not return the bills to me,since they had deemed them bad bills... but they were returned to me after I made a stink. I brought the bills back to the U.S., took them back to the bank, and they were ALL fine. So, I'd say take cash, traveler's checks, 2 credit cards, and if you want to go the ATM card way, then do that,too. I say two credit cards because you never know what the policy of a country is if for some reason one credit card doesn't go through. A friend and I were in Paris..this was years back...and she went to make her purchase at Louis Vuitton and her credit card was declined for some reason and they simply took it from her and put it in a box with a pile of other credit cards and would not return it to her.They said they cut them up. So guess who had to foot the bill for her 4 days in Paris....moi? She had only brought a little cash and one credit card and was solely depending on her credit card.NEVER solely depend on any one way of payment!Happy Travels!

Vic:
I meant Baht. The exchange rate at the airport is good. I use a security wallet unbder my shirt so carrying cash is not a problem- For those that posted that they do use travelers checks-yes you have a saftety net but really- taxis, small cafes, tips,skytrain, all the markets- these places do not accept them.

Have a car waiting for you at Bkk airport to transfer you to Cha-am. Both Ratt and Julie are highly recoed on this forum - pull up earlier threads.

Bill- Those of us who use traveler's checks aren't trying to pay for things with them. We, of course, convert them first to baht, but in small amounts so as to not have wads of cash on us at all times. Happy Travels!

Guenmai- got it! That makes sense now.