ThailandThis article has been translated from Russian language using an artificial intelligence-based translation algorithm. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the quality of the translation. You can read the original of this article in Russian here, and ask questions on the topic of our travel forum in English here.
It is not uncommon to hear the question of whether it is possible to exchange rubles in Thailand. Yes, it can be done. Exchange offices at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport accept Russian rubles (as of 2023, rubles are not changed at the airport!!!), as well as at popular resorts Pattaya and Phuket there are exchangers and private money changers who are ready to exchange Russian rubles for Thai baht. There are exchange offices in Bangkok itself, you can find out the exchange rate and the banks where rubles will be exchanged in the capital on the websites:
- http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net (specify RUB in the pop-up list)
- https://www.superrichthailand.com (go through the offices and see if there are rubles in the list)
- https://www.superrich1965.com
However, despite this opportunity, we would not recommend purposefully taking Russian currency with you on vacation or traveling to Thailand. The fact is that Russian rubles are accepted at a very unfavorable rate, and it turns out that even when you change rubles for dollars at home, and then dollars for baht, it turns out much more profitable.
To make everything objective and in numbers, we have made an accurate calculation at one moment of the real exchange rates at exchange offices in Russia and at the Superrich network exchanger in Bangkok, which traditionally offers the most favorable rates to assess the difference. The calculation was made in February 2024 for an amount equivalent to $ 100 in rubles to see how much we will get in the end in baht, and this is what happened:
- When exchanging via a dollar: For 9960 rubles, we buy $ 100 from an exchanger in the Russian Federation (the rate is 96.6 *), in Thailand we change it at the rate of 35.9, at the exit we get 3590 baht.
- Exchange directly through the ruble: we change 9960 rubles directly in the exchanger at the rate of 3.5, at the output we get 3381 baht.
As a result, it turned out that with the direct exchange of rubles, the losses on the exchange rate difference will amount to 209 baht (5.8% compared to dollars).
* - To buy currency in the Russian Federation, the cash purchase rate was used at the cash desk of a well-known Russian broker in Moscow, since the exchange rate there is usually more profitable than in bank exchangers. Of course, it should be borne in mind that the real purchase rates of currency in regions or in banks may differ in a big way, but this does not change the essence much, since the picture as a whole will be similar.