What is more profitable for a trip to Thailand: UnionPay card or cash dollars?

For a trip to Thailand in 2026, paying with a yuan UnionPay card (Rosselkhozbank) is more profitable than exchanging cash dollars, but with important caveats. It all depends on how you top up the card and what you plan to do: pay in stores or withdraw cash baht.

Based on our real experience of use in Asia, here is how the comparison looks (converted to 10,000 rubles):

• Most profitable — card payment. If you top up a yuan card through an RSKhB brokerage account and use it to pay in stores, you will get the maximum amount of baht for your rubles. This is 1.65% more profitable than exchanging cash dollars at the real exchange rate of a currency exchange.
• Optimal balance — payment with a yuan card topped up in the bank's app. This is almost as profitable as a brokerage account (only 1.34% less), but much faster and easier. And this option is still slightly more profitable than cash dollars.
• With cash, it's more complicated. The exchange rate of dollars to baht in Thailand constantly changes and heavily depends on the exchange location (airport, exchange office in a tourist area, bank). Catching a truly favorable rate is not an easy task. Additionally, you bear risks associated with storing and transporting cash.
• Withdrawing cash from a card is almost always less profitable than direct payment due to bank and ATM fees. In this case, exchanging cash dollars may be a competitive option.

To precisely understand how much you will save and see all calculations with numbers, we advise reading our detailed guide Choosing the right UnionPay card: rubles, yuan, dollars, or euros.

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