Planning a foreign trip involves considering currency exchange options. Despite the prevalence of cashless alternatives in the 21st century, visitors to Phuket still require crisp Thai Baht for meals, tours, souvenirs, and more. For significant transactions like purchasing property in Phuket, it’s crucial to seek trustworthy advice.

To provide insights, RL spoke with Pavel Pyzhak of Exchange24, a reputable Thai currency exchange and payment service licensed by the Bank of Thailand. Operating since 2016, Exchange24 possesses extensive knowledge of the legal and practical aspects of safe currency exchange and payments.

Currency operations with Exchange24 are 100% safe and secure, provided clients follow our protocols. We prioritize maximum security, and clients only need to come to us and adhere to proven safety principles that underpin all our operations.

To begin with, clients can scrutinize Exchange24’s license issued by the Central Bank of Thailand at any of our five Phuket offices. We fully comply with Thai laws, including the one requiring businesses to publicly display copies of their licenses for physical examination. A framed license on the wall is a clear indicator of a legitimate business.

We do not recommend tourists exchange cash before their trip, bringing US Dollars to convert into Thai Baht in Phuket. Double conversion results in extra losses, and most banks sell old USD banknotes, exchanged in Thailand at less favorable rates as these note are going out of circulation. Exchange24 accepts over 20 world currencies for direct exchange into THB, including Dollars, Euros, and Rubles, and is flexible with less common currencies like Shekels, Dirhams, or Yuans.

Non-cash transactions are always more favorable than exchanging banknotes. Exchange24 accepts direct bank transfers with options to receive Thai Baht at our secure offices, delivery to a selected location, or using a Thai bank ATM. Cash can also be transferred to the client’s Thai bank account which requires such an account or withdrawn from an ATM which does not require a Thai bank card. We have physical offices and partner shops abroad. As Russian tourists are our important clientèle, we have shops in all big cities in Russia.

Exchange24 processes payments on behalf of the client as part of our financial services. We can pay any Thai or international ‘invoice,’ from everyday groceries to real estate installments. There are no limits on the amount or purpose of the payment, with property deals comprising the majority of transactions. As a licensed company, Exchange24 takes full responsibility for the money transfer’s fulfillment. This is why developers choose us as their partners.

A unique offer is our exchange-related risk hedging, ‘freezing’ our internal exchange rate to protect clients from unexpected Forex fluctuations. Exchange24 is the only provider with algorithms and resources to offer such a guarantee, ensuring operations are completed on agreed-upon terms. Whatever ups and downs happen in the Forex market, the rate for our clients remains unaffected.

Protecting against scams and fraud should be any client’s top priority. First and foremost, please approach only proven and legally operating companies like Exchange24. This is the most basic safety measure: do not exchange our money in the alley, literally or metaphorically. Choose Exchange24 for risk-free currency exchange and money transfers.

To counter scammers creating fake copies of social media pages and websites (which is a popular trick this day), we use a short URL, https://ex24.pro, which allows to enter it manually ensuring clients reach our real website. Then the person can proceed to online operations there or click on the links to communicate with us in WhatsApp or a different messenger. This is one of the aforementioned safety protocols implemented by Exchange24 to provide safe and secure operations.

Being penny-wise brings bigger risks as saving 0.5% on the rate can result in long-standing conseauences. Opting for ‘the best exchange rate’ promised by a non-registered provider may result in suspended bank cards or negative balances. Thai authorities react promptly to suspicious transactions, and investigations can lead to lengthy account suspensions Thai lawyers warn. It is challenging to rascertain whether the funds you receive have not been stolen and are not under investigation by the police or a bank’s internal security department.

As a recipient, you may know nothing about the history of the money transferred into your bank account, yet the consequences might hit you as the owner of the account where the stolen cash landed. In certain instances, police investigators may approach the legitimate recipient, taking them in for questioning and providing an explanation as to why illicit funds have found their way into the individual’s bank account.

These scenarios underscore the genuine risks associated with currency exchange through non-registered providers, crypto exchanges, P2P transactions, or simply relying on connections like “a friend of a friend.”

As a registered entity, Exchange24 holds a juristic person status and possesses an operating license. We diligently pay taxes and cover expenses to ensure that the funds we transfer to our clients are entirely clean. Scammers are constrained in the tools at their disposal, whereas we willingly invest in the privilege of partnering with a Thai bank and acquiring currency from it. Since the funds originate from a bank, their source has already undergone scrutiny. Regardless of the sum or purpose of the payment, we can seamlessly process it through the Thai banking system, providing the Royal Thai Government with a transparent view of legitimate operations involving genuine funds.

As we pay our taxes and invest in staying legal, our exchange rates are within reasonable market rates and cannot be as low as some unlicensed operators offer. We are withing the market range never try compete with someone conducting half a dozen transactions per day and not having neither an office nor a license. We invest into being legal and operating with legal funds while they do not, thus our services cannot be extra cheap.