brizzle

[/quote]If only hold a UK bank account I'm afraid to say that Nationwide is  still the cheapest option to transfer small amounts into Thailand.

Barclays, Natwest, Santander and all the other banks are more all more  expensive than Nw. I work for the biggest card scheme and I can see the  rates that most banks applies....and NW is still the cheapest.

If you can pay by card (and if you can request a card) then ask for an  Halifax Clarima, Post Office Mcard or Visa Saga. No fees on card  purchases.

For cash transactions you should stay with Nationwide as from the banks I  came across as part of my work...

I think that NW was forced to raise the fees for two reasons:
1) NW pay 1% to Visa for each transaction that is done outside the VE  Region

2) NW pay around 1EUR to the ATM owner (acquirer) for each cash  withdrawal that is made on the card (so if you take 20GBP out, then it  cost 20GBP+1% FEE to Visa + 1EUR to the atm owner)

They probably had too many people using their cards just for overseas  withdrawal and this was costing them too much.

giruzz

I Agree NW is still  the cheapest but £7 which was 6 months ago nil plus the 150 Baht fee (£3) is a lot to withdraw £300.  Halifax standard card is 2.75% + £1.50 ATM fee making them £2.75 more expensive than NW for example.

A point on the post office account credit card they sting you on the exchange rate by some 2 baht under the TT rate you get when using your NW debit card, not sure how the other cards work, as anyone any experience with them & can post the rates they got as nothing is ever free these days, just a smoke screen these commission fee free cards are from my experience.