@Thaimer *****

it's the same Visa/MasterCard rate you get at the ATM, just without the 220B Thai-side fee. It's a cash advance, your home bank may or may not treat this differently and if it's a credit card you pay interest from day 1 but that's the same with an ATM.

@Joseph ***

Schwab doesn't do the conversion. If you do a wire it's the Thai bank doing the conversion, you can look at their rates online (look at TT sell rate). It's usually pretty good for USD. If you are using the debit card at an ATM, it's Visa doing the conversion. Those rates are under 1% off the midmarket rate, so if no other charge is applied it works out about the same or even a little better than Wise. Same ballpark really, just whether you want the money in your Thai account (maybe needed for immigration) or cash from the ATM. Visa have an exact rate calculator here, set the bank fee to 0% to see what you get from Schwab:

@Wann****

Elite is also a tourist visa class and allows multiple extensions. I'm not sure they couldn't have it allow multiple if they wanted to.

@Wylie ******

this is all true but the lack of a charge is actually the more significant part, not the 220B. Most common US bank charge is $5+3% which is 775B on a 20k withdrawal. This is a lot more than the 220B Thai-side fee. Nice that Schwab refund that too but the most significant part is the lack of a home bank fee, this is most of the cost for most people.

@Jared ********

there's an ACH charge if you initiate the transfer from Wise side. If you have a Wise account and ACH to the bank account details they give you that's free and they also give you a slightly lower overall fee.

This is US-specific, some countries it's exactly the same either way.

@Eric *********

it's not going to be significant if you have free wires which I believe Fidelity does. You save if your US bank charges you $40-50 to do it. Thai banks also give particularly good rates on USD, Wise is better with EUR/GBP and *really* better for smaller currencies where the Thai rates are terrible.

@Jim *******

he's saying both the validity and stamp duration work exactly the same which is true. Validity starts on both on the day it's issued and you get a full 60 day stamp on both when you enter.

You just have the option of entering again on the multi entry, which is the difference.

There isn't a difference in how these work in terms of when they start, the difference comes down to the multi entry.

@Steven ******

if it's not specifically exempted, which it's not, it requires 90 day check in. You won't be questioned about this unless you need something from immigration in country though, the airports don't check it.

@Jo**

anyway I think people would be far happier if they looked after themselves instead of grousing that some younger people have a new visa option. Nothing stopping an older person from applying for this, or if they prefer the existing retirement options, or if they are actually loaded, the LTV which is still the best option.

@John *********

some, but many retirees are in Thailand on very meagre pensions (that in the case of the UK, for example, *don't* increase) because it's cheaper and even then they can barely meet the requirements. Huge agent business faking retirement renewal requirements.