so most Taiwan dollar to other currency pairs really suck when exchanging. I usually opt for USD and then to whatever local currency in Southeast Asia generally. Although I think there are reasonable rates for TW dollar to Japanese yen.
Anyway, just wondering if the situation for the Malaysian ringit is the same as for other currencies like the peso or baht, which really suck to exchange with.
So, direct conversion or get USD first?
Like a forex thing? I traded some on and off. Not great. About 6.5 to 10 over the past years.
If just for travel, i cant imaging getting screwed on exchange rates twice being better than once…? They list the rates could do the math and see at the time. Places like.bank of taiwan have their buy/sell/savings etc rates posted online.
Yeah, is this for forex trading or just for travel? If the latter, I’ve always found very good exchange rates for TWD wherever I’ve tried to exchange them in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia).
You do need to know where to go and be aware of the current rate of course. The exchange rate for these currencies inside Taiwan did seem pretty poor whenever I’ve checked though.
this is for travel, not forex trading, hence why it’s in “international travel” and not “business/money”
man, a lot of people here must not be great at math (and I’m also basing this on another thread I did about TWD to JPY). here’s the link to the exchange rates currently from Bank of Taiwan.
https://rate.bot.com.tw/xrt?Lang=en-US
I’ve already done the math for y’all since I know most of you don’t have the bandwidth for it, but the spread on the ringgit is nearly 21% whilst the spread on USD is just over 2%. Me thinks I’ll stick to my exchanging into USD then getting the local currency. 2% twice is less than 20% any day.
Some banks sell USD for basically spot. E-Sun has a 0.1% ($0.03) spread if you do the conversion online first and then withdraw from your own USD account through their foreign currency ATM, which are available in most bigger branches.
It’s almost always cheaper to do this and trade USD for local currency on arrival.
man ya, if you figured it out why are you wasting your time here instead of making $$$ out of your knowledge. most people who travel are fine with a so so exchange rate.
yeah, I know, I tried to explain this to someone I know once, he couldn’t get over the fact that I was changing twice and therefore HAD to be losing money, because I was changing TWICE. Some people are immune to math, plus there’s something about this in the Bible having to do with a certain type of precious stone and a certain type of animal.
yeah, maybe my next career is a forex arbitrage trader 
I don’t know why you’re being snarky about it man. The ambiguity is with your original post referring to “trading” - as far as I’m concerned this implies forex trading rather than exchanging holiday money. I’ve never heard “trading” used in the latter context. If you want people to understand you, try phrasing your question accurately.
You’re also the one who can’t find decent exchange places. As I said in my first answer, BOT exchange rates for SEA currencies can suck (because the buy/sell spread is quite large). Ergo, don’t buy these currencies inside Taiwan. I’ve never had an issue exchanging TWD in SEA and I’ve consistently been able to find excellent rates. For example, for Thailand, try googling “super rich” for a good exchange place (there are others) - the current buy and sell rates are 0.990/1.005, so a margin of 1.5%. For KL, there are several exchange places around Bukit Bintang that had similarly small margins when I was last there. For Cebu, the first random place I went into had good rates too. Similar situation in Manila.
went back and edited, hope it meets with your approval. but to me, trading and exchanging are close enough. perhaps I’ve lived in Taiwan too long and expect people to understand high context situations more?
anyway, thanks for the advice about places in SEA countries, but from my experience, I remember the rates for TWD to PHP and THB being pretty bad in country. Those places might not always be convenient to find or get to either. So I’ll stick with my usual routine of having a good, neutral currency in USD. Plus, I’m from the US so if anything extra is left over, it’ll be absorbed right back into my financial universe.
Why did you ask if you already knew the answer?
was trying to see if there was maybe one particular bank out there that maybe offered a decent rate. someone suggested looking at Bank of Taiwan’s rates online, I checked and they stink! Also walked into Mega Bank today and their rate was similarly sucky.
There is a Bangkok bank here in Taipei and maybe they offer a decent rate on Thai baht, I was curious if maybe there was a Malaysian bank operating in Taiwan and if they could possibly offer a decent rate, or heck, maybe someone has some extra ringgit sitting around left over from a trip and we could exchange directly.
Personally I don’t want to be traipsing across a city to find a place to exchange TWD to local currency. The advice to withdraw USD from local foreign currency exchange ATM is good and then exchange USD in foreign country. I noticed the massive spread on many SEA currencies.
I often just use my ATM card and withdraw money overseas the rate seemed reasonable usually even if they hit me with a 3 USD charge.
Yeah I don’t know why the rates are so bad for those countries currencies …Shockingly bad.
God, you’re irritating. You used the wrong word, one that means something else, and still believe it’s the deficiency of other people because they didn’t understand you?
Get over yourself. People were trying to be helpful. I don’t care how you change your money, and I doubt others are very much invested in it either. But if you’re consistently finding yourself going to the rip-off exchange places aimed at gullible tourists, you might just be a gullible tourist rather than the enlightened genius you seem to consider yourself.
low volume
I never said I traded, err, sorry, exchanged my money at those places. I just said I saw that their rates were bad. I had plenty of USD in my pocket whilst checking out exchange rates for TWD in Bangkok, they should be about dead even, but the place was offering 10% less! Rip off! No way I’d do that, because I’m an enlightened genius who used his super powers of observation to know that this would be a problem and not some gullible tourist schmuck.
So, moral of the story, as suggested many times already, check rates online and compare then save yourself the around town trips for your high or low trading volume to get the best rates.
Aka, duh.
This thread is funny.