Table of Contents
- What Denominations are in circulation?
- When you are buying from a street vendor:
- How do I break up the large notes like a 1000฿ or a 500฿?
- What notes should I keep on me?
- Conslusion
We’ve all made the mistake of giving a too large a bank note, or the completely wrong bank notes to a vendor in a foreign country, like the Thai Street Food stalls. Here are tips on how to pick the right Thai Baht (บาท) Bank Notes to use when in Thailand, and how you can get the right ones for use also.
What Denominations are in circulation?
Thai Baht is categorised with the symbol ฿, and the notes for this currency currently comes in 20฿, 50฿, 100฿, 500฿, and 1000฿. For a full list see the Bank of Thailand site for Bank Notes in Circulation (link).
The 1000฿ is what you would routinely get if you exchange a large sum of money at a trader.
You can see the bottom right hand corner the English text “1000”, you will find all nots and coins in Thailand have the English nominal amount amount, which is useful! This is roughly the equivalent of $30 USD.
This note is useful for making large payments, but not so useful when you are buying food from a street vendor, where you could buy a dish for $1 USD.
When you are buying from a street vendor:
It depends on how much your order is, but if you’re buying something for say 50฿, then you really cannot give the vendor a 1000฿ note. Most of the time they will refuse to take it, because they do not have the change, or they do not trust that amount of money in exchange, just incase.
You are best to use smaller denominations like 100฿, for which most vendors will be able to give you change for.
How do I break up the large notes like a 1000฿ or a 500฿?
7-11, they are everywhere and they have products in there for as little as 10฿, and the cashiers will not mind braking up your bank note for you, they understand, and the 7-11 company has a lot of cash to hand.
Do not try to go to another street vendor and ask them to break up the note, they will have the same issue as the vendor you ordered from originally.
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What notes should I keep on me?
Depending on your plans for the day.
It’s recommended that you take at least one 1000฿, for emergencies, and then a collection of 500฿ or 100฿ in order to pay for the things you are likely to buy. the small notes will be what you use the most, and the larger notes are like your savings account, something you can break into if you need to.
The rest of your money you should store in a safe places, there is no need to take all your cash with you for every outting, as it’s not safe to do so, you may drop it, lose your wallet, or spend too much! it happens!
Conslusion
Try not to use large notes when buying from small vendors, they will often not be able to accept it.
To break up your large notes you can use 7-11s
do not take all your cash out on the day, best to keep most of it in a safe place so that you do’t over spend or lose it.
And you can use the large notes as a sort of savings account, one that you break into if needed but usually not for general use.
Thank you for reading, if you’re in Khaosan Road we recommend reading our blog on the road to get some back ground.
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