The short answer

Wise is the best multicurrency account for most people going to Thailand. It converts at the mid-market rate with a small fee you see up front, charges no more at weekends, and is also one of the cheapest ways to send money to a Thai bank account once you're there.

Revolut is cheaper still on a longer trip if you pay for Plus or Premium: the higher exchange allowance and lower weekend fee more than cover the monthly cost. On the free Standard plan it's roughly level with Wise, as long as you convert on weekdays.

The Post Office and Travelex prepaid cards are the most expensive way to hold baht — around £37 to £38 lost on every £1,000 when we checked — but they keep your holiday money entirely separate from your bank account, which some travellers value more than the saving.

Multicurrency accounts and travel cards compared

The headline costs for holding and using baht. Thai ATM operators add their own fee — usually ฿220 — with every account. Scroll sideways on a phone.

From each provider's published terms, checked 11–12 October 2026. Revolut's weekend period runs from 5pm Friday to 6pm Sunday, US Eastern Time. Loading pounds onto a prepaid card costs extra: 1.5% (min £3, max £50) on the Post Office card and 2% on the Travelex sterling wallet.

Why the rate matters more than the fee

The prepaid travel cards look free. The Travelex card has no fee to load baht and no Travelex ATM fee; the Post Office card is free to order and free to spend in baht. But both set their own exchange rate when you load the card, and that rate sits several per cent below the mid-market rate — the rate banks trade at, and the one you see on Google.

When we checked, the mid-market rate was about ฿44.3 to the pound. Travelex offered ฿42.58 on its Money Card and the Post Office's online rate for £1,000 or more was ฿42.65. On £1,000, that's roughly ฿1,700 less baht than the mid-market rate would buy — about £37 to £38 — before you've spent a single baht. The Post Office rate for smaller amounts was worse again.

Wise works the other way round: it converts at the mid-market rate and shows you a separate fee, from 0.43%, before you confirm. Revolut converts at its own rate, which is close to mid-market on weekdays, and adds a fee only above your plan's monthly allowance or at weekends. Either way, the cost is visible, and it's a fraction of the prepaid cards' margin.

Revolut plans compared for Thailand

Revolut's costs depend heavily on which plan you're on. These are the parts that matter in Thailand.

Revolut UK pricing page, checked 12 October 2026. Above the free ATM allowance Revolut charges 2% (minimum £1 on Standard). Above the weekday exchange allowance it charges 1%. Insurance cover, limits and exclusions vary — read the policy before relying on it.

Is a paid Revolut plan worth it in Thailand?

For a short holiday, usually not. For anything longer than a fortnight, often yes — and the arithmetic is simple.

On the free Standard plan, every pound you exchange above £1,000 in a month costs 1%, and every pound of cash above £200 costs 2%. A month in Thailand on £3,000 runs into both: £20 of exchange fees on the £2,000 above the allowance, and £20 on £1,000 of cash above the free £200. That's £40 in Revolut fees.

On Plus at £3.99, the whole £3,000 falls inside the weekday exchange allowance, so the only extra cost is the £20 on cash: £23.99 in all. On Premium at £7.99, there's no exchange limit and £400 of free cash, so the cash fee falls to £16: also £23.99. Either plan saves about £16 over Standard on that month, and you can downgrade when you get home.

Metal and Ultra rarely pay for themselves on fees alone. Their case rests on the extras, mainly the included travel insurance — and that cover has limits and exclusions that may not suit a long stay, motorbike riding or a pre-existing condition. If you're weighing Metal for its insurance, compare it with a proper standalone policy first.

What three real trips cost on each account

Total cost in pounds, including exchange-rate margin, provider fees, plan fees and the ฿220 Thai ATM charge. Two weeks: £1,500 (£1,000 by card, £500 cash). One month: £3,000 (£1,800 card, £1,200 cash). Winter: three months at £3,000 a month.

Mid-market ฿44.38 (Wise, 12 October 2026); ฿220 = £4.96. Prepaid margins 3.8% (Travelex) and 3.7% (Post Office) as seen 11–12 October 2026. Wise conversion fee taken at 0.43%. Revolut conversions on weekdays. Cash withdrawn in amounts up to ฿20,000 where daily limits allow; the Post Office card's £300 daily limit needs more withdrawals. Chase converts at the Mastercard rate, which sits very close to mid-market; its £1,500 monthly cap on fee-free cash abroad isn't reached in these examples. Illustrative only.

What the trip costs tell you

Three things stand out from those numbers.

The prepaid cards cost two to four times as much as Wise or Revolut. On a three-month winter, the difference between a Travelex card and Revolut Plus is about £270 — enough for a return domestic flight, a fortnight in a good hotel or a lot of very good dinners. The cost is almost entirely in the exchange rate, which is why the cards can honestly advertise "no fees" while still being the most expensive option.

Wise and free Revolut are close; a paid Revolut plan is cheaper on longer trips. On a two-week holiday the gap between them is a few pounds. Over a month or a winter, Revolut Plus or Premium pulls ahead because its allowances absorb most of the fees. Wise wins back ground if you convert at weekends, which costs nothing extra on Wise.

A fee-free debit card beats every multicurrency account on cost alone. A card like Chase or Starling converts at the Mastercard rate with no fee of its own, so the only cost is the Thai ATM charge. If all you want is cheap spending in Thailand, you don't need to hold baht at all — see our UK travel debit card comparison. Multicurrency accounts earn their place when you want to fix your rate in advance, keep a separate holiday budget, or send money to Thailand.

Each account in brief

What each one does best, and where it falls short in Thailand.

Limits and the small print

The limits that most often trip people up in Thailand.

Post Office Travel Money Card help pages and Wise's review of the card (updated March 2026); Travelex Money Card page, checked 12 October 2026. Wise and Revolut limits depend on your verification and are shown in each app.

Why limits matter more in Thailand

Thai bank ATMs charge a flat ฿220 on every withdrawal with a foreign card. That makes the size of each withdrawal important: ฿20,000 at a time costs about 1.1% in machine fees, while ฿10,000 at a time costs 2.2%.

The Post Office card's £300 daily limit — about ฿13,300 — means more, smaller withdrawals than you'd make with an account that lets you take out ฿20,000 at once. On a month's cash of ฿53,000, that's five withdrawals instead of three: two extra ฿220 fees, plus two extra Post Office withdrawal fees. The Travelex card's £500 per 24 hours is enough for a full ฿20,000 withdrawal.

The prepaid cards' maximum balances matter on longer stays. Travelex caps the card at £5,000, so a three-month winter means topping up during the trip — at whatever rate Travelex is offering that day. The Post Office card holds up to £10,000.

See our guides to Thai ATM fees and ATM withdrawal limits in Thailand for every Thai bank's charges and maximum withdrawals.

How your money is protected

None of the multicurrency options in this comparison is a UK bank deposit in the traditional sense. Here's how each one protects the money you hold.

Safeguarding means the provider must hold your money separately from its own funds, so it should be returned if the firm fails; it is not the same as FSCS deposit protection.

Does protection matter for holiday money?

For a fortnight's spending money, rarely. Safeguarded e-money providers have to keep customers' money separate from their own, and the risk of losing holiday cash to a provider's collapse is small. The bigger practical risks in Thailand are a lost or skimmed card and a phone that can't receive security codes.

It matters more if you're holding a large sum for months — a winter's budget, a deposit for a condo rental, or money set aside for a visa. In that case, keep the bulk in a UK bank account protected by the FSCS and convert to baht in stages, closer to when you need it.

Whichever account you choose, carry a second card from a different provider, ideally on a different network. If your Wise card is swallowed by an ATM in Chiang Mai on a Sunday, a backup Visa from another provider is what gets you through to Monday. Our guide to a lost or stolen UK bank card in Thailand covers what to do step by step.

Paying for hotels, flights and tours with held baht

One practical advantage of holding baht is paying Thai-priced bookings without a second conversion. If a hotel, tour or domestic flight charges in baht, a Wise or Revolut card spends your baht balance directly, and a prepaid card spends its loaded baht.

Watch the currency, though. Many booking sites show prices in pounds to UK visitors and charge your card in pounds, in which case your baht balance isn't touched and the site's own exchange rate applies. Where a site lets you choose, pick baht and pay from your baht balance. For hotel deposits and car or motorbike rental holds, a card with a separate credit limit is usually better than a prepaid card, because the hold ties up your balance until it's released.

When you're ready to book, we can help with the main pieces of the trip:

Hiring a car or motorbike? Pay the rental in baht where you can, keep the deposit on a credit card, and sort your rental insurance before you travel rather than at the counter.

Which account suits which traveller

For most people, the best set-up is two cards: a multicurrency account for holding and sending baht, and a fee-free UK debit or credit card on a different network as the backup. That covers you if one card is blocked, lost or declined at a particular machine.

Beyond the holiday: living in Thailand

If your trips are turning into a longer stay, the account you choose matters more. Paying rent, international school fees, medical bills or a visa deposit means moving larger sums from the UK on a schedule — and that's where a provider's transfer costs, not its card fees, decide what you pay.

Wise and Revolut both send money to Thai bank accounts, and specialist transfer services such as Xe are worth comparing on larger amounts. The prepaid travel cards can't send money to anyone; they're for spending only. For a transfer of tens of thousands of pounds — buying a condo, funding a retirement visa or moving a pension — even a fraction of a per cent on the rate is a significant sum, and the timing can matter as much as the provider.

We've also put together guides for the bigger costs of life here, from international schools to medical and dental treatment in Thailand, which many British visitors combine with a holiday at a fraction of UK private prices.

Setting up before you fly

All four can be set up from the UK in a few days, but leave time for the physical card to arrive in the post.

• Apply two to three weeks ahead so the card arrives, can be activated and tried once in the UK.
• Add a baht balance or wallet and convert a test amount, so you know the process works.
• Set a rate alert on Wise or Revolut, and convert in stages rather than all at once.
• On Revolut, convert on weekdays — before 5pm Friday US Eastern Time, which is 10pm in the UK.
• Load a prepaid card in baht, not pounds, to avoid the sterling loading fee.
• Switch security checks to the app or keep your UK SIM active, so text codes reach you in Thailand.
• Pack a second card from a different provider, and keep it separately.

Once you've landed, check your baht balance after the first few days of spending, and top up or convert more on a weekday if you need to.

How we compared the accounts

We included every account and prepaid card widely available to UK residents that lets you hold Thai baht, and compared them on exchange rate, conversion cost, weekend pricing, ATM allowances, limits, protection and treatment of leftover money. Fees come from each provider's published terms, checked on 11–12 October 2026. Prepaid card rates are snapshots from 11–12 October 2026 and change daily.

The trip costs assume conversions at those margins, Revolut exchanges on weekdays, Wise's fee at its lowest published level, the ฿220 Thai ATM fee on every withdrawal, and withdrawals of up to ฿20,000 where the card's daily limit allows. Your own costs will depend on the rate on the day and how you spend. We review this page at least every six months.