Indonesian Rupiah to Thai Baht exchange rates aren't all the same.
The total cost you are charged by your bank or foreign exchange provider consists of a margin from the interbank mid-rate plus fees.
These margins and fees vary significantly for International Money Transfers and Travel Money transactions as shown below.
When determining the best time to make a foreign exchange transaction, in this case the IDR vs THB, you should pay attention to the recent market trends for both currencies.
Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)
The rupiah slipped in mid-May to 4-month lows against the US dollar (Rp.14,450) and yen (Rp.132), though it was steady against the Australian dollar (Rp.9,960). This pattern shows how much of the rupiah’s recent movements have been driven by risk sentiment. The rupiah remains historically weak, given its proximity to October’s 20-year low of Rp.15,265 per USD.
Weighing on investor sentiment this year has been the significant escalation in US-China trade tensions. Washington and Beijing both stepped up measures against one another.
For the rupiah, not helping matters in May was news of Indonesia’s worst monthly trade deficit in 6 years, at US$2.5 billion.
With exports struggling, Indonesia’s central bank is under pressure to lower interest rates from 6 percent, but having already pledged to support the rupiah, these rate cuts are unlikely to come, for now.
Capital Economics said in May that the rupiah would be “vulnerable to sudden falls during periods of weak risk appetite.”
DBS warned of “dire consequences” for emerging market currencies like the rupiah if no trade agreement is struck between the US and China.
Thai Baht (THB)
Recent years have been extremely kind to the baht and 2019 has been no exception. Approaching mid-year, the baht rose to a 6-year high against the US dollar (฿30.66) and to a 10-year high against the Australian dollar (฿21.35), as well as to long-term highs against a host of other major currencies.
The baht is being supported by Thailand’s large current-account surplus and has benefited from speculation that Thai stocks will soon be assigned a larger weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which would result in significant amounts of foreign capital entering Thailand.
The team at TradingEconomics.com is expecting slight baht weakness over the coming year, with June-2020 forecasts for USD/THB and AUD/THB of 32 and 22 respectively.
Why can't I just get the IDR/THB market rate I see online or in the media?
The mid-rate is the rate you will see quoted online or the news. It is actually just the half-way point (hence mid-rate) between
the last rate at which the IDR / THB was traded (bought or sold) in the international markets.
All foreign exchange providers charge a fee for providing their service and this fee is usually contained within the exchange rate margin (or difference to the mid-rate).
Some providers such as Transferwise will quote you the mid-rate (or close to) and charge a separate percentage fee.
Getting a good market rate is mainly about timing however the transaction margin
you end up being charged can be considerably reduced by around a few percent (of total amount being exchanged) for
travel money and possibly over 5% to 6% when sending money.
The exact potential savings depends on the currencies being exchanged and the amount you are transferring and if you are willing to shop around.
