Airline Currency Conversion VS Bank Currency Conversion

Yesterday I bought a Tiger Airways ticket for my wife, flying from Thailand to Singapore and at the payment section, I noticed that there is an option to pay in Singapore dollars; usually when I buy from Thailand to Singapore, I pay in Thai Baht and then my bank will do the conversion and charge me in Singapore dollars.

Tiger Converts 2615 Thai Baht to 108.18 Singapore dollars

So I did a quick search on Google using 2615 thb to sgd and the result is about 103 Singapore dollars. Obviously I should continue to pay in Thai Baht, so I did and here's what my bank statement shows:

Bank Tentatively Charges Me 102.90 Singapore dollars

But do note that 102.90 is not confirm as it's still pending settlement. When the bank finally charges, they will use as of that day's conversion value, so the final amount that they charge could be slightly higher or lower, but I'm sure it will still be much lower than what Tiger Airways is charging.

So make sure you do a quick check, unless you don't mind donating money to Tiger Airways.

UPDATE: I just checked and the charge has been settled at 106.36, not a big difference but well, still cheaper than settling via Singapore dollars at Tiger Airways booking system.