ianguygil

An update for the Biz IBanking product is planned for release this month which will see access available via FF.

Wow. Simultaneous posts :-D

I'll respond to most of this tomorrow when I have time as I'm out in meetings today. If you want me to address specific numbers like browser stats please refer to the source as your numbers differ to ours greatly

Also if you want to get my attention, please PM not just post

Thanks. Ian

one of the guys on here works there, he might read your post and help you

And an FYI, if you want to setup Internet Banking you can do so from any Bangkok Bank ATM. We have more than 7,000 of them.

http://www.bangkokba...es/default.aspx

Ian

Thank you for this... I did not realize it was this easy, I will sign up the next time I hit the ATM.

I see a lot of complaints from a bunch of folks about BB, but I have to say that I have never had any bad experiences with their service. All of the BB tellers and staff that I have interacted with over the last 4 yrs have been polite and helpful.

Tried this at our BBK ATM in the small town where I live and unsuccessful, informed me to contact my branch.

Speaking to the BBK staff at our branch and she informed me that it was probably because I had a joint account, fair enough, completed all the forms, having the wife present is a must as she signs all the forms plus ID card/house book etc etc.

This was about 3 weeks ago now and no news from the branch on internet banking, so will have to start chasing up!.

Please PM me and I will get somebody to follow up on your case. I will contact you from my Bangkok Bank email and we can go from there.

Our thanks to the kind words from those customers who are satisfied. And for those customers who have experienced problems I have already offered for you to PM Daveroc or me and we can try to help to resolve these. As I said, we are not perfect, but we are always willing to listen and improve. We have more than 20,000 employees and way more than 10 million customers. While we strive to be right 100% of the time it seems that some more training is required for some of our staff sometimes who do not give the right answers to customers when dealing face to face.

So the offer stands. Please PM Daveroc if you actually want to have the issues resolved, and that applies to everybody, even those who have made highly critical posts.

Back to the OP, we are always sorry to hear that a customer is dissatisfied with our service. And we know we are not perfect and we will try to improve. I have offered for you to contact me or to contact Daveroc. But that does not seem to be acceptable.

For a credit card there are clearly restrictions for non residents. A WP does not make somebody a resident. Just as in the USA or the UK (I have worked in both) we would look for a credit history and some tie to the community. If you really want a credit card please contact Daveroc who can put you in the standard process.

As for the problem with our Bualuang phone service that you experienced, we just cannot replicate it. I did not ask my secretary or staff to try, I called myself. And there was no problem. I checked with our Change Advisory Board which controls all changes to our Production environment. There were no recent changes. Any TV members can dial the 1333 shortcode and check for yourself. Enter 2 at the first menu, it gives you the next menu in English. So as I said, we cannot replicate it, there was no recent change, and I tried it myself. We are sorry if you are unhappy with this, but that is really the best we can do. And I do invite other TV members to try this to see for themselves.

I just dialed our Short Code of 1333

It asked me to enter 2 for English. I did so. It spoke to me in English asking me to select if I want to pay bills... etc.

Please try again. I checked to make sure there had not been a change which messed things up

one of the guys on here works there, he might read your post and help you

If anybody is having problems with our products or services, please contact me via PM or Daveroc.

He is actually the best person to PM as he is assigned to the Expat community whereas I am IT and Strategy and I travel a fair bit. So please contact Dave and he can even arrange an appointment at your choice of branch for people who want to open an account. Or he can help to sort out problems like this person complained about.

I must say his complaint is a new one. Our IVRs (VRUs) answer millions of calls each month and have been serving both Thai and English languages for years. It would be good if he could contact Dave to give the specifics. Thanks

And an FYI, if you want to setup Internet Banking you can do so from any Bangkok Bank ATM. We have more than 7,000 of them.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/online%20banking/for%20personal/ibanking/how%20to%20apply/pages/default.aspx

Ian

OP replying.

Thanks all for your really helpful replies,I was getting a bit jittery over it all.

I went to Central World today with a friends Thai Wife.Bangkok Bank and Kalisorn Bank would not open an account,similar excuses as before,but the Siam Commercial Bank were very cooperative and an account,with internet banking was open in about 10 minutes.They accepted my visa and condo key card ( with my address on it ) as proof of my residence.

It did made a huge difference taking a Thai speaker along.

Thanks Again

I am sorry I did not get time to reply to your PM before you decided to open this account with another bank. As I said I was on business abroad last week and was flying when you sent the PM.

I apologise that our branch gave you the wrong information. You were indeed eligible to open an account and they have been contacted and will receive training to ensure they provide the right answer in the future.

For any other ThaiVisa members who would like to open an account and meet the criteria on our website (link shown below) please feel free to contact me in advance and we can arrange an appointment at the branch which is most convenient for you. But please understand that it may take me a day or so to get to this as I am pretty busy generally. Thanks.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Foreign%20Customers/Pages/Opening%20an%20account%20new.aspx

I have used the Bangkok Bank service, with no problems.

However transferring from Bank of Scotland, via BACS, takes 3 days, during which the baht - pound exchange rate can vary a lot.

I have tried to use the UK Faster Payment service, (2 hours) without success. Despite repeated e-mails to the Bangkok Bank in London, I have yet to receive an answer as to why the money transfers take so long.

Maybe someone can explain. Is the Bangkok Bank not a member?

Please send me a PM and I will get people to contact you from our London Branch. I am very sorry if you have emailed them and they have not responded and I can assure you that will not continue to be the case.

We are definitely connected to both payment networks, but as Pib mentioned CHAPS may be via an intermediary UK bank.Just as CHIPS in the US (ACH) where there is a difference between a Member and a Participant. The same day settlement/realtime network is much more expensive, so for small value payments (from a Bank perspective, not from a normal person perspective) we suggest that customers use BACS. In fact if you look at our website you will see that the settlement instructions for GBP money market and FX (big money) shows "CHAPS SC 70 06 03"

http://www.bangkokbank.com/download/ssi.pdf

We can help to sort this out if you contact me and I'll deal with you via my Bank email address. Thank you.

Ian

I've never heard of an agency or any fee that said agency might charge!

Smile banking you say? Now you know why they're smiling!

I get charged £9.50 by Halifax and between 200 and 500 baht (based on a percentage 200 baht minimum 500 maximum) by Bangkok Bank at the other end.

Could you please tell me if I can send sterling from a Halifax acc. to a Thai bank acc. so that I would get the TT rate this end or do the Halifax exchange into Thai baht before transfer?

Same offer. Details are at this link and you can PM me and I will get somebody in London to walk you through this. You will deal with me only on our official email to protect you. Plenty of other people have done this on this site so you have no need to worry.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20into%20Thailand/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK/Pages/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK.aspx

Looks like the agent was the intermediate bank. You learn something every day, you will have to write this off to experience, now change your bank, dont rush think about where you go.

I appreciate your advice but opening a new bank account in the UK ain't easy. I needed to open a second account in the UK so I thought go with the Co-operative bank, as already have an account there. I thought they'd open one up, no problem. Big mistake. They wanted proof of abode in Thailand, and my passport, no copies. It took so much hassle I nearly knocked it on the head. They already had all my details but insisted on asking for everything they already knew, no exceptions.

'Ianguygil', you recommend, next time, I transfer to the Bangkok Bank, London, first. Do I have to have an account in the London branch ?

Edit:- Last year I transfered 17,000 GBP costing 44 GBP in fees. This year the sum was 8,500 GBP costing 56 GBP. An increase of 50%.

No, you absolutely don't have to have an account with us in the UK.

Please see this link and please PM me if you need more help. I can get our London branch to call you and to walk you through all this.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20into%20Thailand/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK/Pages/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK.aspx

So in this case the the 'agent' is the Bangkok Bank that has charged me 35 GBP. Is that correct ? If not, who are/is the 'agent' and what is/their purpose.

No, that is not what I said.

Let me give a scenario as an example. I do not know the actual players

Say for this example that SMILE has a HSBC as the Correspondent for international transfers. SMILE would transfer the amount (say 10,000 GBP) to HSBC in the UK using the BACS domestic low value funds transfer network in the UK. SMILE would have chosen HSBC as their partner as HSBC have a wide range of Correspondents in various countries around the world. In this very simple case, HSBC is the Intermediary bank (i.e. called my SMILE the Agent). HSBC sends the SWIFT transfer to us and we process the payment into a Bangkok Bank beneficiary account.

In this case your 35 GBP goes to HSBC for processing the payment.

I hope this explains things. I will post more tomorrow if required. Thanks

My bank didn't inform me of the breakdown until after the tranfer. I had to ask for the breakdown. I transfered British Pounds.

Hello Mr ***************

You where charged £21.25 in Smile SWIFT service charges and £35 in agents fees.

For SWIFT transfers, we charge 0.25% of the sterling value (minimum fee £13.00, maximum fee £35.00). Provided the information you give is correct, your transfer will be received within 3-5 working days. However, funds may sometimes be delayed by the banking practices of other countries.

With SWIFT transfers, the correspondent bank could also make a charge. This charge depends on the destination, amount and complexity of the transfer. As a guide, correspondent charges are around £9.00 - £35.00 (these are estimates). There can also be other possible agents fees (ie charges made by the beneficiary bank for receiving the transfer). If further agents fees do get charged back to your account then these can be debited from your account at a later date.

Thanks

Jamie

Actually, while I totally agree that the charges are excessive, if you read this it does inform you that there maybe these extra chargs. You can see that they say that the Correspondent charges may be up to 35GBP. And you can see that they classify these as "Agent" charges as they use "other" in the next sentence. So I am pretty sure that are covered legally. Just not morally.

I would suggest, not trawling for business, that next time you transfer via our London branch. Then you simple send money from SMILE to us via the local BACS clearing service. Which should be VERY cheap. They our London branch effectively does an internal transfer to our Bangkok Bank headquarters. If you want to transfer onwards to another Thai bank you can do so via the local clearing system here.

PM me if you need details. It is all on our site www.bangkokbank.com

Many American banks are now issuing Chip and PIN cards to their customers who travel or live abroad. This is by far the most secure way to move small amounts as it is impossible to "Skim" a card with a Chip. So please ask Wells Fargo if they have this as an option for your ATM card and Credit Card. Many US people now run into problems, particularly in Europe, where they cannot use their ATM and Credit Cards as the old magstrip is considered to be totally unacceptable in terms of security. So the US banks have finally wised up an started to offer this.

For larger amounts please use SWIFT, preferably via our New York branch :jap:

I had no idea who "Smile Banking" is until I just looked them up. So they are part of the Coop?

SWIFT works by moving money between banks who have relationships to each other. These banks are called "Correspondents". If your bank does not have a correspondent relationship with your Thai bank they will have to use "Intermediary banks" who do have a relationship with either your bank or another bank in Thailand. So the charge probably relates to these intermediaries.

I hope this helps. It is not possible to answer definitively unless you ask them.

Ian

Ian, would it be possible to receive the "one time password" by email? I too have had the requirement to set-up a 3rd party account while abroad -- with no Thai cellphone access.

I realize an email system for this is not in place. But, just wondering if it ever could be......?

Hi Jim

I think the use of email is problematic for time sensitive messages like this as sometimes things can get jammed up on either end. While this also happens with SMS sometimes, we can get a service level agreement for domestic SMS. For email there is no SLA, so the message may well expire before it arrives which will make it useless

While I understand that with smartphones that email, SMS and push messages all kind of blend, they are all based on different technologies. There is a technology which is ideal for this called USSD, but it is not offered commercially by the MNOs here (mobile operators) although they do use it for their own service.

We are looking at this, considering various technology and commerical alternatives and we will hope to have something available in the mid-term which will meet the needs of our many thousands of expat customers. Please understand this is not that we do not value the market, it is just that technologies are moving so fast we want to make sure we offer something which is relevant for the future.

Ian

JusMe, thanks for the kind words. We always appreciate positive feedback and we are always grateful to customers like you who point out where we can improve. As you mentioned my colleagues actually did the hard word. Daveroc on this forum can also be a way to contact the Bank if you have problems with products and services, and he will involve me as required for technical or issues to do with the international side.

Aurelius, you are exactly correct in your summary. Thanks for contributing.

Ian

<br />As a member of BBL staff working with Expat clients, if you would care to PM me we can get further detail and endeavour to sort the matter.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

is there actually such a service from Bangkokbank?

And do they happen to speak English? and provide answers to questions?

Wondering where to get that

As daveroc said, send him a PM

I can definitely vouch for Dave, he is employed by Bangkok Bank. As he said his role is to help Expats. I am IT & Stategy so I get involved when required. But Dave is the guy to go to for this type of question. Thanks

Ian

Whenever you have a problem, please call 1333 so we are aware of it. We can monitor internal resources and from some external endpoints. But due to the complexity of the Internet it is impossible for us to monitor from every location and provider combination.

Thanks again for the heads up on this.

Ian

bangkok bank in london different bank to bangkok bank in thailand.

transfer from any bank in UK has same problem.

You get no advantage using bangkok bank in london for anything.

They use SWIFT same same everyone else.

Bangkok Bank in Thailand charge 200-500bht for all foreign incoming transfers.

But not shown anywhere in passbook or paperwork.

This is just not correct.

Our London Branch is just that. A wholly owned Branch of BBL, operating in the UK under the regulations of the FSA.

The customer transfers from the UK bank via a low cost local clearing mechanism (BACS) to our London Branch.

Then we make the transfer to our Head Office internally. We meet all bank regulations on both sides, and we base it on SWIFT formats, but we do not use theSWIFT network. The end benefits to our customers are a better effective FX rate through a combination of lower fees and a better rate.

We send you an SMS when the funds arrive. And you can get a breakdown of all charges upon request. However, it is the effective exchange rate that always matters THB/GBP = Effective Exchange Rate

Can you explain why so many branches of banks tell Farangs that they must have a work permit to open an account when it is not a requirement? And why one branch of say, Bangkok Bank, insists on a WP but the one down the road has no problem opening an account without one?

Should we report these branches to their head office as being negligent?

Really! With 6,000 odd posts and presumably a wealth of experience in Thailand, surely you know the famous answer to that?

TIT

I would take the website reference along with a print out. Here it is for the Bangkok Bank

http://www.bangkokba...ount%20new.aspx

There is an extremely clear table of requirements towards the end.

I asked the question as I know Ian works for Bangkok Bank and was curious as to why their managers seem to think Farangs need work permits to open an account when it's not a regulation, and apparently not an instruction from the head office.

Ian, Bangkok Bank main branch in Pattaya (Second Rd.) required a work permit when I went to open an account.

Carrefour branch didn't but I don't know if that's because I already had an account with BB.

Thank you. I will ask somebody on the Operations side in Silom to follow up with them.

Just to be clear, Thai banks enforce the regulations from the Bank of Thailand. And please remember that many of these regulations are part of a global effort to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, and I know all contributors to this site will agree that these are noble and valid goals.Without them you end up with this complex mix of criminals (drugs, people trafficing, extortion) and terrorism which become more intertwined every year.

If you have proof that you transferred these funds in to Thailand you should be able to transfer them back out again. Please ask your banks to look for the original transfer.

If you find a bank, or a branch of a bank, which is not following these rules they should be considered to be negligent. And they will not be able to get away with it as all Thai banks transfer funds internationally via their head office SWIFT interfaces.

So I would encourage you to try to find the original transfer details.

Ian

My financial advisor reckons that if I have a few million dollars to move from drugs money or arms deals he can do it with no problem, but getting a bank account to pay my monthly salary into is a big problem.

Can you explain why so many branches of banks tell Farangs that they must have a work permit to open an account when it is not a requirement? And why one branch of say, Bangkok Bank, insists on a WP but the one down the road has no problem opening an account without one?

Should we report these branches to their head office as being negligent?

Yes please. Either tell our Head Office or tell me, and we will ensure that they receive the required training so that they give customers the correct answer. Those who say no when it should be yes need to be corrected so we can offer customers the products and services they deserve. And those who say yes when it should be no also need special attention.

Ian

Just to be clear, Thai banks enforce the regulations from the Bank of Thailand. And please remember that many of these regulations are part of a global effort to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, and I know all contributors to this site will agree that these are noble and valid goals.Without them you end up with this complex mix of criminals (drugs, people trafficing, extortion) and terrorism which become more intertwined every year.

If you have proof that you transferred these funds in to Thailand you should be able to transfer them back out again. Please ask your banks to look for the original transfer.

If you find a bank, or a branch of a bank, which is not following these rules they should be considered to be negligent. And they will not be able to get away with it as all Thai banks transfer funds internationally via their head office SWIFT interfaces.

So I would encourage you to try to find the original transfer details.

Ian

Forget it ,you will lose out big time.

Thanks, but I was hoping for a more factual reply, i.e. does anybody actually have their UK State Pension paid directly into their Thai bank account, and if so how does the rate compare?

I no longer have a UK bank account and as I live in Thailand I am not able to open one, the pension authorities will pay into a Thai bank, but only in Baht.

Obviously just forgetting it isn't an option, my pension isn't going to be a great amount, about £87 per week after tax, but every little bit helps.

Thanks for the details of the Bangkok Bank service 'ianguygil' that's certainly an option worth considering, looks like it wouldn't be cost effective just for my state pension, the transmission fee would probably wipe out any savings, but I also receive a retirement pension from my employers, which would probably make it cost effective, this is why I really need an indicative rate to enable me to make a comparison.

Could you answer me one thing 'ianguygil' my private pension and employers pension will be paid on different days of the month, I'm assuming they would be forwarded automatically, each having their own fee, and there would be no way I could control transfers so they were lumped together.

Thanks all for your replies so far.

I am sorry for not replying. I was traveling then back and busy. So I just was not looking at this forum often.

Please PM me and I will get somebody in our Global Payments group or London Branch get in touch with you and take you through the options. All I will need as this is not a specific case of a transaction problem, is an email address. Please PM me with that and I will forward it to them. Thanks

Ian

30-40,000 baht for a THAI National yes; but you would be able to receive the same salary (if not more plus assistance with Insurance, Housing and car) as in Russia the problem is that many Company's just do not want the Work Permit hurdles that come with NonThai workers

100,000 Baht is actually not such a high monthly salary for Professionals in Thailand, I know quite a few Thais who earn this plus bonus and they only ever seem to be networking (drinks and food meetings)

I have a very large number of staff. All Thai. They range from systems admin, to programmers, creative services, testers, various levels of managers.

The numbers given are about right for normal programmers or system admin staff with 5 years of experience and a good education. Some exceptional staff make more. Some less. Some senior staff get much higher compensation. But his question was pretty specific about his type of work, so the answer I gave confirmed those numbers.