Best Way to Get Money to Australia - Moving Back

[Coota]

It looks like I'm going to move the family and myself back home to Australia, the kids need a decent education and I need a decent steak and beer.

 

I will have about 1,000,000 baht in Thailand when I move so, what is the best way to get this money out of Thailand and into Australia?  It is money bought into Thailand from Australia from my Retirement Income Stream.  It is currently sitting in a Kasikorn Bank account.  

[starky]

I'd be going through a forex trader myself or you could do a straight bank transfer. Regardless you are going to get smashed on the exchange rate.

[mstevens]

I moved a similar amount back not that long ago.  I withdrew a bit over half a million baht in cash and changed it at Super Rich in to Australian dollars.  I carried half back the cash myself and my girlfriend carried half back and that way we were just a bit under the $10,000 limit at which you each have to report cash being brought in to the country.  The rest I just made withdrawals using ATM machines here.  Yes, there is a fee for each time you do that but it's small and in the big picture it's not enough to worry about.

 

You could of course withdraw it all as cash in Bangkok, convert it in to Australia dollars, carry it back with you and declare it when you return to Australia.  There should be any problems re-entering Australia.  That'd be the least of my worries.  The reason I did not do it that was is that I didn't want to declare money leaving Thailand as I don't know what "pomplems" might arise.  When you exit Thailand you have to declare if you are carrying $20,000 or more in cash.  If you have that amount and don't declare it, you can face charges and forfeiture of the money.  That happened to a fellow (Canadian?) not so long ago who flew in from Singapore and didn't declare the cash he had on him.  If I remember right he lost the money and got 15 months in prison for it!

[ezzra]

Convert to cash get you best exchange rates, you're allowed to take out

the equivalent of USD $ 20,000, so you and the missus already got the bulk

of it and the rest do a BKK bank transfer to Oz, they give best rates and

charge a modest commissions compare to other banks...

[Coota]

Yes, I was thinking about the cash option but just needed some confirmation from you guys. I also have a joint Bangkok Bank account with my Thai wife. 

[Coota]

13 minutes ago, mstevens said:

I moved a similar amount back not that long ago.  I withdrew a bit over half a million baht in cash and changed it at Super Rich in to Australian dollars.  I carried half back the cash myself and my girlfriend carried half back and that way we were just a bit under the $10,000 limit at which you each have to report cash being brought in to the country.  The rest I just made withdrawals using ATM machines here.  Yes, there is a fee for each time you do that but it's small and in the big picture it's not enough to worry about.

 

You could of course withdraw it all as cash in Bangkok, convert it in to Australia dollars, carry it back with you and declare it when you return to Australia.  There should be any problems re-entering Australia.  That'd be the least of my worries.  The reason I did not do it that was is that I didn't want to declare money leaving Thailand as I don't know what "pomplems" might arise.  When you exit Thailand you have to declare if you are carrying $20,000 or more in cash.  If you have that amount and don't declare it, you can face charges and forfeiture of the money.  That happened to a fellow (Canadian?) not so long ago who flew in from Singapore and didn't declare the cash he had on him.  If I remember right he lost the money and got 15 months in prison for it!

Sorry, not sure what Super Rich is, I just looked at their webpage but it does not tell me too much.  Do you go into their shop and exchange money or is it an online thing?

 

[Coota]

8 minutes ago, Coota said:

Sorry, not sure what Super Rich is, I just looked at their webpage but it does not tell me too much.  Do you go into their shop and exchange money or is it an online thing?

 

It's ok, I just sorted it out.

[steven100]

Just check the rate out and see how much you will lose with a Kasikorn transfer, or talk the bank and see if they'll match another bank's better rate  ??

If it isn't a huge amount I would just do the TT bank transfer ....

 

why go to all the bother of carrying cash ... ATM withdrawals... etc ....  if there's only a small difference ...

plus ,  peace of mind not carrying $20k ...  just my opinion

 

PS.  you'll need all of that one mill in Auss as a steak is around $30-35 and the beer will be $7

good luck with the nanny state also.

Edited September 8, 2017 by steven100

[Bung]

Where do you buy steak for $30/35?

 

I bought 2 great rib eyes for 16 bucks and it was fantastic.  Try finding that in Thailand. 

 

Buy a case of good beer for $50 that works out to 4 bucks a bottle. And it isn't Chang or Leo! 

[Nemises]

Why not do an international bank transfer from your Thai acc to your Aus bank account?

I'm with Westpac and they let me transfer 250,000 baht (maximum) on line per day. Costs only 500 baht each transfer.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Saan]

Use TransferWise. Best way of using funds from Australian and to Thai.

[seancbk]

I would buy Bitcoins

[dundas]

This is a great question.

 

Not sure about using Bitcoin, maybe because of its early association with drugs etc etc. 

 

Also not sure about bringing large amounts of cash with me from anywhere to anywhere, unless there were no other options. Maybe cash rates in Thailand give the best result, but I would try using an online service such as au.ofx.com. 

 

I've used them in the past for transfers from Oz to Thailand, and generally speaking they offer far better rates than the banks, and much smaller fees. 

 

You can check out the costs online, pretty well instantly (assuming you already have an account). Getting an account does require a bit of setting up initially (proof of identity etc etc). Make sure you are 100% sure of the bank account details you are transferring the money to. Maybe try a small amount first, just to be sure. 

 

I normally bank with ANZ but I will never do international transfers with them or any of the other three big Aussie banks. They're rapacious with their fees and s***box rates. Don't feed gougers, is my advice. 

 

I often use Canstar.com.au (a commercial provider, but normally pretty direct and honest) for comparing financial products. They do compare international transfer rates and fees -- might be with a look at. They rate ofx highly, along with Citi. 

 

https://www.canstar.com.au/compare/international-money-transfers?profile=default&country=Other&amount=1000

 

This is an interesting thread. I might also look at some of the recommendations from other posters. It's good to know there's a bit of competition in the market place. 

Edited September 8, 2017 by dundas

[denby45]

You can carry as much foreign exchange out of Thailand as you want. As long as you declare everything over $20,000 US or equivalent. There is absolutely no problem and it takes a few minutes.

 

However there are restrictions on taking Baht out.

 

 

Den

Edited September 8, 2017 by denby45

[blackcab]

Change your cash at Super Rich or Vasu and hand carry it out.

 

No problems at all - just don't leave it in the overhead locker if you are going to sleep.

[marquis22]

7 hours ago, Coota said:

Sorry, not sure what Super Rich is, I just looked at their webpage but it does not tell me too much.  Do you go into their shop and exchange money or is it an online thing?

 

Super Rich have a booth at Phaya Thai station between BTS and Air Port Link stations.

[natway09]

Whatever you decide to do DO NOT take any Thai Bht for exchange into OZ or NZ.

The banks there will slay you but here at least they are fair

[Roger Harris]

You Dimwit, never bring money here. looks like the funds you have is not going to get you very far

[Elkski]

I used transferwise recently.  Much smaller amount but their fees are low because they don't actually transfer money between countries.  Check in to the costs of any transfer plus check in exchange rate costs.    That is total cost.   

[peergin]

5 hours ago, denby45 said:

You can carry as much foreign exchange out of Thailand as you want. As long as you declare everything over $20,000 US or equivalent. There is absolutely no problem and it takes a few minutes.

 

However there are restrictions on taking Baht out.

 

 

Den

Don't you need PRIOR approval from the Bank of Thailand, meaning you need to prove that the funds originally were brought into Thailand from abroad? Would appreciate your info. Thank you.  

[bazza73]

AFAIK the Thai government does not care if you take currency out, as long as it is not Thai baht.

The $10,000 you are supposed to declare is not a limit. It is simply to prevent money laundering. As long as you can show Australian Customs a Thai bank book with the relevant transactions to explain the amount you have, no problem.

The OP is in for a shock when it comes to living costs in Oz. I average $100 a day, and I'm getting free accommodation. I honestly don't know how people living on a social security payment of any kind can live there if they don't own the roof over their head.

[3421abc]

Transferwise offers outbound transfers from Thailand now? As far as I know they only do inbound.

[StevieAus]

17 hours ago, dundas said:

This is a great question.

 

Not sure about using Bitcoin, maybe because of its early association with drugs etc etc. 

 

Also not sure about bringing large amounts of cash with me from anywhere to anywhere, unless there were no other options. Maybe cash rates in Thailand give the best result, but I would try using an online service such as au.ofx.com. 

 

I've used them in the past for transfers from Oz to Thailand, and generally speaking they offer far better rates than the banks, and much smaller fees. 

 

You can check out the costs online, pretty well instantly (assuming you already have an account). Getting an account does require a bit of setting up initially (proof of identity etc etc). Make sure you are 100% sure of the bank account details you are transferring the money to. Maybe try a small amount first, just to be sure. 

 

I normally bank with ANZ but I will never do international transfers with them or any of the other three big Aussie banks. They're rapacious with their fees and s***box rates. Don't feed gougers, is my advice. 

 

I often use Canstar.com.au (a commercial provider, but normally pretty direct and honest) for comparing financial products. They do compare international transfer rates and fees -- might be with a look at. They rate ofx highly, along with Citi. 

 

https://www.canstar.com.au/compare/international-money-transfers?profile=default&country=Other&amount=1000

 

This is an interesting thread. I might also look at some of the recommendations from other posters. It's good to know there's a bit of competition in the market place. 

Agree with using OFX have been using them for several years as do most of my expat friends for amounts of 10,000 Aus Dollars and above there is no fee rate always seems to be the best

Not sure though if they transfer from Thailand to Aus have only used the other way as recent as this week check them out

Hope you are not dissapointed with Aus very expensive and not the country it used to be seem more concerned about same sex marriage, giving money to illegal immigrants and denying pension rights to people who have worked and contributed all their lives plus the education system is going backwards

Good luck though 

 

[Coota]

12 hours ago, Roger Harris said:

You Dimwit, never bring money here. looks like the funds you have is not going to get you very far

Why don't you crawl back into your hole you illiterate fool.

[Coota]

Yes, I checked and Transferwise and Ozforex don't do Baht to AU$ deals.

 

I used to use OzForex to transfer my annual living expenses to Thailand, did it in 2015 and 2016.  I tried to do it this year and a lady who I was dealing with saw that the reason I had put in my profile for transferring the money was for "living expenses". So, she asked me if I was living in Thailand and, stupidly, I told her I was.  She then told me I would need to provide proof of my address according to the Act in Australia.  I told her I could not do that unless she or somebody in the company could read Thai.  She dug in and said "how about your driving licence, rates bill, phone bill?"  I told her that this does not happen in Thailand, all my utilities are in my wife's name, no address on the licence........

 

So she told me they could not do the deal until I provided the proof, they then froze my online account and I went to Transferwise and did the deal in less time and for about 10,000 baht more.

[dbrenn]

A friend of mine recently took AUD 30k back to Oz. He declared it and had no problems. When taking cash across borders It's a good idea to carry records that the money was legally acquired - pay slips, tax returns and the like, just in case they ask.

[lvr181]

23 hours ago, steven100 said:

Just check the rate out and see how much you will lose with a Kasikorn transfer, or talk the bank and see if they'll match another bank's better rate  ??

If it isn't a huge amount I would just do the TT bank transfer ....

 

why go to all the bother of carrying cash ... ATM withdrawals... etc ....  if there's only a small difference ...

plus ,  peace of mind not carrying $20k ...  just my opinion

 

PS.  you'll need all of that one mill in Auss as a steak is around $30-35 and the beer will be $7

good luck with the nanny state also.

Give the guy a break. He wants to educate his children! Your "nanny state" is not all bad. Perhaps you enjoy your feudal and corrupt society, if your living in Thailand? Many people aspire to something better.

And where is the beer for $7? I buy at a 'wholesale' for far less per bottle.

[maigeng]

There's some comments about a limit on the amount of Thai baht that one can take out the country.  Does anyone know what this amount is? 

 

I have about 250k baht in an SCB account from rental income.  My plan is to fly to Thailand next week, withdraw the cash and fly out with the cash back to HK where I can deposit it into my Thai denomination acc and exchange when the rate is in my favour. 

 

So is there a limit on the amount of THB that one can take out?  I'll have someone with me so we can carry half each out.

Edited September 9, 2017 by maigeng

[oxo1947]

Just keep paying for that Oz Steak & Beer with your credit card---your soon chew through the Million baht.

 

 

[mstevens]

33 minutes ago, maigeng said:

There's some comments about a limit on the amount of Thai baht that one can take out the country.  Does anyone know what this amount is?

50,000 Thai baht.  I believe a much higher figure can, however, be taken to neighbouring countries (500K baht comes to mind but am not sure).