Bank Charges

[hocuspocus]

I know we Brits have taken  a hit with Brexit but I have just Transferred 400 Pounds Sterling as Pounds to my Bangkok Bank account from my HSBC account in the UK and I have only received 39 Baht to the Pound. The official rate is about 43.70 Baht to the Pound and the charges are normally 0.7 Baht for each pound so  I should have got the equivalent of 43.00 Baht to the Pound. Has anyone else had this problem? I need to transfer a bigger amount but I can't afford to accept 39 Baht to the Pound.

[observer90210]

I always bring in cash during my sojourns, change the money at a Super Rich exchange where the rate is far better and thus avoid the ripoff's from the banks awful exchange rates.

 

Not safe to do so I agree, but then one cannot win on all sides.

[bendejo]

That comes out to app. 10%.  At that rate you may do better by getting a cheap flight (or land trip)  to a nearby country and arranging something there, bringing back a hard currency. 

USD was readily available in  Cambodia when I was last there, but have idea what the transfer would cost.

I met a Brit fellow once that told me certain banks will allow you to have multiple accounts in different currencies (I think HSBC was one) but I have never looked into this myself.

 

 

 

[noise]

As the difference seems to be 10%, something is wrong.  Are you sure that the transfer did not inadvertently get made in baht, that HSBC didn't change the money in the UK before transferring?    More investigation is required.    What all you done so far, who have you questioned?

[lopburi3]

The official TT rate is 43.13 at this time from Bangkok Bank so if received in pounds that is what you would have received, for what was actually received, less fee of .25% in range of 200-500 baht.  But what did your home and intermediary banks take off the top for their fees?

[Jip99]

2 minutes ago, noise said:

As the difference seems to be 10%, something is wrong.  Are you sure that the transfer did not inadvertently get made in baht, that HSBC didn't change the money in the UK before transferring?    More investigation is required.    What all you done so far, who have you questioned?

 

 

Agree, nothing to do with the rate.

 

A charge has been levied - most probably £35. Not by Bangkok Bank.

 

Yesterday the Bangkok Bank TT rate would have been around 43.33 and  they would have charged no more than their minimum charge... 200 Baht?

[Beechboy]

Join FAIR FX.

 

You get a better rate and can do transfers.

 

You link your account with them (you get a card for use in atms as well) to your bank account and use them as the intermediary by transferring from your C/A to your FFX account free of charge.

[tso310]

Yesterday afternoon I tranferred £7k from UK HSBC to Krung Thai. £4 fee UK end. Just checked the amount credited into the account and its was about 42.9. Some will have been deducted at this end by Krung Thai I assume but I don' t how much , or rather I haven't worked out how to see all transactions on-line as only started on-line Thai banking yesterday.

[tso310]

OK worked out KrungThai on-line and it was 42.9+ I have sent money to SCB and the exchange rate or something (fees ?) was poor. 

[seajae]

Bangkok Bank has always been around 1/2 a baht below the mid market rate, more like the UK bank did the exchange or you copped fees. Banks tend to make a bit out of transfers, find a different way, I use transfer wise, mid market rate and cheaper than banks

 

[hocuspocus]

9 hours ago, noise said:

As the difference seems to be 10%, something is wrong.  Are you sure that the transfer did not inadvertently get made in baht, that HSBC didn't change the money in the UK before transferring?    More investigation is required.    What all you done so far, who have you questioned?

I am still in the process of checking and have emailed Bangkok Bank if they do not reply I will either go into a branch or phone them. I always transfer Pounds Sterling and as I stated I normally allow 0.7 Baht charge per Pound Sterling. I needed some more Baht so I have done another transfer of 1000 Pounds Sterling and had to accept HSBC rate of 41.90 to the Pound, at least it is better than 39 Baht. So I am wondering if Bangkok Bank have levied a fixed charge for the transfer instead of 0.7%. In the past I have not noticed any difference from the 0.7% no matter how much I transferred. My HSBC charge of four Pounds is deducted separately from the amount transferred.Bring enough Sterling back to Thailand from the UK is not really an option as I only go back there once a year and mostly live off my monthly pensions.

[topt]

43 minutes ago, hocuspocus said:

I needed some more Baht so I have done another transfer of 1000 Pounds Sterling and had to accept HSBC rate of 41.90 to the Pound,

So this time you have allowed HSBC to do the exchange?

Bangkok Bank charges are as lopburi3 said above - can check on their web page as well. If you know what HSBC charge (same £4 as mentioned by another poster?) then you should be able to work out exactly what you will get - as long as no correspondent/intermediary bank fee which from tso310 post suggests not.

 

You are not sending via BB London branch by any chance?

[Jip99]

10 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Agree, nothing to do with the rate.

 

A charge has been levied - most probably £35. Not by Bangkok Bank.

 

Yesterday the Bangkok Bank TT rate would have been around 43.33 and  they would have charged no more than their minimum charge... 200 Baht?

 

 

I suspect that, for whatever reason, HSBC routed the payment via Nat West and £35 is their ‘correspondent bank’ charge.

 

How do I know this ?

 

Because the same thing happened to me on a payment I made on Tuesday for £5,200. Only £5,165 reached Bangkok Bank.

 

 

[hocuspocus]

2 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

I suspect that, for whatever reason, HSBC routed the payment via Nat West and £35 is their ‘correspondent bank’ charge.

 

How do I know this ?

 

Because the same thing happened to me on a payment I made on Tuesday for £5,200. Only £5,165 reached Bangkok Bank.

 

 

Did you complain about this charge of 35 Pounds? So where HSBC used to charge 17 Pounds for a transfer and they reduced it to 4 Pounds (happy happy). So now we get charged a total of 39 Pounds by two banks and the Thai banks take their share as well (sad sad) Add that to the 15-20% loss we took with Brexit, it does not get any easier living here. Seems like I will have to look at alternatives to transferring money. But I will have a go at HSBC first. Thanks everybody.

[Jip99]

10 minutes ago, hocuspocus said:

Did you complain about this charge of 35 Pounds? So where HSBC used to charge 17 Pounds for a transfer and they reduced it to 4 Pounds (happy happy). So now we get charged a total of 39 Pounds by two banks and the Thai banks take their share as well (sad sad) Add that to the 15-20% loss we took with Brexit, it does not get any easier living here. Seems like I will have to look at alternatives to transferring money. But I will have a go at HSBC first. Thanks everybody.

 

 

I have just come off the phone to HSBC. I was advised that transfers were direct HSBC to BKB Thailand..... BUT....Bangkok Bank no longer have an account with HSBC and payments are now routed through Nat West.

 

If this is indeed the case it has changed since 2 October when my payment of £1,200 was received untouched. This has serious implications for people who have previously transferred HSBC to Bangkok Bank.

 

I would suggest that you make a complaint to HSBC on the basis that you were not advised of this charge - and would not have made the payment had you been made aware of it as all previous payments you made were not subject to such charge.

[hocuspocus]

41 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

I have just come off the phone to HSBC. I was advised that transfers were direct HSBC to BKB Thailand..... BUT....Bangkok Bank no longer have an account with HSBC and payments are now routed through Nat West.

 

If this is indeed the case it has changed since 2 October when my payment of £1,200 was received untouched. This has serious implications for people who have previously transferred HSBC to Bangkok Bank.

 

I would suggest that you make a complaint to HSBC on the basis that you were not advised of this charge - and would not have made the payment had you been made aware of it as all previous payments you made were not subject to such charge.

Have messaged HSBC for them to explain the charge of 35 Pounds and I have asked for a refund of the 35 Pounds and unless this is resolved I will consider changing my UK bank, But not to Nat West if they charge 35 Pounds for a transfer. My next concern is that today I transferred another 1000 Pounds into Baht to be sent to Bangkok Bank and if this is subject to some other bank taking a share of it. If HSBC informed me that I will get 41.90 Baht to the pound then anything less than 41900 Baht arriving in my Bangkok Bank account (less BB charges) will be unsatisfactory. I presume their will be somewhere on Thai Visa a thread on the best ways to transfer money to Thailand as I certainly do not want to be paying a total of 39 Pounds for a transfer, especially on smaller amounts. In theory I could have transferred 35 Pounds to Thailand and received nothing into my Bangkok Bank account and be charged 4 Pounds to have this happen.

[Expattaff1308]

Nationwide did a similar thing. They used to charge £20  used this system for 6 yrs then all of a sudden a further £35 charges started appearing and I found they were using HSBC in Bangkok as their intermediate bank & it was HSBC who was adding these additional charges. Nationwide claimed it was out of their hands & HSBC didnt want to know.

Needless to say I have made alternative arrangements.

hocuspocus - I have pm you.

[hocuspocus]

12 hours ago, Expattaff1308 said:

Nationwide did a similar thing. They used to charge £20  used this system for 6 yrs then all of a sudden a further £35 charges started appearing and I found they were using HSBC in Bangkok as their intermediate bank & it was HSBC who was adding these additional charges. Nationwide claimed it was out of their hands & HSBC didnt want to know.

Needless to say I have made alternative arrangements.

hocuspocus - I have pm you.

Thanks Expattaff.