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[bermondburi]

      Hi all, 

I've been sending SWIFT transfers from Saudi to Thailand with no problems, my bank to my wife's bank. Since the start of the year there have been major discrepancies over amounts sent and received. All proved through account history etc. I've done a couple of transactions since the start of the year and it's like the Thai banks have totally done me over. 

 

To give an example. I sent $181 to the Thai bank and yet they say they only received $141. This is after all fees paid by me on the Saudi side. This has happened on two occasions with two different Thai banks. I have proof from the Saudi bank of what they sent. So I'm trying to work out what has happened. Has the Thai bank changed the way they work things out or what? Before the turn of the year there were no problems. 

 

We have been in contact with the Thai bank through the call center and they say it is the other bank, but after contacting my Saudi bank that I've been dealing with for a long time. I'm fairly sure that there's some change in operating practice from the Thai bank. So I'm wondering, what are they doing? Why the changes now? Anyone else experienced this? The money isn't important, but I'm curious as to what is going on. In December everything was fine. 

 

We've had enough of the call centre now because they send you round in circles, but the only thing we can think of doing is going to the branch when we're both in Thailand and try to get a straight answer. I just want to know how the thai bank arrives at their figure. 

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA

[Air Smiles]

If the same thing happened with 2 different Thai banks the chances are the issue is with the Saudi bank.

 

Start with the Saudi bank, get the international transaction code, and make them give you a full breakdown of all the charges, currency conversions etc so you can see exactly how much was sent to the Thai bank & in what currency ...then use the same transaction code to do the query on the Thai bank side, but don't use call centres, go into one of the main branches and get your wife to translate everything you say verbatim, demand to speak to the manager and make a complaint if not getting anywhere.

[bermondburi]

5 minutes ago, Air Smiles said:

If the same thing happened with 2 different Thai banks the chances are the issue is with the Saudi bank.

 

Start with the Saudi bank, get the international transaction code, and make them give you a full breakdown of all the charges, currency conversions etc so you can see exactly how much was sent to the Thai bank & in what currency ...then use the same transaction code to do the query on the Thai bank side, but don't use call centres, go into one of the main branches and get your wife to translate everything you say verbatim, demand to speak to the manager and make a complaint if not getting anywhere.

Yeah, I've done all that, which was why I said I have proof of everything the Saudi bank has done. 

 

Both me and my wife are in Saudi right now, so the only thing I'm thinking is for us to both go into the branch with the information from my account from Saudi, and her details from thailand and try to get an answer as to how the Thai bank is calculating things.

[bermondburi]

I mean go into the branch in Thailand together, as we've already done the Saudi branch.

[Air Smiles]

4 minutes ago, bermondburi said:

I mean go into the branch in Thailand together, as we've already done the Saudi branch.

Yes, once you have the breakdown from both sides it should be obvious where the missing money has gone.

 

In the meantime you can do some detective work on the missing amounts, for eg, the missing amount is what percentage of the total? and is this percentage always the same(relative to the total) for all the other transactions? 

Edited February 8, 2018 by Air Smiles

[richard_smith237]

International Bank Transfers often involve an 'intermediary bank' which also applies its charges...  it could be that.

[Pib]

As Richard above said the culprit most likely going to be an intermediary/correspondent bank the Saudi bank needed to use to route the money to the Thai bank.   They probably changed their routing recently which now includes an intermediary bank that is charging a fee.   That intermediary bank slices off a fee as the funds flowed thru them....even if you select on the sending bank end for you to pay all fees.    

 

Plan on the Saudi bank to play stupid regarding an intermediary bank and blame it on the receiving/Thai bank.   Been many, many posts over the years on Thaivisa where an additional fee appeared somewhere between the Sending and Receiving banks....and it was an intermediary bank fee.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Pib

[bermondburi]

Hmmm, that makes sense. 

 

Two different Thai banks and the same amounts missing. It just seems strange that it's only happened this year. 

 

Would an intermediary bank charge a fee, or a percentage? 

 

I'm wondering if we've only just noticed it because the amounts sent were so small. 

 

The last transfer in December appeared fine because it was $2000, so $40 going AWOL wouldn't be that noticeable.

[Pib]

Intermediary fee could be a flat and/or percentage fee but it's usually a flat fee.

The Thai bank receiving fee is almost always 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) and this fee will not appear anywhere...it's applied to the "amount received" and before posting to your account.

But if instructing the sending bank to pay all fees then the sending bank may charge a higher fee.

[bermondburi]

When I was talking to the guy in the Saudi bank, he told me to open a dollar account for my Saudi account, and send money to Thailand from that. He said the money would then go direct to the Thai account. 

 

Is this true? Would this cut out an intermediary or make no difference. 

 

Also, my Saudi bank has a branch in London. He told me that he can open an account there for me from Saudi. If I have GBP account as well in my Saudi account, can I then transfer the money from the Saudi GBP account to the Saudi bank London branch with no hidden fees? 

 

Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I've never really had to do any major transfers before so I've never really thought about it, and presumably this is how banks make money, from suckers like me! 

 

Thanks for all the replies so far. Very helpful.