The unfair Thai Banking system

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, rak sa_ngop said:

Is there an additional charge by the Thai bank when transferring money from overseas using Transferwise?

No, it appears to be considered a local transaction.

[simoh1490]

4 minutes ago, rak sa_ngop said:

Is there an additional charge by the Thai bank when transferring money from overseas using Transferwise?  This charge is normally about 500 baht when sending Sterling from abroad but as Transferwise money is sent internally as baht from a Thai bank to your receiving bank I assume such a charge does not apply and you receive the full quoted Thai amount?

UK banks charge a sending fee (as a rule) and Thai banks charge a receiving fee (circa 500 baht), those charges sometimes get hidden based on how the customer chooses to pay them and at which end.

[prakhonchai nick]

17 minutes ago, nahkit said:

If anyone really wants to have a moan about Thai banks they should look at the difference between the deposit interest rates on a regular savings account and the rates charged on a personal loan.

 

"Up to" 1.5% on a deposit account.

 

"From" 15% on a personal loan.

 

https://thailand.deposits.org/providers/bangkok-bank.html

My UK Bank have just offered me 3.3% APR on a personal loan of £15,000.  Always the way when you don't need a loan.

[lincolnshire poacher]

4 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Can't get an FET using Transferwise, quite rightly too.

What is a FET ?

[simoh1490]

3 minutes ago, lincolnshire poacher said:

What is a FET ?

Foriegn Exchange Transaction (certificate)

[Petchou]

5 hours ago, yankee99 said:

We know this isnt true 

actually he is right.   if difference in exchange rate is 1 to 2 bahts

[kennypick]

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

I didn't know that, thanks.

Don't believe everything on here i have just started using Transferwise to Bangkok Bank account for 2 months now, and made 2 transfers and i have not been charged 1 baht for the transfers incoming.

 

[simoh1490]

10 minutes ago, Petchou said:

actually he is right.   if difference in exchange rate is 1 to 2 bahts

Actually, he is not right and neither are you, please read post 28 and study the link provided.

[topt]

16 minutes ago, kennypick said:

Don't believe everything on here i have just started using Transferwise to Bangkok Bank account for 2 months now, and made 2 transfers and i have not been charged 1 baht for the transfers incoming.

 

I don't think anybody has said that you do? Transferwise make a local transfer and any fees you may pay are included in what they quote you before you go ahead.   

[topt]

3 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I saw some guys posting in a pattaya facebook group the other day, adamant that they got a FET from transferwise. Apparently as easy as contacting them when you transfer, they generate an FET as the person being the "sender" into a Thai account.

 

Maybe rubbish but these guys appeared genuine.

Would be interesting to follow up as in previous threads on here some posters supposedly asked but could never make it happen. 

From what I understand of the process I doubt TW would make exceptions unless it was for very large transfers - but happy to be proved wrong 

[wgdanson]

4 hours ago, prakhonchai nick said:

There is a Thai handling bank involved when transferring via TRANSFERWISE

Please show me where that charge is applied. I get into my Bkk Bank exactly the amount T'wise says there will be, no extra charges.

[Kurtf]

You are much too naive to discuss this subject if you think ANY bank in the world is your friend and there to help you.

[prakhonchai nick]

5 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Please show me where that charge is applied. I get into my Bkk Bank exactly the amount T'wise says there will be, no extra charges.

I did not say the Thai bank made a charge. They "handle" the transfer inasmuch as they  pay whatever amount has been sent by Transferwise into your account .   I am sure the Thai banks  receive some benefit from somewhere along the way.

[gamini]

This is a load of rubbish. Banks do not charge different rates for foreigners and Thais. Just get your wife or a Thai friend to check the rates and you will find them the same. 

[wgdanson]

7 minutes ago, prakhonchai nick said:

I did not say the Thai bank made a charge. They "handle" the transfer inasmuch as they  pay whatever amount has been sent by Transferwise into your account .   I am sure the Thai banks  receive some benefit from somewhere along the way.

Of course the bank into which the money is being paid 'handle' the transaction, but they do not charge for it................sorry, that's what you just said, ooops.

[Sumarianson]

4 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

A transfer via the big banks, HSBC UK to a Thai bank costs four Pounds plus a recording fee on the Thai end of about 500 baht, in addition, for large sums, the Thai bank Treasury department will allow you to negotiate the exchange rate which is already one of the best around (TT rate). Where's the beef!

They will only allow you to negotiate after the money has been lodged and you will not get a good deal as they already have exchanged your money. I refer to the "spread", when I talk about negotiation. The spread can be agreed beforehand. That is the difference between the inter-bank rate and what rate they give you. To answer a other poster. Yes you can negotiate a rate at which you will sell your currency, when the market reaches that level the exchange automatically takes place.  I get a sense that either there are many ignorant people on here (regarding the banking system) or there are trolls. 

The banks in Thailand and elsewhere

Charge high rates to their customers while giving low deposit interest rates to their customers. 

They make massive profits on "your" hard earned money. In Thailand we get no interest on the money we keep in the bank. The bank makes a fortune from those deposits. Banks make interest on money they don't and never had. This is legal. Has anyone looked up the "Fractional Reserve System" ? If you havn't then I suggest you do. 

[puipuitom]

4 hours ago, yankee99 said:

Superrich 42.65

Bkk bank 42.14

 

about 10,000 baht difference on £20,000

When I would transfer now, 20 Sept 2018, 09:20 MET, the exchange rate via www.ebury.com would be  EURTHB 37,506773 .

When above € 10.000 no transfer costs, so NETT in THB on a Thai bank account.

[Pib]

4 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I saw some guys posting in a pattaya facebook group the other day, adamant that they got a FET from transferwise. Apparently as easy as contacting them when you transfer, they generate an FET as the person being the "sender" into a Thai account.

 

Maybe rubbish but these guys appeared genuine.

I seriously doubt an FET was issued by Transferwise.  I've yet to see one creditable post anywhere saying such.   Maybe there are some creditable posts somewhere and I just haven't seen them.

 

However, Transferwise does provide a "receipt" which is nothing more than a one page PDF document with the sender info on it, amount sent, account/person it was sent to in Thailand, etc.  You or me could could make one up on our own computer in five minutes.   Definitely a far cry from an FET issued by a Thai bank with bank stamp and signature in the FET format.

 

Additionally, although the final leg of a Transferwise transfer is supposedly a "local" transfer to your Thai bank, you don't know what bank/financial company it was transferred from unless going to your bank and asking for a detailed report which should show what local financial organization transferred the funds into your account.   

 

And although Transferwise advertises it's peer-to-peer money transfer process where it finds someone in Thailand who wants to exchange your foreign currency  into baht, Transferwise also uses the approach of them having an account full of baht (an account they pre-funded with a large amount to handle all transfers) and after Transferwise receives your funding for the transfer in your home country they just instruct some Thai baht to be transferred from their local Thai baht account into your Thai bank account.

 

 

[Sumarianson]

I apologise for including the wrong rate on the exchange of £20,000 It should be 10,000 to 15,000.

The loss in relation to a condo purchase of £100,000 I had been thinking on which would be more in fact, 50,000 + Baht loss and more. 

[Peterw42]

15 minutes ago, Pib said:

I seriously doubt an FET was issued by Transferwise.  I've yet to see one creditable post anywhere saying such.   Maybe there are some creditable posts somewhere and I just haven't seen them.

 

However, Transferwise does provide a "receipt" which is nothing more than a one page PDF document with the sender info on it, amount sent, account/person it was sent to in Thailand, etc.  You or me could could make one up on our own computer in five minutes.   Definitely a far cry from an FET issued by a Thai bank with bank stamp and signature in the FET format.

 

Additionally, although the final leg of a Transferwise transfer is supposedly a "local" transfer to your Thai bank, you don't know what bank/financial company it was transferred from unless going to your bank and asking for a detailed report which should show what local financial organization transferred the funds into your account.   

 

And although Transferwise advertises it's peer-to-peer money transfer process where it finds someone in Thailand who wants to exchange your foreign currency  into baht, Transferwise also uses the approach of them having an account full of baht (an account they pre-funded with a large amount to handle all transfers) and after Transferwise receives your funding for the transfer in your home country they just instruct some Thai baht to be transferred from their local Thai baht account into your Thai bank account.

 

 

Yes that is my understanding of Transferwise, an amount of money goes into a transferwise account in country A and an amount of money comes out of a transferwise account in country B but no money actually gets transferred. Not sure how they keep filling up the thai account though, as they dont do transfers back the other way.

 

As I said not sure if the post about an FET from TW were legit. The way it was explained, similar to when you buy a condo from a developer and your overseas funds go straight into the developers bank and the developer generates an FET listing you as the sender, rather than the normal bank FET listing you as the receiver.  But still not doable if no money is actually transferred.

 

. 

[simoh1490]

25 minutes ago, Sumarianson said:

They will only allow you to negotiate after the money has been lodged and you will not get a good deal as they already have exchanged your money. I refer to the "spread", when I talk about negotiation. The spread can be agreed beforehand. That is the difference between the inter-bank rate and what rate they give you. To answer a other poster. Yes you can negotiate a rate at which you will sell your currency, when the market reaches that level the exchange automatically takes place.  I get a sense that either there are many ignorant people on here (regarding the banking system) or there are trolls. 

The banks in Thailand and elsewhere

Charge high rates to their customers while giving low deposit interest rates to their customers. 

They make massive profits on "your" hard earned money. In Thailand we get no interest on the money we keep in the bank. The bank makes a fortune from those deposits. Banks make interest on money they don't and never had. This is legal. Has anyone looked up the "Fractional Reserve System" ? If you havn't then I suggest you do. 

 

You appear to not understand how banks work, especially in Thailand. A bank cannot allow you to negotiate the spread until the funds have arrived and the current market position of that currency assessed. It is the bank Treasury Dept that is responsible for determining whether a currency should be stored or sold based on supplies on hand and the demand for a particular currency. It is therefore incorrect to assume that "they have already exchanged your money". On a separate point: the "interbank" rate is the rate at which banks lend to each other and has no bearing on  FOREX, the term you are groping for is "midpoint".

[Griffo63]

9 hours ago, nahkit said:

In the case of the OP his point is having to transfer in sterling and change it into Thai baht following the transfer. In your case, you are changing sterling into Thai baht and then transferring it to Thailand. The OP doen't has the option to do this under the requirements for purchasing a condo in Thailand.

That’s the bit I don’t understand. I bought my condo 3 years ago for 10m baht and went through the process I explained using FC Exchange ( and I’m sure other companies operate in the same way). In fact because the £ amount was large I got a very competitive rate with minimal incoming charge from Bangkok Bank  - who supplied me with the International Transfer Certificate 

[nahkit]

13 hours ago, Griffo63 said:

That’s the bit I don’t understand. I bought my condo 3 years ago for 10m baht and went through the process I explained using FC Exchange ( and I’m sure other companies operate in the same way). In fact because the £ amount was large I got a very competitive rate with minimal incoming charge from Bangkok Bank  - who supplied me with the International Transfer Certificate 

So if I understand you rightly you are saying that you transferred baht into the country and used that to buy a condo?

 

The OP (in my understanding) is saying that you have to transfer foreign funds into the country to purchase a condo.

 

Has he got it wrong and in fact the funds can be in Thai baht, they just have to originate from outside the country?

[MikeN]

21 hours ago, Sumarianson said:

 

They make massive profits on "your" hard earned money. In Thailand we get no interest on the money we keep in the bank. The bank makes a fortune from those deposits. Banks make interest on money they don't and never had. This is legal. 

If you are not getting any interest on your money then you have the wrong type of account or the wrong bank !

 Of course they make a profit on your money, they are businesses not charities, did you expect them to keep your money safe for nothing in return ? You, and lots of other people, lend money to them, they pay you interest (profit for you). They aggregate all that money and lend it to somebody else charging them interest, = profit for the bank....after allowing for taxes, non performing loans, salaries, IT costs, rents, dividends to shareholders, etc, etc,etc.

 If you don’t like that you have options :

1. Keep your cash under the mattress and watch inflation eat away at it.

2. Become an (illegal) moneylender and charge whatever you seem to think a fair interest rate is .....yeah, sure you will ?

3. Follow the old adage of “ don’t put your money in the bank, own the bank”, in other words buy shares in the bank and share their “massive” profits.

[simoh1490]

30 minutes ago, nahkit said:

So if I understand you rightly you are saying that you transferred baht into the country and used that to buy a condo?

 

The OP (in my understanding) is saying that you have to transfer foreign funds into the country to purchase a condo.

 

Has he got it wrong and in fact the funds can be in Thai baht, they just have to originate from outside the country?

No, he imported foreign currency, that's a must.

[simoh1490]

22 hours ago, BritManToo said:

No, it appears to be considered a local transaction.

I was wondering about this.....if it is a local transaction and TW owns bank accounts in Thailand, how do they avoid the Provincial transfer fee or do they just absorb it (which seems unlikely).

[BritManToo]

Just now, simoh1490 said:

how do they avoid the Provincial transfer fee

Some banks don't have that fee (TMB).

[nahkit]

10 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

No, he imported foreign currency, that's a must.

In that case I don't understand his post.

[Pib]

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

I was wondering about this.....if it is a local transaction and TW owns bank accounts in Thailand, how do they avoid the Provincial transfer fee or do they just absorb it (which seems unlikely).

Very few fees are required by law like the 3 baht stamp fee on a travelers cheque.   Now the total fee on a travelers cheques is Bt153....Bt150 by the bank and Bt3 govt stamp duty fee for a total Bt153.  Fees are basically up to the bank/financial company...purely a business decision.   Just like the Bt220 fee foreign card ATM fee.....banks could take that to zero or Bt20 if they wanted to--but they don't want to.

[simoh1490]

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

Very few fees are required by law like the 3 baht stamp fee on a travelers cheque.   Now the total fee on a travelers cheques is Bt153....Bt150 by the bank and Bt3 govt stamp duty fee for a total Bt153.  Fees are basically up to the bank/financial company...purely a business decision.   Just like the Bt220 fee foreign card ATM fee.....banks could take that to zero or Bt20 if they wanted to--but they don't want to.

Required by law or not they are levied.