Sending money from Thai bank account to Europe

[thuisinthailand]

Hi,

 

We have a Thai bank account with quite some money on it (we are on the Non-O retirement extension, so each year we need to put at least 800,000 baht on the account for the yearly extension requirement), but as it turns out, we may have to leave Thailand several months before the expiration date of our extension. If that happens, there will still be a considerable amount of money on our Thai bank account. Is it possible to just transfer the money back to our (European) bank account, or does this require more then that? (Note: we have never wired money back to Europe before).

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and tips on this.

Edited October 17, 2018 by thuisinthailand

[chickenslegs]

I have no experience of tranferring money out of Thailand but, coincidentally, I read this topic earlier today ... https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1063268-the-secret-to-international-transfer-fee-savings/

Hope it helps.

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, thuisinthailand said:

Is it possible to just transfer the money back to our (European) bank account,

Yes. The Thai bank that received it will send it back without any trouble, but check the total fees including the exchange rates. Depending on the total amount per person you can just buy foreign cash and take it with you (as long as you have proof you brought it in in the first place).

 

Other options are available and these may work out cheaper, as mentioned.

[Pib]

The Sending fee will be in the approx Bt300 to Bt1500 ballpark.  Will be in the lower range if you don't want the Thai bank to pick-up any intermediary/correspondent bank fees which may occur; the upper range if you do want them to pick up any such fee.   

 

Like if you were using Krungsri Bank, which I used a couple of months ago to send some money to the U.S., the sending fee is Bt350 if not picking up any intermediary bank fee "plus" another Bt800 if you do want them to pickup any intermediary bank fee vs that intermediary bank just slicing off their fee as the funds flow through them.   

 

I opted not to pay the Bt800 portion as I figured any intermediary bank fee would be lower than Bt800 plus I wanted to find out exactly if I would be hits with any fee and how much by an intermediary bank.  Wanted to know for any future transfers....see what is the cheapest way.   Well, i was hit with an intermediary bank fee and it was exactly $20USD which works out to approx Bt650....so, I got my answers and saved Bt150.   The transfer posted to my U.S. bank account in 6 hours from clicking the transmit button in my Krungsri ibanking....and actually just two hours after Krungsri approved the transfer 4 hours later.

 

And the exchange rate used to convert your Thai baht back to what European currency you sending to will be the Thai bank's "TT Selling Rate" which you can see on the Currency Exchange Rate site.   Now with the "Selling" rate, the lower the rate the better because that means you have to fork out less baht to buy each unit of foreign currency.   A Selling Rate of say 42 to 1 is better than 43 to 1....because that means you only need to fork out 42 baht for each unit of currency you are buying (sending) versus 43.  They call it the "Selling" rate since the Thai bank (or any money exchanger) is selling you the foreign currency to send out.

[thuisinthailand]

The transfer posted to my U.S. bank account in 6 hours from clicking the transmit button in my Krungsri ibanking....and actually just two hours after Krungsri approved the transfer 4 hours later.

Thanks for your very extensive answer! Do I understand you correctly that you just used iBanking for effectuating the transfer (I use Krungsri too)? In other words, you did not have to go the a branch office for all kinds of paperwork? Because that was my understanding until now.


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Pib]

Just used ibanking...to my surprise I had SWIFT transfer capability without ever applying for it. I've had my Krungsri account for about 3 years now but just assumed the SWIFT transfer section of my ibanking would not really work but it did. I did a transfer of a couple hundred US dollars as test and it worked...it allows me up to 10K USD per transfer. I don't have a work permit...here on a retirement extension of stay.