Best Way To Send Money To Thailand..please Help

[monch]

Thank you...thats all I was looking for !!

[RAZZELL]

I need to send a large payment for a villa we are purchasing in ko samui next month...it seems things have changed and the only way to assure a good rate is to send the money out in pounds and just hope for a good exchange rate on the day it is recvd

Yes, I would send pounds.

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Maestro

You get a much better exchange rate if you send pounds and get them converted in Thailand.

RAZZ

[Khun Bob]

There are several currency brokers in the UK where you can specify the rate that you want to trade at and they will do the conversion at that rate and often transfer free of charge to the destination bank account.

The critical factor at the moment is being able to get the on-shore THB rate (approx £1:70THB at the mo), rather than the off-shore rate (aprox £1:65THB at the mo) - assuming your are sending sterling of course - but it is the same for all major currencies as far as I am aware.

Have you ever considered Malaysia where you can hold land and property free hold, and get a 10 year visa with the possibility to get permanent residence after 3 years ? Langkawi is one of the Malaysian tax havens (Labuan is the other) as well (alchohol is cheaper there than mainland Malaysia!). Also the indiginous Malays or People of the Land (ie not the Chinese) are typically fairer to foreigners than the Thais ? The Malay language is also alot easier to learn than Thai.

[dolvetius]

There are dozens of villas in samui for that price and more ( not saying that ours is anywhere near that price range )

The swift transfer is either to our bangkok lawyers holding account or the developers.

As for the 30 yr lease business...we also had a clause put in saying we could opt to change to freehold at any time during the lease at no expense to ourselves.....I think within the next 30yrs well know whats happening to all those foreigners with their thai companies and can make an informed decision.

At the end of the day......owning a beautiful 4 bed villa near the beach for the same price as our spanish 2 bed apartment is worth the risk !...especially considering what it costs to rent a comparable holiday villa in samui.

I have read this entire thread and I am simply amazed by what I saw...

Monch, all I would like to tell you is that there are hundreds if not thousands of expats living in Thailand and who come to this forum. I am neither sure of how much of your time you have spent in Thailand nor of what is your knowledge/experience regarding the enforcement of laws/regulations in this country. The ownership of landed properties by foreigners has been one of the hottest topics discussed among expats here in the past months and even years. If you search, you will find hundreds of pages related to the matter (on this forum and on others...).

You have received some valid and pertinent advice by some forum users, and you may like to think over it...

Are you aware that, if you acquire a leasehold property, all you get in fact is the "right of use" for it during the lease term (30 years in your case I presume...)? Do you understand that, if you wish to "sell" your property within this term, what you will negotiate in fact is your lease, not the property itself since you don't own it. And the value of your lease will progressively decrase as time goes on and reach towards zero since this is what it will be worth in exactly 30 years.

Monch, I know dozens of expats living here and who would like, just like you, to acquire a landed property in Thailand, not only to enjoy their holidays but to permanently reside in. But they have refrained from doing so because they all consider that the guarantee they have to own their assets in the long term is far from being sufficient. The law is simply not with us, but rather against us.

Finally, I would simply like to remind you of the golden rule that you will find over and over on this forum and that we most seem to agree with: "If you still want to invest in Thailand, do invest only what you are ready to entirely lose!"

Well anyway....the villa is almost completed ( and looking fabulous ) and the contract is signed so were looking forward to lots of holidays and then maybe 4 months a year in 10yrs time....in 30yrs I will be 70 and my kids can sort it all out !!!

In 30 years your kids might well have nothing to sort out because there will nothing for you or them to be sorted out at all...

[Khun Bob]

Malaysia is the best for freehold and Thai like experience... And for the prices foreigner not in the know pay for leased (or worse) land and a property you can get just as good if not alot better in malaysia... Just need to be sensitive to the muslims - but this really only applies to the some brits or others - its no problem is your astute and quality of life is better in some ways than thailand...