Swift Transfers

[Cool Water Palace]

I've had a sudden problem with my regular SWIFT transfers from Nationwide BS to an account at Bangkok Bank (Pleanjit).

No further charges have been applied after previous transfers. However, I sent a payment of £200 in late December, and was told when I applied for the transfer that they could no longer send in foreign currency, only £. (An officer in another branch today said that transfers could still be made in currency.)

I now receive a letter from NW to tell me that £20 charged by Bangkok Bank will be applied in 5 days. (I also sent a payment 2 weeks later of £100, so maybe I'll get advice of another charge.) I know that this can happen sometimes, but usually less than £20 and not after previous transfers without a further charge.

I think all previous transfers have been converted this end, but I'm not sure they could tell me the Baht amount in the branch, just info on the quoted exchange rate. I think some may have been sent in £. So a change in the way the transfer arrived in Thailand or specifically Bangkok Bank may have led to the extra charge.

Also, the recent thread on dissatisfaction with Bangkok Bank (and more general issues recently about banking) suggests that this may be a change of policy by the Thai authorities or Bangkok Bank.

Any suggestions?

I have said that I'll not use Nationwide again with a total charge of £40. I could use the bank where my mother has an account (HSBC). HSBC has a presence in Bangkok, but I suspect they offer no retail services, so I couldn't get a lower charge. Or would Western Union be better for small amounts now, despite their poorer exchange rate? (Not as bad as Moneygram though!)

[Khun Bob]

Get another account with nationwide and send the ATM card to thailand. When you want to provide money move the amount to the other account and inform the card holder to go to the atm and specify how much can be withdrawn in THB. According to topfield the visa debit card gives the more favorable rate, but if you want more peace of mind from abuse of the visa (this is not a credit card but could incur you an unauthorised overdraft if you have the facility - best not to have it)

Alternatively - get your friend to get a thai paypal account then you can send from your uk paypal to the thai paypal - the thai paypal is associated with their bank account - rates not as good as the 'onshore' rate and they put a 2.5% commision on the rate given - for small amounts much cheaper than a SWIFT and no unexpected charges at the receiving end.

Also bkk bank have an office in london and last time i heard they can do transfers for £15 to thailand bkk banks.

Also there are prepaid visa debit cards, but this becomes a little more expensive.

For larger amounts currency brokers may be better - but with any transfer the routing may incur charges - need to ask about this.

For citibank and hsbc accounts there are favorable charges for transfers to their banks in Thailand.

Some of the 'virtual' gold providers may enable you to transfer to a thai bank account.

There are some Thai stock brokers and you could open an account with them, fund your account with a credit card, and then transfer to a local thai bank account.

Theres more - but I've run out of juice now...

[Maestro]

When you wire GBP to your account at Bangkok Bank (BBL) in Thailand, BBL charges 0.25% of the Thai Baht amount, minimum 200 Baht, maximum 500 Baht, plus possibly a flat fee of 20 or 30 Baht.

Ask BBL for a print-out of the credit note. This will give you full details of the conversion and the fees.

I do not know about SWIFT transfer in Baht but see know reason why BBL’s fees would be different. The GBP 20 fee that Nationwide talks about could be Nationwide’s fee; it is within the range used by British banks for SWIFT transfers.

Electronic transfer to overseas account (SWIFT) £20 each time

Source: Nationwide website

--

Maestro

[Cool Water Palace]

"The GBP 20 fee that Nationwide talks about could be Nationwide’s fee; it is within the range used by British banks for SWIFT transfers."

But that had been charged when I sent the transfer in the first place. This is a further charge of £20 a month later.

re the suggestion by Maestro about a second account, I opened another with NW about 3 years ago, but they would only give me a cash card, not a second VISA card. I may well not have had enough points, and I'll have fewer still now.

[Khun Bob]

"The GBP 20 fee that Nationwide talks about could be Nationwide’s fee; it is within the range used by British banks for SWIFT transfers."

But that had been charged when I sent the transfer in the first place. This is a further charge of £20 a month later.

re the suggestion by Maestro about a second account, I opened another with NW about 3 years ago, but they would only give me a cash card, not a second VISA card. I may well not have had enough points, and I'll have fewer still now.

If you have a second account all ready shift your banking to that one and then send the visa debit to thailand - if you ask to be upgraded on your second account to visa debit nationwide will give - and yes it is credit scored - if they dont do it ask why - you need a contact in their underwriting department - if you get through to them then you are home - if you talk to the monkeys outside of that your fate is against you.

I've given you lots of options best at the top and not so good the lower down you go - explore and report - 'over to you...

[Sophon]

"The GBP 20 fee that Nationwide talks about could be Nationwide’s fee; it is within the range used by British banks for SWIFT transfers."

But that had been charged when I sent the transfer in the first place. This is a further charge of £20 a month later.

re the suggestion by Maestro about a second account, I opened another with NW about 3 years ago, but they would only give me a cash card, not a second VISA card. I may well not have had enough points, and I'll have fewer still now.

I'm just guessing here, but it sounds like Nationwide might have sent the transfer with the "wrong" fee code.

When you send a SWIFT transfer the costs can be divided in three ways:

Sender pays all costs

Sender bank costs paid by sender, beneficiary bank costs paid by beneficiary (this is standard)

Beneficiary pays all costs

If sender is to pay all costs beneficiary bank has to report the actual costs for the transfer back to sender bank. That means sending an extra SWIFT message which is most likely handled manually. Therefore selecting this costs option is generally (in total) the most expensive, and debiting of beneficiary bank costs on senders account will generally happen separately and later than the original transaction (which seems to be consistant with OP's story).

The extra cost could also be becase of errors in the payment details on the transaction, but this would normally be debited beneficiary's account. Another guess could be, that BB has sent an enquiry back to Nationwide for further information (perhaps in connection with the currency restrictions they implemented back in December?), in which case Nationwide would probably charge an extra fee. However, this would probably also have caused a delay for OP in receiving the transfer.

And by the way, you really do wan't your bank to send GBP not THB. You will get a much better exchange rate that way (especially at this moment in time).

Sophon

Edited February 22, 2007 by Sophon

[Sophon]

Duplicate post removed.

Edited February 22, 2007 by Sophon