Due To Thai Immigrations new financial Rules / Reqs I Need Help With Money Transfer(s)

[adam1948]

Due to some recent developments in Thai govt and USA govt policies (p*ssing match) I find my self between a rock and a hard place. I need to find the cheapest way to transfer funds, money, currency from my US bank to my Thai bank and then transfer a small part of those same funds, money, currency from my Thai bank back into my US bank

Allow me to preface this by saying there are many gentlemen who are fortunate enough and can afford to have 400K/800K Baht in bank all the time or have 40K/65K Baht coming into their Thai bank monthly. I’m asking these gentlemen who sometimes gleefully post smug, arrogant, condescending remarks refrain from that practice and instead of being *ssh*les with those types of remarks please contribute some helpful information if you have it. No I’m not a so called “Cheap Charlie” nor do I desire, want or deserve that title nor do I want or deserve to go back to my home country of USA as it is now worse than when I left 13 years ago … Since I have a Thai home and family I would prefer to remain here

I have lived my entire life with the attitude that anything and everything that happens to me is due to my own actions and blame no one but myself for any good or bad that happens in my life. I am responsible for my own destiny and/or future … no one but me controls my life, I am where I am because of my own decisions

With that said …..

A little background on how I arrived at/in my current situation … Being retired and fed up with my home country’s govt and seeing where my country’s society was headed I did a long extensive search of where/what foreign country my financial resources and many many other factors would give me the type of life and best enhanced quality of life. My long extensive research (in 2006) showed that Thailand was the place that would best suite my needs and the life style I was seeking. I arrived in Thailand in 2006 on a “O A Retirement” visa. So I’ve been here for 13 years. I had quite a bit (many many thousands) of funds/money/currency when I arrived. In 2007 I married a wonderful Thai woman with 2 boys, 4 and 6 years old. I proceeded to lose a lot of our funds in the stock market. My fault, my bad. In 2010 with our last 1,000,000 Baht we bought some land and built our 3 bedroom 2 bath home. We now had something for our sons future, a paid for home, also as a plus we saved the 10,000 Baht rent we were paying monthly … but our seasoned bank stash to satisfy a Thai Immigration “O A” visa requirement was now gone … No problem, the USD/Baht exchange was at 33+, giving us a monthly income of 40,000+ Baht … also the US Embassy was issuing “Notarized Financial/Income Affidavit" documents so we used that to satisfy the 65,000 Baht monthly Thai Immigration income requirement (remember at this point I’m still on the “O A Retirement” visa) … no problem, no foul … We’re married, have our own home, raising our 2 sons and contributing all our monthly funds to the Thai economy … Life’s good, everybody’s happy!

Fast forward to present day … Thai govt, US govt get into a p*ssing match over the validity i.e. truthfulness of the “Notarized Financial/Income Affidavit" document  … US says screw you we will no longer issue that document Naa! Naa! Naa … Thai Immigration says that’s fine with us we’ll just put the screws to all your expats Na Na Na … So here stands many many guys like me who are not “Cheap Charlies” nor “deadbeats” nor “scammers” but simply guys who have been living a nice quiet happy family life in Thailand, with my Thai wife, raising our children in our own (totally paid for) home contributing to the Thai economy and enjoying ourselves …

Our normal way to access our monthly US funds was to draw it out using ATM and depositing it into our Thai Bank … no problem, easy peasy … but ohhh nooo Thai Immigration threw another little monkey wrench into the works … the real killer here is that my bank book must show funds coming from US(foreign) bank directly into Thai bank so that the bank code shows up as a “out of country/foreign deposit”

We are now, (due to drop in USD/ThaiBaht exchange rate) a little short each month of the required 40,000 Baht (sh*t happens) … i.e. I now need to find the cheapest way to transfer funds from US to Thailand and a small part of those funds back to US so that I can satisfy the 40,000 Baht monthly requirement and continue to live in our completly paid for Thai home with my Thai wife and sons … my biggest sin is contributing all our monthly funds to the Thai economy … wow what a bad parasite evil monster Cheap Charlie of a person am I … OK all the smug, arrogant, condescending ha ha I got money and you don’t *ash*les let’er fly … remember some of you in the future just might be in this same situation, we’ll see how glib you are then … am I angry? … yes I am … will I get over it, yes I will … in the meantime, like the Beatles said “I get by with a little help from my friends”

[overherebc]

Change to married status extension. 40,000 a month income.

Get another O-A ( if you get home for one )

New rules are, I think, aimed at retirees who are single.

[Myran]

Best way to transfer money to your Thai account would probably be Transferwise. Don't think they transfer from Thailand, though, so you'd have to try a difference service for that or just do a regular bank transfer.

[ThomasThBKK]

Bangkok bank has a branch in nyc, so get a bangkok bank account to receive money. Takes usually 24hr to get the usd wires. Should be possible to send the same amount back but not more via the same route.

Did u think about just getting a bank loan using ur real estate as a collateral (land and house)?

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

[happy chappie]

22 minutes ago, Myran said:

Best way to transfer money to your Thai account would probably be Transferwise. Don't think they transfer from Thailand, though, so you'd have to try a difference service for that or just do a regular bank transfer.

Yes money sent to Thailand very rarely leaves the country.its a one way ticket in most cases.

[arithai12]

55 minutes ago, adam1948 said:

Allow me to preface this by saying

That was a long preface, I lost you at chapter 3.

Anyway, your question would be better answered if you actually specified how much money you want to transfer and how often.

 

 

[freedomnow]

 

21 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Yes money sent to Thailand very rarely leaves the country.its a one way ticket in most cases.

One way it seems to get money out easier, if you meant red tape issues...

https://www.dee.money/

[Sheryl]

1. Sending from US to Thailand: If part or all of this money is SS, SS will start international direct deposit to Thailand this year and my understanding is that there will be no sending fee for that. Details are still to be announced. If it is not  SS, or you have to transfer monies in addition to SS, you have a problem. Transferwise is the cheapest way but cannot be guaranteed to show as an international transfer. You can get paperwork from TW to show you made the transfer, and there are people planning to do that, but no word yet on if it worked and in any case may vary by Imm office.

 

2. Sending from Thailand to US: Dee Money. Easy and cheap. https://www.dee.money/

[how241]

Good luck !   I imagine that this whole situation will change soon as things get clarified.  It might get better or worst.  Not that I care in the slightest but when you were getting hat 65K  letter from the USA embassy ,  did you really have 65K coming in or were you lying to the embassy as many were doing for years, knowing that the US embassy didn't check and just took your word out it. Either way, good luck in working things out so you can continue to enjoy Thailand.

[Danthai]

After the first change end of 2018 I did go to Bangkok Bank and signed up for direct deposit in Jan. Military pay changed on line to BKK NY and received first direct transfer on 3rd. I expect by March 3rd SS will start. I can sympathize with your situation (a little like mine).  But all these condition and rules seem the keep changing here and there. Hang in there and do your best to find a solution to take care of your family. 

[tgeezer]

All I know about transfers is the annual lump sums that I have been doing for the last thirteen years and they cost money so I thought that it was extremely inconsiderate thing to do to require ‘monthly’ transfers from abroad.
I think that you found a cost effective way of importing funds through ATM and cash deposit, the only thing missing is the proof that the money is from abroad. Do you think that the ATM receipt might show a foreign account being the source of the cash? I doubt very much if the original
order in Thai specifies what form the proof must take.
I must add that I do sympathise with you and all honest married couples who have no difficulty financing themselves and their families but who are required to prove it when the proof is there for all to see. Perhaps there might be some merit in a joint approach to Immigration by families in a similar predicament.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[JackThompson]

Two ways to send money in the other direction that I have heard of.  The first xfer method is dee-money - mentioned above.  The 2nd is to buy crypto out of a Thai bank acct (there are legal Thai exchanges), and then sell it into your foreign account.  I am not very familiar with crypto, but someone reported this can be done with low fees, with some crypto-currencies.  I would never "hold" crypto for any length of time, due to its volatility.

 

You could use this to pay passport-country expenses, for example - but you need to have the 40K/mo total-income to qualify for your extension legally. 

 

If you do not have the funds/income to qualify for your extension, you could get a Non-O-ME Visa based on marriage to a Thai, from one of the nearby consulates which does not require showing financials.  That would be better, IMO, than setting yourself up for problems down the road with the authorities.

[adam1948]

4 hours ago, puukao said:

i can't wait until you beg for America to help you with things in the future.

Thanks pukey, I appreciate your good thoughts and wishes ... could you possibly be American also? ... you sound like a very nice person ... let me guess, you're also a Clinton fan ... we could get into a long discussion about all the wonderful things the US gov and US military has done for other people and countries around the world but then we would probably get kicked off TVF, so I'll just say thank you for your warm fuzzy humanitarian remarks ... sorta like the US world wide warm fuzzy humanitarian cleansing

 

[marcusarelus]

4 hours ago, happy chappie said:

Yes money sent to Thailand very rarely leaves the country.its a one way ticket in most cases.

Dee Money easy to transfer money out.  I guess you don't live in Thailand. 

[marcusarelus]

15 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Two ways to send money in the other direction that I have heard of.  The first xfer method is dee-money - mentioned above.  The 2nd is to buy crypto out of a Thai bank acct (there are legal Thai exchanges), and then sell it into your foreign account.  I am not very familiar with crypto, but someone reported this can be done with low fees, with some crypto-currencies.  I would never "hold" crypto for any length of time, due to its volatility.

 

You could use this to pay passport-country expenses, for example - but you need to have the 40K/mo total-income to qualify for your extension legally. 

 

If you do not have the funds/income to qualify for your extension, you could get a Non-O-ME Visa based on marriage to a Thai, from one of the nearby consulates which does not require showing financials.  That would be better, IMO, than setting yourself up for problems down the road with the authorities.

I transfer money every year out of Thailand from Bangkok bank and have for 20 years.  No problems.

[NanLaew]

18 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

I transfer money every year out of Thailand from Bangkok bank and have for 20 years.  No problems.

How?

 

Thanks.

[Suradit69]

14 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Bangkok bank has a branch in nyc, so get a bangkok bank account to receive money. Takes usually 24hr to get the usd wires. Should be possible to send the same amount back but not more via the same route.

Did u think about just getting a bank loan using ur real estate as a collateral (land and house)?

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Using domestic dollar transfers to Bangkok Bank NY is ending due to US regulations regarding international transfers masquerading as domestic transfers.

 

your US bank can use Bangkok Bank NY as a correspondent bank when making SWIFT transfers, but that different from what many people have been doing for many years via the NY branch og Bangkok Bank.

 

 

[Suradit69]

15 hours ago, adam1948 said:

I need to find the cheapest way to transfer funds, money, currency from my US bank 

Probably a good idea, when asking questions, to be concise and to the point rather than going on and on and ... I doubt many people were up to wading through your entire initial post.

 

 

[jackdd]

17 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

Probably a good idea, when asking questions, to be concise and to the point rather than going on and on and ... I doubt many people were up to wading through your entire initial post.

 

 

But he wanted to justify why he had to break the law and he had to complain that his embassy no longer let's him exploit immigration laws (people like him were the reason the rules were changed):

16 hours ago, adam1948 said:

giving us a monthly income of 40,000+ Baht … also the US Embassy was issuing “Notarized Financial/Income Affidavit" documents so we used that to satisfy the 65,000 Baht monthly Thai Immigration income requirement (remember at this point I’m still on the “O A Retirement” visa)

 

[Chassa]

Never had a problem sending money to Australia via Bangkok Bank. Very similar to my Australian bank's system.

[lmaxv]

You could simply write a check and have deposited to a foreign currency account.  the check would take from 45-60 days to clear depending on the bank.  I don't know if these days you have to exchange enough to baht or if, as used to be the case, the foreign currency was counted as baht using that day's exchange rate.

[crees]

I am in the same boat as the poster. I have been using my Thai wife's account to write a US check to, I went to Bangkok Bank yesterday to open a bank account so, because of the new rules, I am bringing in enough money to qualify to stay here. It took half of my day because of America's rules on foreign bank accounts. The checks were taking 30 days to clear, now it is 45 to 60 days. They collected everything but my used underwear. Good luck to you Adam1948, I can really understand why you want to stay … my feelings are the same as yours … as my wife says, "go get a room" 

[robertson468]

Does your Wife work?  It might be to get her to take out a 400,000 baht loan from her Bank and deposit that in your Thai Bank Account and leave it there for ever?  Good luck, you must be beside yourself with worry on how to solve this problem.

[AAArdvark]

18 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Bangkok bank has a branch in nyc, so get a bangkok bank account to receive money. Takes usually 24hr to get the usd wires. Should be possible to send the same amount back but not more via the same route.

Did u think about just getting a bank loan using ur real estate as a collateral (land and house)?

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Except that the new rules from bangkok bank will make it difficult or impossible to transfer unless you can find a funding source that can use the IAT format which is currently rare.  Someone reported success using SWIFT transfers but those are more expensive than something like transferwise.

[ThomasThBKK]

I use citibank singapore usd to bkk bank, gets routed over the nyc branch from citibank usa it seems.
Usually arrives within some hours into thailand.

And yeah it's swift you are right, might be different for ach transfers or whatever us is doing.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

[SteveK]

I had terrible issues getting my Thai bank to transfer money abroad, ending up withdrawing the sums as cash and going to super rich, worked out very good rates actually.

[dcnx]

20 hours ago, overherebc said:

Change to married status extension. 40,000 a month income.

Get another O-A ( if you get home for one )

New rules are, I think, aimed at retirees who are single.

Forcing everyone of retirement age to either leave, spend and waste the cash, or get married. Then they will change marriage requirements. It’s a smart move, strategically speaking. 

 

If you all think this is ending with retirees, you’re in for a surprise.

[dcnx]

44 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Except that the new rules from bangkok bank will make it difficult or impossible to transfer unless you can find a funding source that can use the IAT format which is currently rare.  Someone reported success using SWIFT transfers but those are more expensive than something like transferwise.

What new rules? I wire money out of BKK Bank often and haven’t been informed of any changes at my branch (in Chiang Mai).

[Tanoshi]

15 hours ago, NanLaew said:

How?

 

Thanks.

Bangkok bank via Bualuang Banking (online).

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Digital-Banking/Bualuang-iBanking 

 

[jacko45k]

59 minutes ago, dcnx said:

If you all think this is ending with retirees, you’re in for a surprise.

I bet opening Thai Visa April 1st will be fun!