Hi there, I am from New Zealand, I recently opened thai bank account to transfer money from NZL to buy condo.  The guidelines says money should be send from original currency,not in thai bhat.   My NZL online bank only offers 2 currencies to send to Thailand,  Thai bhat and US dollars.   If I want to send as NZ dollars I need to go bank,or call and the fee is 3 times more than internet banking, my question is it ok to send as US dollars or does it need to be NZ dollars? Thank you.

 

Moved to the real estate forum.

You would be better off sending New Zealand dollars. No matter what currency you send from New Zealand, the bank in Thailand will convert that currency in to Thai baht and deposit it in to your Thai account. If you send the money in NZD, it will be converted in to THB so you lose on the exchange once. If you send USD from New Zealand you need to convert NZD to USD by your New Zealand bank and then the Thai bank will convert USD to THB, meaning two conversions which means losing twice. Sending in NZD is the way to go so go to the bank and do that - the fee might be 3 times as much, but converting the money from NZD to USD and then from USD and THB will cost so much more.

 When you say guidelines -are u referring to the Condo Act.

That Act demands that you start with foreign currenct -not with Thai Baht.

The current best 'transfer money system 'that I am aware of is Transferwise.

If that is available to you then I suggest that you use it-or at the very least check it out.

You will simply input NZ dollars and output Thai Baht into your Thai bank account in Thailand

I used it for the first time recently. The security set up is more intense that I have seen before. However that is done only once.

Amazingly I received 100% of the Baht quoted.

Before -with other suppliers- I would see about 500  Baht transaction costs.

It also took one complete business day.

Excellent!

3 hours ago, Delight said:

 When you say guidelines -are u referring to the Condo Act.

That Act demands that you start with foreign currenct -not with Thai Baht.

The current best 'transfer money system 'that I am aware of is Transferwise.

I would be very wary of doing this for a condo purchase.

 

You must provide an FET form at the Land Office for the transfer to be registered and as Transferwise transactions are technically only local your Thai bank may not be able to provide this form. Only Bangkok Bank seems to show Transferwise transactions as coming from abroad, and even they may not be able to provide an FET form for them. So many things to check first, I think.

 

The only exception might be if buying a new condo direct from a developer as they generally have their own ways of getting the correct form issued. Even so I would check in advance before sending anything.

16 hours ago, KittenKong said:

I would be very wary of doing this for a condo purchase.

 

You must provide an FET form at the Land Office for the transfer to be registered and as Transferwise transactions are technically only local your Thai bank may not be able to provide this form. Only Bangkok Bank seems to show Transferwise transactions as coming from abroad, and even they may not be able to provide an FET form for them. So many things to check first, I think.

 

The only exception might be if buying a new condo direct from a developer as they generally have their own ways of getting the correct form issued. Even so I would check in advance before sending anything.

Just checked my online bank statement with Bangkok Bank(BKK)

I used Transferwise . The description states 'International Transfer.
Transferwise accept NZ dollars.

For certain I would not transfer direct to the developer.

As kittenkong suggests  check with your bank first. If negative check with  BKK