Transferring thai baht to my UK account when no longer in Thailand

[LMN2019]

Hi there, 

 

I'm looking for some advice please for the following!: 

 

I have been working in thailand and had a thai bank account with SCB. 

I recently left my job and have returned home to the UK, however since i have left i have received my final pay from work into my SCB account,

my SCB app does not allow international transfers (the app says i need to be a thai national) and so i've tried to log in to my Western Union account to have this transferred to my UK account (Natwest), however the website becomes blocked saying i cannot access it as i am not in Thailand, and when i try to log into the UK site of Western Union, the site does not recognise that i have an account (as i guess i used the Western Union's Thailand website) even using a VPN i cannot access my Western Union account 

 

There are no SCB branches here in the UK to discuss this with them and so i feel a little bit stuck in how i can transfer my pay across!

 

Does anyone have any tips or been through something similar? 

[Don Mega]

Withdraw the cash at an ATM ?

[Puchaiyank]

You may need to call or email SCB and ask THEM how to proceed...????

[Pib]

As already mentioned try using your SCB debit card (I'm assuming your have one).

 

And yes, if you try to access the Western Union Thailand website from outside Thailand you'll get below type message. 

 

However, if your VPN service offers a Thailand server you can reach the Western Union Thailand website as I just did it using my VPN service of PureVPN who offers Bangkok as one of its VPN server locations.  

 

When trying to reach Western Union Thailand from US

[TTSIssues]

Same advice I guess but withdraw at an atm or use a vpn like hola to access a thailand based server to get to WU. 

[paahlman]

Not too difficult. Transfer to PayPal with Thai PayPal. Transfer to your Uk PayPal for free in a second. Then transfer to your uk acc. Or. Accept a little on fees and walk wit a coffe to an atm with ur atm card form scb. 

Edited October 1, 2019 by paahlman
Type errors

[Time Traveller]

Why would you want THB in the UK?

Is there so little faith and confidence in the Pound thesedays?

[thaibeachlovers]

5 minutes ago, Time Traveller said:

Why would you want THB in the UK?

Is there so little faith and confidence in the Pound thesedays?

????????????????

It gets changed to Sterling when it's transferred.

 

[digbeth]

transferwise

[Seeall]

13 minutes ago, Time Traveller said:

Why would you want THB in the UK?

Is there so little faith and confidence in the Pound thesedays?

I think he means get THB out in whatever currency, just out of TH

[theoldgit]

11 minutes ago, digbeth said:

transferwise

No, you cannot use Transferwise to transfer out of Thailand.

[firefox999uk]

Dee Money

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Nice Day.

[Pattaya46]

2 hours ago, paahlman said:

Not too difficult. Transfer to PayPal with Thai PayPal. Transfer to your Uk PayPal for free in a second. Then transfer to your uk acc.

Many years that you can't transfer any more money from a Thai Bank to a Thai PayPal account.

AFAIK PayPal Thailand now only work by "taking" money from your Thai Bank every time you make a PayPal purchase.

Edit: Very different from PayPal in western countries.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Pattaya46

[William Osborne]

22 minutes ago, firefox999uk said:

Dee Money

Just checked this out and you have to be in country to setup.....

 

Apart from then debit card, options seem limited ?

 

21 hours ago, Pib said:

However, if your VPN service offers a Thailand server you can reach the Western Union Thailand website as I just did it using my VPN service of PureVPN who offers Bangkok as one of its VPN server 

 

Apart from VPN issue , how does this work ?

[Pib]

18 minutes ago, William Osborne said:

Apart from VPN issue , how does this work ?

I don't understand your question. Can you  be more specific?  

[William Osborne]

12 minutes ago, Pib said:

I don't understand your question. Can you  be more specific?  

Can you send money from SCB acc to Western union acc online

?....and then send overseas for UK collection,

[Pib]

18 minutes ago, William Osborne said:

Can you send money from SCB acc to Western union acc online

?....and then send overseas for UK collection,

You could send from your SCB acct via direct debit, debit card, or paying at the WU agent/store.  You can send to a UK bank acct or a WU agent in the UK.  Below is a snapshot from my Western Union (Thailand) online acct.

 

 

However while a person does the bulk of the Western Union (Thailand) registration on their website a person must visit one of the WU Central agents to finalize the registration by showing their passport.  The bulk of the specific WU agent you must visit are in a Central Mall.  See snapshot and weblink below for locations.

 

https://www.westernunion.com/th/en/cds-agent-locations.html

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Pib

[Pib]

1 hour ago, firefox999uk said:

Dee Money

 

DeeMoney stopped sending to the UK several months ago...they are still looking for a UK partner to resume transfers to the UK.  Plus a person will need to be in Thailand to register....DeeMoney for a while would do registration totally online, but now require you to visit a DeeMoney branch in person to finalize the registration.

[Pib]

See this recent related Western Union (Thailand) thread.  I was surprised Western Union (Thailand) worked out so well for sending money out of Thailand. 

 

And as you will see in the thread three of us did such recent WU transfers.  While the thread starts of with doubters (to include me) that using WU Thailand to send money out of Thailand would be easy or cost effective, well, it did turn out to be easy and cost effective as Hal65, Somewhere in Time, and myself gave it a real world test and were happy with the results.

 

And to point out don't confuse the online Western Union (Thailand) transfer method I talking about with going into a Thai bank (or WU within your Thai bank ibanking menus) and the bank sending via WU as the Thai bank method of using WU is more expensive...I guess the Thai bank needs to make it commission.  

 

 

 

[theoldgit]

I've just had a look at the WU cost for sending 100,000 THB to UK, bank to bank, and the rates looked far better than I expected, of course you need to be able to access the bank in Thailand and the Thai WU site to complete the transaction, and I don't know if there are any hidden hurdles.

 

[Max69xl]

I think you should try another VPN. There are some real good and some almost useless. A few of the good ones offers a trial period for free. Just Google it. Don't you have access to the SCB website? You just mentioned the SCB app. 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Max69xl
More info

[digbeth]

4 hours ago, theoldgit said:

No, you cannot use Transferwise to transfer out of Thailand.

Not sure if transferwise accept debit cards but

with Thai credit cards you can use transferwise, some Thai banks like Kasikorn you get a 'virtual' debit card that looks like a credit card to the online merchant

 

You can't select to pay into GBP directly from Thai baht, but I have successfully paid into UK bank account just by selecting Euro to GBP and the amount taken from the Thai card is in Euro, which means losing out on the currency exchange twice, 1st with transferwise rate from EUR-GBP then the Thai Bank's card rate of EUR-THB, but it's all online without needing to visit a Thai branch to move money out 

[Max69xl]

33 minutes ago, digbeth said:

Not sure if transferwise accept debit cards but

with Thai credit cards you can use transferwise, some Thai banks like Kasikorn you get a 'virtual' debit card that looks like a credit card to the online merchant

 

You can't select to pay into GBP directly from Thai baht, but I have successfully paid into UK bank account just by selecting Euro to GBP and the amount taken from the Thai card is in Euro, which means losing out on the currency exchange twice, 1st with transferwise rate from EUR-GBP then the Thai Bank's card rate of EUR-THB, but it's all online without needing to visit a Thai branch to move money out 

"Not sure if transferwise accept debit cards"

Transferring money using TW is all about transfers from a bank account to another bank account, not about debit cards. I can receive money from let's say Europe,but not send money to Europe.

[fvw53]

On 9/30/2019 at 5:25 AM, Don Mega said:

Withdraw the cash at an ATM ?

I read at another TVF info QUOTE Speculation of the baht has slowed down after the central bank imposed measures to discourage foreign investors form parking their short-term funds in Thailand UNQUOTE

My question : do those investors also go to ATM to withdraw their speculative short-term funds? 

[Max69xl]

22 minutes ago, fvw53 said:

I read at another TVF info QUOTE Speculation of the baht has slowed down after the central bank imposed measures to discourage foreign investors form parking their short-term funds in Thailand UNQUOTE

My question : do those investors also go to ATM to withdraw their speculative short-term funds? 

We're talking about one salary in baht. How much can it be?

[Pib]

1 hour ago, Max69xl said:

"Not sure if transferwise accept debit cards"

Transferring money using TW is all about transfers from a bank account to another bank account, not about debit cards. I can receive money from let's say Europe,but not send money to Europe.

You can use a debit card to fund the transfer "for some currencies"....the transfer that goes to a bank acct. 

 

However, a Thai baht debit or credit card is not one of the cards that can be used.

 

Paying by card

https://transferwise.com/help/15/paying-for-your-transfer/2556723/paying-by-card

 

[LMN2019]

Thanks all! The VPN with a thai server worked (thank you to all who suggested that) I now have access to my Thai Western Union account however when ive tried to transfer the money over to my UK account it has just frozen each time and said it couldn't be done due to a 'technical error' 

 

I'm not sure why it's said this as when I was in Thailand and set my account up, I went in store, and confirmed my ID etc to set it all up. 

I have also made sure i'm requesting to withdraw within my SCB limit too (even though this means multiple transactions) but that doesn't work either, just the same error message coming up. 

 

I could try and just withdraw the money from a UK atm, but my worry is that as its a large sum of money I would have to draw it out in lots of little transactions and I don't want them to block the card for any reason if they see lots of little transactions at once trying to get the entire balance out. 

 

I've just emailed SCB who have come back to me in broken English saying I need a Income Salary Certificate (not sure what this is) I have advised I have my last payslip and my original job offer letter if that is of any help. 

I've also emailed Western Union for help too but have yet to hear from them ???? 

If I cant get an answer that works from these two, I will probs go for my last resort of using an ATM if possible but I have no idea of how much that will charge, or if it will work/block my card. 

 

If anyone else have any further suggestions please just let me know, thanks for all your help so far!!

[Max69xl]

17 minutes ago, LMN2019 said:

Thanks all! The VPN with a thai server worked (thank you to all who suggested that) I now have access to my Thai Western Union account however when ive tried to transfer the money over to my UK account it has just frozen each time and said it couldn't be done due to a 'technical error' 

 

I'm not sure why it's said this as when I was in Thailand and set my account up, I went in store, and confirmed my ID etc to set it all up. 

I have also made sure i'm requesting to withdraw within my SCB limit too (even though this means multiple transactions) but that doesn't work either, just the same error message coming up. 

 

I could try and just withdraw the money from a UK atm, but my worry is that as its a large sum of money I would have to draw it out in lots of little transactions and I don't want them to block the card for any reason if they see lots of little transactions at once trying to get the entire balance out. 

 

I've just emailed SCB who have come back to me in broken English saying I need a Income Salary Certificate (not sure what this is) I have advised I have my last payslip and my original job offer letter if that is of any help. 

I've also emailed Western Union for help too but have yet to hear from them ???? 

If I cant get an answer that works from these two, I will probs go for my last resort of using an ATM if possible but I have no idea of how much that will charge, or if it will work/block my card. 

 

If anyone else have any further suggestions please just let me know, thanks for all your help so far!!

Why would they block your card if it's international? The only problem will be the cash limit withdrawal per day,and how many withdrawals you have to do.

[LMN2019]

2 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

Why would they block your card if it's international? The only problem will be the cash limit withdrawal per day,and how many withdrawals you have to do.

That's what I meant, I will have to do multiple transactions to get the balance out, my SCB withdrawal limit when I was in Thailand was 20,000 baht, which i could try to take out here in the UK, but most UK cash machines have a withdrawal limit of £250. Which means I could try to withdraw £250 a day I guess for however many days and just accept the charge along with it every day too. it sounds like the only way I might be getting around it... 

[Max69xl]

7 minutes ago, LMN2019 said:

That's what I meant, I will have to do multiple transactions to get the balance out, my SCB withdrawal limit when I was in Thailand was 20,000 baht, which i could try to take out here in the UK, but most UK cash machines have a withdrawal limit of £250. Which means I could try to withdraw £250 a day I guess for however many days and just accept the charge along with it every day too. it sounds like the only way I might be getting around it... 

There are much higher limits available at SCB, but I don't know how to change it. 20000 baht per day is considered a high limit in Thailand, but not if you convert it to £. Is the limit only £250 in the UK today?