After phoning Barclay's International and being told I can set up a standing order between my local branch in the UK and Bangkok Bank branch in London and NOT have to pay a fee for transferring the money, I went to the local bank to do so, though I knew Bangkok bank would charge a £15 admin fee.

answer? No can do!!

Sigh....

I went home, confirmed the information and went back to the bank.

No sort code, not standing order.

Hmm

They asked the manager.... same answer.

After some talk they finally agreed to look into it.

20 minutes later they agreed I could set up a standing order. So I signed a letter there and then. Was sent internal post to International Payments.

4 days later and xx phone calls they knew nothing about it. So.... back to the bank.

The personal banker made plenty of calls before understanding the letter had not been received. She faxed a copy through.

Today I phoned. They had received the fax and were setting up the standing order. As an aside I asked to confirm there would be no charge.

Wrong. They wanted £20 a time.

Needless to say I cancelled it there and then with a fax.

Seems the different departments including International section do not know their armpits from their as**oles.

Good news is, I can send a cheque to Bangkok bank in London, they will process the cheque, pay the money into the account and only charge £15 !!

But what a hassle. Spent time confirming the prices, hours setting it up and hours chasing it up, only to discover the good people at Bangkok bank would let me pay by cheque and save £20 a time.

People say Thailand is bad.... try England!!

Good news is, I can send a cheque to Bangkok bank in London, they will process the cheque, pay the money into the account and only charge £15 !!

Let me see if I understand correctly what you are now doing.

1. You have a checking account with Barclay’s bank.

2. Periodically, you write a cheque and send it – by registered mail? Cost? – to the Bangkok Bank branch in London.

3. The Bangkok Bank branch in London processes your cheque – presumably gets it cleared – and then remits the money – in GBP or in THB converted at the offshore rate? – to Thailand.

4. The Bangkok Bank head office in Thailand remits the money to the bank of your beneficiary.

5. The beneficiary’s bank credits the beneficiary’s account.

Once the first remittance of this kind is completed, I would like to hear from you again in this topic on what date and for what amount you wrote your check and on what date and with what amount in THB the beneficiary’s account got credited. If it works out favourably, others may want to save five pounds per remittance this way.

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Maestro

Do you have a sterling account with BBL ? If not, then you should be careful that they don't convert into baht at the offshore rate.