Could someone please explain the difference between buying and selling rates, as in:

They are for two different transactions.  

 

Take US$ for example.  The buy rate is what they will give you for your dollars since they are buying the $ from you and giving you Baht.  The sell rate is what they will sell $ to you for so if you want to get $ you pay them the sell rate in Baht.

 

The difference between the two rates is their profit assuming they have both transactions happening at the same time for like amounts.

 

 

THANKS!  LOOKS LIKE TRANSFERWISE IS A GOOD DEAL...

Yes, TransferWise is excellent for transferring money from your home bank-account to your thai bank-account.

But take heed to use their service when you need to prove the foreign origin of the funds.  Below it is explained how to ensure that when using TW the funds you transferred are coded as 'international transfers'.

 

Some info on TransferWise > https://transferwise.com/

TransferWise is a very fast and inexpensive way to transfer funds from your foreign bank-account to a thai bank-account.  Many TVF members are making use of that service, and there are many threads on it on the Forum.

TransferWise uses the mid-exchange rate (which is the actual conversion rate and not the inflated rate that banks charge you) and charges a relatively small fee for its service.

Their 'trick' is that they do not physically transfer your funds, but they have agreements with partner-banks in Thailand and your transfer is actually a domestic transfer, as it is their partner-bank that transfers the funds to your bank-account.

When you need to prove to your Immigration Office that the funds on your thai bank-account originated from abroad, that can cause a problem.

However, the transfer WILL show up in your Thai bank account as an International Transfer WHEN:

1. your account is from one of the three partner banks TW use (Bangkok bank, Kasikorn bank and TMB)

2. you have (previously) requested that TW tag that bank as your preferred direct transfer route (you only have to do this once, NOT for every transfer)

3. you designate that account as the receiving Thai account on your transfer applications and

4. you choose the "long term stay in Thailand option in the reason for transfer in your transfer applications.

If your Thai bank-account is NOT with one of the three partner banks TW WILL still route your transfer via one of those three banks, to be forwarded (immediately) to your own account. But, because the final leg of the transfer is between two Thai banks the code shown in your own bank account will be a "local transfer" code and NOT an International Transfer.

So when it is required to prove to IO that the funds on your thai bank-account originated from abroad, simply make sure that the 4 conditions have been fulfilled the first time you do a test-transfer and check whether the correct international transfer-code appears next to the transaction in your bank-book.  If that's the case, you can from then on use TransferWise to do all your foreign transfers to that thai bank-account and they will show up as international transfers.

 

Useful post but I don't really understand the Immigration issue for source of funds. Are you able to elaborate please.

 

Thanks