Using Transferwise from Australia

[Tingtong2mut]

Sending about $25k AUS$ from Transferwise today, only signed up with them this morning and locked in a rate guaranteed for 48 hours.

Firstly am sending funds for yearly visa (400kTHB) and no need for of income sent from another country etc.

 

I haven't actually done the transfer yet but ready to pull the trigger. Ex rate up and down like a brides nighty at the moment so having 48 hours I figure will wait until morning in case rate improves overnight. A couple of things.....

 

When I signed up they asked place of residence etc which I put my Thailand address. They gave me a BSB and bank account number to transfer funds to them, which in hindsight could be their Thai account? Not sure. So if I transfer funds in the morning from my Australian Commonwealth bank account, it will only give me about 24 hours from then until the guaranteed rate expires. I am wondering if the transfer will hit their Transferwise account in 24 hours. What happens if the tfer takes longer than 24 hours and the 48 hours guarantee lapses?

I assume that's how it works or am I missing something?

 

As my account and funds are in Australia, did I make a mistake saying I am in Thailand, and if I said Australia they would have given me an Australian Transferwise account to send money to ie a lot faster?

 

I did see briefly in the area where you make your payment a list of common Aus banks....Comm, ANZ etc. Can u do something direct like that?

 

I assume if a better rate in the morning I can cancel the transfer I already have in place (before sending funds) and simply start a new transaction?

 

I sent them an email but looks like a 48 hour wait for reply. Would appreciate replies from people who have actually had some experience sending money from Aus to Thai with TW

 

 

 

[ozfarang]

I transfer funds with TransferWise every month. I have a CBA account and use my debit card to pay for the transfer.

 

Funds arrive in my wife's Bangkok Bank account within 5 minutes of executing the transfer. I send it around 0900 WST. My bank statement shows a debit to TransferWise Sydney.

[Tingtong2mut]

2 hours ago, pdtokyo said:

I did my first small test transfer (B10,000) to Thai partner a few days ago ... the thing happens in two legs ...

 

(a) my 'manual'* transfer from CBA account to Oz-based TransferWise account and

(b) their transfer from god knows where to her Siam bankbook account

 

(a) took best part of 24 hours ... my transfers ex-CBA take ages (maybe i'm on a watchlist!). Next test next month i try a different method .... maybe BPAY or card as in post #2

(b) took less than an hour ... didn't even see it in progress.

 

I have not read the TransferWise small print and i'm not about to ... your job ... but i'd be very surprised if the 48 hour exchange rate guarantee didn't start from the second you hit 'Submit' ... otherwise TransferWise could game the system by delaying or accelerating transfers ...

 

... but really ... is any sort of exchange rate guarantee worth much? unless you have inside info (= you member of Trump family) nobody has a clue what's going to happen next minute, let alone day after next. imo your 'locked in' rate is exactly 50% likely to be better or worse than the rate on the day. 

 

I don't think the address you gave (Australia/Thai) is material. Maybe they need to ask for money-laundering purposes but from a system point of view the triggers are as above (a) transfer from Oz account worked (b) deposit to Thai account worked. (a) + (b) = job done. Next.

 

* TransferWise call it 'manual', it means leaving their system, doing the CBA transfer and then returning to their system to say 'OK, i've done that'.

There is also an option to pre-load a balance account held by TransferWise and draw from that ... i'd expect that to be near-instant (like Ozfarang's experience in post #2) ... but i don't plan to use it ... TransferWise goes broke, any balance with them will be gurgled.

Yes their 48 hour guarantee is a huge plus. Particularly with the dollar all over the place and talk of the THB falling. For example you get 48 hours locked in rate. If I woke up in the morning and the rate has improved I cancel that transfer and start another one. If it has got worse I stick with my guaranteed rate. Win Win. Mind you, and I didn't read it 100% as clearly as it should but I think they will only guarantee the rate to within 5%, which means if your locked rate was 5% above the current rate at time of transfer, it would be at their discretion.

 

I normally in the past have sent AUS$ to Bangkok bank and their rate is always a pleasant surprise, usually about 0.3-0.5 baht less than current published rate and no fees.

 

Key is to send AUS$. Don't let the Australian banks do the conversion. So after you pay the Transferwise fee not a lot of difference, but that is when things are stable. A transfer from my Comm bank to Bkk bank often same day but sometimes has been 2 days for no apparent reason. And you don't know what the actual rate will be until it hits my Bkk bank. At the moment our AUS dollar can change + / -   1-2 cents in a matter of hours and this is quite a difference on the amount I am sending. Not talking sheep stations and if I was working in Australia wouldn't care but 3000-10000 Thai baht difference is a lot of noodle soup here ????