Moving US$100,000 to Thailand

[khunbillmex]

Looking for advice on how to best do this - what to watch out for - taxes/fees to pay -whether Transferwise is trustworthy enough to handle a transaction of this size, -other things to watch out for, -should I do incremental transfers instead of one big one?   Source of the funds are unspent proceeds from a property sale. Purpose of moving the money into Thailand is for self insurance (I'm non-O on a retirement extension) and to fund my children's education. I'm American, wife is Thai, children are tri-national.

[1FinickyOne]

I have transferred large sums through my bank in USA wiring the money here. Kasikorn has been best for me... funds are here the next day... if you have feeling of insecurity do it in 2-3 transactions. 

[Henryford]

I am sure Transferwise is OK bit personally i would do it a number of smaller transfers.

[Lacessit]

10 minutes ago, kenk24 said:

I have transferred large sums through my bank in USA wiring the money here. Kasikorn has been best for me... funds are here the next day... if you have feeling of insecurity do it in 2-3 transactions. 

Interesting. I have been transferring through Bangkok Bank, but with my move to Chiang Rai my account here is Kasikorn. How far below the XE crossrate is the baht exchange rate Kasikorn gives you? BB is usually about 0.5 baht below.

[jadee]

Transferwise offers the best rates and is definitely trustworthy - the company is valued at $3.5 billion.

[MJKT2014]

1 minute ago, jadee said:

Transferwise offers the best rates

That is ridiculous. Transferwise would cost many 100's of USD to transfer that kind of money as they charge as a percentage. Just use Transferwise for amounts of 4000USD or less. Use a bank with flat rates much cheaper for larger amounts, my Citi charges 30USD per wire.

[asiaexpat]

Transferwise would cost a fortune to transfer that amount. I use my bank international's swift transfer for anything over 10K. 

[tonray]

18 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Interesting. I have been transferring through Bangkok Bank, but with my move to Chiang Rai my account here is Kasikorn. How far below the XE crossrate is the baht exchange rate Kasikorn gives you? BB is usually about 0.5 baht below.

https://kasikornbank.com/en/rate/Pages/Foreign-Exchange.aspx

 

The TT (Telex Transfer) rate is the one Kasikorn will use on transfers. They update this page all day every few hours. Usually I find it is about .17 baht below the XE mid market rate for Dollar to Baht xfers

[tonray]

12 minutes ago, MJKT2014 said:

That is ridiculous. Transferwise would cost many 100's of USD to transfer that kind of money as they charge as a percentage. Just use Transferwise for amounts of 4000USD or less. Use a bank with flat rates much cheaper for larger amounts, my Citi charges 30USD per wire.

Yes...exactly...Schwab charges $25 no matter what size transfer..no other fees either end

[Pilotman]

I would watch the exchange rate, two or three times daily and transfer small amounts, over time,  when you are getting a slightly better rate. Its fluctuating quite a bit right now, so you may hit a downside and lose quite a bunch of potential upside. Monitor the rate over a one or two week period so you get a good feel for what an accptable rate looks like right now. As for self insuring, why keep it in Thaland and expose yourself and your money to the fluctations in rate?  Leave it where it is and only draw it here if you really need it. You may nenver need it 

[blackcab]

https://daytodaydata.net/

 

Compare the rates from the most popular exchanges. The default page is for notes. Change the drop-down menu for TT.

[Skallywag]

50 minutes ago, khunbillmex said:

I'm American, wife is Thai, children are tri-national.

How can children be "tri-national"?  I have hear of dual citizenship, but never heard of tr-national

[Lacessit]

22 minutes ago, asiaexpat said:

Transferwise would cost a fortune to transfer that amount. I use my bank international's swift transfer for anything over 10K. 

My transfers cost me $30 (AUD) irrespective of how much or how little I transfer.

[stupidfarang]

If not urgent, I would suggest holding off with the transfer as the Baht may drop due to the economic situation in Thailand. Also money in bank accounts I think are only guaranteed up to 1 million baht so if you want security then once money is here then place it in differant accounts up to 1 million baht

[uncleP]

I did 150k GBP via transferwise  a couple of weeks ago.

I did it over 5 transactions and paid 0 baht commission with kasikorn. I transferred  8-9PM Thai time and it was in my bank at 9AM the next morning  

Banks give u a bad exchange rate compared to transferwise.  Transferwise  is  also max 2 million baht per transaction but I kept mine under 1.5.  

[khunbillmex]

19 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

As for self insuring, why keep it in Thaland and expose yourself and your money to the fluctations in rate?  Leave it where it is and only draw it here if you really need it. You may nenver need it 

Point taken of course but situation complicated by the facts 1: that my  sister who 'hosts' my US presence won't always be in a position where she can forward updated debit cards and 2: my wife does not have a US Social Sec number which keeps her off my US accounts.

[Antonymous]

21 minutes ago, blackcab said:

https://daytodaydata.net/

 

Compare the rates from the most popular exchanges. The default page is for notes. Change the drop-down menu for TT.

 

That's a great website. Thank you.

[gargamon]

Since you refer to $ I will assume you are transferring from the US. Here's what I use:

 

Open a Capital One checking account(no foreign transaction fees).

Find a bank that does counter ATM withdrawals.

Get Capital One to set your daily withdrawal limit to the amount you need. (Normally $5k)

Withdraw the money over the counter and deposit it to your local account.

 

I do this regularly. The exchange rates you get are XE or slightly better, no fees anywhere.

 

Capital One has a mastercard ATM. I have a similar Chime account (no foreign transaction fee) which is a visa ATM. I did withdrawals from both cards and compared and found that the Visa card took about 1% of the amount while the MasterCard one did not. The fee appears to be a Visa fee, not a bank fee.

[Pravda]

42 minutes ago, MJKT2014 said:

That is ridiculous. Transferwise would cost many 100's of USD to transfer that kind of money as they charge as a percentage. Just use Transferwise for amounts of 4000USD or less. Use a bank with flat rates much cheaper for larger amounts, my Citi charges 30USD per wire.

 

No. You are ridiculous. How much does your bank charge in exchange rates.

 

Come back to us when you give an honest answer.

[baansgr]

39 minutes ago, MJKT2014 said:

That is ridiculous. Transferwise would cost many 100's of USD to transfer that kind of money as they charge as a percentage. Just use Transferwise for amounts of 4000USD or less. Use a bank with flat rates much cheaper for larger amounts, my Citi charges 30USD per wire.

But you can get upto 1 baht extra in XE with TransferWise compared to bank rates...so the fees although morevarevfar outweighs by XE. OP needs to compare every avenue. WU, TW and Bank rates...it's the nett amount in Baht that lands in his account that matters regardless of who charges what.

[khunbillmex]

17 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

1 hour ago, khunbillmex said:

 

How can children be "tri-national"? 

Born in Mexico to an American and a Thai parent. They each carry three passports.

[1FinickyOne]

51 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Interesting. I have been transferring through Bangkok Bank, but with my move to Chiang Rai my account here is Kasikorn. How far below the XE crossrate is the baht exchange rate Kasikorn gives you? BB is usually about 0.5 baht below.

not only is the rate good, maybe same as Bkk but it is fast and reliable... if I call in to USA at night - the money is in my account the next day at Kasi... last time was a large transfer and they called to ask me if the rate was ok... it was actually a bit more than I expected... 

[lopburi3]

I would check Transferwise as noted they had a link for large transfers on my transfer this week.  Normally they are very expensive for such transfers as fee based on amount sent.

 

A normal international wire transfer (SWIFT) would normally be a good option.

 

Question why the hurry?  If for health bills they can pay from USA just as well as from here and you can transfer as needed.

[asiaexpat]

Todays BB rate a $100k transfer using swift would give 2057 TB more than Transferwise quote.

[simple1]

41 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

How can children be "tri-national"?  I have hear of dual citizenship, but never heard of tr-national

I'm tri national. UK, AUS, NZ - no problems whatsoever

[Peterw42]

OP, why move the money at all ? If its for self insurance, move it if/when you have a hospital bill.

 

[rabas]

19 minutes ago, khunbillmex said:

Point taken of course but situation complicated by the facts 1: that my  sister who 'hosts' my US presence won't always be in a position where she can forward updated debit cards and 2: my wife does not have a US Social Sec number which keeps her off my US accounts.

Long term you may want to look into a Charles Schwab International Account. Over the years I have had problems with Merrill Lynch then Wells Fargo because of living overseas and having a Thai wife.  Schwab International  is an American banking/brokerage account designed for offshore people. US laws for expats have tighten a lot over the years but I easily put my wife on the Schwab account a year ago. A US address in not needed. No need for translations when submitting documents, "No problem, we read Thai just fine". 

[rumak]

Has anyone had any RECENT experience transferring thai baht  OUT  via swift ?

 

The country being sent to is Canada.    My bank is  Bangkok Bank,  so experience with

them would be great.    But if from another bank helpful as well

 

thanks

[Thomas J]

You can do a wire transfer.  Online they typically limit to $25000 USD  In person there is no limit.  You would want to check with the bank you are transferring it to and find their exchange rate versus transferwise.  You don't want your sending bank to convert to THB  They will rape you on the exchange. 

[khunbillmex]

6 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

OP, why move the money at all ? If its for self insurance, move it if/when you have a hospital bill.

 

Because I may be incapacitated at the time. My wife would need to access thee funds. I realize this is a less than perfect time to change $ into THB if holding the baht is simply for storage and not immediate use.