Comparison of options to get THB from my US bank

[DFPhuket]

During these unusual times, I like to keep more than the usual amount of cash on hand. This morning I compared three different options and the costs associated with each one to get the equivalent of 30,000 Thai Baht from my US Capital One 360 account. I compared the following options and thought it might be helpful to see what I found:

 

1) Western Union direct to Bangkok Bank. Bangkok Bank has a relatively new Western Union Transfer Service that allows money to go directly into your Bangkok Bank account. You must apply via their website or app. I was “approved” in three days. Fund transfers are initiated through the US Western Union website and can take from 0-6 days. There is no Bangkok Bank fee for receiving money. Cost today if I were receive 30,000 THB: $930.86

 

2) TransferWise: The transfer can take a couple of days. The $11.43 is included in the US$ amount. Cost today if I were receive 30,000 THB: $934.79 

 

3) ATM at Krungsri: There is a 30,000 Baht limit and a 220 Baht ATM fee that is included in the US$ amount. Capital One charges me no ATM fee. Make certain on the final ATM screen you choose “no” when asked if you want Krungsri to do the US$ conversion (similar to the question you may get when using a foreign credit card, always choose no or you’ll get a terrible exchange rate). Cost today if I were receive 30,000 THB: $935.31  

 

I choose to use the ATM option to get the Baht. As you can see, it was only 51 cents more than TransferWise and I had the money in my hand instantaneously. I could have saved $4.45 had I used the Western Union Bangkok Bank option. If I was in less of a hurry I would have used it. 

[cmarshall]

Wow!  Those are terrible options.  It costs me $6 from my US credit union to transfer more than that each month plus about $15 charged by Bangkok Bank.  And it arrives first thing the next morning.  Even if you don't qualify for a cut rate on a domestic wire transfer from your US bank/credit union, doing a Swift wire transfer should cost less than $50.  Capital One should be willing to do a Swift transfer for you.  How did you get stuck with such bad options?

 

It will take some time, but you can get the same roughly $20 overnight service that I get by opening accounts at State Department Federal Credit Union (sdfcu.org) and Bangkok Bank.  Yes, SDFCU is willing to open accounts for expats with the proper credentials.

[DFPhuket]

8 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Wow!  Those are terrible options.  It costs me $6 from my US credit union to transfer more than that each month plus about $15 charged by Bangkok Bank. 

I'm not following you. Aren't you saying you are charged fees of $21.

 

With today's exchange rate (using online conversions at XE and Morningstar), US$923 converts to THB30,000. I "paid" $12 more than the $923.  

[calbts2]

I have been using Schwab for many years here. Today May 1st 30000 baht would have cost $929.07.  The reimburse all Thai ripoff ATM fees. 

You can see the daily rates here :

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

If the rate goes down suddenly, you can quickly get to an ATM and take advantage of the previous day's higher rate.

The best option of course is exchanging $100 bills at the main Super Rich location Rajdamri 1. Next best is Schwab. 

You will not get the true XE rate in Thailand. 

[tonray]

21 hours ago, calbts2 said:

I have been using Schwab for many years here. Today May 1st 30000 baht would have cost $929.07.  The reimburse all Thai ripoff ATM fees. 

You can see the daily rates here :

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

If the rate goes down suddenly, you can quickly get to an ATM and take advantage of the previous day's higher rate.

The best option of course is exchanging $100 bills at the main Super Rich location Rajdamri 1. Next best is Schwab. 

You will not get the true XE rate in Thailand. 

SWIFT transfers via Schwab are a flat $25. You will get the published TT (telegraphic transfer) rate from each bank at time xfer hits your acct. Typically Kasikorn is about .17 to .15 below the XE mid market rate.

[glamont002]

I have a USD account at Bangkok Bank (easy to open if you already have a Baht account there). I have my US bank transfer dollars to the BB account. BB charges nothing for that (i.e. transfer $5k and $5k appears in the account). Then when needed I simply transfer from USD to the Baht account. No fees again and get that days FX rate and BB always seems to have the best FX rates. Also I am lucky that Etrade my US bank charges nothing for the outbound transfer  as not all US banks do that. In summary get dollars here with no fees.

Edited May 2, 2020 by glamont002
wrong bank

[Pib]

OP,

   You left out an option of doing a counter withdrawal (a.k.a., cash advance) with your Cap1 debit card.  This way you incur no Bt220 ATM fee.   If your Cap1 debit card is like mine your are authorized up to $5,000 counter withdrawals per day.  $1000 via ATM.  What I do periodically is do a counter withdrawal for Bt150,000 (which is under my $5,000 ) at a Krungsri Bank or Bangkok Bank branch.  You get the full Mastercard/Visa exchange rate with zero fees...and the Cap1 cards do not have  foreign transaction fee.  Plus you have the money in-hand immediately.  Beats all other methods such as ACH, SWIFT, Transferwise, etc. 

 

Below is a comparison I did earlier this year and posted in some ThaiVisa thread talking similar subject.

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Pib

[rwill]

I also have a Capitalone 360 account.  It's ok for ATM use, except for the Thai bank fee.  And no wire capability.

 

As mentioned above you can open a Schwab one international account.  You can use your Thai address and phone number for the account.  The downside being you need $25,000 to open it.  It is a brokerage account and pays poor interest on any money left sitting in it, like .2%.  However you can link your Capitalone account or any others you have and easily move money between them for free.  Also you can get a debit card and the 220 baht fee is refunded to you.  One quirk with it is you can take out $1,000 per day with the card but only $500 per transaction.  So to get 30K baht you have to do 15K twice.  Which is no problem because they give you the fees back anyway.  Plus you can do international wires with them for a $25 fee.  That is good for larger transactions.

Edited May 2, 2020 by rwill

[mr curmudgeon]

Bangkok bank foreign currency account easy to open? If you call getting a reference from the US Embasy easy!

[wwest5829]

Using TransferWise as I need the $2200 to come in monthly for Visa Extension of Stay.

[Max69xl]

On 5/1/2020 at 11:16 AM, cmarshall said:

Wow!  Those are terrible options.  It costs me $6 from my US credit union to transfer more than that each month plus about $15 charged by Bangkok Bank.  And it arrives first thing the next morning.  Even if you don't qualify for a cut rate on a domestic wire transfer from your US bank/credit union, doing a Swift wire transfer should cost less than $50.  Capital One should be willing to do a Swift transfer for you.  How did you get stuck with such bad options?

 

It will take some time, but you can get the same roughly $20 overnight service that I get by opening accounts at State Department Federal Credit Union (sdfcu.org) and Bangkok Bank.  Yes, SDFCU is willing to open accounts for expats with the proper credentials.

You're talking about a total fee of $21. That's a lot. So what are you complaining about when it comes to for example TW's fee? There are no receiving fee or any other hidden fees. 

[JDGRUEN]

TransferWise works very well. You can use the TW App, setup the account to move money using your U. S. Bank Debit Card. Money starts moving right away. It takes only a few hours. With the TW App on your Phone or Tablet you will know the Exchange Rate and Fees before you commit 

[chicowoodduck]

Well, for me it is simple....I use my Chase Bank and do my own money wire at $5 USD for any amount......pretty straight forward and right into my Siam Commercial Bank Account.......quickly and with no ATM fees....????????????????????????????

[Percy P]

On 5/2/2020 at 9:54 AM, glamont002 said:

I have a USD account at Bangkok Bank (easy to open if you already have a Baht account there). I have my US bank transfer dollars to the BB account. BB charges nothing for that (i.e. transfer $5k and $5k appears in the account). Then when needed I simply transfer from USD to the Baht account. No fees again and get that days FX rate and BB always seems to have the best FX rates. Also I am lucky that Etrade my US bank charges nothing for the outbound transfer  as not all US banks do that. In summary get dollars here with no fees.

Good, I do the same in Pound Stirling (£). All savings are kept in £ .

[Tedly]

10 hours ago, chicowoodduck said:

Well, for me it is simple....I use my Chase Bank and do my own money wire at $5 USD for any amount......pretty straight forward and right into my Siam Commercial Bank Account.......quickly and with no ATM fees....????????????????????????????

What type of Chase Bank account do you use for this. Not to sound stupid but I'm looking for options, is it a Chase account opened in America or Thailand and is it some type of international account, like if it is an account opened in America can you use a Thai address? As of now I am still in America but will be retiring to Thailand sometime in the not too distant future depending of course on the "virus situation" Thanks for whatever help you can be.

[shy coconut]

That TransferWise fee looks a little high to me.

 

I sent 62,000 baht on the 27th and the fee was £14:79 from the UK

The exchange rate was 40.3626 baht to the pound and the transaction

went through in a couple of hours, I'm not sure why it took so long

on this occasion as the process generally only takes seconds.

[Pib]

19 hours ago, chicowoodduck said:

Well, for me it is simple....I use my Chase Bank and do my own money wire at $5 USD for any amount......pretty straight forward and right into my Siam Commercial Bank Account.......quickly and with no ATM fees....????????????????????????????

But what you failed to mention is that $5 direct sending fee is based on allowing Chase to accomplish the exchange on their end which effectively adds a few percent of indirect fees due to their lower exchange rate.

 

https://www.finder.com/international-money-transfers/chase-bank-wire-transfers

[lopburi3]

9 hours ago, Tedly said:

What type of Chase Bank account do you use for this. Not to sound stupid but I'm looking for options, is it a Chase account opened in America or Thailand and is it some type of international account, like if it is an account opened in America can you use a Thai address? As of now I am still in America but will be retiring to Thailand sometime in the not too distant future depending of course on the "virus situation" Thanks for whatever help you can be.

Do not have Chase bank account but have Credit Card from 30 years ago and had no issue changing address to Thailand.  Did set up direct payment from a US bank account several decades ago when mail payment was delayed and has worked well, although seldom used due to foreign usage fee.

[ThaiWai]

On 5/2/2020 at 9:54 AM, glamont002 said:

I have a USD account at Bangkok Bank (easy to open if you already have a Baht account there). I have my US bank transfer dollars to the BB account. BB charges nothing for that (i.e. transfer $5k and $5k appears in the account). Then when needed I simply transfer from USD to the Baht account. No fees again and get that days FX rate and BB always seems to have the best FX rates. Also I am lucky that Etrade my US bank charges nothing for the outbound transfer  as not all US banks do that. In summary get dollars here with no fees.

It's called a foreign currency account and it's a nightmare to open. I tried at BKK Bank and since the NY Branch no longer accept ACH transfers for no good reason the only way to open the account was thru a wire. The staff at BKK B Chalong Phuket branch gave me an account number to transfer to but it was not an acceptable format for my US bank AKA one number too short. I went back to the branch 3 times begging for help and the all stared at me blankly. The two week time frame to wire the funds ended so they closed the account. And before you can do any of that it requires an address certification from Immigration and in Phuket which is a disaster already.  Because something was easy for you don't assume it will be easy for everyone else considering typical Thai bank staff gets zero training and has no idea what they are doing the vast majority of the time.

Edited May 4, 2020 by ThaiWai

[ThaiWai]

7 hours ago, Pib said:

But what you failed to mention is that $5 direct sending fee is based on allowing Chase to accomplish the exchange on their end which effectively adds a few percent of indirect fees due to their lower exchange rate.

 

https://www.finder.com/international-money-transfers/chase-bank-wire-transfers

A year ago Chase was the highest cost option at $45 for an international wire.  Bad for me as I was a long time customer.  They emailed me with the new $5 dollar rate so I gave it a try.  They immediately locked all my accounts because of suspicion of fraud regardless of the fact I had been doing ACH transfers to BKK B for years until BKK B cancelled that for no good reason. I had to call security who kept me on the phone for no less than 35 minutes during which time I had to provide the year make and model and color of every car I owned in the past ten years including the color of my mothers current car. The full birthdays of almost all of my family members including my ex-wife.  Zip codes for every address I ever lived in and several other details I cant remember now.  When I got annoyed the Indian woman on the the Chase security side became hostile and aggressive.  I would never, ever, EVER use Chase for an international wire transfer again even if it was free.

[ThaiWai]

On 5/2/2020 at 11:55 AM, mr curmudgeon said:

Bangkok bank foreign currency account easy to open? If you call getting a reference from the US Embasy easy!

Embassy has nothing to do with your bank account and BKK bank made it impossible for me to open my foreign currency account. Total incompetence.

[lopburi3]

1 hour ago, ThaiWai said:

I tried at BKK Bank and since the NY Branch no longer accept ACH transfers for no good reason

Actually they have very good reason - US Government regulations that require international format information for any foreign transfer - they ran it out for year before they had to fully comply.  If your home bank would use international ACH format the money can and is transferred to Thailand.

 

57 minutes ago, ThaiWai said:

Embassy has nothing to do with your bank account

Bangkok Bank will almost always want a letter from Embassy of who you are and why you want an account these days to open a new account.  Just as a US bank needs to know customers before providing service in today's world.