XFER cash china --> thai

[ChouDoufu]

i'm familiar with swifting funds from the usa to thailand; send dollars, have the receiving bank do the forex conversion for the best rates.  now i'm needing to transfer money from china to thailand.

 

this must be directed to krung thai bank.  i can't send to my bangkok bank account, as i can't transfer cash out from outside thailand.  transferwise and other online alternatives are unavailable in china.

 

previously sending cash out of china, i'd have to convert to USD, send to destination, then convert to target currency.  now it may be possible to convert to THB at the china end, or to send RMB and let krung thai convert to baht, avoiding the extra USD conversion entirely.

 

anyone with experience sending cash from china to thailand have any advice as to best bank method? 

[thedemon]

I have received transfers from companies in China to my KBank company account. They are just by regular TT and in either USD or RMB.

 

I'm pretty sure you will get the best rate by sending RMB and having KTB do the exchange to THB.

[ChouDoufu]

just to follow up.....what a headache!

 

started at 8:30am when ICBC opened.  took 40 minutes to withdraw funds.  not transfer funds, not exchange currency.  simply withdraw money.  took three clerks and five phone calls.  apparently they don't understand thai people can have passports, too.

 

after a ten minute walk with 5kg of chinese monopoly money, reached bank of china.  spent 45 minutes getting confirmation that i could indeed SWIFT the amount i wanted and i had the correct documentation.

 

sprinted two blocks over to agriculture bank to withdraw my money.  oh.  my.  dog!  took 90 freakin' minutes to withdraw cash!  they had a new form for "tax certification" requiring my date of birth, place of birth, and birth address.  in english and chinese and pinyin.  this form required two clerks, two managers, and multiple thumbprint scans.

 

returned to bank of china with another brick of funny money in a black plastic bag shortly before lunch.  surprisingly, the three clerks involved in the SWIFT process, along with the one manager with attached thumb stayed the full two hours to get the transaction completed in "only" two hours.

 

extra time needed for all the irrelevant info required on the swift form, but still managed to get out by 1:15pm.  looking forward to someday returning to thailand to spend all my ill-gotten booty, if they ever open the borders.......

 

and no, not possible to send thai baht from this location.  dollars or maobucks only.  given the 3% spread on RMB vs 1% on USD, seems we'll save 5000 baht in forex fees by converting to dollars here and having krung thai convert to baht, rather than sending china money directly.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by ChouDoufu