Transferwise reduces charges.

[grin]

On 10/1/2020 at 7:37 AM, EricTh said:

Have you used Instarem before? If yes, how does it compare with Transferwise?

I set up an account with InstaReM to have a backup in case of problems with TransferWise and/or OFX.

 

First, it is a pain to set up an account. You need to send them a number of documents. They were fairly responsive via email but it took multiple exchanges to get my account set up.

 

Not only that but if you don't make transfers for around six months your account becomes dormant and you have to set it up again.

 

Their rates are better than TransferWise but they take much longer to do the transfer. With TransferWise I can do a transfer from Schwab in the morning in the US and by late evening it is in my BBL account. Two of my InstaReM transfers took over a week and the fastest was 4 days.

[Susco]

I often read positive comments about CurrencyFair on the web, but rarely see it mentioned on this forum

[EricTh]

1 hour ago, grin said:

I set up an account with InstaReM to have a backup in case of problems with TransferWise and/or OFX.

 

First, it is a pain to set up an account. You need to send them a number of documents. They were fairly responsive via email but it took multiple exchanges to get my account set up.

 

Not only that but if you don't make transfers for around six months your account becomes dormant and you have to set it up again.

 

Their rates are better than TransferWise but they take much longer to do the transfer. With TransferWise I can do a transfer from Schwab in the morning in the US and by late evening it is in my BBL account. Two of my InstaReM transfers took over a week and the fastest was 4 days.

 

I went to Bangkok Bank and asked about the charge, they said there is a receiving end charge at 500 baht besides what Transferwise charged.

 

I get contradictory statement from another poster here who said it is free and there is a partnership with Bangkok Bank.

 

Both 'facts' were refuted by the Bangkok Bank officer I asked.

 

 

[grin]

36 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

I went to Bangkok Bank and asked about the charge, they said there is a receiving end charge at 500 baht besides what Transferwise charged.

 

I get contradictory statement from another poster here who said it is free and there is a partnership with Bangkok Bank.

 

Both 'facts' were refuted by the Bangkok Bank officer I asked.

 

 

I have never been charged any fee by BBL in addition to TransferWise. Transfer yesterday of $1450 - $14.53 fee = $1435.47. With exchange rate of 31.21 times this gives 44,801.018 and 44,801.02 Baht showed up at BBL.

[dimitriv]

2 hours ago, Susco said:

I often read positive comments about CurrencyFair on the web, but rarely see it mentioned on this forum

 

And xe.com  https://www.xe.com/mt/eu-money-transfer

 

I compared the rates with Transferwise, their exchange rate is a bit worse, but no transfer fee. And they say it is only from Europe to other countries.

 

For amounts up to E 100 xe.com is a bit cheaper, after that it's better to use Transferwise. That was at the moment I compared them.

 

[Pib]

6 hours ago, EricTh said:

 

I went to Bangkok Bank and asked about the charge, they said there is a receiving end charge at 500 baht besides what Transferwise charged.

 

I get contradictory statement from another poster here who said it is free and there is a partnership with Bangkok Bank.

 

Both 'facts' were refuted by the Bangkok Bank officer I asked.

 

 

Whoever you talked to at Bangkok Bank surely thought Transferwise transfers were handled like an international SWIFT transfer which does incur a receiving fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max). 

 

But Transferwise transfers are not SWIFT transfers...are really a domestic transfer in how Transferwise has its Thai partner bank setup. 

 

And if Transferwise used Bangkok Bank as its partner bank for any transfer to a Bangkok Bank acct that transfer receives International/FTT coding just like a SWIFT transfer but with zero receiving fee.

 

I've done many Transfereise transfers to my Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank accts--no receiving fee.

 

[Peter Denis]

6 hours ago, EricTh said:

I went to Bangkok Bank and asked about the charge, they said there is a receiving end charge at 500 baht besides what Transferwise charged.

 

I get contradictory statement from another poster here who said it is free and there is a partnership with Bangkok Bank.

 

Both 'facts' were refuted by the Bangkok Bank officer I asked.

Using TransferWise you only get charged their gliding scale service fee for transferring the funds from your foreign bank-account to your Thai bank-account.

The TransferWise 'trick' is that they have 3 partner-banks in Thailand.  So your international transfer is actually a domestic transfer (with no charges) as TW simply orders their Thai partner-bank to transfer the amount you 'sent' (minus their service fee) to your Thai bank-account.

As a result - unless your Thai bank-account is with BangkokBank and you ticked the 'funds for long-stay' option - the transfer will be coded as a domestic transfer on your bank-statements and pass-book.  When using the monthly-income transfer method where IO wants to see that the funds 'originated from abroad' you therefore need to get hold of that evidence.  As usual it's easy if you know how - PM me for a Guideline document on options to get hold of the evidence that the funds you transferred originated from abroad.

[Susco]

5 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

And xe.com  https://www.xe.com/mt/eu-money-transfer

 

I compared the rates with Transferwise, their exchange rate is a bit worse, but no transfer fee. And they say it is only from Europe to other countries.

 

For amounts up to E 100 xe.com is a bit cheaper, after that it's better to use Transferwise. That was at the moment I compared them.

 

You better stay clear of XE, because they have the worst transfer rates in the world.

 

Last year a customer sent me 1500 Baht, but for some reason he had no access to transferwise at that time, so he used XE instead.

 

His exchange rate about the same as Transferwise, but the fees at my end accounted to 460 Baht, so i received only 1040 Baht.

 

I received an email from XE that customer had sent me 1500 Baht

 

However he sent to my Kasikorn account directly, it first went to Bangkok Bank who deducted 350 Baht, and who then sent it to Kasikorn using Bahtnet, wich incurred another 110 Baht fee.

[EricTh]

11 hours ago, Pib said:

Whoever you talked to at Bangkok Bank surely thought Transferwise transfers were handled like an international SWIFT transfer which does incur a receiving fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max). 

 

But Transferwise transfers are not SWIFT transfers...are really a domestic transfer in how Transferwise has its Thai partner bank setup. 

 

And if Transferwise used Bangkok Bank as its partner bank for any transfer to a Bangkok Bank acct that transfer receives International/FTT coding just like a SWIFT transfer but with zero receiving fee.

 

I've done many Transfereise transfers to my Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank accts--no receiving fee.

 

 

It's amazing how these bank officers always give wrong information to customers.

 

 

[EricTh]

10 hours ago, Susco said:

 

 

However he sent to my Kasikorn account directly, it first went to Bangkok Bank who deducted 350 Baht, and who then sent it to Kasikorn using Bahtnet, wich incurred another 110 Baht fee.

I thought transferring funds between banks inside Thailand should be free?

[Susco]

17 minutes ago, EricTh said:

I thought transferring funds between banks inside Thailand should be free?

Obviously not if they use a service called Bahtnet for that transfer.

 

https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/business/Cash-Management/Money-Transfer/Pages/bahtnet.aspx

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Susco

[JimGant]

On 10/9/2020 at 11:36 PM, grin said:

With TransferWise I can do a transfer from Schwab in the morning in the US and by late evening it is in my BBL account.

I assume that is with a "push" from Schwab to your TransferWise borderless account? ('Cause when I do a bank debit "pull" by TransferWise, it takes three days to get to my Thai bank account.)

[KeeTua]

On 10/9/2020 at 11:36 PM, grin said:

With TransferWise I can do a transfer from Schwab in the morning in the US and by late evening it is in my BBL account.

How did you set up your transfer from Schwab to Transferwise?
I assume you push money from your Schwab account to Transferwise borderless/multi currency account via ACH.
With Schwab I see the option to link an account which would require 2 micro deposits to my Transferwise multi currency account, is that the option you used?

[grin]

I linked my Schwab Bank account to TransferWise for ACH transfers over two years ago. I was not given the option to do this with trial deposits back then. It's possible that this has changed now. I had to give them my Schwab username and password for TransferWise to set up the link. So, not liking giving up this kind of information I changed my Schwab password temporarily, gave TransferWise my new password to set up the link and afterwards reset my Schwab password. I was concerned that I would have to give them my new password but never had a problem since then. So it seems that permission for TransferWise to do ACH pulls was set up permanently on their initial login to Schwab. The interesting thing is that my transfer to BBL goes through in less than a day but the ACH withdrawal doesn't show up on Schwab for several days. However, I always get an email in about an hour that TransferWise has received the money from my Schwab account.

[KeeTua]

On 10/13/2020 at 11:07 AM, grin said:

I had to give them my Schwab username and password for TransferWise to set up the link. So, not liking giving up this kind of information I changed my Schwab password temporarily, gave TransferWise my new password to set up the link and afterwards reset my Schwab password.

OK so yet set it up at Transferwise to do a 'pull' from Schwab. I've been using the ACH pull method too but for a different bank and like Jim Gant posted it takes about 3 days for the transfer. I was looking into speeding up the transfer and reducing the cost by setting up the Borderless/Multi Currency account with Transferwise. Now I can do an ACH 'push' from my US bank account to my Transferwise Borderless account for free but it still takes about 3 days, not a big deal since I can let the money sit in the Borderless account until I'm ready to transfer to my Thai bank account. When I saw you were able to get money from Schwab the same day I thought your were doing a 'push' from your Schwab account.

 

I will try to set up the link to do an ACH push from my Schwab to Transferwise and hopefully the transfers will be free and the same day. I wonder if anyone has successfully done that with Schwab.

 

That's a good idea you had to use a temporary password for your Schwab account. It may be safe to do but it feels awkward having to input your bank login details to a third party site.

[Pib]

I have a push/send ACH transfer link setup from USAA to my Transferwsie acct.  Works like a charm.  USAA is pretty fast in pushing money out....if I do a push today, it will be in my Transferwise acct tomorrow.   I expect Schwab is fast also. 

 

But some US banks are no so fast....they can take 3 business days to push your money out....just their policy....and a few fee-evil banks even charge a person around $3 to send/push money like BoA and USBank.  

 

Using this method of pushing money to your Transferwise acct via either a manual push when ever your want or setting up an automatic push like say once a month works like a charm.  Then you do not have any Transferwise Bank Debit (ACH) fee and since you can now fund your transfer from your borderless acct balance the transfer occurs much faster. 

 

If you initiate a Transferwise before 9:30am Thailand time the funds will be in your Thai bank acct around 2pm....I've done this numerous times...and of course we are talking "business" days.    But initiate one second after 9:30am Thailand time with funding from your borderless acct balance and your funds will not arrive your Thai bank until next business day.  Now when the US goes back on standard time from daylight savings time I'm not sure if that 9:30am Thailand cutoff time will maybe shift to 8:30am or 10:30am....I would think it would shift to 10:30am.  

 

[Pib]

4 hours ago, KeeTua said:

That's a good idea you had to use a temporary password for your Schwab account. It may be safe to do but it feels awkward having to input your bank login details to a third party site.

Probably being done lot more than your think where a third party API is being used to accomplish a logon or a payment, but it's transparent to you.

 

Like when you buy something on Ebay and pay for the item with PayPal.  You are redirected to the PayPal from within Ebay....like a portal within Ebay to PayPal...to complete your payment on PayPal and then you are right back into Ebay.....that's been occurring for many years.  Ditto for sites that might use Amazon Pay or other payment sites.

[KeeTua]

51 minutes ago, Pib said:

If you initiate a Transferwise before 9:30am Thailand time the funds will be in your Thai bank acct around 2pm....I've done this numerous times...and of course we are talking "business" days.    But initiate one second after 9:30am Thailand time with funding from your borderless acct balance and your funds will not arrive your Thai bank until next business day.  Now when the US goes back on standard time from daylight savings time I'm not sure if that 9:30am Thailand cutoff time will maybe shift to 8:30am or 10:30am....I would think it would shift to 10:30am.

Good to know about the 9:30am cutoff, thanks for the heads up! Sounds like doing the transfer before 8:30am would be the safe bet year round.

[Pib]

7 minutes ago, KeeTua said:

Good to know about the 9:30am cutoff, thanks for the heads up! Sounds like doing the transfer before 8:30am would be the safe bet year round.

Keep in mind this same business day transfer time only applies if funding the transfer from your borderless acct balance before 9:30am.  Does not apply if using Bank Debit (ACH) funding which is going to talk a business day or two or three.

 

And the more I think about it once the US goes back to standard time from daylight savings time the cutoff time in Thailand should be 10:30am. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Pib

[Pib]

5 hours ago, KeeTua said:

 

 

That's a good idea you had to use a temporary password for your Schwab account. It may be safe to do but it feels awkward having to input your bank login details to a third party site.

 

Below couple year old ThaiVisa thread talks the third party API that Transferwise uses (and numerous other US banks) to connect to your bank acct to validate/authorize funding from your bank acct.