Finally some good news! Brits getting 43 Baht to the Pound, USD doing OK too

[Andycoops]

All negated by the rise in prices, especially food recently.

Currently 42.62 on XE.Com but every little helps.

[dabhand]

5 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Just checked Wise total rip off it would cost me AUD 304.8 ! in fees to transfer 50,000 AUD. If I used Telephone banking with my bank the fee would be AUD 18. I don't understand why everybody raves about Wise. My UK bank max fee 20 GBP. 65.24 pounds to send 8000 pounds via wise. think i'll stick to using my banks thank you very much.

You should really look beyond just the fees calculation (assuming you have that calculated correctly - your other post had Wise fees at 6%, rather than the actual 0.6%) and also include for exchange rates. In other words, look at what actually hits your Thai bank account using the different transfer options.

Just saying...........

[DPKANKAN]

4 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Was that before their extortionately high fees? 

After their nominal fee. Best rate/cost/timing from an agency or banks for a long while

[KannikaP]

20 hours ago, billd766 said:

My pensions go into my Wise account in the UK and I transfer to BBK bank the same day that they arrive.

Why not save it all up and send it once a month?

[billd766]

5 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Why not save it all up and send it once a month?

I find it easier this way and also easier for Immigration as I have 3 pensions and I show the individual pension payments.

Plus it costs no more.

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I find it easier this way and also easier for Immigration as I have 3 pensions and I show the individual pension payments.

Plus it costs no more.

How can say 36 transfers be easier for IO than 12?

The source of the money from UK does not particularly have to be from a pension.

Someone 'retiring' here at 55 would not be receiving a 'pension' as such, but can still have legitimate income.

[SwampyThai]

On 3/20/2021 at 1:15 PM, billd766 said:

I did a transfer through Wise on Friday afternoon and the forex rate was 42.9524.

I have been using Wise (nee TransferWise) since late 2019 and they have always given me a far better forex rate than KBank. My money is in my BBK branch within 24 hours except at weekends and public holidays when it the first banking day after.

Yep Wise are excellent, very good rates and usually extremely fast, I have had several UK to Thailand transfers that arrived in less than 2 minutes, weekends, as you say can take longer.

[Daffy D]

20 hours ago, elliss said:

Wow . You must be as old as me .  Congrats ..

   Whats, your secret , lady younger more , @ least 30years ..555

Thailand then was truly Amazing Thailand .

 Short time . 500 bht ..

Don't think there are too many of us old timers still around.

 

Cheap fun living does take it's toll  ????

 

And you know what they say "you're as old as the woman you feel"

 

That seems to work, though strangely she's not as young as she used to be.  

[Stevemercer]

17 hours ago, Susco said:

I don't think I would hire you as a financial adviser.

When do you think there is the most risk of funds exiting Thailand, when you have to pay 43 Baht for a pound, or when you have to pay 60 Baht for a pound?

Answers on a postcard

 

Money comes in on a high Baht. If it plummets to 60 Baht a pound, the hot money will have already left the country (and left a sign saying the last one out should turn off the lights). 

 

After the 1997 crash, Thailand wisely converted all its debt away from foreign currencies into Baht to avoid a repeat. However, that policy has gone out the window for the last few years and government debt is in overseas currencies again. As the Baht drops, the debt gets higher and higher.

[billd766]

4 hours ago, KannikaP said:

How can say 36 transfers be easier for IO than 12?

The source of the money from UK does not particularly have to be from a pension.

Someone 'retiring' here at 55 would not be receiving a 'pension' as such, but can still have legitimate income.

Quote "Someone 'retiring' here at 55 would not be receiving a 'pension' as such, but can still have legitimate income." I have no doubt that those people will do things the ways that are easiest for them.

 

 

But I am NOT a 55 year old retiree, however I am a genuine retiree of 76, who does things the way I want to do them, and not the way that anybody thinks I should.

 

The way I do it has served me well enough for the past 11 years, and will do me until I turn up my toes.

[Susco]

46 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

Money comes in on a high Baht. If it plummets to 60 Baht a pound, the hot money will have already left the country (and left a sign saying the last one out should turn off the lights). 

 

Why would money come in on a high baht?

 

If I was a Brit, I would send money to Thailand when I get 60 or 70 to the pound, and send it back to the UK when every 40 baht buys me a pound

[Susco]

49 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

After the 1997 crash, Thailand wisely converted all its debt away from foreign currencies into Baht to avoid a repeat. However, that policy has gone out the window for the last few years and government debt is in overseas currencies again. As the Baht drops, the debt gets higher and higher.

 

That needs some further explanation.

 

Thailand exports more than it imports, so how can their debt be in foreign currencies?

 

I'm too lazy to look it up, but Thailand has a few billion USD in foreign currency reserves, one of the highest in the world

[Jonathan Swift]

On 3/19/2021 at 3:29 PM, KhunBENQ said:

A long way to go.
If one has the moderate hope to get back to the 10 year high, the following gains from current  value would be necessary (rounded):

USD 18%
EUR 23%
GBP 31%
AUD 39%

(with graphs from xe.com)

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=THB&view=10Y
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=THB&view=10Y
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=THB&view=10Y
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=AUD&to=THB&view=10Y

A long way to go? Are we going somewhere? Is history expected to repeat itself, the "good old days" to return? Since in our reality time goes forward, not backward, it is pointless and futile to point to past events and circumstances and wring our hands and furrow our brows over whether we'll ever get back to some equivalent point. Now is the reality we have to accept and live with. If you've staked your life and future gambling that favorable exchange rates of the past would return and sustain you, you've made a very bad bet. Economic realities rarely cooperate with wishes and expectations. World economies will do whatever they do in spite of us, best to make peace with that fact and count our blessings accordingly. Since when has complaining done any good? 

[Jonathan Swift]

On 3/19/2021 at 5:15 PM, tomazbodner said:

In related news - price of all imported stuff increases 50%

News update - people complaining in record numbers about things over which they have no control, little understanding. toxic self flaggellation leading to increased suicide rate. Reduced population expected to reverse current downward economic trend.

[Jonathan Swift]

On 3/19/2021 at 5:15 PM, tomazbodner said:

In related news - price of all imported stuff increases 50%

News update - people complaining in record numbers about things over which they have no control, little understanding. toxic self flaggellation leading to increased suicide rate. Reduced population expected to reverse current downward economic trend.

[Jonathan Swift]

I fail to see any value to this as "news". By the time any story about exchange rate is published the rate has changed again. Meanwhile we can all keep track quite nicely in real time on our own. Did they run out of stories or just get sick of the complainers?

[Cocobeach]

It is still too low for Euro. It's an all time low for now..the worse. 

[anchadian]

On 3/20/2021 at 5:19 PM, billd766 said:

My pension comes on the 4th Friday which is the day I transfer it. Looking at this mornings Wise forex rate it is 42.6888, which is lower than yester afternoons rate when I did my transfer.

I track the KBank forex on Monday to Friday, the Wise forex Monday to Saturday and XE on Saturday and Sunday.

My pensions go into my Wise account in the UK and I transfer to BBK bank the same day that they arrive.

I don't transfer such large amounts that a few satang more or less forex in the long term.

1 baht higher or lower does make a difference but 10 or 20 satang is hardly noticeable over a monthly period.

The difference between you on Thursday and me on Friday was 9 satang per 1 GBP and equaled 27 baht. 

Exactly.

 

If you are transferring relatively large amounts to Thailand then that's a different matter.

I have just opened a Wise account with an initial Thai debit card deposit.  Now waiting for my first pension payment to Wise which should arrive this coming Friday.

 

This is the live exchange rate (GBP/THB) site I will be tracking which matches Wise.

https://uk.investing.com/currencies/gbp-thb

[Chivas]

23 hours ago, Susco said:

 

 

 

I'm too lazy to look it up, but Thailand has a few billion USD in foreign currency reserves, one of the highest in the world

 

Few Billion in USD lol ??  Try around $245 Billion currently.........

[holy cow cm]

Ooohh... Now maybe I can send 50k USD over now. Been a tough wait. Let's hope it goes to 32-33-34 and then I will after that send another 40-50k. My last sending of a few thousand USD had a great rate. 

[billd766]

22 minutes ago, anchadian said:

Exactly.

 

If you are transferring relatively large amounts to Thailand then that's a different matter.

I have just opened a Wise account with an initial Thai debit card deposit.  Now waiting for my first pension payment to Wise which should arrive this coming Friday.

 

This is the live exchange rate (GBP/THB) site I will be tracking which matches Wise.

https://uk.investing.com/currencies/gbp-thb

My State pension arrives at Wise in the UK around 3:30pm and I transfer it to my BBK account within a couple of hours. However I don't actually get the money into my BBK bank account until around 2pm on the Monday or the next bank working day after the weekend.

 

Please be aware that Songkran is in April and the bank computers don't process incoming funds until it is a bank working day. (I think that all the Thai bank computers play games at Songkran).

[anchadian]

30 minutes ago, billd766 said:

My State pension arrives at Wise in the UK around 3:30pm and I transfer it to my BBK account within a couple of hours. However I don't actually get the money into my BBK bank account until around 2pm on the Monday or the next bank working day after the weekend.

 

Please be aware that Songkran is in April and the bank computers don't process incoming funds until it is a bank working day. (I think that all the Thai bank computers play games at Songkran).

It certainly wont be water games this year..

 

Thanks

[anchadian]

1 minute ago, anchadian said:

 

Oops

[brianthainess]

On 3/21/2021 at 1:27 PM, dabhand said:

You should really look beyond just the fees calculation (assuming you have that calculated correctly - your other post had Wise fees at 6%, rather than the actual 0.6%) and also include for exchange rates. In other words, look at what actually hits your Thai bank account using the different transfer options.

Just saying...........

Oops my glasses must need cleaning my bad on the 6%, but the other fees    i quoted were directly from the Wise site, and I never send in Baht anyway. Also  luckily I have never needed money sent in 2 min, mine normally arrives in 12 hrs. I only send my money once a year anyway, but Wise fees are way still more than my bank.

[billd766]

14 hours ago, anchadian said:

It certainly wont be water games this year..

 

Thanks

Certainly not in policed tourist areas, but elsewhere in rural Thailand where the police are not normally seen anyway? I don't know.

[billd766]

2 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Oops my glasses must need cleaning my bad on the 6%, but the other fees    i quoted were directly from the Wise site, and I never send in Baht anyway. Also  luckily I have never needed money sent in 2 min, mine normally arrives in 12 hrs. I only send my money once a year anyway, but Wise fees are way still more than my bank.

Well Wise fees are much lower than when I sent my money direct to KBank years ago.

With Wise, I know upfront how much I am sending, how much the fees are, what forex rate I am getting and when it will be in my account.

 

With KBank all I knew was when and how much of my funds I would get, but only after it went into my account and only then if I logged into KBank. I had no idea what fees were charged by which bank on the way and the only forex rate I could find would be the TT rate quoted the day I received it.

 

Going to TransferWise as they were then was one of the best financial moves I ever made. 

[EricTh]

This is only temporarily. The Baht goes up and down.

 

Once the economy recover, it is going to go below 30 baht per USD again.

[Chivas]

Dollar/Baht (benchmark that affects ever single one of us) has moved out to 30.96 weakest its been on the 1 month graph

All the way to 33 please chaps

 

Edited weakest its been since 5th November 2020

[dabhand]

4 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Oops my glasses must need cleaning my bad on the 6%, but the other fees    i quoted were directly from the Wise site, and I never send in Baht anyway. Also  luckily I have never needed money sent in 2 min, mine normally arrives in 12 hrs. I only send my money once a year anyway, but Wise fees are way still more than my bank.

 

You continue to ignore the exchange rate part of the calculation.

For GBP transfers the rising fees charged by Wise are more than covered by the better exchange rate when comparing Wise to the local banks. As I said, the only true comparison is in looking at what hits your Thai bank account.

Anyway, enough from me. Your money, your choice.

[billd766]

8 hours ago, EricTh said:

This is only temporarily. The Baht goes up and down.

 

Once the economy recover, it is going to go below 30 baht per USD again.

Are you a financial guru or something.

 

Very few of the worlds financial experts predicted the Tom Yang Gung crash of 1997, the 2008 crash in the USA, Brexit etc.

 

The way I see it is that if the financial whiz kids are so good and so clever, why are they still working for banks, financial companies etc, when with all the accumulated knowledge they have at their fingertips, why are they all not multi-billionaires?