Sending Large Amount of Money From US to Thai Bank

[digibum]

My wife and I are buying land/home in Thailand.  
 

Yes, everything will be in wife’s name.  I’m okay with that so no need to explain how I’m going to lose everything.  LOL.  
 

My question is more about transferring the money from Schwab in the US to Bangkok Bank and the requirement for me to sign off on the money being hers.  
 

We have an initial deposit amount and then a final payment on completion (the place is 90% complete and just needs all the custom fit and finishes).  

The Transferawise fees are about $450 on the deposit amount so I assume an international wire from Schwab will be cheaper?   Or are Wise’s FX rates so good I’ll come out ahead using them as an intermediary?   Wise claims I’m saving several thousand but don’t say why.  
 

Are there any amounts that set off a red flag with the Thai banks where it might require a visit to the bank?   I’m nowhere near Bangkok where my main branch is so I would like to avoid any in-person appearances.  
 

Since I’m never the owner of this property, I assume I don’t have to worry about repatriating any sale proceeds since my my wife could transfer that money out of Thailand, right?   So no issues making sure the funds are marked as coming internationally, right?   
 

The plan was to send the money to my Bangkok Bank account and then transfer to my wife’s Bangkok Bank account so she can draw a cashiers check for both the deposit and purchase.  Any issues with that?   
 

Lastly, will giving her the money to pay the deposit cause any problems when we do the final transfer at the land office?   I assume that I’ll be signing a document saying I have no right to the property, but will that statement cover the initial deposit as well?   

[KannikaP]

90% complete, and you still need to pay the DEPOSIT?

[tgw]

the best solution for international large transfers has always been a SWIFT wire, sent from a large competitive commercial bank (not Schwab) in USD to a Thai bank.

[KannikaP]

8 minutes ago, digibum said:

The plan was to send the money to my Bangkok Bank account and then transfer to my wife’s Bangkok Bank account so she can draw a cashiers check for both the deposit and purchase.  Any issues with that?   

Why not send it directly to her account?

[tonray]

Schwab will charge you $15...that's right $15 for online, $25 if you call them. You will get whatever rate shown at Bangkok Bank as their TT rate when the xfrer hits, usually within 24 hours of online exewcution. My advice is to never do it on a Friday as the rates tend to drift down in the baht's favor on the weekend and you never know what Monday will bring.

 

For example...Bangkok banks TT rate right now is 31.83...you can compare to Wise with the $15 fee vs whatever WISE says it will cost.

 

 

[digibum]

13 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Why not send it directly to her account?

Im not sure if this is true, but I once read a lawyer giving an opinion that if a divorce were to happen, even if you sign the document saying it’s her money, if you could establish a clear path that it was in fact jointly held assets, you would have a case to argue for the proceeds from the home to be included in any divorce settlement.  Chances may be slim but with no paper trail, the chances are 0.  
 

That said, we’ve been married for over a decade and our marriage is better today than when we got married so I’m not anticipating any issues.  
 

But, creating the paper trail is fairly easy to do so why not do it just in case?  

[tgw]

18 minutes ago, tonray said:

Schwab will charge you $15...that's right $15 for online, $25 if you call them. You will get whatever rate shown at Bangkok Bank as their TT rate when the xfrer hits, usually within 24 hours of online exewcution. My advice is to never do it on a Friday as the rates tend to drift down in the baht's favor on the weekend and you never know what Monday will bring.

 

For example...Bangkok banks TT rate right now is 31.83...you can compare to Wise with the $15 fee vs whatever WISE says it will cost.

 

which is what I said

15$ seems to be a good deal by Schwab, I'm surprised there are no extra fees

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

which is what I said

15$ seems to be a good deal by Schwab, I'm surprised there are no extra fees

You said not Schwab...but a large commercial bank....the TT rate on the receiving end will be the same...so unless your large commercial bank is charging less than $15........

 

and  of course understanding that Schwab xfers and banking are handled by either JP Morgan Chase or Melon Bank...you get that anyway.

[digibum]

4 minutes ago, tonray said:

You said not Schwab...but a large commercial bank....the TT rate on the receiving end will be the same...so unless your large commercial bank is charging less than $15........

 

and  of course understanding that Schwab xfers and banking are handled by either JP Morgan Chase or Melon Bank...you get that anyway.

I was told that for a larger amount, I should go to Bangkok Bank and get a form from them before wiring the funds.  Not sure what form, but supposedly they’ll know.  

[tonray]

1 minute ago, digibum said:

I was told that for a larger amount, I should go to Bangkok Bank and get a form from them before wiring the funds.  Not sure what form, but supposedly they’ll know.  

Not sure what that would be...I've wired up to $50,000 US and no form was required. My first transfer to Thailand they called me to confirm security and all that but all subsequent transfers have been completed online with no further interaction.

[digibum]

48 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

90% complete, and you still need to pay the DEPOSIT?

We’re asking for some customizations to the property.   They’re not going to do that until we sign an agreement and put down a deposit for the customizations.  

[digibum]

4 minutes ago, tonray said:

Not sure what that would be...I've wired up to $50,000 US and no form was required. My first transfer to Thailand they called me to confirm security and all that but all subsequent transfers have been completed online with no further interaction.

That’s what I thought.  I’ve brought in $30k for a car and never had a problem.  
 

Thanks.  

[EricTh]

@digibum

 

Transferwise exchange rate is definitely better as it follows the market exchange rate quite closely. Western Union, banks all take a cut from poor  exchange rate in addition to their charge.

 

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=THB&view=1Y

 

Of course, you must also compare their service charge.

[Susco]

Just now, EricTh said:

@digibum

 

Transferwise exchange rate is definitely better as it follows the market exchange rate quite closely.

 

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=THB&view=1Y

 

Of course, you must also compare their service charge.

 

I have compared Wise with Swift to Kasikorn, for 300.000 Euro, and however you can do maximum 50K Euro per transfer with wise, you are still way ahead.

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, Susco said:

 

I have compared Wise with Swift to Kasikorn, for 300.000 Euro, and however you can do maximum 50K Euro per transfer with wise, you are still way ahead.

It can be very close. I just compared WISE with Schwab to Kasikorn (almost always .17 below Mid market rate at XE.com) and Schwab comes out ahead by 142 baht for $50K US. The big difference is whan rates are moving quickly, WISE locks you in...and with SWIFT you might get better or worse depending on when the xfer hits your Thai bank and whatever the rate is at that moment. You have about 24 hours of uncertainty.

[Susco]

2 minutes ago, tonray said:

It can be very close. I just compared WISE with Schwab to Kasikorn (almost always .17 below Mid market rate at XE.com) and Schwab comes out ahead by 142 baht for $50K US. The big difference is whan rates are moving quickly, WISE locks you in...and with SWIFT you might get better or worse depending on when the xfer hits your Thai bank and whatever the rate is at that moment. You have about 24 hours of uncertainty.

 

With Wise you get currently 32.13 for a dollar, minus the fees, but with Kasikorn you get only 31.87.

 

Are there no intermediary bank fees when you send with Swab

[tonray]

9 minutes ago, Susco said:

 

With Wise you get currently 32.13 for a dollar, minus the fees, but with Kasikorn you get only 31.87.

 

Are there no intermediary bank fees when you send with Swab

$15 only. And the rate is a bit higher as Kbank only updates the rate online during business hours. Take the xe.com rate and subtract .17 for a current KBANK rate equal to WISE for comparison.

[sanuk711]

1 hour ago, digibum said:

My question is more about transferring the money from Schwab in the US to Bangkok Bank and the requirement for me to sign off on the money being hers.

Wise has a limit of 2 Million Baht---but you can do several transfers to get around that.

About signing off on the house , you will do that in the land office--stating that the house belongs to your wife. The FTC foreign transaction certificate will be issued to you (if you ask) by the bank--its important to keep it, for a number of reasons-- you may want to leave the country--or--latter you may wish to buy a holiday condo in your name, you can not do this unless you show that the money came from overseas. If you are doing a bank transfer (that is not with "Wise") then you must send it in $$$ to get the rate in Thailand-- do not let them give you the rate in USA. It would be better to get your wife to speak to the bank-- I did a few months ago when I could not use Wise, and got a much better rate.

But normally Wise would be your best choice

[digibum]

58 minutes ago, sanuk711 said:

The FTC foreign transaction certificate will be issued to you (if you ask) by the bank--

That’s probably the form they were saying to ask the bank for before I wired the money.   Thanks.  

[asiaexpat]

Just used Swift from my bank to send $35k with a total cost of $30 plus Bangkok Bank fee of 500TB. Took one day.

[blackcab]

2 hours ago, digibum said:

Since I’m never the owner of this property, I assume I don’t have to worry about repatriating any sale proceeds since my my wife could transfer that money out of Thailand, right?

 

It depends. If your wife predeceases you and you are her sole beneficiary then it would be helpful to have proof of incoming funds just in case you need to transfer them back out again.

 

Documentation to show you are her beneficiary should be enough, but it's good to have options.

[digibum]

37 minutes ago, blackcab said:

 

It depends. If your wife predeceases you and you are her sole beneficiary then it would be helpful to have proof of incoming funds just in case you need to transfer them back out again.

 

Documentation to show you are her beneficiary should be enough, but it's good to have options.

Good point.   We’re doing all of the wills and everything and that is one of the points we’re looking at.  I was so focused on figuring out a way to stay in the house if she died before me, I wasn’t even thinking about what would happen if that failed and I had to sell and take my cash out.  

[JimGant]

On 6/29/2021 at 7:34 PM, tonray said:

I've wired up to $50,000 US and no form was required. My first transfer to Thailand they called me to confirm security and all that but all subsequent transfers have been completed online with no further interaction.

Several months ago I sent a SWIFT to Bangkok Bank for $60000 -- the first time I'd ever breached a $50k wire to Bangkok Bank (and previously with no problems). Several days later I tried to do an online transfer from our Bangkok Bank joint acc't (with wife) to our utility account. I got a "no can do", please call this number for further advice. The same message appeared when I tried an online transfer from my Immigration account. Anyway, calling the number got a language snafu, so next day I went to our local bank. After many back and forths with an IT guy at headquarters, plus changing user IDs and passwords, I was 'good to go' for online transfers from those accounts that had my name associated.

 

Anyway, Bangkok Bank had no real answer, other than maybe my computer had a virus (I could transfer, however, from my wife's sole accounts on this computer...). Could breaching the 50k threshhold have triggered this? Dunno, but next time maybe i'll give a heads up to Bangkok Bank about any wires above 50k coming in...