Banking

[Edward Abbott]

Does anyone know if there is a maximum that can be deposited into a Thai account before the bank asks questions? I am having 300,000 THB deposited next week. If in the UK and that amount, questions would certainly be asked. I know Thai banks seems to be more relaxed than in the West though. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Edward Abbott

[kwonitoy]

I've transferred 6 millon baht in one go to pay for a condo, not a raised eyebrow.

You're OK

[Ohyesuare]

They're more concerned when you try and take out large amounts.

[JustAnotherHun]

If you transfer a big amount the bank in your home country may inform the tax department there. Bangkok Bank did not even ask, when I transfered 15m THB to them in 2009.

[Gottfrid]

Have made a lot of transfers for 1,2 - 8 million baht. Not a sound as long as the money goes in to the country.

[CharlieH]

MOVED TO BANKING FORUM

[1FinickyOne]

That amount should not squeak a mouse... 

[fdsa]

I do agree with the posters above: Thai banks usually don't ask any questions when you bring money IN, the problems begin when you want to take money OUT of the country.

Edited November 19, 2021 by fdsa

[digbeth]

they're more concerned with frequent amounts of over 3000 transactions per year or 400 transaction totalling over 2 million baht per year to catch traders  

[blackcab]

The cash reporting limit for Thai banks applies to amounts over 2 million baht.

 

Your bank will not report amounts lower than this unless you look something like the hamburglar.

[GrandPapillon]

that's a small amount and in theory shouldn't be a problem,

 

but again this is Thailand, so you can expect some silly questions from an overzealous bank employee

 

just did a transfer of 500,000 THB to Thailand and it's blocked somewhere, apparently for compliance reason

 

so be prepared ????

 

[Dazinoz]

I use Bangkok bank and don't usually transfer much now, basically 65,000/month as required by immigration. Balance has dropped below 1000 and I get an automated message saying balance below threshold please deposit. A couple months ago I also sold a little crypto and balance went over 150,000 and I got an automated message saying balance was OVER the threshold and to please transfer. I took phone to a BB branch and showed them. No idea.

[Gsxrnz]

They won't raise an eyebrow. 

 

But if you send as a foreign currency make sure the bank has your Thai phone number and are able to contact you.

 

The reason is that they may decide to call you to confirm an exchange rate and if they cannot contact you they won't convert.

 

I use Wise so haven't had this problem for years.  But pretty sure I remember getting phone calls for anything larger than circa USD10k.  I certainly got phone calls for USD20K or more.  Things may have changed so I stand to be corrected.

[Card]

On 11/19/2021 at 9:47 PM, kwonitoy said:

I've transferred 6 millon baht in one go to pay for a condo, not a raised eyebrow.

You're OK

Probably because you stated the reason for the transfer. Usually no problem up to 100,000 baht if transferred within Thailand. If more then the BOT needs to know and your bank may phone you to ask. Best to transfer 99900 X 3 

[dlclark97]

Have been questioned by my Thai bank about my inbound transfers on occasion.  Usual question, what is the money for.  At one time a house was being built so that was my reply and that was all.  Other times my response was 6 months or a years living expenses.  Again no problem. 

[thaibook]

I used Wise to recently transfer There is a limit of 2million baht per transaction but you may make several transactions per day.  If you may buy something you later sell and wish to take the money out of the country you will need a bank form that the money was brought in.

 

Of course, if you are a policeman the rulles may be different. 

[chilli42]

I can’t say I have any specific knowledge of the banking rules here. I have deposited over B3 million in a number of different banks on a number of occasions.  Never had a question …. and would not have expected any.  Don’t think you have anything to worry about.

[new2here]

I am not aware of any a

language in the relevant consumer banking law nor language in the AMLO regulations that explicitly establishes a hard-cap for deposits made into accounts. 

 

What the banks DO have to do is essentially “know your customer” which is the current mantra publicly put forth by the BoT and to a degree, AMLO.

 

So, while there is no stated hard cap, i am quite sure that the bank does monitor - via programmatic means- your accounts and will manually review any transactions or series of transactions that the banks systems flag OR that the BoT or AMLO, deem worthy of a further review.

 

AMLO sets forth a wide range of transaction types, account ownership forms, etc that all have some varying degree of regulatory requirements… but i don’t see anything that in and of itself sets a cap on deposits alone.

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by new2here

[sead]

50000 thb i was told by bank. I sent 80000 from Sweden and had to fill out some forms etc. Got told by the bank it is procedure when receiving more than 50000 from overseas. After that im sending under 5k multiple times and never had an issue

[ukrules]

17 minutes ago, sead said:

50000 thb i was told by bank. I sent 80000 from Sweden and had to fill out some forms etc. Got told by the bank it is procedure when receiving more than 50000 from overseas. After that im sending under 5k multiple times and never had an issue

I've been sending between 75 and 100k+ a month every month for about the last 10 years and never been asked anything, ever.

 

Then there's the times when I needed more to buy something specific, and transferred perhaps up to a million Baht like when I bought a car or one of those 5 year Thailand Elite visas (which I did twice), also no questions were ever asked, even when I withdrew 500k in cash to pay for the visa at the bank next door, I did that procedure twice as well as it was 'too late in the day' to do an inter bank transfer so I had to withdraw the cash and 'walk it over' to the other bank ????

 

It's really weird that they checked you out over 80,000 Baht.

 

I use a very basic Kasikorn 'savings account' which comes with only an ATM card - I believe this is the lowest form of bank account they offer, as such I only use it for day to day expenses.

 

They don't seem to trust foreigners here so I do my real banking elsewhere.

Edited November 21, 2021 by ukrules

[JBChiangRai]

On 11/19/2021 at 11:09 PM, blackcab said:

The cash reporting limit for Thai banks applies to amounts over 2 million baht.

 

Your bank will not report amounts lower than this unless you look something like the hamburglar.

Confirmed, the AML regulation is 2M THB, over this amount the bank will report the transaction to the BoT who in all probability will do sweet FA.

[NoshowJones]

On 11/19/2021 at 10:55 PM, fdsa said:

I do agree with the posters above: Thai banks usually don't ask any questions when you bring money IN, the problems begin when you want to take money OUT of the country.

How will they know what money you are taking, or have taken, out of the country if you don't tell them?

Edited November 21, 2021 by possum1931

[Cake Monster]

I think there is some kind of a limit now placed upon a transfer into the Country.

I am not sure, but I believe that limit to be $ 30,000, in a single transaction.

Its all to do with Money Laundering Laws Etc, and a quick visit to your bank will clarify the situation for you

 

[natway09]

As stated above anything under 2mil THB will just arrive , doubt any questions asked.

Getting it out of UK & reasons why will be a bigger issue

[rwill]

I have wired up to $250,000 US no problem.  My bank, SCB, will call me first if the amount is over $20,000 US.  They just want to know if it for a property purchase or not.  Other than that no problems.

[thaiowl]

I've transferred in USD300k to my SCB account. They called me up to let me know the money had arrived, to tell me the FX rate they were giving and asked what the transfer was for (it was to buy a condo). All very simple.

[lkn]

In 2015 my bank (KTB) told me that anything above $50,000 would need me to come to the bank and fill out some form. I can see that I have done two transfers above $50,000 (since 2015), but I am quite sure that I only did the form for one of them.

 

Anyway, 300,000 THB should not be something to worry about. But as others have pointed out, your bank may delay exchanging foreign currency to THB because they need you to confirm.

 

I managed to get my bank to make a note in their journal or something, which says that they should just give me the best rate they can, no need for awaiting my confirmation.

 

Also, this “better rate” (that needed confirmation) was for amounts above $10,000. Lower amounts just get the rate shown on their site.

 

And when I get money from abroad, I first get an email telling me the money has been received, and a preliminary rate, but the money is not deposited into my account until a few hours later. Perhaps that is the alternative to me confirming, i.e. just email me the rate, and give me 2-6 hours to object.

Edited November 21, 2021 by lkn

[GrandPapillon]

interesting, I have transferred close to $1m to Thailand over the years, and never got the best "exchange rate" ????

[lkn]

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

interesting, I have transferred close to $1m to Thailand over the years, and never got the best "exchange rate" ????

It was “their best” not “the best” ???? but I just took the rate and date from the last 6 USD credit remittances (above $10k) and entered into a spreadsheet and looked up Google’s rate for the same date: On average KTB’s rate was 0.26% worse than Google’s. The best I got was 0.11% and worst was 0.50%.

 

Adding to this though is a flat fee of 550 baht charged by the bank.

 

For comparison, Wise is generally 0.4%-0.6% worse than the Google rate, so for larger amounts, KTB is normally better than Wise.

[LetsGoJoe]

On 11/19/2021 at 10:55 PM, fdsa said:

I do agree with the posters above: Thai banks usually don't ask any questions when you bring money IN, the problems begin when you want to take money OUT of the country.

I seem to recall a 'golden-rule' of living in LOS; ...'what comes into Thailand STAYS in Thailand'...oneself being exempt of course.

Edited November 22, 2021 by LetsGoJoe