New build Thailand Aus age pension

[bluejets]

Hi,

    Own the house here in Aus and get part age pension due to wife working part time.(Thai now Aussie citizen).

Was not sure which forum so chose this as it is house related.

Assets level here in Aus are below requirement and will allow to have around 1.5 million baht house built there on rural land wife owns.

Build will be mainly for when we visit but there is also the "give it a rest" content. Anyone married will appreciate the latter I'm sure. ????????

Intention is to stay a few months in Thailand  and return and work in Aus whenever this covid thing and the requirements levels out a bit.

Not a bad retirement plan if things get somewhere back to normal.

Previous living there was great and I am no stranger to many of the differences one must get used to.

 

Anyone there have similar experience with such a plan obviously from Aus as rules from different countries would vary.

Things like sending money in larger amounts ( say 200,000 baht at a time).

I have heard good things about "wise" but are there any government forms required etc.

Found one Aussie up in Chaing Mai website with many useful tips and just thought the more the better.

 

Would tend to do build in stages while we are in attendance to keep a close eye on things.

Have also read where it is best to use separate contractors rather than a "jack of all trades" single builder.

Electrical contractor here in Aus so well used to other building trades and what should or shouldn't be done even allowing for the differences in building practices.

Built my own place here back in '86 and rebuilt after the 2013 floods (that was not fun at all) but sort of looking forward to doing this in Thailand.

 

Cheers

Edited February 4, 2022 by bluejets

[biggles45]

G'day mate, I have an ANZ account and set up a Wise account to send money to our bank in Philippines. The process seemed a bit confusing at first so here is some info;-

You set up a Wise account in OZ $. Now this new account is based in Australia, mine is in Melbourne, so it is a LOCAL account. You get a BSB and account number for it from Wise. 

When you want to transfer money from your bank you use the BSB number and make a LOCAL transfer, this is very quick. But the cash is held in your OZ account until you 'SEND' it

You create a Recipient with their bank details and you SEND the money by selecting their account. You are told the exchange rate, which is set regardless of how long it takes. 

It is then transferred to them, from OZ to Thailand for you. This takes longer, 3 days to Philippines, Thailand may be quicker. 

Wise track progress all the way. I have used it for 2 years, no problems. Good luck with your plans

[MikeN]

Quote

Things like sending money in larger amounts ( say 200,000 baht at a time).

I have heard good things about "wise" but are there any government forms required etc.

Many people swear by Wise, but I send my money online direct from my Westpac account. Up to $10,000 only costs me a fixed fee of $5, while Wise has a sliding percentage fee scale.... the more you send, the more it costs ! That $10,000 would be approx 230,000 baht at the moment. No forms or anything, although if you did that every day for a while it might trigger an automatic money laundering alarm, but once a month or so no problem.

One potential problem with Wise depending on your future visa......if you ever need an extension of stay and rely on the monthly income requirements be aware that Wise only sends it to certain Thai banks marked as an international transfer, other Thai banks receive the money via the domestic money transfer system which does n't meet immigration's requirements.

Edited February 4, 2022 by MikeN

[rwill]

Schwab One International.  You can wire money for free.  You can also get a debit card that has no fees and rebates you the fee charged by Thai banks.  So free to get money out of an ATM too.  I don't know about transfering money from an Australian bank to them.  You would have to contact them to find out.

The one downside is you need $25,000 (US) deposit in cash or stocks to open an account.

 

I have wired as much as $250,000 (US) at a time with no problem.  Just the Thai bank calling me to ask if the money is to purchase property or for living expenses.

[The Hammer2021]

45 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Many people swear by Wise, but I send my money online direct from my Westpac account. Up to $10,000 only costs me a fixed fee of $5, while Wise has a sliding percentage fee scale.... the more you send, the more it costs ! That $10,000 would be approx 230,000 baht at the moment. No forms or anything, although if you did that every day for a while it might trigger an automatic money laundering alarm, but once a month or so no problem.

One potential problem with Wise depending on your future visa......if you ever need an extension of stay and rely on the monthly income requirements be aware that Wise only sends it to certain Thai banks marked as an international transfer, other Thai banks receive the money via the domestic money transfer system which does n't meet immigration's requirements.

wise functions as an international  bank with debit card and is very versatile when travelling.

[PJPom]

I note that one poster says Westpac only charges $5 per transfer, that may be correct but the exchange rate they apply may be as much as one and a half baht per dollar lower than Wise,

I have used Wise for three years plus and all extensions needing financial information have been accepted.

I have just checked and the difference between Wise and Westpac for $A 3000 is 2300 baht !!! In Wise’s favour .

Edited February 4, 2022 by PJPom
Additional info

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, The Hammer2021 said:

wise functions as an international  bank with debit card and is very versatile when travelling.

My bank in Australia is Macquarie and I's set up for internat banking.

 

When funds needed in LOS:

- Login and select international transfers.

- Automatically tranfers your activity to OFX international transfer site (affiliate of Macquarie)

- Online you set up details of receiver, amount etc. Enter.

- Automatic e.mail for you to confirm the details, plus details of how to send the funds to OFX, all very simple. You add AUD15 to the funds you send to OFX to pay their international transfer fee. 

- OFX confirm receipt of the funds.

- Within a few hours confirmation from OFX that funds have been sent abroad.

- Within an hour of so confirmation the funds have been sent to the receivers account.

- Within an hour or so I get an SMS from K Bank indicating funds have been received into my K bank account.

 

Simple, straight foward prompt.

 

(Can also set up an automatic 'Credit Advice' e.mail from K Bank. E.mail received within a few minutes of funds received into your K Bank account. E.mail gives full details of sender/AUD amount sent/receiver/K Bank charges to receive/deposit to your account - always 300Baht.)

 

[SAFETY FIRST]

52 minutes ago, PJPom said:

I note that one poster says Westpac only charges $5 per transfer, that may be correct but the exchange rate they apply may be as much as one and a half baht per dollar lower than Wise,

I have used Wise for three years plus and all extensions needing financial information have been accepted.

I have just checked and the difference between Wise and Westpac for $A 3000 is 2300 baht !!! In Wise’s favour .

Something to note 

 

Wise is no longer doing business with Westpac and St George Banks

[The Hammer2021]

8 minutes ago, scorecard said:

My bank in Australia is Macquarie and I's set up for internat banking.

 

When funds needed in LOS:

- Login and select international transfers.

- Automatically tranfers your activity to OFX international transfer site (affiliate of Macquarie)

- Online you set up details of receiver, amount etc. Enter.

- Automatic e.mail for you to confirm the details, plus details of how to send the funds to OFX, all very simple. You add AUD15 to the funds you send to OFX to pay their international transfer fee. 

- OFX confirm receipt of the funds.

- Within a few hours confirmation from OFX that funds have been sent abroad.

- Within an hour of so confirmation the funds have been sent to the receivers account.

- Within an hour or so I get an SMS from K Bank indicating funds have been received into my K bank account.

 

Simple, straight foward prompt.

 

(Can also set up an automatic 'Credit Advice' e.mail from K Bank. E.mail received within a few minutes of funds received into your K Bank account. E.mail gives full details of sender/AUD amount sent/receiver/K Bank charges to receive/deposit to your account - always 300Baht.)

 

Could you explain  a bit more please?

[PJPom]

Safety first has just posted that Wise no longer deals with Westpac !!!

I have just transferred funds taking less than two minutes from Westpac Australia to S C B Krabi, where did this information come from ?

[SAFETY FIRST]

4 minutes ago, PJPom said:

Safety first has just posted that Wise no longer deals with Westpac !!!

I have just transferred funds taking less than two minutes from Westpac Australia to S C B Krabi, where did this information come from ?

Did you transfer from Westpac using Wise? 

 

I received this message from Wise a few weeks ago 

 

Unfortunately, since we've stopped partnering with Westpac bank, that also includes their subsidiary banks (St George being one of them).

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by SAFETY FIRST

[GreasyFingers]

I hope you are going to be onsite when the building work is being done. Thais generally have a different opinion on what and how things are done to Aus. Will not really matter if you subcontract or a full time builder, there will be problems that you need to be there to advise (from my experience).

 

I use OFX for transfers, free if $10,000+ and generally quick. You will pay Thai bank fees for transfer from Bangkok head office to regional account. Easy to register with them if you are in Aus.

 

 

[PJPom]

Safety first, absolutely… from Westpac using OSCO, immediate funds transfer to Wise Australia account, immediate email acknowledgment of funds received, then check with SCB, funds in account within one minute, back to Mail foe email saying funds sent with note it might take so many hours for my bank to post it.

where did you hear that Wise is not dealing with Westpac ?.

[Pungdo]

I switched from OrbitRemit to Wise a few months back, initially it was pretty quick, in my SCB account same day, lately it has been really slow, I did a transfer on Mon 28th Feb, and it didn't go into my SCB account until the 3rd Mar and I set up the transfer from my ComBank account around 5am here in Thailand, so it was done well and truly early enough in the morning to have been completed same day or at worse next day.

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 hour ago, PJPom said:

Safety first, absolutely… from Westpac using OSCO, immediate funds transfer to Wise Australia account, immediate email acknowledgment of funds received, then check with SCB, funds in account within one minute, back to Mail foe email saying funds sent with note it might take so many hours for my bank to post it.

where did you hear that Wise is not dealing with Westpac ?.

I received an email from wise after I complained because I couldn't transfer my money. 

 

I was using PoliPay to transfer, the option to use Westpac and St george were no longer available. 

 

I'm using Remitly now. 

 

It must just be PoliPay transactions that are no longer available. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by SAFETY FIRST

[Dumbfounded]

I'm an aussie living here retired since 2013 and have been using Wise last few years from NAB to Bkk Bank with no problems. If doing a bank transfer never have your AUD exchanged to baht before sending from OZ as the banks rates are pitiful.

 

With Wise you agree to the rate and that's what you'll get here as the money is sent locally (from Bkk) to your thai account so no transer fee this end, but have noticed Wise post on their site some local thai banks will not accept transfers from Wise over a certain amount. I also look at what the cash exchange rate is here on Vasu and SuperRich to see if Wise is close to this (including tfr fee) and if so I know the rate is decent.

 

We're building a new house here atm and went with a professional company rather than local labour and so far happy with the work, costs a bit more but results are better based on previous experiences here with extensions on our current house.

 

What province will you base yourself in? BTW price for housing materials has increased substantially here over the last 2 years

[Dumbfounded]

7 hours ago, MikeN said:

Many people swear by Wise, but I send my money online direct from my Westpac account. Up to $10,000 only costs me a fixed fee of $5, while Wise has a sliding percentage fee scale.... the more you send, the more it costs ! That $10,000 would be approx 230,000 baht at the moment. No forms or anything, although if you did that every day for a while it might trigger an automatic money laundering alarm, but once a month or so no problem.

One potential problem with Wise depending on your future visa......if you ever need an extension of stay and rely on the monthly income requirements be aware that Wise only sends it to certain Thai banks marked as an international transfer, other Thai banks receive the money via the domestic money transfer system which does n't meet immigration's requirements.

 

AUD

0 AUD

PayID

fee

57.25 AUDOur fee

–57.25 AUDTotal fees

=9,942.75 AUDAmount we’ll convert

×23.3590Guaranteed rate (66 hrs)

Recipient gets

THB

A bit muddled, but sending 10k AUD including charges would give you 233,590 baht with Wise atm. I'm not suggesting you change what works for you but if you want to compare net conversion rates before you send you can just check it on Wise to see if the bank rate (including fee) is better

 

And yes I agree with you I would not use Wise if I have to show monthly income from outside Thailand

Edited February 4, 2022 by Dumbfounded
added to comment

[MikeN]

5 hours ago, PJPom said:

I note that one poster says Westpac only charges $5 per transfer, that may be correct but the exchange rate they apply may be as much as one and a half baht per dollar lower than Wise,

I have used Wise for three years plus and all extensions needing financial information have been accepted.

I have just checked and the difference between Wise and Westpac for $A 3000 is 2300 baht !!! In Wise’s favour .

Everybody knows.....or at least should know ..that you never ever change currency with your home bank ....send it here as dollars/euros/whatever and let the recieving bank change it here, you get a much better rate. I have just checked, for your 3000 dollars Westpac would give me 67857 baht, but sending it as $AU and changing it at the Bangkok Bank TT rate gives me 69122.5 baht.

perhaps you should do the sums again for $10000, using the TT exchange rate here, and Wise's higher fees for larger amounts.

All i know is that i tried a real world test, sending the same total amount including westpac's $5 fee, at near enough the same time, and ended up getting (slightly) more from the bank transfer than from the Wise transfer. And when I updated my passbook it seemed to have arrived first too.

Of course, many/most banks would charge more than $5 .. if I used my CBA account it would be $20.

 

And something  from the Wise website that may be relevant to the OP as he asked about sending large amounts :

 

Please note that you’ll only be able to send 50,000 THB or above per transfer to the following banks starting from 7 January 2022 due to regulatory changes:

• Bangkok Bank Public Company

• Kasikorn Bank

• Siam Commercial Bank

You can still send money to recipient accounts that use other banks, but you’ll only be allowed to send them up to 49,999 THB per transfer. There’s no limit on how many transfers you can create.

 

They also state that Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank are their partners which will mark your transfer as an international payment, other banks won't.

Edited February 4, 2022 by MikeN

[bluejets]

Biggles....... good clear advice...thanks

MikeN......... no plans to stay long periods, perhaps 6 months max at a time. I'm with ANZ and they charged the hell out of me once to do bank transfer so never again.

PjPom..........yes, banks are no, no as far as I'm concerned.

Hammer......Thanks for info

Greasy..........I did mention we would be in attendance during any part of the build.

 

All others, appreciate your input, thanks.

Just looked in "wise" and for a AUD$1000 and an AUD$10,000 transfer, both instances, Western Union don't charge a brass razoo whereas Wise are a bit over 50 bucks. for the latter....how could that possibly be? 

 

MikeN....couldn't see any reference to max 50K baht, sure it wasn't 50K dollars...?? Heard the latter mentioned previously....do you have a link to your info?

Edited February 5, 2022 by bluejets

[AverageBloke]

On 2/4/2022 at 9:38 PM, SAFETY FIRST said:

 

 

 

On 2/4/2022 at 9:38 PM, SAFETY FIRST said:

Something to note 

 

Wise is no longer doing business with Westpac and St George Banks

I transferred money from my St George account via Wise 3 weeks ago. Is this something new?

Edited February 6, 2022 by AverageBloke
Double post

[SAFETY FIRST]

17 minutes ago, AverageBloke said:

 

 

I transferred money from my St George account via Wise 3 weeks ago. Is this something new?

It looks like they've just stopped PoliPay transactions from Westpac and st george banks 

[HighPriority]

On 2/5/2022 at 10:00 AM, bluejets said:

 

 

All others, appreciate your input, thanks.

Just looked in "wise" and for a AUD$1000 and an AUD$10,000 transfer, both instances, Western Union don't charge a brass razoo whereas Wise are a bit over 50 bucks. for the latter....how could that possibly be? 
 

 

 

 

The fees are important but think of the bigger picture…

The cost of exchange is the rate of conversion… (how many Baht per Dollar) plus the fee.

Usually a better exchange rate will compensate for the fees.

Bottom line is how many Baht you end up with at the end and Wise usually puts you in front.

[crouchpeter]

On 2/4/2022 at 3:24 PM, MikeN said:

Many people swear by Wise, but I send my money online direct from my Westpac account. Up to $10,000 only costs me a fixed fee of $5, while Wise has a sliding percentage fee scale.... the more you send, the more it costs ! That $10,000 would be approx 230,000 baht at the moment. No forms or anything, although if you did that every day for a while it might trigger an automatic money laundering alarm, but once a month or so no problem.

One potential problem with Wise depending on your future visa......if you ever need an extension of stay and rely on the monthly income requirements be aware that Wise only sends it to certain Thai banks marked as an international transfer, other Thai banks receive the money via the domestic money transfer system which does n't meet immigration's requirements.

Immigration won't accept income method without a confirmation letter from your embassy; which Oz won't supply!

[FarFlungFalang]

On 2/4/2022 at 3:24 PM, MikeN said:

Many people swear by Wise, but I send my money online direct from my Westpac account. Up to $10,000 only costs me a fixed fee of $5, while Wise has a sliding percentage fee scale.... the more you send, the more it costs ! That $10,000 would be approx 230,000 baht at the moment. No forms or anything, although if you did that every day for a while it might trigger an automatic money laundering alarm, but once a month or so no problem.

One potential problem with Wise depending on your future visa......if you ever need an extension of stay and rely on the monthly income requirements be aware that Wise only sends it to certain Thai banks marked as an international transfer, other Thai banks receive the money via the domestic money transfer system which does n't meet immigration's requirements.

Hi MikeN,I used to send online direct from Westpac to Bangkok Bank account until the Thai phone companies stopped carrying the one time password so I could no longer use a local phone number, so my question is does this still occur or have things changed again?