UK State Pension - How does one get it paid in Thai baht into a Thai bank account ?

[sandyf]

On 7/19/2022 at 3:37 PM, bluemoonpattaya said:

I pay £4 for transfer from the UK, plus exchange commission in the Thai bank. I make about 1 money transfer a year, unless more is needed. It suits my needs of moving money about.

Do UK pension pay the bank exchange charges in Thailand ?

I would agree, I have used HSBC since I changed from DWP and never had a problem. They put the fee up to £5 a couple of months ago.

[sandyf]

23 hours ago, xylophone said:

However "transam" states that to pay the UK pension into a Thai bank costs nothing, but I don't recall the that being an option a few years ago, unless things have changed?

You have always been able to have your pension paid direct to an overseas bank. There will be costs involved but you don't see them. All you see is an amount into your account and the rate on that is about as good as you can get.

[bert bloggs]

On 7/19/2022 at 11:51 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

Gave up on them long ago, i'm not going to criminalise myself for a few measly quid a month.

But thats another story which has been done to death imo

A few measly quid a week soon mounts up to quite a lot a week for the guy who ha been living here for say 15 yrs,then 10% on top of that next year

[sandyf]

18 hours ago, billd766 said:

How much does it cost, is the forex rate better and is the transmission time quicker?

That depends on the bank Bill. HSBC only recently put the fee up from £4 to £5 but some banks are about £20+.

I compared HSBC to Wise over a period and although I have a Wise account I didn't see the point in changing. I only ever do it mid week, make the transfer one day and in Thai bank the next, Wise may well be quicker than that but speed is not much of a concern.

[sandyf]

6 hours ago, theoldgit said:

You can now get statements for up to 12 months via the BKK Bank App, they are delivered via email. Though I'm not sure if the IO's would accept these, as it would be too easy for the applicant.  

At Sri Ratcha, anything to do with your bank has to be stamped, but statements not necessarily on the day.

I went the bank TTB thinking I would need to order a 12 month statement but I got it over the counter there and then.

I ordered the letter for the day I was going to immigration so there was a 10 day difference between the date on the 12 month statement and the date on the letter.

[sandyf]

6 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Current State Pension is £141 a week. What was it 10 years ago?

It was £107, I got mine Aug 2012.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

That depends on the bank Bill. HSBC only recently put the fee up from £4 to £5 but some banks are about £20+.

I compared HSBC to Wise over a period and although I have a Wise account I didn't see the point in changing. I only ever do it mid week, make the transfer one day and in Thai bank the next, Wise may well be quicker than that but speed is not much of a concern.

I closed all my UK accounts years ago as it was costing me too much money Sandy. I used to use my Lloyds ATM card to get my pensions back in the early 2000s and I went to PNG on a job to find that my new offshore bank manager in Jersey had frozen my account. It cost me over 100 quid in phone cards to get it re-opened and 6 months later I finally closed the account.

 

Now Wise is my only UK bank and has served me well over the past 3 years,

[Andrew Dwyer]

8 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Current State Pension is £141 a week. 

In 2022-23, the full level of the new state pension rises by 3.1% taking it to £185.15 a week, or £9,627.80 a year.

[JetsetBkk]

21 hours ago, billd766 said:

How much does it cost, is the forex rate better and is the transmission time quicker?

SWIFT is about 20 pounds, if I recall correctly.

 

11 hours ago, KannikaP said:

That's OK if you want to pay SWIFT transfer charges instead of WISE.

But at the end of the day, it's not really worth worrying about.

I used WISE once, several months ago, but prefer to use SWIFT (mostly because I'm used to it).

I transfer every 3 or 4 months so the 20 pounds charge doesn't feel so bad.

 

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, JetsetBkk said:

SWIFT is about 20 pounds, if I recall correctly.

 

I used WISE once, several months ago, but prefer to use SWIFT (mostly because I'm used to it).

I transfer every 3 or 4 months so the 20 pounds charge doesn't feel so bad.

 

Used to use swift but wise is better,

[Andrew Dwyer]

I learned about Wise ( Transferwise ) from this forum and did a comparison of NatWest to BKK Bank v NatWest to Wise to BKK Bank transfers , on a transfer of £10k i got 12k baht ( roughly £300 at the time) more via Wise , only wish i had learned about it earlier !!

[chang50]

2 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I learned about Wise ( Transferwise ) from this forum and did a comparison of NatWest to BKK Bank v NatWest to Wise to BKK Bank transfers , on a transfer of £10k i got 12k baht ( roughly £300 at the time) more via Wise , only wish i had learned about it earlier !!

It really is a no brainer!

[Pumpuynarak]

14 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

A few measly quid a week soon mounts up to quite a lot a week for the guy who ha been living here for say 15 yrs,then 10% on top of that next year

Yeah but i've only been receiving my UK state pension for nearly 7 years and i was contracted out of SERPS so my state pension is no big deal. Now if we were talking about my final salary company pension which i receive 1-3% increases each year then any increases do matter. 

[transam]

Just got my state pension in my LOS bank, SMS message, as usual, on a Thursday, around 9/9.30.

One thing I do know is it takes 4 day's to get into my account. You may recall that the Thai gov demanded something done by Thai banks which extended the payment period, but that was a one off, payed every 28 days since then.

At what stage the exchange rate is done, I don't know, but I can tell you exactly what rate I was given just now....

 

43.79.....

[sandyf]

15 hours ago, billd766 said:

I closed all my UK accounts years ago as it was costing me too much money Sandy. I used to use my Lloyds ATM card to get my pensions back in the early 2000s and I went to PNG on a job to find that my new offshore bank manager in Jersey had frozen my account. It cost me over 100 quid in phone cards to get it re-opened and 6 months later I finally closed the account.

 

Now Wise is my only UK bank and has served me well over the past 3 years,

Yes Bill, if you do not have much contact with the UK it can be difficult to maintain an account.

Totally agree on Wise, I use it quite a bit alongside my HSBC account. The debit card is a real bonus when travelling, so easy.

When I came back in June had to spend longer in Vienna than anticipated. Had a beer and the message from Wise showed the balance lower than I had realised. Just logged on did a quick transfer and good to go, another couple of beers, something to eat and off to the duty free.

Had I tried to use the HSBC, every chance the highly efficient fraud squad would have blocked the transaction and frozen the card.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Yeah but i've only been receiving my UK state pension for nearly 7 years and i was contracted out of SERPS so my state pension is no big deal. Now if we were talking about my final salary company pension which i receive 1-3% increases each year then any increases do matter. 

I don't get increases on nowt ???? retired in Thailand 7 years before pensions age I knew my pensions would be frozen and planned on estimated amounts at the time of receiving them. 

Ended up more than I estimated and enough to be comfortable on. 

My wife was eligible for a UK pension which got taken away with all other benefits eventually so addressed that to give her an income when I drop. 

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

SWIFT is about 20 pounds, if I recall correctly.

If you use HSBC it is £5.

[sandyf]

15 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

In 2022-23, the full level of the new state pension rises by 3.1% taking it to £185.15 a week, or £9,627.80 a year.

There are 2 different rates,  one for the old and one for the new.

The poster you responded to was comparing the rate to 10 years ago, so obviously talking about the rate for the old system, not the new state pension.

[Kwasaki]

42 minutes ago, sandyf said:

There are 2 different rates,  one for the old and one for the new.

The poster you responded to was comparing the rate to 10 years ago, so obviously talking about the rate for the old system, not the new state pension.

Curious !! Out of interest what's the difference.

[Pumpuynarak]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

I don't get increases on nowt ???? retired in Thailand 7 years before pensions age I knew my pensions would be frozen and planned on estimated amounts at the time of receiving them. 

Ended up more than I estimated and enough to be comfortable on. 

My wife was eligible for a UK pension which got taken away with all other benefits eventually so addressed that to give her an income when I drop. 

Good that you are taking care of your wifey's future when you drop, many farangs don't ????

Yep the UK government don't care one iota for us citizens living outside the UK, they're quite happy to take income tax on our current pensions and have us pay NI contributions over the years and deny us benefits that UK resident citizens receive.

My wifey is very fortunate to be in receipt of 50% of my company pension when i drop. 

[Liverpool Lou]

20 hours ago, transam said:

21 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Same here but every 4-week's SMS from BBL advises me of a B100 deduction, eg., "DWP has transferred B999,900 (B1,000,000 less B100") surely you must get that deduction also?

Nope....But, bank SMS does not deal with cash movements under 500bht, so not totally sure, but I am sure that when I get statements there are no 100bht withdrawals...

I'm not saying that there is any B100 withdrawal, there isn't, I'm saying that my DWP transfer has B100 deducted from it before it is credited to my BBL account and the bank's SMS every four weeks specifically states that.  The SMS reads...

"DWP has transferred B999,900 (B1,000,000 less B100)".

[Liverpool Lou]

20 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

22 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Same here but every 4-week's SMS from BBL advises me of a B100 deduction, eg., "DWP has transferred B999,900 (B1,000,000 less B100") surely you must get that deduction also?

Why doesn't my Bkk bk book show it when I update my bank book, it shows other charges. ?

Because the DWP credit has the charge taken from the pension transfer before it hits your account.   There is no withdrawal of the charge to be made from your account.   The SMS reads "DWP has transferred B999,900 (B1,000,000 less B100)". 

[chang50]

3 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Curious !! Out of interest what's the difference.

Everything changed in 2016 when they give a very big increase and remodelled the UK pension system creating 2 distinct rates.Anyone who retired pre 2016 is on a much lower pension than post 2016 all other factors being equal.If anyone is interested in making up N.I. voluntary contributions before retiring the advice is not to make up years pre 2016 as this will not give you any increase.

[Kwasaki]

20 minutes ago, chang50 said:

Everything changed in 2016 when they give a very big increase and remodelled the UK pension system creating 2 distinct rates.Anyone who retired pre 2016 is on a much lower pension than post 2016 all other factors being equal.If anyone is interested in making up N.I. voluntary contributions before retiring the advice is not to make up years pre 2016 as this will not give you any increase.

Nonsense the only difference between a person getting a pension in 2012 living in Thailand it that is a less amount than someone who gets the pension in 2016.

[chang50]

18 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Nonsense the only difference between a person getting a pension in 2012 living in Thailand it that is a less amount than someone who gets the pension in 2016.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_447250_smxx.pdf

[bradiston]

19 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Nonsense the only difference between a person getting a pension in 2012 living in Thailand it that is a less amount than someone who gets the pension in 2016.

I think the other guy is right. It's called the New State Pension and differs significantly from the old pension.

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

[chang50]

1 minute ago, bradiston said:

I think the other guy is right. It's called the New State Pension and differs significantly from the old pension.

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get

Thank you I thought this was common knowledge but apparently it's nonesense lol.

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Curious !! Out of interest what's the difference.

Basically speaking with the old system the pension was made up  of 2 parts, the basic state pension plus an amount of additional pension that was accrued from different schemes over the years such as Graduated pensions, SERPS etc.

When the new system was introduced additional pension and contracting out came to an end with the pension being based on a single amount.

However, for many years after the change pensions could be a mix of the old and new depending on working history.

[treetops]

4 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Curious !! Out of interest what's the difference.

£43.30 this year.  £141.85 (old) and £185.15 (new).

[sandyf]

56 minutes ago, chang50 said:

Anyone who retired pre 2016 is on a much lower pension than post 2016 all other factors being equal.

That is not true, you obviously do not understand how the additional pension worked. Do you really think they would have changed the system to pay out more.

The whole reason for the change was to try and make people fund more of their own pension.

When I got my my state pension in 2012 I got £192/wk. I wasn't a particularly high earner and suspect there are many out there getting a state pension in excess of £300/wk. Those that contracted out will probably be getting more than that depending on how well their fund performed.

The new system put a cap on the state pension liability.