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

[transam]

1 minute ago, xylophone said:

As I recall, that's the option I use at the moment, however I do think that £20 is a bit expensive and I did investigate other options a few years ago, but deigned to leave it as it was. 

 

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?

I have never paid anything for my pension into BKK Bank...

[xylophone]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

I have never paid anything for my pension into BKK Bank...

That's an option I would love to explore, so is there anything I should know about it, because the options I explored all included a fee charged either by the Bangkok Bank UK, or Citibank (who do the transfer apparently) or indeed the bank here in Thailand.

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

I have never paid anything for my pension into BKK Bank...

Except for the approx £150 per year increase because you are in THailand. 

[transam]

Just now, xylophone said:

That's an option I would love to explore, so is there anything I should know about it, because the options I explored all included a fee charged either by the Bangkok Bank UK, or Citibank (who do the transfer apparently) or indeed the bank here in Thailand.

There are no charges, BKK bank charge a one off 300bht once a year and I think 15bht a month for SMS account movements, money in or out...

[bradiston]

16 minutes ago, flossie35 said:

You can have it paid into an account at Bangkok Bank London Branch and they will send it on to an account in Thailand. In my case it''s to one of their branches, but they will probably send to another Thai bank - you'd need to check. The charge is GBP20 each time, which I think is much less than a UK bank would charge.

 

Bangkok Bank in London doesn't do retail banking, so I don't think you can open an account there. But you can send through them. My advice, put the pension money in your UK bank and transfer out here with Wise maybe every 3 months, so you can wait for the best rates. My UK bank still pays interest, so I only do minimal transfers.

[transam]

6 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Except for the approx £150 per year increase because you are in THailand. 

That's nothing to do with bank charges etc....????

[xylophone]

7 minutes ago, transam said:

There are no charges, BKK bank charge a one off 300bht once a year and I think 15bht a month for SMS account movements, money in or out...

Oh well, it looks like I'll have to explore this avenue again, although last time it was tedious, but I'm pretty sure I pay £20 a month for every transfer and I'm not sure whether it is converted to baht in the UK, or when it gets to the bank here!

 

There was a mixup in the early stages, and that set the scene for lots of telephone calls and emails, so perhaps I'd better revisit that scenario again.

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Live in Thailand permanently and have done for the last 15 years, 180 days living in the UK would be like a prison sentence to me.

The only things I really miss are decent pubs with several different beers that weren't in the last one I visited, unlike Thailand where the choice is usually the same few beers everywhere. And decent fish and chips.

[KannikaP]

6 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

The only things I really miss are decent pubs with several different beers that weren't in the last one I visited, unlike Thailand where the choice is usually the same few beers everywhere. And decent fish and chips.

Totally agree...........but way off topic.

[transam]

7 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Oh well, it looks like I'll have to explore this avenue again, although last time it was tedious, but I'm pretty sure I pay £20 a month for every transfer and I'm not sure whether it is converted to baht in the UK, or when it gets to the bank here!

 

There was a mixup in the early stages, and that set the scene for lots of telephone calls and emails, so perhaps I'd better revisit that scenario again.

No charges, Gov pays pension money to Citibank Ireland, they send it to Citibank BKK in GBP, Citibank send it on to my BKK bank in Baht.. 

It arrives every fourth Thursday at around the same time, unless there is a bank holiday, then on the Friday..

[KannikaP]

24 minutes ago, transam said:

No charges, Gov pays pension money to Citibank Ireland, they send it to Citibank BKK in GBP, Citibank send it on to my BKK bank in Baht.. 

It arrives every fourth Thursday at around the same time, unless there is a bank holiday, then on the Friday..

Banks don't do anything for free. So who DOES pay any charges please? Or is it absorbed in the exchange rate?

[xylophone]

24 minutes ago, transam said:

No charges, Gov pays pension money to Citibank Ireland, they send it to Citibank BKK in GBP, Citibank send it on to my BKK bank in Baht.. 

It arrives every fourth Thursday at around the same time, unless there is a bank holiday, then on the Friday..

I'm definitely going to have to look into this again, and maybe the fact that your pension money is paid into Citibank Ireland is the difference, because thinking back I do believe that Citibank UK handle my pension transfer to Bangkok Bank, and charge £20 – – going to have to explore this, and thanks for your input, and I will let you know the outcome.

[bradiston]

5 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I'm definitely going to have to look into this again, and maybe the fact that your pension money is paid into Citibank Ireland is the difference, because thinking back I do believe that Citibank UK handle my pension transfer to Bangkok Bank, and charge £20 – – going to have to explore this, and thanks for your input, and I will let you know the outcome.

I don't understand. Why can't you just have it paid into your UK bank and move it out here with Wise at your convenience, and at potentially much better fees and rates.

[delboy]

I have been getting my State Pension paid directly into my Bangkok Bank account every 4 weeks, for several years.  Bangkok Bank charge 100 baht plus 0.1% of the amount and send me a free SMS notification.  The latest payment arrived today with an exchange rate of 43.41 compared to Bangkok Bank's exchange rate at the time of 43.34

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, delboy said:

I have been getting my State Pension paid directly into my Bangkok Bank account every 4 weeks, for several years.  Bangkok Bank charge 100 baht plus 0.1% of the amount and send me a free SMS notification.  The latest payment arrived today with an exchange rate of 43.41 compared to Bangkok Bank's exchange rate at the time of 43.34

And via Wise............43.99 at this moment.

So let's say 600 quid at 43.99 - 43.41 is about 58 satang per GBP difference = Bht 350, plus the Bht 100 plus the 0.1%.

Ain't worth worrying about !   555

Edited July 19, 2022 by KannikaP

[Kwasaki]

3 minutes ago, delboy said:

I have been getting my State Pension paid directly into my Bangkok Bank account every 4 weeks, for several years.  Bangkok Bank charge 100 baht plus 0.1% of the amount and send me a free SMS notification.  The latest payment arrived today with an exchange rate of 43.41 compared to Bangkok Bank's exchange rate at the time of 43.34

I am not aware of any charge my Bkk bk make for receiving my UK pension.

It would show in the bank book if bkk bk did.

[Kwasaki]

3 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

And via Wise............43.99 at this moment.

Well that wasn't the moment he got his pension payments in his bank account.

[NoshowJones]

6 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Not if he spends 180 days in UK.

Are you saying that if he stays in the UK for 180 days in a year he will still get his annual increases? I don't think so.

[KannikaP]

15 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Well that wasn't the moment he got his pension payments in his bank account.

That's why he should have 'saved up' his pension in a Wise GBP account, and sent it to Bkk when the rate looked good.

[xylophone]

56 minutes ago, bradiston said:

I don't understand. Why can't you just have it paid into your UK bank and move it out here with Wise at your convenience, and at potentially much better fees and rates.

I don't have a UK bank account, as I left the UK in 1984 and of course I don't have a place of domicile there either, so that option is not open to me.

[KannikaP]

19 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I am not aware of any charge my Bkk bk make for receiving my UK pension.

It would show in the bank book if bkk bk did.

It shows in the bad exchange rate they use.

[Kwasaki]

6 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Are you saying that if he stays in the UK for 180 days in a year he will still get his annual increases? I don't think so.

That's how I remember it because you are still considered a UK resident.

 

It's of no concern to the OP I was just answering another poster.

[Kwasaki]

9 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

That's why he should have 'saved up' his pension in a Wise GBP account, and sent it to Bkk when the rate looked good.

I couldn't do that anymore I need to pay bills. 

[KannikaP]

2 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I couldn't do that anymore I need to pay bills. 

So you are living pension day to pension day. Bad financial planning, if any.

[Kwasaki]

11 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

It shows in the bad exchange rate they use.

When I looked into comparisends with rates on the estimated day I get my UK pension coming into Thailand they are always much the same as Wise on the day and it can go either way which is a very small amount anyway. 

[Kwasaki]

5 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

So you are living pension day to pension day. Bad financial planning, if any.

UK pension pays my bills I have to pay in Thailand.

By the next 4 weeks I wouldn't have enough to pay bills in Thailand for another 4 weeks. 

I would have to use my savings or the savings I have in UK. 

You'll be wanted to know how often I fart at this rate. 

[KannikaP]

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

UK pension pays my bills I have to pay in Thailand.

By the next 4 weeks I wouldn't have enough to pay bills in Thailand for another 4 weeks. 

I would have to use my savings or the savings I have in UK. 

You'll be wanted to know how often I fart at this rate. 

Could not give a toss about your bodily functions.

But why not send SIX week's pension next time so you are a couple in credit.

I top up my UK Pension with my hard earned savings/private pensions, that's what I saved for.

[delboy]

The amount shown in the bank book is the net amount after the deduction of the charges.  The SMS that is sent at the time of the transfer shows the gross amount, and the net amount.

 

I was merely trying to say that the difference in exchange rates between direct transfer and transfer through Wise was negligible at the time of transfer.  It is more convenient for me, but others may prefer to be in control of the timing.

Edited July 19, 2022 by delboy

[billd766]

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

As I recall, that's the option I use at the moment, however I do think that £20 is a bit expensive and I did investigate other options a few years ago, but deigned to leave it as it was. 

 

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?

I get 3 pensions paid into Wise UK monthly. There is  a small fee charged by Wise when I transfer to Bangkok Bank in Thailand, BBK do not charge a fee and when I transfer from BBK to KBank there is no fee either.

 

I used to get the pensions direct to KBank but the problem with that is that I was never sure when it would arrive, never sure how much I would get and the forex rate would be KBank at the time. Using that system it would go to Citibank UK and then I think to Citibank US, possibly somewhere else and then KBank head office. There they would do a manual transfer in banking time to my account.

 

With Wise I decide when to make the transfer. I tell them how much I wish to transfer and they give me a quote (minus 3 or 4 quid or whatever). That forex rate is valid for that transaction only. I get a tracking number so that I can see when, where, how much, forex rate until it arrives in BBK bank. from Sunday to Thursday transfer it is less than 24 hours. Friday and Saturday transfer arrives on Monday around 2pm Thai time.

 

The exceptions to this are Thai bank holidays when it gets paid on the next working day.

 

I have made a monthly/yearly spreadsheet which forecasts payment in UK day, payment in Thailand, actual pension payment as it arrives at Wise, amount transferred, forex rate and cash amount in Baht.

 

[billd766]

53 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

So you are living pension day to pension day. Bad financial planning, if any.

Absolute rubbish.

 

I am the same as Kwasaki which is similar to a lot of other expats in Thailand.

 

I did all my financial planning years ahead of when I would need it.

 

I moved to Thailand in 2001 and planned in 2002 when the forex rate was around 70thb/gbp,

 

NOBODY could/can see much more than 3 months ahead to plan.

 

Nobody could forsee the 1997 currency crash in Thailand, no the 2008 crash in the US nor Brexit.

 

You make your choice at the time it suits you and hope you got it right.

 

 

45 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Could not give a toss about your bodily functions.

But why not send SIX week's pension next time so you are a couple in credit.

I top up my UK Pension with my hard earned savings/private pensions, that's what I saved for.

Whoop de do for you. Come back in 10 or 15 years and see if you feel the same.