Sending money from the UK to a Thai bank account

[thejudgegiles]

So... in short - due to the worrying political state of the UK economy, add to that the upcoming strikes pending, and still the effects of Brexit, I am looking to move some funds to Thailand from a UK bank account 

 

A few questions;

 

1 - Anyone researched this in the last week?  Any recommendations who to use?  If I buy Thai Baht here I will get screwed royally... And if I send UK£ to my Thai bank I will have to accept the unknown daily rate that my bank uses

 

2 - I understand the max I can send is 5m THB per transaction - anyone know more about that? And, is there anything I need to be made aware of in order to do this with amounts of this size?

 

3 - Can you trust external service providers (bestmoney.com, wise.com, ofx.com) with large amounts?  Anyone have recent experience with any of them and the reliability of their services and/or any discrepancies on the final amount received? 

 

Thank you so much in advance, rather stressed over the fluctuating £ at the moment

 

Really, thanks again for relevant and reliable up to date info

 

 

[hotandsticky]

You have too many worries..........

 

 

Don't send any money, wait for the Baht to collapse (it has been predicted for the last 14 years) then transfer @ GBP/THB 70 using WISE to move 2m Baht at a time.

 

 

[Lacessit]

I have used WISE recently, found them to be very professional with excellent communication.

[scubascuba3]

UK Interest rates are better than Thailand, circ 3% vs 1% and likely to increase so better for savers

[itsari]

I used wise UK to transfer funds and they are to be trusted .

I transfered pounds to dollars two months ago within the wise account . And now i have transfered us dollars to baht recently .

I was pleased with the result .

 

[nigelforbes]

I am not aware there is any limit in how much money can be transferred to Thailand, there is certainly not a Bank of Thailand limit and I doubt very much there's a Bank of England limit.

 

I always send Pounds and I always use HSBC UK, it costs me 4 Pounds to make the transfer and they use SWIFT, there's no messing around with small money transfer companies who often have obscure rules or don't allow transfers because...! I don't care if others can get a few more satang by using another transfer method. If I'm transferring 5 mill. I want security, first and foremost.

[anchadian]

18 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

I am not aware there is any limit in how much money can be transferred to Thailand, there is certainly not a Bank of Thailand limit and I doubt very much there's a Bank of England limit.

 

I always send Pounds and I always use HSBC UK, it costs me 4 Pounds to make the transfer and they use SWIFT, there's no messing around with small money transfer companies who often have obscure rules or don't allow transfers because...! I don't care if others can get a few more satang by using another transfer method. If I'm transferring 5 mill. I want security, first and foremost.

Then Wise transfer is your answer.

[nigelforbes]

2 minutes ago, anchadian said:

Then Wise transfer is your answer.

Not for me personally, I'm always going to use SWIFT and the high street banks.

[Kildonan]

2 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

I am not aware there is any limit in how much money can be transferred to Thailand, there is certainly not a Bank of Thailand limit and I doubt very much there's a Bank of England limit.

 

I always send Pounds and I always use HSBC UK, it costs me 4 Pounds to make the transfer and they use SWIFT, there's no messing around with small money transfer companies who often have obscure rules or don't allow transfers because...! I don't care if others can get a few more satang by using another transfer method. If I'm transferring 5 mill. I want security, first and foremost.

HSBC, were charging me £19/tfr and taking up to a week sometimes! Now use WISE, faster and cheaper! 

[nigelforbes]

Just now, Kildonan said:

HSBC, were charging me £19/tfr and taking up to a week sometimes! Now use WISE, faster and cheaper! 

HSBC was charging me 20 Pounds, twenty years ago, fortunately things have changed!

 

"It's free to send money from HSBC to HSBC and to another bank if it's in euros and within the EEA^{22 view footnote 2}. Otherwise, it's £5 for HSBC to any other bank if you send money online. This applies to recurring and future payments, too."

 

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/international/money-transfer/#:~:text=transfer money internationally%3F-,Sending money outside the UK,recurring and future payments%2C too.

[sammieuk1]

Open a pound account here send it in pounds from your bank and wait for the pound to improve I did 6 years ago and still waiting. but when you come to change the bank rate is always lower is my advice ????

[KannikaP]

11 hours ago, itsari said:

I used wise UK to transfer funds and they are to be trusted .

I transfered pounds to dollars two months ago within the wise account . And now i have transfered us dollars to baht recently .

I was pleased with the result .

 

So you payed TWO conversion and transfer charges. Why did you not go GBP to THB directly? 

[KannikaP]

3 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Open a pound account here send it in pounds from your bank and wait for the pound to improve I did 6 years ago and still waiting. but when you come to change the bank rate is always lower is my advice ????

That's OK unless you need proof of a foreign transfer for Immigration purposes.

[nigelforbes]

3 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Open a pound account here send it in pounds from your bank and wait for the pound to improve I did 6 years ago and still waiting. but when you come to change the bank rate is always lower is my advice ????

That means you have Pounds sitting in a Thai bank account for 6 years, earning no interest and its value being eroded by inflation at the average rate of 3% per year....that is not a good deal.

[KannikaP]

2 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

Not for me personally, I'm always going to use SWIFT and the high street banks.

Did you compare HSBC with WISE? See exactly what arrives in your Thai bank for say, £1000.

I'll bet WISE wins on amount and timing.

[Road Warrior]

hsbc uk bank charges 4-00 gbp per transfer and allow 20k gbp daily to transfer  to thailand bank 

[nigelforbes]

Just now, KannikaP said:

Did you compare HSBC with WISE? See exactly what arrives in your Thai bank for say, £1000.

I'll bet WISE wins on amount and timing.

As I said previously, I don't care if others make a few baht more, my priority is security and reliability. I don't want the transfer company telling me they can't transfer funds because it's the weekend; or telling me I have to send more than or less than X; or use bank XY or Z. I want to know if the wheel falls off, the international wire transfer/banking system, with all its checks and balances, is underpinning my transfer.

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, Road Warrior said:

hsbc uk bank charges 4-00 gbp per transfer and allow 20k gbp daily to transfer  to thailand bank 

And the exchange rate they use????

[nigelforbes]

Just now, KannikaP said:

And the exchange rate they use????

Send Pounds and get the TT rate on this end, negotiated with the banks Treasury if the amount is large enough.

 

[itsari]

3 hours ago, KannikaP said:

So you payed TWO conversion and transfer charges. Why did you not go GBP to THB directly? 

Because I was betting the pound would go down and the dollar would go up .

That is exactly what happened.

 

[hotandsticky]

3 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

As I said previously, I don't care if others make a few baht more, my priority is security and reliability. I don't want the transfer company telling me they can't transfer funds because it's the weekend; or telling me I have to send more than or less than X; or use bank XY or Z. I want to know if the wheel falls off, the international wire transfer/banking system, with all its checks and balances, is underpinning my transfer.

 

Try getting a bank to transfer at a weekend.

 

WISE wins hands down. As a retired employee of a bank I don't pay transfer charges  -  it is still more cost-effective for me to use WISE than transfer Sterling and accept the Thai bank fees and lower exchange rate. I have never had the need to transfer more than 2m Baht.

[nigelforbes]

13 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

Try getting a bank to transfer at a weekend.

 

WISE wins hands down. As a retired employee of a bank I don't pay transfer charges  -  it is still more cost-effective for me to use WISE than transfer Sterling and accept the Thai bank fees and lower exchange rate. I have never had the need to transfer more than 2m Baht.

We know we can't get a bank transfer on a weekend but you expect you can transfer using WISE, except when you can't, like now! This is about predictability and certainty. And as I said twice in this thread already, I don't care if others can do the transfer a few baht cheaper, that's not important to me, even if my transfer is for 6 mill. to pay for my condo.

 

What I really don't understand about this topic is the passion with which people think others must use XY or Z and if you don't, you must be an idiot. It's like if you don't drive a Toyota you must be retarded. Everyone has different needs and priorities plus others have brand loyalty, get over it.

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by nigelforbes

[thejudgegiles]

In case anyone is still reading this thread, after reading up somewhat, and searching around, I went with CurrenciesDirect who have an app too. 

 

I bank with KrungSri who I chose in the past as their rates seemed always preferable to other Thai banks on the pound. 

 

Well, in total I will move c 10mil, and after them calling me to discuss this, they honoured me a higher rate on all transactions based on my potential total business. I initially sent 10kGBP. They were courteous and professional and answered all my questions to put my mind at ease. I paid no fees and got over 55 satang higher than I would have sending it directly to my bank... and no fees at all. Payment landed smoothly in my Thai account less than 48 hours later. 

 

Highly recommended!

[soi3eddie]

47 minutes ago, thejudgegiles said:

In case anyone is still reading this thread, after reading up somewhat, and searching around, I went with CurrenciesDirect who have an app too. 

 

I bank with KrungSri who I chose in the past as their rates seemed always preferable to other Thai banks on the pound. 

 

Well, in total I will move c 10mil, and after them calling me to discuss this, they honoured me a higher rate on all transactions based on my potential total business. I initially sent 10kGBP. They were courteous and professional and answered all my questions to put my mind at ease. I paid no fees and got over 55 satang higher than I would have sending it directly to my bank... and no fees at all. Payment landed smoothly in my Thai account less than 48 hours later. 

 

Highly recommended!

 

Great promotion for them by you!

 

 

[Chivas]

On 10/2/2022 at 3:52 AM, nigelforbes said:

Send Pounds and get the TT rate on this end, negotiated with the banks Treasury if the amount is large enough.

 

If you're sending the equivalent of 5 Million baht with HSBC as opposed to using Wise (I think Wise limit is 2 million per individual transfer but the point is the same) than my laptop would develop a rash if I number crunched how much money you're losing on the bottom line by using HSBC

 

Wise still the only remitter using full interbank rates

 

Wise is regulated the same as HSBC and all the rest for that matter

[Chivas]

On 10/4/2022 at 5:12 PM, soi3eddie said:

 

Great promotion for them by you!

 

 

little doubt he/she works for them or is involved at the top

[Chivas]

On 10/4/2022 at 4:24 PM, thejudgegiles said:

In case anyone is still reading this thread, after reading up somewhat, and searching around, I went with CurrenciesDirect who have an app too. 

 

I bank with KrungSri who I chose in the past as their rates seemed always preferable to other Thai banks on the pound. 

 

Well, in total I will move c 10mil, and after them calling me to discuss this, they honoured me a higher rate on all transactions based on my potential total business. I initially sent 10kGBP. They were courteous and professional and answered all my questions to put my mind at ease. I paid no fees and got over 55 satang higher than I would have sending it directly to my bank... and no fees at all. Payment landed smoothly in my Thai account less than 48 hours later. 

 

Highly recommended!

I just had a look at them and one word sums them up

 

Shocking.....

 

Thought I'd take the offered bait (just to get a view of this fantastic rate) and sigh at the first page requirements but persevere

 

Up comes the 2nd page now they want home details names and telephone numbers

 

Off to the bin you go.....

Edited October 7, 2022 by Chivas

[nigelforbes]

13 minutes ago, Chivas said:

If you're sending the equivalent of 5 Million baht with HSBC as opposed to using Wise (I think Wise limit is 2 million per individual transfer but the point is the same) than my laptop would develop a rash if I number crunched how much money you're losing on the bottom line by using HSBC

 

Wise still the only remitter using full interbank rates

 

Wise is regulated the same as HSBC and all the rest for that matter

I haven't done that for a while but I admit I would do the same thing again today, but that's just me, I like the security of having all my banking in one place and am willing to pay for such things.

[Cake Monster]

Be aware that due to Money laundering Laws in Thailand , there are only a couple or so Banks where you are allowed to transfer more than 50,000 baht in a single transaction.

Best service and rates = Wise

[phetphet]

On 10/1/2022 at 5:19 PM, Lacessit said:

I have used WISE recently, found them to be very professional with excellent communication.

+1

 

For monthly transfers I have found them to be very reliable and fast. 

 

For OP. If sending a large amount, it might be better to compare with some other forex services.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by phetphet