Internal flight carrying significant amount of cash

[ripstanley]

4 hours ago, Woof999 said:

 

Approx 15 rai. One off the bucket list I hope.

If it is land it will not be in your name unless you are Thai. If it will be in your wife's name you will have to sign a document saying that no money has come from you  

[uttradit]

37 minutes ago, Woof999 said:

 

It's in the perfect location for us. We looked at quite a few plots, some cheaper, some not, and they all had at least one major drawback. This one is perfect (for us) because:

 

1.) It's pretty much exactly where we wanted to be.

2.) It has the perfect road frontage width (100 metres).

3.) It is on a 5m wide government road which joins the main local road just 300 metres away.

4.) School for the kids is 320 metres down the road.

5.) Has decent fiber internet just down the road.

6.) Has 3 phase power (that one is important for me and my toys, though still plan solar).

7.) It's the perfect shape - almost perfect rectangle. Good for all the things I want to do (pond and a few other goodies).

8.) It needs zero landfill. The soil is actually almost a metre higher than the frontage road.

9.) It backs on to another unused plot of approximately the same size that we might be able to pick up very cheaply, not that we need it.

10.) There is a pretty decent falang house just 2km down the road (there are not that many in the whole area) that we've been offered to rent for 6k baht per month for as long as we need to.

 

Price was actually 25% lower than the asking price. Good or bad, it's approx £100k for the perfect plot of land that, I hope, I'll live on until I depart this world.

So it is in your wife's name? How old are you?

[Scouse123]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:03 PM, Bill97 said:

You could take a cashiers check and cash it when you get there.

 

Absolutely the only sensible option in his predicament.

 

I would want to know why they are insisting so strongly on cash for this amount.

[Scouse123]

13 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Cashiers cheque sounds good but check carefully how quickly it would clear. 

 

From my actual experience selling a townhouse in Pattaya:  Buyer (Thai lady) insisted she pay whole amount by local cashiers cheque issued by her bank (not same bank as the bank I use).

 

At Land Office she handed over the cashiers cheque. My Thai adult son took the cashiers cheque quickly to our local K Bank, after some inspection of the cheque and a long phone call to the issuing bank, our K Bank manager said:

 

- We will accept the cheque and it appears to in order and the issuing bank confirmed (in the phone call the details, cheque number etc.), for deposit to your account but we will not cash the cheque instantly.

 

- It will take about 5 to 7 days to clear then we will give you the cash. At the same time it became clear that the cheque had been issued by another bank (not the bank indicated earlier by the buyer) and the other bank branch was in the upper corner of Essan on the border. 

 

My son had by this stage, at the lands title office indicated he would not hand over the original chanue or the keys to the property until he had full payment in cash in his hands. B

 

Buyer lady went into a hissy screaming fit and insisted 'you can't tell me what to do, I want the chanut today / now.'

 

Son had also called an old police buddy and a snr police office from Pattaya station appeared at the LTO. Police guy was quick to get the full story and suggested we all move to the local big branch, in Pattaya, of the bank that had issued the cashiers cheque upcounty.

 

Local Pattaya manager of the bank which had issued the cheque upcountry said, I have one possible solution and he then spoke to my Thai son and myself and the snr. cop: "if you open a new account at my branch (in Pattaya) right now (take 10 minutes of less) then I can accept the cashiers cheque into your new account, clear if instantly and give you cash immediately. 

 

10 minutes later my son had the full payment in cash in his hands.

 

Them the snr Pattaya cop said to my son, I will go with you to K Bank now to ensure the cash gets into your K Bank quickly (now) and with no issues.

 

Then the snr Pattaya cop said to to buyer lady 'Why did you change the agreed bank details, I don't trust you and I will have an officer immediately check your name for any previous issues with you.  By 5.00 pm tomorrow I will call the seller to inform him of the result of our check'. 

 

Buyer lady then gave snr. cop a mouthful of abuse.

 

Cop responded by asking my son 'do you have all the documents needed to change the name on the electricity, telephone and water bills?

 

Son responded 'Yes I have them all ready'. Snr cop replied 'one of my men will go with you and the buyer tomorrow morning to the 3 utility offices to ensure the name change is smooth and fully completed'. 

 

Son whispered to me and the snr cop 'but her name is not yet on the chanut'.

 

Snr cop whispered "I understand, I will take care of that as needed.'

 

Next morning about 10.00 am name change on all utilities completed.

 

Then back to the LTO and smooth sailing to get the name change on the chanut completed.  

 

 

 

 

 

And for this service, the Police asked for how much?

 

I do not believe it was free for friendship, it never is.

[Scouse123]

10 hours ago, ripstanley said:

If it is land it will not be in your name unless you are Thai. If it will be in your wife's name you will have to sign a document saying that no money has come from you  

 

 

Why is that?

 

Foreigners are allowed to gift money to Thai partners, besides, if her income doesn't support the transaction, she is wide open in the event of a check, to be accused of obtaining monies by nefarious purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by Scouse123

[ThaiFelix]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:43 PM, Woof999 said:

I need to fly from Bangkok (probably DMK) to the North sometime in the next 2 weeks. I'll be buying some property and the sellers (a group of farmers) are insisting that I pay them in cash. The sum is 5M baht. I don't want the hassle of trying to withdraw that amount in cash from a branch far from where I live, so the only real option is to carry the cash with me (no option for bank transfer, cashiers cheque or anything else).

 

Am I likely to have any issues during security carrying this amount of cash? Driving is another option, but it's a 10 hour drive which, although I've done many times, I hate doing.

 

Thanks.

Can you confirm what airport, what time you will arrive and a pic to recognise you?  Im sure I can help you lol!            

[747man]

24 minutes ago, ThaiFelix said:

Can you confirm what airport, what time you will arrive and a pic to recognise you?  Im sure I can help you lol!            

Oh ! And the Flight Number & DATE Too Please !!

[ChaiyaTH]

No issue, you can also just bring the bank withdrawal receipt with you in case you would somehow get the question, which is highly unlikely. I would pay close attention to the bag when putting it in the x-ray bag though. Don't really see your logic however, you could just withdraw at a branch near the destination, there is no difference with that.

[Woof999]

1 hour ago, ThaiFelix said:

Can you confirm what airport, what time you will arrive and a pic to recognise you?  Im sure I can help you lol!   

 

1 hour ago, 747man said:

Oh ! And the Flight Number & DATE Too Please !!

 

Sure thing. Just boarding now.

 

 

[bbi1]

21 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Cashiers cheque sounds good but check carefully how quickly it would clear. 

 

From my actual experience selling a townhouse in Pattaya:  Buyer (Thai lady) insisted she pay whole amount by local cashiers cheque issued by her bank (not same bank as the bank I use).

 

At Land Office she handed over the cashiers cheque. My Thai adult son took the cashiers cheque quickly to our local K Bank, after some inspection of the cheque and a long phone call to the issuing bank, our K Bank manager said:

 

- We will accept the cheque and it appears to in order and the issuing bank confirmed (in the phone call the details, cheque number etc.), for deposit to your account but we will not cash the cheque instantly.

 

- It will take about 5 to 7 days to clear then we will give you the cash. At the same time it became clear that the cheque had been issued by another bank (not the bank indicated earlier by the buyer) and the other bank branch was in the upper corner of Essan on the border. 

 

My son had by this stage, at the lands title office indicated he would not hand over the original chanue or the keys to the property until he had full payment in cash in his hands. B

 

Buyer lady went into a hissy screaming fit and insisted 'you can't tell me what to do, I want the chanut today / now.'

 

Son had also called an old police buddy and a snr police office from Pattaya station appeared at the LTO. Police guy was quick to get the full story and suggested we all move to the local big branch, in Pattaya, of the bank that had issued the cashiers cheque upcounty.

 

Local Pattaya manager of the bank which had issued the cheque upcountry said, I have one possible solution and he then spoke to my Thai son and myself and the snr. cop: "if you open a new account at my branch (in Pattaya) right now (take 10 minutes of less) then I can accept the cashiers cheque into your new account, clear if instantly and give you cash immediately. 

 

10 minutes later my son had the full payment in cash in his hands.

 

Them the snr Pattaya cop said to my son, I will go with you to K Bank now to ensure the cash gets into your K Bank quickly (now) and with no issues.

 

Then the snr Pattaya cop said to to buyer lady 'Why did you change the agreed bank details, I don't trust you and I will have an officer immediately check your name for any previous issues with you.  By 5.00 pm tomorrow I will call the seller to inform him of the result of our check'. 

 

Buyer lady then gave snr. cop a mouthful of abuse.

 

Cop responded by asking my son 'do you have all the documents needed to change the name on the electricity, telephone and water bills?

 

Son responded 'Yes I have them all ready'. Snr cop replied 'one of my men will go with you and the buyer tomorrow morning to the 3 utility offices to ensure the name change is smooth and fully completed'. 

 

Son whispered to me and the snr cop 'but her name is not yet on the chanut'.

 

Snr cop whispered "I understand, I will take care of that as needed.'

 

Next morning about 10.00 am name change on all utilities completed.

 

Then back to the LTO and smooth sailing to get the name change on the chanut completed.  

 

 

 

How much did your son have to pay the two cops for the handholding to make sure everything went smoothly?

[bbi1]

19 hours ago, ripstanley said:

If it is land it will not be in your name unless you are Thai. If it will be in your wife's name you will have to sign a document saying that no money has come from you  

OP still didn't confirm if he is Thai or not. I'm guessing he's Thai, because he said that he's going to be buying the land & as we all know, foreigners can't own land.

 

I don't get why the OP, being Thai, didn't ask his question on a Thai forum rather than asking a bunch of non-Thai people on this forum. Surely a Thai forum with Thais who know Thai law and have experience carrying large sums of cash for property deals would've been better imo.

Edited February 18 by bbi1

[Digitalbanana]

20 hours ago, Woof999 said:

It's in the perfect location for us. We looked at quite a few plots, some cheaper, some not, and they all had at least one major drawback. This one is perfect (for us) because:

 

1.) It's pretty much exactly where we wanted to be.

2.) It has the perfect road frontage width (100 metres).

3.) It is on a 5m wide government road which joins the main local road just 300 metres away.

4.) School for the kids is 320 metres down the road.

5.) Has decent fiber internet just down the road.

6.) Has 3 phase power (that one is important for me and my toys, though still plan solar).

7.) It's the perfect shape - almost perfect rectangle. Good for all the things I want to do (pond and a few other goodies).

8.) It needs zero landfill. The soil is actually almost a metre higher than the frontage road.

9.) It backs on to another unused plot of approximately the same size that we might be able to pick up very cheaply, not that we need it.

10.) There is a pretty decent falang house just 2km down the road (there are not that many in the whole area) that we've been offered to rent for 6k baht per month for as long as we need to.

 

Price was actually 25% lower than the asking price. Good or bad, it's approx £100k for the perfect plot of land that, I hope, I'll live on until I depart this world.

Those all sound like pretty sensible reasons and planning. Except the bit about hand carrying 5M THB in cash from Bangkok!

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, bbi1 said:

How much did your son have to pay the two cops for the handholding to make sure everything went smoothly?

A quick lunch and coffee at a local small noodle shop. 

[LukKrueng]

On 2/15/2024 at 7:41 PM, recom273 said:

we were told that a bankers draft or bank transfer was OK, but would take an extra day to process, meaning we would have gone through the whole process of waiting for a number to come up the following day

Paid about 1m with a bank's draft at the land office few years ago, tax was paid on cash. Chanot was amended and given back with my name on it on the spot.

BTW, the money was in my bank account in BKK and I was in CM at the time. I transferred the money to my account in CM 

through internet banking with no costs at all. Only sum above the 1m limit was charged some commission.

Edited February 18 by LukKrueng

[recom273]

14 hours ago, LukKrueng said:

Paid about 1m with a bank's draft at the land office few years ago, tax was paid on cash. Chanot was amended and given back with my name on it on the spot.

BTW, the money was in my bank account in BKK and I was in CM at the time. I transferred the money to my account in CM 

through internet banking with no costs at all. Only sum above the 1m limit was charged some commission.

 

I guess everyone's experience could be different, the point is that carrying millions of baht to a land office is really not unusual, and it's not uncommon for sellers to ask for cash on the day for the reasons given. I would rather pay by bank transfer / bankers draft / internet transfer but was told on multiple occasions by the land office it would take an extra day. I would have even waited, i'm not that impatient but had a return flights booked, as its Thailand others experience may vary.

[RocketDog]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:00 PM, uttradit said:

Or rob you before. Sounds dodgy.

Not really. I bought my house in huahin that way and paid at the land office. Very common.

[stoner]

be careful and good luck. hope this doesn't turn into a story for others to learn from.

[Chivas]

You're going to get tugged via the personal bags scanners with 5m in your bag  1000000%

Its not a question of one previous poster saying if its legimate its fine. You'll need a lot of documentation to justify it

 

Get a taxi albeit that carries risk if it got hijacked !

[Woof999]

Well I made it up here. Getting the money from the bank was relatively easy. Had to get it from my branch and had to order on Friday to collect on Monday.

 

Decided to drive up. The cash pretty much fills a backpack and as I have plenty of other stuff that would need to go in the cabin, the decision to drive was pretty much decided by that factor alone.

 

Thanks for the helpful replies, and also for some of the less helpful)

[Woof999]

First view from the newly purchased land looking across to Laos.... from 50m up in the air mind you.

 

Back to land office tomorrow to add usufruct to the chanote. Paid additional 7k baht to have the chanote markers installed. First available appointment is in May!