Can I Get my Money Out of Thailand?

[Mike Lister]

With so many changes in the pipeline and anxieties running hot, many people must be wondering what their options are so let’s look at the detail.

 

The Baht is Not Freely Convertible.

 

Which means THB can’t be freely exported in large amounts. As a general rule, the Thai banks will convert THB into the currency of the destination account, before it is sent outside Thailand. There are however some exceptions and even then there are limits:

 

1) Money earned in Thailand under a work permit can be remitted overseas, subject to confirmation by the employer that the funds were indeed earned legally.

 

2) Proceeds from the sale of real estate can be remitted overseas, as long as the person can produce the blue tax paid receipt from the Land Office.

 

3) Thai nationals can remit money overseas as long as the purpose of the remittance meets  specific criteria set out by BOT, mostly as long as there is an overseas invoice to be paid.

 

https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/international-business/global-money-transfer/pages/international-transferviakplus.aspx

 

4) THB can be taken out of the country in cash but this is limited to 50k Baht, except to neighbouring countries where the limit is higher and to some Chinese provinces where the limits is around 4 million baht. In any event, amounts of cash above the exporting threshold, must be reported to Customs at Departure, regardless of the currencies involved.

 

5) Limited amounts of THB can be remitted overseas, in line with the above, as long as the receiving account is also denominated in THB. It should be noted that overseas banks are not allowed to hold more than relatively low levels of THB in cash.

 

6) The other point worth mentioning at this point is that whilst THB is traded on international markets, it is not traded for delivery.

 

All those things are well and good, but what about the foreigner who has lived in Thailand on a long term visa and suddenly decides to return home and wants to repatriate accumulated funds that were originally sent here from overseas?

 

In theory, as long as there is an FET or equivalent confirmation that the funds were originally remitted from overseas, it should be possible to produce that and ask for the funds to be repatriated. In practise however, this may not be as straight forward as it should be. The banks concern is that the money you want to repatriate, might have been earned illegally (or worse) and/or that tax has not been paid on those funds. For the most part, when those funds were remitted to Thailand originally, the reason stated for the remittance was probably, “living expenses” and the expectation is that they will have already been spent, living.

 

The banks are not the decision makers in this, they are the agents of BOT who must carry out BOT policy. There is nothing in the BOT regulations to say that foreigners cannot export funds overseas, the Central Bank rules only talk about controls on exporting THB, not foreign currency.

 

In the past I’ve been able to remit a few hundred thousand baht (equivalent) overseas without difficulty, just by saying I need it for holiday spending. But I’m not sure what would happen if one day I walked in and, having sold my car et al and wanted to remit say 4 or 5 million back home again, what would happen?

 

Perhaps if anyone has any experience of the above, they might tell us what happened.

 

[Everyman]

Your car is worth 5 million baht second hand? 

[CallumWK]

Currency exchange companies like SuperRich can transfer  whatever amount overseas, but it has to be exchanged in foreign currency first

[Mike Lister]

5 hours ago, Everyman said:

Your car is worth 5 million baht second hand? 

having sold my car et al

 

Et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin term “et alia,” which means “and others.” It's used in source citations to save space when there are too many authors to name them all.

[Mike Lister]

4 hours ago, CallumWK said:

Currency exchange companies like SuperRich can transfer  whatever amount overseas, but it has to be exchanged in foreign currency first

Yes, but the limits are almost certainly very low, a couple of hundred thousand baht.

[freedomnow]

crypto

[Mike Lister]

As far as I can see, there is no reason in law why the Thai banks shouldn't be able to remit 4 million baht in foreign currency, to an overseas account, apart from the fact they don't want to. If anyone else thinks there is a reason in law, perhaps they can point to it?

[timendres]

I can login to my KBank mobile app, and wire $50,000 USD to my account in the US no problem.

I can wire that amount every day until the account is empty.

[Mike Lister]

2 hours ago, timendres said:

I can login to my KBank mobile app, and wire $50,000 USD to my account in the US no problem.

I can wire that amount every day until the account is empty.

That's around 1.8 mill baht per day. Can you tell me:

 

1) Is that just you or can all customers do the same?

 

2) Do you have a prior arrangement with your bank where you supplied them with paper work etc?

 

TIA

 

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

14 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

That's around 1.8 mill baht per day. Can you tell me:

 

1) Is that just you or can all customers do the sae?

 

2) Do you have a prior arrangement with your bank where you supplied them with paper work etc?

 

TIA

 

 

The limit is actually $100,000 per day and 25 different currencies are available. 

https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/international-business/global-money-transfer/pages/international-transferviakplus.aspx

[Mike Lister]

2 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The limit is actually $100,000 per day and 25 different currencies are available. 

https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/international-business/global-money-transfer/pages/international-transferviakplus.aspx

Yes.....that's the one I mentioned at the outset, it supports transfers under 16 different scenarios, most of which seem aimed at Thai nationals

 

1. Payment of imported and exported products
2. Students’ expenses
3. Consultant’s fee
4. Income repatriation by workers
5. Remittance to family members or relatives who have a permanent residence in other countries
6. International travel expenses - others
7. Travel expenses - tourists
8. Fares
9. Healthcare expenses
10. Shipping costs
11. Insurance and reinsurance premiums on goods
12. Indemnity for goods
13. News service fees
14. Advertisement costs
15. Property rental
16. Private sector grants

[higgy88]

https://aseannow.com/topic/1249786-report-on-successful-transfer-to-us-300k/

[Mike Lister]

1 minute ago, higgy88 said:

https://aseannow.com/topic/1249786-report-on-successful-transfer-to-us-300k/

Thanks. That report is from a property sale where it's fairly straight forward to repatriate funds, as long as the you have the Land Office receipt showing tax has been paid on the sale.

[Purdey]

Transferring money to a family member can be tricky as a bank will ask for a copy of that person's ID card. When told that country does not make ID cards mandatory, the banker asked, "Well how can anyone know he is who he says he is?"

"He will tell them who he is," was met with puzzlement.

[Mike Lister]

I've just written a letter to the head of retail banking at UOB to ask them what their requirements are for this. I'll post the response when I get one, they are normally pretty good at answering queries like this one.

[Srikcir]

10 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

there is no reason in law why the Thai banks shouldn't be able to remit 4 million baht in foreign currency, to an overseas account

Agreed. Especially many of not all Thai banks should have BIC/SWIFT codes to be used for international transfers. There are Thai banks (just google) that support international Western Union transfers.

[biggles45]

A close friends experience 12 months ago:- Now this relates to K Bank, South Pattaya Branch and it's manager, other banks may have a different result. 

Mate has lived in Pattaya 20+ years and goes home once a year to see family and get a medical checkup. He got stuck there with Covid and just as he was allowed to return had a mild stroke. Not able to travel anymore so can't return. 

He has a Retirement extension and 800k in Kbank. 

His son was coming for 20 days in January and he got a Power of Attorney, brought his dad's passport, his Thai will and bank book to the bank. Son was executor in the will. 
The bank manager could not have been more helpful. Gave him withdrawal forms to courier to his dad, said bring them in, signed and you can withdraw. And that's exactly what happened, 800k cash in his hand, he left the bank. 
The son had  also arranged the sale of his dad's house thru an agent. This agent then sent the 800k to his dad's OZ bank account. When the sale happened 3 months later the agent sent the 2 million baht proceeds to the same account. 
 

[Issanman]

I have moved money with my Bangkok Bank app via Swift code to my Schwab account. I had no problem moving 700,000฿.  No questions asked. No papers to fill out. The money arrived the same day. Not sure what the limits are, if any.

[khunPer]

23 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

In the past I’ve been able to remit a few hundred thousand baht (equivalent) overseas without difficulty, just by saying I need it for holiday spending. But I’m not sure what would happen if one day I walked in and, having sold my car et al and wanted to remit say 4 or 5 million back home again, what would happen?

 

Perhaps if anyone has any experience of the above, they might tell us what happened.

If you have transferred the money into Thailand as a large sum and declared it with Bank of Thailand, you got a receipt – which you of course carefully have keept – making you eligible to transfer same amount out of Thailand. Otherwise, for larger amounts, you need to declare the funds and probably prove that tax has been paid.

[proton]

Thought Deemoney was a popular method?

[timendres]

On 6/18/2024 at 5:51 AM, Mike Lister said:

That's around 1.8 mill baht per day. Can you tell me:

 

1) Is that just you or can all customers do the same?

 

2) Do you have a prior arrangement with your bank where you supplied them with paper work etc?

 

TIA

 

1) Nope, applies to anyone.

2) Nope, just a standard account set up when I was on a Non-O 14 years ago.

[D2Pipes]

  I need to remit around £25k to the UK in the next couple of weeks with no prior arrangements.
Monies are held in an FCD account and were originally sent to Thailand as 'Living Expenses'

I will let you know how I get on.....

[wordchild]

its much much easier  to transfer shares rather than cash. However to do this you need a brokerage account outside Thailand that is capable of trading Thai stocks.

 

   This might work; 

 

    1) open a share trading account in Thailand.

    2) use your cash to purchase Thai stocks

    3) After a respectable gap , Instruct your Thai broker to transfer your shares to the (Thai ) custodian of your overseas broker, btw both parties need to be informed of your intentions. 

    4) share transfer takes place on a date agreed by both parties (thai and overseas broker)  , but everything can normally be done over a couple of days.

   5) After the transfer is complete,  your shares are still  held in Thailand but by a different custodian who will act on the instruction (given by you) to your overseas broker.

  6) once everything has settled you can either retain the shares or sell them via your non Thai broker, who can then convert   to the currency of your choice and the credit will be in your brokerage account outside Thailand.

  7) Bingo! your money is outside the country.

 

I have done this a number of times, over the years, without any problem, on one occasion involving a very significant portfolio in terms of value.

However i should add that i am an established customer of the Thai broker concerned and, over time, my  fund/stock  transfers have gone both into and out of country via this method. A new customer doing this with cash from an unknown source might arouse more interest from the authorities.

 

 

[KhunHeineken]

On 6/18/2024 at 12:44 PM, khunPer said:

If you have transferred the money into Thailand as a large sum and declared it with Bank of Thailand, you got a receipt – which you of course carefully have keept – making you eligible to transfer same amount out of Thailand. Otherwise, for larger amounts, you need to declare the funds and probably prove that tax has been paid.

That's my understanding.  Designed so money is stripped out of the Thai economy. 

[mania]

On 6/17/2024 at 2:58 AM, Mike Lister said:

But I’m not sure what would happen if one day I walked in and, having sold my car et al and wanted to remit say 4 or 5 million back home again, what would happen?

 

Perhaps if anyone has any experience of the above, they might tell us what happened.

 

 

We moved those amounts out a few years ago via Bangkok Bank back to USA no problems but we did it in a few transfers.

Do not know how true it is but we were told by others that if we kept transfers under 50k USD no questions or proofs would be needed & that is what we did

 

They asked for a reason on the trans sheet & I just said repatriation. Funnily enough it was the one time in years that my Thai wife had an albeit small problem & I did not. (because we were both doing separate transfers to speed it up)

They asked her to prove her dual citizenship by showing her US Passport which of course she does not carry so had to go get it 😉

 

So yes we moved those amounts in a few transfers usually averaging 1.3 million baht at a time over a week or two.

It would have been cheaper transfer wise to do a larger one I guess? But as told it went easily this way

[Mike Lister]

I said I would respond as soon as UOB Bangkok replied to my query:

 

The simple answer is, as long as you have an FET (or equivalent) in your name, dated any time and from any Thai bank, they will transfer the funds overseas once again. All they want to see is proof that the funds originated from overseas in the first place.

[KhunHeineken]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:51 AM, Mike Lister said:

I said I would respond as soon as UOB Bangkok replied to my query:

 

The simple answer is, as long as you have an FET (or equivalent) in your name, dated any time and from any Thai bank, they will transfer the funds overseas once again. All they want to see is proof that the funds originated from overseas in the first place.

So, nothing has changed then.  Right? 

[Alldar]

How can you get FET form? Just go bank and ask one? Are they required to produce it for you? I believe it is not so easy to get.

[gamb00ler]

On 6/18/2024 at 3:49 AM, timendres said:

I can login to my KBank mobile app, and wire $50,000 USD to my account in the US no problem.

I can wire that amount every day until the account is empty.

We are all waiting to hear how it goes when you do the max transfer many days in a row.

 

I understand that the bank's rules say the daily limit is X.  That doesn't mean they won't at some point stop you from doing it to what they consider to be too frequently.

[gamb00ler]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:51 PM, Mike Lister said:

I said I would respond as soon as UOB Bangkok replied to my query:

 

The simple answer is, as long as you have an FET (or equivalent) in your name, dated any time and from any Thai bank, they will transfer the funds overseas once again. All they want to see is proof that the funds originated from overseas in the first place.

Does the bank keep the original FET to prevent you from re-using it at another bank?  This doesn't seem like a very secure method of restricting export of foreign currency.  The implementation makes me think this is merely a bank policy not an actual government restriction.