Money transfer for buying condo

[Agusts]

I'm doing a bit of research for myself and friends, they tell me for buying property a farang buyer must get a FCT (foreign currency transfer) certificate from the bank for the money that he's paying for the condo..., and for this it's best to transfer dollar or euro to a same currency account here and let the bank exchange that to baht...! 

 

But this means bank using terrible exchange rate..., I've seen on Wise.com when transferring money it has an option "buying property", wouldn't that be enough for Bangkok Bank for example to certify that this transfer was from abroad etc. for this particular purpose...? 

[Peterw42]

If you use wise and select the "buying property" option, it means wise don't do the exchange and sent the money to a Thai bank for exchange, as per the buying property requirements. When sending large amounts of money, with a fixed fee (swift is $10-20 no matter the amount), it works out to be a better fees/exchange rate than wise, which is a sliding scale and ends up being a substantial fee on large amounts, more than any exchange rate savings.. 

Wise has all sorts of limits and you cant send enough to buy a property, in one transfer.

[DrJack54]

I just use WISE.

The condos I have purchased have in the main been the 3-4mil baht range.

Wise transfers have restrictive limit (50k b) to many banks.

The limit per transfer to Kasikorn and BBL is 2 mil baht.

So two transfers. Done. 

[Jingthing]

Learn about the tax implications (and loophole) before remitting. 

[OneMoreFarang]

The money must be transferred in EUR or USD (...) to the Thai bank account.

Years ago, I transferred it to my SCB THB bank account, and the exchange rate was reasonable.

You have to say the reason is something like "purchase condominium". Youd don't have to specify and name or address of the condo you want to buy.

[Yellowtail]

It has been my experience that the rates for swift transfer are good. I pay a $45 fee from Chase in the US to Kasikorn and Krungsri. 

[Agusts]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

If you use wise and select the "buying property" option, it means wise don't do the exchange and sent the money to a Thai bank for exchange, as per the buying property requirements. When sending large amounts of money, with a fixed fee (swift is $10-20 no matter the amount), it works out to be a better fees/exchange rate than wise, which is a sliding scale and ends up being a substantial fee on large amounts, more than any exchange rate savings.. 

Wise has all sorts of limits and you cant send enough to buy a property, in one transfer.

 

That's good to know if selecting that option it does not deliver baht... 

 

As for limits, surely can send multiple transfer and get certificate for each....? 

[Agusts]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Learn about the tax implications (and loophole) before remitting. 

 

If you're talking about Thai tax, if less than 180 days here, not applies... 

[Agusts]

As an example I just checked today Bangkok Bank exchange GBP to THB at 41.58. And Wise does it 42.49 - and on say about £47300 charges £250, to deliver about 2 mill baht - max allowed. 

 

So using bank exchange will cost about £800 more, give it take, say about 1.5%, it's not the end of the world, but that's what I was investigating (I think dollar is bit better) , I guess they have rigged the system for Thai banks to benefit..., nothing new...! 

 

I'm also told they put certain amount as official selling price, to take care of this FCT certificate at lower amount , and the rest is paid in cash, is that the norm.....? 

[Peterw42]

7 hours ago, Agusts said:

As an example I just checked today Bangkok Bank exchange GBP to THB at 41.58. And Wise does it 42.49 - and on say about £47300 charges £250, to deliver about 2 mill baht - max allowed. 

 

So using bank exchange will cost about £800 more, give it take, say about 1.5%, it's not the end of the world, but that's what I was investigating (I think dollar is bit better) , I guess they have rigged the system for Thai banks to benefit..., nothing new...! 

 

I'm also told they put certain amount as official selling price, to take care of this FCT certificate at lower amount , and the rest is paid in cash, is that the norm.....? 

You get the TT (telegraphic transfer) rate , not the note buying rate, when transferring funds electronically, today (24th) that rate was 41.97.

Large amounts are always better fees/rate via swift. bank exchange rate will be a little less than wise but the bank fixed transfer fee will be way less than the wise fee, usually more than any exchange rate savings.

 

You cant put down a lower value than what the land office says a property is worth. The FET should be for the whole amount of the purchase price that is given to the land office

[Agusts]

10 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

You get the TT (telegraphic transfer) rate , not the note buying rate, when transferring funds electronically, today (24th) that rate was 41.97.

 

 

Does this TT apply when GBP is sent via SWIFT or Wise into a baht account at Bangkok Bank...? 

 

I also have GBP account at BB, can send GBP into that, and then at a later time transfer that to baht account, I guess that does not use TT...!?

[treetops]

On 2/24/2025 at 10:18 AM, Agusts said:

Does this TT apply when GBP is sent via SWIFT or Wise into a baht account at Bangkok Bank...? 

 

For TT yes, but Wise use their own mid-market rate which is always better.  When the banks have a low spread between buying and selling (eg USD) then Swift will win after a point, but when the higher spread is larger than Wise' percentage charge then Wise will always win.  I'm sure that's the case for GBP which is what you are discussing.

 

Happy to be proved wrong if someone crunches the numbers, but that's been my take on it recently.

[FlorC]

For the folks that use swift , do you send euro/dollar/gbp to Thaibank , that will exchange it or ,

Do you exchange to baht in your country/your bank and send it in baht to your thai bank account ?

[Yellowtail]

7 minutes ago, FlorC said:

For the folks that use swift , do you send euro/dollar/gbp to Thaibank , that will exchange it or ,

Do you exchange to baht in your country/your bank and send it in baht to your thai bank account ?

Always send in the currency of the country you are sending from. 

[FlorC]

28 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Always send in the currency of the country you are sending from. 

Then you do get the bad exchange rates of the thai banks.

[Yellowtail]

3 minutes ago, FlorC said:

Then you do get the bad exchange rates of the thai banks.

No. The rates you get from the Thai banks are much, much better. 

 

That said, my experience is with US banks only. 

 

[Soondae]

You are much better off making a Swift Bank transfer, much cheaper and when I purchased my Udon Thani home (2022), SCB gave me the current $ to BHT rate on EXAPP (was over 38 baht to dollar), I made a killing over trying to schedule multiple Wise transfers. Also I purchased a Condo around 1989 using Swift and all went well. Wise is a good choice for monthly smaller transfers, but a Swift transfer is better if large amounts are involved. However you must insure that the bank sends your home currency for the swift transfer and let the receiving Thai bank make the conversion. Your home bank will rip you off on the exchange prior to sending the Swift transfer (Just model the swift transfer in your bank APP or website and you will see the poor exchange rates).

[treetops]

3 minutes ago, Soondae said:

You are much better off making a Swift Bank transfer, much cheaper and when I purchased my Udon Thani home (2022), SCB gave me the current $ to BHT rate on EXAPP (was over 38 baht to dollar), I made a killing over trying to schedule multiple Wise transfers.

 

As mentioned above, Swift is often better for larger USD transactions, such as your case, as it's the most commonly traded currency and spreads are tight, but the OP appears to use GBP which tends to have a much bigger spread and means Wise may well be the better choice.

[Crazy Noobie]

I transfer every month (9 years) from Chase Bank in the USA here to Bangkok Bank by swift and they charge a FLAT fee of $40, no matter what the amount is. I transfer it in dollars, so that when it arrives here the bank code is FTT. Which means it was transferred from outside of Thailand. If I transfer in baht, then the bank puts a different code which means it was a domestic transfer, which is what I don't want. As then I have problem with immigration when it comes time for my retirement extension. I have always receive decent exchange rates.

[Vibora99]

I hope you are not 60 or older as it would be very stupid to buy at this age.

[Vibora99]

And I say this because there are people who believe they will live to be 100 years old, but that is not the case. In your eyes, you only have 10 years of good life left. Think carefully instead of spending so much money on enjoying it in another way.

[khunPer]

On 2/23/2025 at 6:47 PM, Agusts said:

I'm doing a bit of research for myself and friends, they tell me for buying property a farang buyer must get a FCT (foreign currency transfer) certificate from the bank for the money that he's paying for the condo..., and for this it's best to transfer dollar or euro to a same currency account here and let the bank exchange that to baht...! 

 

But this means bank using terrible exchange rate..., I've seen on Wise.com when transferring money it has an option "buying property", wouldn't that be enough for Bangkok Bank for example to certify that this transfer was from abroad etc. for this particular purpose...? 

Might be best to use a bank transfer and foreign currency – i.e. your home country's currency – and do the exchange in Thailand. If you transfer a larger sum, make sure that you get a reciept from the Bank of Thailand declaration, you so can take the same amout of money out of Thailand, if you sell your condo.

 

Be aware of income tax of foreign transfer, if you stay in Thailand for than 180 days during the calendar year when you do the transfer. You need to be able to prove that the funds is savings from before 2024, to avoid income tax.

[donx]

I use Wise to transfer small amounts from the US to Thailand, usually $3000 or less. These transfers are usually received almost immediately into my wife's Thai bank account (Kasikorn). When I need to transfer large amounts for the purpose of purchasing real estate, for example $50,000, then I use a swift bank transfer. These take longer and my bank fee for this transaction is $50.

 

My last swift transfer took a very long time, but I blame this on Kasikorn bank because they needed a confirmation from my wife to accept the transfer, but we didn't know this was required (it wasn't in the past as far as I am aware) for over 2 weeks when my US bank called me and said she needed to contact Kasikorn bank. Our bank provided us with two Thai phone numbers for my wife to contact Kasikorn bank. I think this is a new requirement because there have been so many fraudulent bank transactions recently. It's strange and not very reliable since my wife never had to provide any proof to the bank of who she was such as her Thai ID number. She could have been anyone that sounded like a female, spoke Thai, and knew the account number and amount in US dollars being transferred.

 

It could be that Kasikorn tried to contact my wife with the phone number associated with her bank account. The problem is that her account is associated with a Thai phone number that is no longer active (at least not active for her). Kasikorn won't allow associating her bank account with a foreign phone number, and since we live in the US, she only obtains a Thai phone number while she's visiting for a month or so each year. In the past when I used swift bank transfers, my wife would be in Thailand waiting for the money to arrive. Perhaps she contacted Kasikorn about those transfers asking about the status of the transfer and therefore they already knew the transfer was legitimate.

[JJ-Thailand]

Don't forget to file your tax return and possibly also pay tax on the amount sent over.