Thai bank - restricting incoming amounts of foreign funds

[ronnie50]

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion. I checked SCB incoming SWIFT policy and it says up to 1,499,999 THB after conversion is allowed on incoming foreign fund transfers, though you can make as many individual foreign transfers up to that amount as you like.

 

Also anything more than 50k in USD requires Foreign Exchange Forms to satisfy the Bank of Thailand on the purpose of transaction. Which doesn't make much sense as that is already over the limit of foreign transfer allowed (50,000 USD is currently 1,628,000 THB).

 

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

[DrJack54]

13 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

I have posted many times...imo Kasikorn is the bank if you use WISE.

BBL also ok but for immigration 12 month bank statement is a pain..

Just this minute I transferred $90k aud to my Kasikorn (1.9mil baht)

Wise tell me arrive tomorrow by 11am.

Smaller amounts instant. 

Tomorrow I will do same transfer again.

Condo settlement Fri 13. 

USA have their own rules for transfers.

 

 

[Yellowtail]

Unless something has changed, I do not believe Krunsri or Kasikorn have any restriction on how much can be transferred in. I know that I have transferred ~3M into each bank. 

 

I can't speak to other banks, but I think they are the same. 

 

My US bank (Chase) limits online transfers out of the country to $100K per day, and this cannot be changed without visiting a branch. 

[DrJack54]

5 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I do not believe Krunsri or Kasikorn have any restriction on how much can be transferred in.

The OP post was information regarding WISE transfers. 

As posted above. I just now did a transfer of ~1.9mil baht.

If I try 2mil + they post "cannot exceed 2 mil.

As a result need two transfers. 

Most likely can do second one now however not urgent tomorrow is fine. 

[Yellowtail]

9 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

The OP post was information regarding WISE transfers. 

As posted above. I just now did a transfer of ~1.9mil baht.

If I try 2mil + they post "cannot exceed 2 mil.

As a result need two transfers. 

Most likely can do second one now however not urgent tomorrow is fine. 

Sorry, I saw nothing about Wise in the OP, I only saw swift mentioned. 

[ronnie50]

3 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Sorry, I saw nothing about Wise in the OP, I only saw swift mentioned. 

Correct. I guess it isn't just WISE that can do that. SWIFT can (and has for me in past) to SCB (but less than 1.5 million THB. I'm just trying to understand if new limits or rules have been imposed by the BOT or the by the banks themselves..

[DrJack54]

15 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Sorry, I saw nothing about Wise in the OP, I only saw swift mentioned. 

No worries. Yes he didn't mention WISE but those using it are aware of those limits outlined. 

[DrJack54]

15 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

I'm just trying to understand if new limits or rules have been imposed by the BOT or the by the banks themselves

What new rules. 

[ukrules]

The last time I sent more than $50k USD, it was $55k in fact, they phoned me up and asked me what it was for, I told them and that was fine - I think they literally just need to enter some kind of code against it. This was Kasikorn.

That was worth about 1.9 million at the time if I remember correctly. Seconds after the phone call the SMS alerting me to the deposit arrived.

 

 

[Liverpool Lou]

4 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Unless something has changed, I do not believe Krunsri or Kasikorn have any restriction on how much can be transferred in. I know that I have transferred ~3M into each bank. 

You're right, obviously, Thai banks have no restrictions on the amount of funds that can be sent in to Thai bank accounts from overseas banks using the SWIFT system.

[Liverpool Lou]

4 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

Correct. I guess it isn't just WISE that can do that. SWIFT can (and has for me in past) to SCB (but less than 1.5 million THB. I'm just trying to understand if new limits or rules have been imposed by the BOT or the by the banks themselves..

No, there are no new BoT rules limiting the amount that can be sent to Thai banks through the normal banking system, it would be ridiculous for anyone to suggest that there there are.

[oldcpu]

5 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion.

...

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

 

I know when using Wise that Krungsri has limits when transferring money to Thailand.  I have accounts at both Bangkok Bank and Krungsri (and recently SCB) and so when I wish to transfer money to Thailand, I typically transfer money 1st  to Bangkok Bank, ...and once in Bangkok Bank I will transfer the money to Krungsri bank.  Having typed that, its been over 18-months  (from what I recall) since I last transferred money to Thailand.  Further I transferred a lot of money to Thailand some years back when I was a non-resident. 

 

Likely thou, if I wish to buy a new car, I may consider transferring some more money to Thailand (via Bangkok Bank).

 

Reference your comment about multiple transfers to by a condo.  When I purchased a condo in Thailand back in 2016 (?), I was in Thailand and needed to transfer money from Europe to Thailand.  I recall I had a limit on my European account as to how much I could transfer in any given transfer.  Foolishly (?) I did not check such before departing Europe to Thailand, and when in Thailand, I was not able to get the European bank to raise the limit (they wanted me to go into the office in Europe to do so).  Hence I ended making something like 10 or more transfers over the course of a couple of weeks. A bit of a PIA as I suspect you can image. ...  I learned after that to plan just a bit better.

 

 

[Yellowtail]

5 hours ago, ukrules said:

The last time I sent more than $50k USD, it was $55k in fact, they phoned me up and asked me what it was for, I told them and that was fine - I think they literally just need to enter some kind of code against it. This was Kasikorn.

That was worth about 1.9 million at the time if I remember correctly. Seconds after the phone call the SMS alerting me to the deposit arrived.

 

 

They usually ask me if the rate is acceptable as well. 

[ukrules]

4 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

They usually ask me if the rate is acceptable as well. 

 

Now you mention it they might have asked me to confirm the rate in the phone call but I had just woken from a deep sleep as they phoned me in the morning so I was still half asleep while speaking to them

[persimmon]

Last time I checked . Wise told me that I could not send more than 50,000 bt to my bank KTB in one go , so I`m thinking that opening another account with say , Kasikorn might be a god idea ( that`s if they allow it on a non O retirement from the UK ).

[DrJack54]

15 minutes ago, persimmon said:

Last time I checked . Wise told me that I could not send more than 50,000 bt to my bank KTB in one go , so I`m thinking that opening another account with say , Kasikorn might be a god idea ( that`s if they allow it on a non O retirement from the UK ).

It's now 500k for bank you mention. 

 

As for you mention Kasikorn. Limit is 2 mil.

Yesterday I transferred 1.9mill baht and did same today. 

Today's transfer was instant. 

[DrJack54]

A trolling post removed

[ronnie50]

Thanks for all the comments. As I mentioned in the OP, I wasn't sure if the maximum amounts were new - just new to me as I had never tried to remit more than 1.5 m baht in foreign currency into Thailand. Glad I have a bank that allows more than 500,000 THB per incoming transaction, what a pain in the arse that would be for any major purchase otherwise. 

[DrJack54]

5 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

Glad I have a bank that allows more than 500,000 THB per incoming transaction, what a pain in the arse that would be for any major purchase otherwise. 

As previously stated. For anyone looking to open a bank account then for me it's either BBL or Kasikorn

[Dionigi]

On 6/3/2025 at 6:16 PM, ronnie50 said:

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion. I checked SCB incoming SWIFT policy and it says up to 1,499,999 THB after conversion is allowed on incoming foreign fund transfers, though you can make as many individual foreign transfers up to that amount as you like.

 

Also anything more than 50k in USD requires Foreign Exchange Forms to satisfy the Bank of Thailand on the purpose of transaction. Which doesn't make much sense as that is already over the limit of foreign transfer allowed (50,000 USD is currently 1,628,000 THB).

 

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

HSBC used to have a limit of 10,000 pounds, per day, for international transfer. I had to send on multiple days for large amounts.

[wombat]

Claiming dumb@$$ Skippy question here...why would you want to cut off incoming money?

Mule accounts for outgoing money I understand.

[BangkokHank]

How could and why would a bank restrict the amount of money that you transfer INTO your account? And what would happen if you transferred an amount that would exceed their limit? Would they just send the money back to your foreign bank account? It really doesn't make sense that a bank would restrict inward remittances. Transfers OUT of Thailand, possibly. But inward transfers, why and how?

[DrJack54]

6 minutes ago, BangkokHank said:

Transfers OUT of Thailand, possibly. But inward transfers, why and how?

The OP was bit mixed up. 

Going by the stated limits then this is clearly regarding transfers using WISE. 

This week I had to transfer 4mil using WISE. 

I use Kasikorn. Hence two transfers of approx 1.9mil

[iaminwa]

On 6/3/2025 at 7:30 PM, DrJack54 said:

I have posted many times...imo Kasikorn is the bank if you use WISE.

BBL also ok but for immigration 12 month bank statement is a pain..

Just this minute I transferred $90k aud to my Kasikorn (1.9mil baht)

Wise tell me arrive tomorrow by 11am.

Smaller amounts instant. 

Tomorrow I will do same transfer again.

Condo settlement Fri 13. 

USA have their own rules for transfers.

 

 

I can confirm, UOB has stopped accepting my Wise transfers as of May 6th.

I did a SWIFT transfer from another bank and the funds turned up in my UOB account quite quickly - within 1 day.

[DrJack54]

13 minutes ago, iaminwa said:

I can confirm, UOB has stopped accepting my Wise transfers as of May 6th

I don't know what's going on there.

Here is my transfer of ~ 1.9mil on June 4.

BTW note transfered instantly. Not minutes. 

 

 

[Upnotover]

1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

I don't know what's going on there.

Here is my transfer of ~ 1.9mil on June 4.

BTW note transfered instantly. Not minutes. 

 

 

UOB is amongst the many Thai banks Wise stopped sending to last month;

 

THB recipient banks

Starting on 6 May 2025, the following banks will no longer be supported due to payment system upgrades in Thailand: 

• TMBThanachart Bank (011)

• Citibank (017)

• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (018)

• Standard Chartered Bank (020)

• United Overseas Bank (024)

• ........

• ...

 

[arick]

On 6/3/2025 at 6:16 PM, ronnie50 said:

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion. I checked SCB incoming SWIFT policy and it says up to 1,499,999 THB after conversion is allowed on incoming foreign fund transfers, though you can make as many individual foreign transfers up to that amount as you like.

 

Also anything more than 50k in USD requires Foreign Exchange Forms to satisfy the Bank of Thailand on the purpose of transaction. Which doesn't make much sense as that is already over the limit of foreign transfer allowed (50,000 USD is currently 1,628,000 THB).

 

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

You can send any amount you can send 5 million if it stopped or flagged you just have to show them the purchase for the condo or where the money came from and they will release it within an hour.

[ronnie50]

I can only echo the above questions - @BangkokHank  and  @wombat. Forget WISE and forget SWIFT for a moment.  

 

Why do Thai banks limit the amount of incoming foreign funds per transaction (often hard currency like USD). Or is that just the maximum without filling out a bunch of forms? The latter is hard to do if you are not in Thailand at the time of intended transfer and have an existing Thai bank account. Is it some kind of OECD sub-rule? I guess all countries might have some upper limit that results in an automatic flag. Still TIT

[ronnie50]

8 minutes ago, arick said:

You can send any amount you can send 5 million if it stopped or flagged you just have to show them the purchase for the condo or where the money came from and they will release it within an hour.

Okay, but not easy if not in Thailand at the time.

[frank83628]

On 6/3/2025 at 6:16 PM, ronnie50 said:

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion. I checked SCB incoming SWIFT policy and it says up to 1,499,999 THB after conversion is allowed on incoming foreign fund transfers, though you can make as many individual foreign transfers up to that amount as you like.

 

Also anything more than 50k in USD requires Foreign Exchange Forms to satisfy the Bank of Thailand on the purpose of transaction. Which doesn't make much sense as that is already over the limit of foreign transfer allowed (50,000 USD is currently 1,628,000 THB).

 

Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?

Always has been a thing, less then 20k usd per go, otherwise it flags in the system