Thai bank - restricting incoming amounts of foreign funds

[Sydebolle]

The Foreign Exchange Form - for the Bank of Thailand - is nothing new. I remember 30+ years ago you had to sign such a form, then called EC51, to get the funds credited. Likewise you needed to fill in/sign such a form if you bought more than a few hundred dollars or went on an overseas trip with a Thai credit card. I forgot that once and the issuing bank did not approve the debits from hotels in Europe as the limit then was 80,000 Baht. 

Lesson learnt and moved my credit card bank to an international much more professional bank. A phone call was all it took and the bank cleared spending limits and the EC51 form electronically for me to sign upon return. 

[DTL2014]

unlikely - they want foreign currency

[Surasak]

On 6/4/2025 at 6:19 PM, DrJack54 said:

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

I second Kasikorn, simplicity itself. Never used BBL.

[ronnie50]

14 minutes ago, Surasak said:

I second Kasikorn, simplicity itself. Never used BBL.

For Immigration/O visa/extentions, Kasikorn is probably best and easiest - I have an account there and was the first bank that would open an account for me (years ago, but I had a work permit). But I like SCB as the best bank overall to deal with for almost everything and a higher limit for incoming wire transfers (like Kasikorn). However, as @DrJack54 pointed out a few times, there is no SCB branch at IMM2 building in Bangkok. Depends on your needs. If you can only open one account, and it's primarily to meet the demands of Immigration to prove available funds, then go with Kasikorn - that's what I'd do if it were me. If you have a work permit or at least a one year retirement or marriage extension, you 'should' be able to open accounts at many banks. But nothing is ever guaranteed here, unfortunantely.

[Guderian]

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I've never transferred more than about one million Baht at a time into Thailand in the last two decades, just in case something goes wrong with the transfer. I know the remitting bank is supposed to indemnify you, but I've had enough bad experiences with officialdom here and back at home over the years that I don't trust any of them. 

For small £1,000 living expenses transfers I use Wise, but for large amounts like £20K it's often cheaper to use my Barclays UK account as there's no transfer fee. I get a slightly poorer exchange rate from SCB here than I'd get from Wise, but avoid their own fee (maybe £140 on £20K). If you time it right then using the bank is cheaper than using Wise, but only for large sums. 

[arick]

3 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

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

They call you in your phone to tell you and you send the an email with the information that they are requesting. For example proof of where the income came from or bill of sale for property or condo. Purchase agreement. And then they release the money directly back into your account. But if you send 2 million or 3 million every few days it probably won't be stopped.

[arick]

All financial deposits coming into the country go through either Bangkok Bank or Siam bank. Then the get pass onto your bank ie Krung Thai. So you have to contact either Bangkok Bank or SCB normally it's Bangkok Bank that holds the money and you have to contact them directly and send them the information that they want for the money to be released into your own account and bank.

[Yellowtail]

6 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

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

Why do you think this is the case? As far as I know the banks do not limit to how much can be transferred into your account per transition. 

[ronnie50]

44 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Why do you think this is the case? As far as I know the banks do not limit to how much can be transferred into your account per transition. 

Hard to say whether this is WISE and SWIFT that encouter the limit or just WISE...

But more than 50k USD needs extra form filled out and supposedly included, though some have said the bank will just phone the customer to ask why the transfer exceeds 50k USD and will then release the money into the Thai account. 

 

I don't use WISE, just SWIFT. Here are the limits WISE refers to.... and banks it no longer deals with in Thailand.

 

https://wise.com/help/articles/2932335/guide-to-thb-transfers 

[Yellowtail]

16 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

Hard to say whether this is WISE and SWIFT that encouter the limit or just WISE...

But more than 50k USD needs extra form filled out and supposedly included, though some have said the bank will just phone the customer to ask why the transfer exceeds 50k USD and will then release the money into the Thai account. 

 

I don't use WISE, just SWIFT. Here are the limits WISE refers to.... and banks it no longer deals with in Thailand.

 

https://wise.com/help/articles/2932335/guide-to-thb-transfers 

I only make one or two transfers a year, so Wise is not cost effective for me. If you send less than about US$12K I think Wise is a good choice, over that, I think swift is cheaper, but it is a bit harder to get set up to do online, at least it was for me. 

 

I do not believe there is a limit to how much can be transferred into your account per transition using swift.