Both my wife and myself have foreign currency accounts in different Thai banks, where we keep different currencies. 

 

Nominally, we very carefully plan where we put that currency, as we have always (possibly inaccurately) understood, that to transfer a foreign currency from one Thai bank, to another Thai bank, requires the currency to be converted first to Thai baht, and then transfer back from Thai baht to the foreign currency in the receiving bank. Hence one gets HIT with 2x foreign currency exchange.

 

My wife wants to transfer her Euros from her Krungsri (?) foreign currency account, to her SCB bank foreign currency account, as she discovered SCB gives >3% interest on a fixed term account (?) (as opposed to Krungsri which gives next to 0% interest).   She today asked a person at SCB bank if she could somehow transfer Euros into their bank without it being 1st exchanged into Thai baht.

 

She was advised it might be possible. She had to go to her Krungsri (?) bank, and ask to do an INTERNATIONAL SWIFT TRANSFER to SCB bank, even thou the transfer is not international. One then pays the fees for the Swift transfer, but that is a LOT cheaper than the currency exchange hit when going from Euros_to_Thai-Baht_back-to-Euros.   But she has to confirm now that Krungsri bank will allow here to transfer money out of their bank that way via Swift, to another Thai bank.   Possible < unsure > some Thai bank's policy may not allow such (as the money never leaves Thailand).

 

I am curious to find out if she will succeed.

 

Has anyone on Aseannow successfully done such a transfer of foreign currencies, between Thai accounts, without either (1) converting to Thai baht, or (2) transferring the money out of Thailand and then back into Thailand?   This approach of using Swift (granted there will be some fees) may be the way to do it for large amount of money transfers.

.

 

I recently transferred quite a sum of money from my USD FCD Fixed Deposit Account at Bangkok Bank to my wife's new FCD Global Savings Account at Krung Thai Bank, and I had to do it using SWIFT which cost me around USD 57, plus 500 Baht to make the deposit at KTB. With the new Global Savings Account which is available only to Thais, my wife can now transfer USD or other recognized foreign currency from KTB to any other FCD account in Thailand without any fee. Not sure if this arrangement is applicable in other banks. 

On 7/17/2025 at 9:59 PM, oldcpu said:

foreign currency account, to her SCB bank foreign currency account, as she discovered SCB gives >3% interest

Wow, if true, great return. 

 

I've had a USD account with kasikorn for 15 or so years, it pays nothing. 

 

8 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Wow, if true, great return. 

 

I've had a USD account with kasikorn for 15 or so years, it pays nothing. 

 

 

Yes - SCB is currently providing better interest than what one nominally can get in Thailand on Euros and US$.

 

In the case of Euros, my wife heard from a friend at SCB, that the bank has a lot of money in Euros in a European institution, with the bank getting an even higher interest rate than the 3.25% which is why SCB bank can pay that lower 3.25% rate to their customers.  I heard that 3rd (or maybe even 4th) hand, so take it with lots of grains of salt.

 

My wife succeeded in her transfer so I did the same next.

 

I succeeded in transferring 30k euro from Bangkok Bank Foreign currency account to a SCB Foreign currency account via Swift,  i did not have to convert to Thai baht. 

 

The transaction fee for the transfer was a bit steep at 180.86 euros.  That sounds like a lot, but after one year that 30k euros at 3.25% interest will give 975-euros interest. Then consider tax so subtract 15% Thai with holding tax and that leaves about 828 euros which more than pays for the 180.86 euros to transfer.  ... i recently crawled thru Thai tax law and confirmed for my own satisfaction  that if 15% withholding tax is applied on one's money in a Thai bank, then that need not be included in a Thai tax form. ...ie the paid (to the government via the bank) withholding tax removes the liability to include that interest as income on one's tax form.

 

As for 3.25% ...  Ok ... I concede 3.25% is not great (compared to elsewhere in the world), but it is better than 0% at Bangkok Bank and 0% at Krungsri Bank.

 

I am in the process of transferring more from a Krungsri Foreign currency account to this same SCB Foreign currency account, also via Swift.  These transfers take 3 to 5 days (they are VERY SLOW compared to Thai-Baht to Thai baht transfers).

 

I also note that it is not only the 3.25% interest the reason for my consolidating the funds into SCB.  My intent is to have SCB as my account for LTR visa self health insurance, and not Krungsri Bank.  I need to contact BoI and see if they will accept the switch in accounts for the self health insurance switch.

 

On 7/25/2025 at 11:25 PM, oldcpu said:

...

My wife succeeded in her transfer so I did the same next.

 

I succeeded in transferring 30k euro from Bangkok Bank Foreign currency account to a SCB Foreign currency account via Swift,  i did not have to convert to Thai baht. 

 

The transaction fee for the transfer was a bit steep at 180.86 euros.  

 

 

A bit more detail on this.  

 

I transferred Euros-to-Euros from one Thai bank to another Thai bank (as did my wife). Transfers we tried were:

a. Bangkok Bank to SCB bank FCD - % fee was 0.60%

b. Krungsri Bank to SCB bank FCD - % fee was 0.56%

c. UOB Bank to SCB bank FCD - % fee was only 0.16% << however i am skeptical - this was a transaction by my wife, and I think my wife may have omitted telling me of a fee?

 

So its not cheap to do a swift to swift Euro transfer from one Thai bank to another.  Obviously thou, it is cheaper than converting Euro to Thai baht and then converting back to Euro.

 

However if one is moving their Euros out of a Thai bank with 0% interest on the euro, to a Thai bank fixed account with 3.25% interest on the euro, despite a 0.6% fee, it clearly worth while to do the transfer (assuming the 3.25% is not some 3 month promotion).

 

A qualification - I am not advocating keeping euro in Thailand banks. Everyone needs to make up their own mind up here.  I moved some to Thailand when a non-tax-resident to Thailand some years back (so to avoid any potential tax implications of taxation when a Thai tax resident (in the future), and also possibly to purchase a condo unit (which did not happen)).   

 

Currently I live off these Euros (and some other funds in Thailand), watching what happens in the actual implementation of the Thai tax interpretations for remitting income to Thailand. Once what we see in practice what transpires for any Thai taxation of remitted funds (ie after all the dust settings from por.161/por.162 and any new regulations) I may or may not bring more into Thailand.  Clearly the source of the funds, relevant DTAs, and one's Visa (such as an LTR-WP) play a factor here as well.

On the topic of obtaining interest on one's money in a Thai bank, a key consideration is what does this mean in regards to Thailand taxation.

 

I had a couple of expatriates living in Thailand (who I believe are Thailand tax residents) mention to me on this forum, that if an expat has money in a Thailand bank earning interest, and if the bank deducts 15% withholding tax off of that interest, then the remaining income need not be considered assessable income for the purpose of assessing if an income tax return is required, nor in the case where an income tax return is still required for other purposes, need that interest income be included in that tax return. 

 

Now if the foreigner wants it be be considered assessable income, it can be considered such, but it need not be considered such.

 

I researched the Thailand tax law, and this is my interpretation from the tax law  (   i.e. these words are not a quote from tax law, they are my interpretation).
  
 

Quote

For a Thai tax resident, bank interest income (classified under Chapter 3, Section 40(4)(a) of the Revenue Code), from which the Thailand bank has applied the 15% withholding tax (under Section 50 of the Revenue Code), offers a crucial option. Chapter 3, Section 48(3) of the Thailand Revenue Code explicitly states that for assessable income under Section 40(4)(a) (interest income) where tax has been withheld by the Thai bank, the taxpayer may elect to pay tax at the rate of 15.0 percent of that interest income, without including it in the annual assessable income computation under Section 48(1) or (2) of the Thai Revenue Code. 
  
This election means the 15% withheld tax fully discharges further Thailand tax liability for that specific interest income. Consequently, the taxpayer is not required to include it in their aggregate assessable income for the Thailand annual personal income tax return (P.N.D. 90/91). Therefore, this specific interest income does not contribute to whether the individual meets the general income thresholds that would otherwise trigger a mandatory Thailand tax filing. If this bank interest is a Thailand resident's only Thai-sourced income, they generally have no obligation to file a tax return because the tax liability on that income has already been settled at source.

...
Note, I am not a tax advisor. I dug into the tax law out of my own curiousity to attempt to verify what other's mentioned on this forum.   For those reading of this for the first time, I recommend you should conduct your own verification, and not rely on my interpretation being correct.  Again, this is not tax advice and I am not a tax advisor. It is my interpretation in regards to interest from a Thailand bank, researched for my own use.