Just a note of how things went the other day.

I use to use the Bangkok Bank NY method to send money from USA to Thailand years ago but stopped once I started using Wise.

Then I read a few times how folks had problems if it wasn't in IAT format etc.

But the other day I thought I would try from my Credit Union in US. They do not do outgoing international but do Domestic wires so I figured just give it a shot as it is $25 & for the 10k I sent Bangkok Bank NY charged $10 & Bangkok Bank Thailand 100 baht

So say roughly $38 USD to send 10k

Went right thru in a few hours Of course you need to check Bangkok Bank rate & yes it will be slightly lower than Wise but only a few satang

I think that day diff was $18 so still cheaper using my credit union

Anyway Wise charge was going to be $64 but it would not let me send 10k quickly evern though I have been sending for years

That is the reason I did this because that day I wanted to use Wise & for what ever reason it was quoting rate hold for 8 hours but was going to take like 5 days to transfer ? So I am not sure what rate would be?

It would only do 1k in seconds anything above $1200 it was days

So anyway...in case anyone was wondering as I was...It did fine & was cheap & quick

But at the end of the day the reason I did it was if Wise was going to make me do 10 $1000. transfers the fee was going to be $9.65 x 10 or $96.50

I do hope my Wise will work better again & trans larger amounts quickly as it is a bit easier overall of course

Edited May 9May 9 by mania

If saving money on transfers is your main goal, open an account with Interactive Brokers in the US. Any cash you keep in an account there is then FDIC insured up to $250K, just like any US bank account.

You should be able to move funds from your credit union to Interactive Brokers using an ACH transfer, which is a form of electronic bank to bank transfer in the US and normally costs $0. If your credit union does not support ACH, you can send a wire transfer to Interactive Brokers instead.

From there, you can wire funds to your bank account in Thailand for free. Interactive Brokers allows 1 free wire each month and charge $1 for each additional wire within the same month.

In practice, you would move money from your credit union to Interactive Brokers using ACH for free, then send it onward to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand for free. The only likely fee would be the small receiving fee charged by Bangkok Bank in Thailand.

For myself it has never been fees really

More just ease & speed

I just was surprised that some days Wise will send in seconds (when you don't need a proof of foreign incoming funds etc)

Just like to be able to send any amount (within reason) in seconds no hassle

I don't like the uncertainty of taking days for a simple wire

Edited May 9May 9 by mania

Much of your original post is about transfer fees so it seemed important to you, but anyway, if Wise transfers any amount to a Bangkok Bank account these days it no longer seems to happen in seconds the way it did a few years ago. That is my personal experience anyway. Up until a few months ago I was sending three small payments a month from a Wise account to a Bangkok Bank account and it would take at least one to two days, and almost three full days if sent on a Friday afternoon. Transfers that arrive in seconds only seem to happen when sending to banks like SCB, KBank, and a few others. Larger transfers often take longer in any case, no matter which Thai bank is the destination.

I have stopped using Wise for various other reasons though. They all relate to errors they made on my account over the years and their level of KYC requirements that go far beyond what I would expect from a normal bank.

That said, a wire from Interactive Brokers sent on a Monday through Wednesday weekday morning in Thailand to a Bangkok Bank account will take no longer than one to two days. It could even arrive the same day. That is basically the same amount of time that Wise takes for me, even faster, and with zero questions at all about the nature and purpose of the transfer from Interactive Brokers.

Wise exchange fees have also increased steadily over the years, specifically on Thai baht. I have compared the exchange cost using Wise to convert dollars to baht versus sending dollars via wire directly to UOB in Thailand and there is basically no longer any meaningful savings using Wise. And UOB doesn't charge me any incoming wire fees.

So Wise is not really a winning service for me anymore. And if you have a Thai residence address on your Wise account then onwards from August of this year you will experience a number of changes to the way your Wise account operates in Thailand, many of which may not be so much to your liking.

Edited May 9May 9 by FriscoKid

19 hours ago, FriscoKid said:

Much of your original post is about transfer fees so it seemed important to you

I was just mentioning it as a FYI for others

As I said for me I like the speed of transfer most

Because it is usually larger amounts I liked that it could be done in seconds or at worst a couple hours.

I maintain a US address also so Wise was ok when it was ok speed wise

But now it is just too slow for anything over 1k

Edited May 10May 10 by mania

23 hours ago, mania said:

So say roughly $38 USD to send 10k

Went right thru in a few hours Of course you need to check Bangkok Bank rate & yes it will be slightly lower than Wise but only a few satang

I think that day diff was $18 so still cheaper using my credit union

Anyway Wise charge was going to be $64 but it would not let me send 10k quickly evern though I have been sending for years

That is the reason I did this because that day I wanted to use Wise & for what ever reason it was quoting rate hold for 8 hours but was going to take like 5 days to transfer ? So I am not sure what rate would be?

It would only do 1k in seconds anything above $1200 it was days

So anyway...in case anyone was wondering as I was...It did fine & was cheap & quick

But at the end of the day the reason I did it was if Wise was going to make me do 10 $1000. transfers the fee was going to be $9.65 x 10 or $96.50

Tks for the brief...

I recently did a domestic xfer from Schwab to BB NY... Took 12 hrs from the time Schwab posted the transfer to the BB notification of posting...

Fees thru Schwab were $0

Got the local BB crap rate which was $.09 lower than TT...

Havent tried Wise yet...

I ran into the exact same situation with Wise this weekend: a transfer from a new bank account to Bangkok Bank needed five days.

It seemed to be related to using a new bank account. From the account I usually use, the transfer was supposedly immediate, but a new bank account required five business days.

It could be that after the first transfer, Wise would no longer need that five days.

On 5/10/2026 at 6:14 PM, Saddic said:

Tks for the brief...

I recently did a domestic xfer from Schwab to BB NY... Took 12 hrs from the time Schwab posted the transfer to the BB notification of posting...

Fees thru Schwab were $0

Got the local BB crap rate which was $.09 lower than TT...

Havent tried Wise yet...

That is really nice both price wise & time wise!

We were back in USA recently & I considered opening either a Schwab or Fidelity account for exactly that reason.

Wish I did now 😉

23 hours ago, davb said:

I ran into the exact same situation with Wise this weekend: a transfer from a new bank account to Bangkok Bank needed five days.

It seemed to be related to using a new bank account. From the account I usually use, the transfer was supposedly immediate, but a new bank account required five business days.

It could be that after the first transfer, Wise would no longer need that five days.

I wish that were the case with us but our accounts are over 14 years old & I have been using Wise for years. But yes recently same as you a long transfer time on anything over 1k USD

Today I sent $2000 from CU in USA to BkBank via WISE. Reason-personal expense. Money arrived in seconds. Same as last month.

On 5/12/2026 at 7:18 PM, LIVRA said:

Today I sent $2000 from CU in USA to BkBank via WISE. Reason-personal expense. Money arrived in seconds. Same as last month.

That is good to hear. I just used their phone app & tried just 1k from my CU to Bangkok bank & it said May 20th (today is Thursday May 14th

Very odd I may try & connect & ask if there is any problems

PS: really odd but yesterday after posting that I tried again & it was the deliver in seconds message I like to see.

Tried today & said May 21st just for 1k...then again later in seconds

So I guess the lesson is try a few times & it may revert to the deliver in seconds 🤷

Edited May 15May 15 by mania