A question to all you Brits receiving your UK State Pension direct onto your Thai Bank account .....

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

Take today - K Bank is showing an exchange rate of 43.55 for "Telegraphic transfers"

(Link - https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx?utm_medium=organic_seo&utm_term=kbank!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_content=none!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_source=google

Whereas on Google, today's exchange rate is shown as 44.04

So, based on your experience, what exchange rate will be used ?

24 minutes ago, properperson said:

A question to all you Brits receiving your UK State Pension direct onto your Thai Bank account .....

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

Take today - K Bank is showing an exchange rate of 43.55 for "Telegraphic transfers"

(Link - https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx?utm_medium=organic_seo&utm_term=kbank!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_content=none!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_source=google

Whereas on Google, today's exchange rate is shown as 44.04

So, based on your experience, what exchange rate will be used ?

Not sure about the UK but I do receive my pension from Germany in Thai Baht, there is not any mention about the exchange rate used. My guess is that in my case the exchange rate in Germany is used which is not good. But at least there are no foreign bank charges, just 100 Baht local handling fee.

1 hour ago, properperson said:

A question to all you Brits receiving your UK State Pension direct onto your Thai Bank account .....

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

Take today - K Bank is showing an exchange rate of 43.55 for "Telegraphic transfers"

(Link - https://www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx?utm_medium=organic_seo&utm_term=kbank!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_content=none!www.kasikornbank.com/en/rate/pages/foreign-exchange.aspx&utm_source=google

Whereas on Google, today's exchange rate is shown as 44.04

So, based on your experience, what exchange rate will be used ?

44.04 is the mid-rate, if you were to buy THB with GBP you get the "Buy" rate & 43.55 sounds about right exchanging via Citi.

Alternatively you could have it paid into a UK Bank account like Revolut & send the money yourself, website suggests you can get 43.85 https://www.revolut.com/currency-converter/convert-gbp-to-thb-exchange-rate/)

Although there's no fees to do the exchange in APP, there will be a fee when it comes to send this to Thailand (Have just done a test and it would cost 60.08 THB to send 50,000 THB).

NB you can skip the conversion in the UK and send GBP to THB (unfortunately I recently moved all of my GBP into THB so can't tell you what the rate/charges for this would be).

Edited June 11Jun 11 by SamSpade

Unless you are receiving a large amount, and if its a state pension it isnt, does a few points either side really matter that much?

Generally the difference in exchange rates only varies by less than 0.5 baht/£ !!

3 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Unless you are receiving a large amount, and if its a state pension it isnt, does a few points either side really matter that much?

Generally the difference in exchange rates only varies by less than 0.5 baht/£ !!

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

11 hours ago, properperson said:

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

Think you'll need to call your bank and ask the date of the money transfer and the exchange rate, then you can make comparisons.

I once rang SCB to enquire. They told me the uk pension came from Citibank USA via Citibank Thailand to my SCB account.

11 hours ago, properperson said:

I'm trying to work out what exchange rate the company the DWP uses to send the money (City Bank).

Citi will use the Wholesale rate which should be very close to the Mid-Rates you see on XE/Yahoo etc... Do a Search for "Wholesale" FX rate for buying THB with GBP"

As always, AI can give erroneous/out of date information, when I did that query it told me the rate was 43.31 so I told it to update it's information and it came back with...

You are completely correct, and thank you for catching that. The live wholesale interbank exchange rate has moved up to £1 = 43.98 THB. [1]

The market has experienced intraday fluctuations, climbing from a baseline of 43.94 THB up to a peak of 44.02 THB.

1 hour ago, SamSpade said:

Citi will use the Wholesale rate which should be very close to the Mid-Rates you see on XE/Yahoo etc... Do a Search for "Wholesale" FX rate for buying THB with GBP"

As always, AI can give erroneous/out of date information, when I did that query it told me the rate was 43.31 so I told it to update it's information and it came back with...

You are completely correct, and thank you for catching that. The live wholesale interbank exchange rate has moved up to £1 = 43.98 THB. [1]

The market has experienced intraday fluctuations, climbing from a baseline of 43.94 THB up to a peak of 44.02 THB.

Thanks for the info - Any idea what Citibank will be charging for handling/transferring the money ??

Edited June 12Jun 12 by properperson

11 minutes ago, properperson said:

Thanks for the info - Any idea what Citibank will be charging for handling/transferring the money ??

GOV.UK says;

55 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

GOV.UK says;

was more interested what Citibank are charging for handling & transferring the money ..... Any ideas ??

9 minutes ago, properperson said:

was more interested what Citibank are charging for handling & transferring the money ..... Any ideas ??

They are taking the 0.39% as their cut.

2 hours ago, treetops said:

They are taking the 0.39% as their cut.

if the 0.39% includes everything, including Citibank doing the transfer, sounds like pretty good deal to me ...

Edited June 12Jun 12 by properperson