Citibank Money Transfer

[apetley]

Hi, I have just read on the Citibank UK website that they offer free money transfer to other Citibank branches around the world.

Does anyone here, UK and Thailand, use them and take advantage of this service?

How easy is it to open an account in Thailand with Citibank?

Andy.

[pitrevie]

When I was looking into this they quoted me the normal rates for transferring money from a UK based Citibank account to their Bank in Bangkok. I found the cheapest method was to open a HSBC account in Bangkok and transfer the money from HSBC in London at a cost of 10 UK pounds. The only snag is that they require a large balance to be kept in the Bangkok account otherwise you get monthly charges. This refers to transferring amounts of any size and not using an ATM card to withdraw from a UK account. For that it has been mentioned many times Nationwide are the best by far. However this applies to transfers from UK. I would be interested if anyone else has any updated information regarding Citibank

[apetley]

Hi Pitrevie, thanks for your reply.

What you say about HSBC is interesting because they have just quoted me £30 to transfer 2k to my wifes Krung Thai account in Thailand. That's why I am searching for cheaper alternatives!

Do you know if the £10 you were quioted is for HSBC to HSBC only? It does seem a good price to me. Is it rude of me to ask the transfer ammount?

Thanks for your reply, Andy.

[Darlek]

Hi Pitrevie, thanks for your reply.

What you say about HSBC is interesting because they have just quoted me £30 to transfer 2k to my wifes Krung Thai account in Thailand. That's why I am searching for cheaper alternatives!

Do you know if the £10 you were quioted is for HSBC to HSBC only? It does seem a good price to me. Is it rude of me to ask the transfer ammount?

Thanks for your reply, Andy.

its a good idea to use BKK Bank in london to BKK Bank in BKK.

or Thai farmers in London to TF in BKK.

AFAIK all tranfers have to go thru Bangkok bank Central and then they pass it on to Krung Thai..

Differing Thai banks dont like doing electronic transfers between each other .

So they use the mail system to send a cheque which then has to be cleared .

they also like to sit on the money for as long as possible .

So cut out as many middle men as possible .

I gave up using Thai banks long ago as i had transfers which took up to 2 months to arrive at their destination bank!!! Thai banks are really <deleted> when it comes to transfers

Nationwide ATM card rules ....

[Khun Bob]

I found the cheapest method was to open a HSBC account in Bangkok and transfer the money from HSBC in London at a cost of 10 UK pounds. The only snag is that they require a large balance to be kept in the Bangkok account otherwise you get monthly charges. This refers to transferring amounts of any size and not using an ATM card to withdraw from a UK account.

Does anyone know how to open an HSBC account in bangkok, without a work permit, being resident or having thai family ?

thanks

[pitrevie]

HSBC charge 10 UK pounds for any transfer to the HSBC bank in Bangkok, this applies to any amount you transfer. First Direct in UK (part of HSBC) offered to assist me with opening the account in Bangkok and provided all the paperwork. As I have mentioned they required 800K baht on deposit otherwise you get a monthly charge. However this might prove useful if you need to keep money on deposit for your visa. However check out their Bangkok site and drop them an email on anything you are not sure about. I found them very helpful.

http://www.hsbc.co.th/th/personal/default.htm

[lopburi3]

Whatever you do check the rate of exchange. Multi-nationals IMHO will never match the Thai bank exchange rate for foreign currency conversions and any savings in lower wire fees will likely be made up with a poor exchange rate.

For Bangkok Bank they list the TT rate of exchange each day and that is exactly what is used for conversions when I send USD from my US account. Wire transfer takes 36 hours to show up in my local account.

[apetley]

Pitrevie and lopburi3, thanks for your replys.

Opening an account with HSBC BKK would not be a problem as I will need to deposit a latge ammount for visa purposes anyway.

No real rush as wifey and me will not be emigrating before the end of 2005 anyway.

Just planning ahead.

Wife always wants to send money home when the rate is high anyway which is another reason to check out transfer options.

Thanks again for you comments, Andy.