Urgent Request for Information re Death of British Citizen in Thailand

[Chaimai]

Having put my head on the block no doubt others have a different understanding and will say so, hopefully with humility and respect.

With respect (and humility) paragraph 4 was an excellent summary of why anyone should transfer in their 'home' currency (a couple of 4th World countries excepted).

The movement of funds around the world has, in theory, become much easier. There are no Exchange Control regulations for the movement of funds out of the UK. High value transactions will always attract attention and Money Laundering Rules are more of an issue for a transferor.

However, there is nothing to stop you transferring GBP 1m from to Thailand. The previous rule/guideline about specifying "for property purchase..." also seems to have disappeared.

Bagwan - if I owe you GBP 1,000 and we agree that the commercial transaction will be settled in Baht at a rate of 63 then it is perfectly legitimate for me to pay you 63,000 Baht.

[itsgottabedone]

2) I also need to get another £2500 out there - am I right in thinking I can just walk into a Siam bank with my Nationwide Debit card and just request this amount? Or would I be better ordering £2500 in travellers cheques and getting these exchanged directly in the bank?

For future reference ...

I've done this by walking into a Siam Commercial bank and using my Nationwide debit card for a similar amount, without having to have either a SCB or local address. Just showed appropriate ID (passport). There is no upper limit just depends on how much available cash you have in your account. Furthermore there is no charge for doing this and its the standard bank exchange rate used (same as the rate used for ATM withdrawal). I've done this from different banks in many different countries ...its just the standard cash advance feature.

[roygsd]

Nationwide charge £20 per transaction to a bank in thailand irrespective of the amount sent,

Roy gsd

[stevevigo]

just note that not all banks cannot process debit cards as not have visa swipe machine

[Bagwan]

Having put my head on the block no doubt others have a different understanding and will say so, hopefully with humility and respect.

With respect (and humility) paragraph 4 was an excellent summary of why anyone should transfer in their 'home' currency (a couple of 4th World countries excepted).

The movement of funds around the world has, in theory, become much easier. There are no Exchange Control regulations for the movement of funds out of the UK. High value transactions will always attract attention and Money Laundering Rules are more of an issue for a transferor.

However, there is nothing to stop you transferring GBP 1m from to Thailand. The previous rule/guideline about specifying "for property purchase..." also seems to have disappeared.

Bagwan - if I owe you GBP 1,000 and we agree that the commercial transaction will be settled in Baht at a rate of 63 then it is perfectly legitimate for me to pay you 63,000 Baht.

I accept that I may be out of date about this. I am from an age when ALL private currency transactions were registered in one's passport. There was an upper limit per annum on foreign currencies that UK banks would sell you. Certainly there were countries I have been to where there was a very strict (and low) limit on what local currency you could take with you when you left the country.

I'll have a chat with my friendly bank manager to see exactly what the current situation is in Thailand and see if he will (can?) quote chapter and verse of the in force regulations. About five years ago I was advised that when returning money to my UK off shore account to use the same branch of the same bank so that peeps didn't have to chase around for the documentation i.e. it was already to hand. It occurs to me that remitting monies abroad where a record of it having been brought in cannot be produced, may arouse the suspicion that the sender has been working for reward or is involved in some criminal activity.

In the financial papers they talk of Governments buying foreign currency, not swapping it. Furthermore currencies, a commodity, have both a selling and buying price. Not sure how this fits into the scenario. My understanding is at the moment the Thai Government is buying baht thus depleting their foreign currency reserves, to prop up the value of the baht. I assume that in doing so they are creating an artificial shortage of baht in the currencies market thus keeping the value higher than it would otherwise be.

I hope that this thread keeps going for a while as I find it informative and educational. All part of the never ending process of learning about my adopted country.

P.S. As of today I shall be wanting 64.5 baht for my pound sterling.

[Chaimai]

Bagwan - when I started working in a UK bank in 1973 we had Exchange Control Regulations and you could not transfer GBP 100 without filling in several different forms in triplicate (actually there were copies because you could never decipher the last page).

One may have to suffer the incompetence of the banks' interpretation of the Money Laundering Rules (i.e. this is why an honest ex-pat living in Thailand, but without a UK address, will have less chance of opening a bank account than a terrorist living in Leeds who can supply a recent utility bill !) but the movement of money is much simpler - there are relatively few restrictions on what you can transfer. Even Thailand you can transfer, say, 2m Baht, to your Thai bank acount without having to risk part of it being "held" - you no longer need to annotate the transfer with "for the purchase of xxxxxxx". Technology also helps with your point bout visiting the same babk branch - international transfers are often undertaken interractively and a "template" saved with the beneficiary account details. This was very useful earlier this year when I transferred over GBP 100,000 th Thailand in about 12 transactions.

Central banks using reserves ie buying Baht to shore UP a slide in the currency is standard practise. However, this is high-level stuff and does not concern the likes of you and me. We are simply concerned about how we can move and access our money cost-effectively and at the most favourable rates.

Remember, when dealing with banks (even friendly bank managers) Customer Service is usually on oxymoron.

(Perhaps this is a good time to start an OXYMORON thread - my particular favourite is:-

SCOTTISH AMICABLE