How To Transfer $ Out Of Thailand?

[thaivestor]

I see a lot of posts about transferring money into Thailand, but I want to know how to transfer money out of Thailand?

My money in Thailand is in Baht, and I'd convert it to USD before transferring. I have been able to wire money out previously, but recently it seems that my SCB branch has gotten more particular and now requests special documentation.

What are the restrictions? I have investments in the Thai stock market in a local brokerage and I get dividends, but when I go to SCB, I am told that I have to either 1) be working in Thailand and show proof of wages, or 2) be sending money abroad for educational purposes.

The strange thing is, I previously had many Thai shares in a broker that was based in Hong Kong, and the money was always remitted to Hong Kong, with no hassles. I moved my shares to a local Thai broker, because I wanted to cut commissions. I actually created a bigger hassle for myself, because now I can't figure out how to get my money out of Thailand.

Any ideas?

[Nick100]

Had the same problem trying to move redundancy money out of the country into a fixed ozzie bond. SCB wanted work permit (tough to provide given it was redundancy money and permits are revoked when one is made redundant), proof of income and that I had paid tax on it which was fair enough. They accepted my last few pay receipts and passport details

Unsure of the amounts you are talking here (salary or larger $$ amounts through share dealing?)

However if you have an account abroad to which you want to send the funds and an SCB credit card here then you could try and set up an automatic monthly payment request from your offshore account against your SCB credit card.

Just remember to keep the card topped up by transferring enough funds from your SCB savings / share / current account to cover each payment. Not sure how economical this would be tho (SCB platinum currently charging 20%) and whether exch rates could screw you but maybe worth a try to save the hassle

Alternatively just tell the bank you're sending money abroad for dependents educational purposes

Good luck

[thaivestor]

nick100,

thanks for the reply. The credit card and "educational purposes" are both good ideas, but in my case, I want to do the transfer in one go, and its quite a bit more salary stubs.

I had thought that the capital controls were relaxed, but I can't seem to find a good explanation of what exactly the rules are. My last recourse is to simply transfer my account back out of Thailand, which seems like a strange way (but effective) to not be impacted by the controls.

Seems like foreigners should be able to buy locals shares and should be able to transfer money in and out to do so, which is my case??

[Japhrodisiac]

They are supposed to let you move up to 20,000 USD out per day maximum without supporting documentation. SCB started to hassle me about this as well, so I took cash out and remitted at my Kasikorn branch, writing "Private Funds" on the transfer sheet. No problem now.