Keeping American $ Safe & Accessible

[phetaroi]

Thailand bound with retirement visa, hopefully sometime shortly after first of the year.

I plan on keeping $100,000 in Citibank in a US account...they have assured me it will be easily accessible from Bangkok's branch. And, of course, will keep the requisite $50,000 (?) in a Thai bank.

What about my other $250,000? How do I keep it safe (insured, as in FDIC) and accessible (not have to travel back to the US if needed)?

[bkkjames]

Thailand bound with retirement visa, hopefully sometime shortly after first of the year.

I plan on keeping $100,000 in Citibank in a US account...they have assured me it will be easily accessible from Bangkok's branch. And, of course, will keep the requisite $50,000 (?) in a Thai bank.

What about my other $250,000? How do I keep it safe (insured, as in FDIC) and accessible (not have to travel back to the US if needed)?

Your math confuses me. But anyways, Citibank is big here and about to get bigger when they move into their new offices at Interchange. Keep your money in the US and withdrawl as needed or send it to an Citibank account here (some of it) when you arrive.

Failing that, send it all to me and I will ensure its safe keeping.

[jfchandler]

I think you need to think more carefully and educate yourself better about your financial planning in Thailand... You seem to be unaware/mistaken about a variety of things...

1. You don't need to keep $50,000 in a Thai bank account. You do need to keep 800,000 baht (nearly $25,000) in a Thai account for three months prior to your retirement visa application, or obtain documents to verify monthly income of 65,000 baht, or a combination of the two.

2. It's probably a smart idea to keep the bulk of your available funds in U.S., FDIC insured accounts. But, where you keep those funds and how you access them is a very important consideration. Some U.S. banks charge up to 3% fee on all foreign ATM transactions, some charge 2%, some 1%, some none.

If you're planning to use an ATM for your ongoing funds needs, which probably is the best way to go, it would be smart of you to keep your routine spending funds in a U.S. account/bank where the foreign fees are low or free. I'm not sure where Citibank is on that subject, but I don't think they have among the better rates.

The Thai banks in general don't usually assess their own fee for U.S. ATM card transactions, except for the recent move by Siam Commercial Bank to impose a 20 baht per transaction fee on the use on non-Thai cards. BKK Bank or Kasikorn Bank are good alternatives, depending on where you plan to live here.

One of the nice things about having a BKK Bank account in Thailand is that they also have a New York office with its own ACH number. Therefore, you can ACH transfer funds from your various U.S. accounts via online banking to the BKK Bank branch in New York, and then they will forward the funds onto your Thailand account with them.

Also, regarding Citibank, or any non-Thai bank for that matter, they are limited under current Thai regulations to only having one branch each in Thailand, typically BKK. So if you happen to live near where that bank's office is, you might be fine. But if you're not living nearby, it will be a pain.

You want to find out what Citibank's foreign transaction fees are when you either a) use their own Citibank ATMs in BKK and/or use any other bank's ATMs in a foreign country. Then you can decide whether you want to use a Citibank ATM card, or more likely, use another U.S. bank with better fee rates for foreign transactions.

[jfchandler]

Regarding accessing your U.S. funds other than via ATMs (if you need larger amounts at some time), you have to be careful about wire transfers.

Many U.S. banks (but not all) typically will want you to initiate an international wire transfer from their branch in the U.S., -- and not allow those to be initiated online or over the phone. Others will allow you in advance to fill out paperwork in the U.S. that will allow you to initiate transfers without going into the branch. A few banks and brokerage account DO allow online wire transfers. (Citibank MAY be one of those, though I don't have any Citibank accounts). Also, all the banks also have different fees. So for whichever bank you're dealing with, you need to find out their procedures and fees.

For example, Washington Mutual advertises a benefit of some of their accounts being free international wire transfers. But, what they don't proclaim so loudly, is you have to physically go into their branch in the U.S. to initiate such a transfer. And they don't have any offices in Thailand. So, unless you are going to be back in the U.S. periodically, that benefit is pretty useless living here.