Cashing An Overseas Personal Check In Thailand

[chevykanteve]

I've received a US dollar personal check, drawn from a California bank. How do I cash it in Thailand? Please, advice ONLY from people with prior experience. Thanks in advance for the input.

[Groongthep]

I've received a US dollar personal check, drawn from a California bank. How do I cash it in Thailand? Please, advice ONLY from people with prior experience. Thanks in advance for the input.

It has been many years since I have done this, but if you have an American Express card they used to allow you to cash personal checks at the American Express office (which used to be on Silom if I remember right) using your American Express account as collateral. I'm not sure if they still do this or not. If the check is written on the Bank of America you might try going to the local B of A branch at CRC Tower, 33rd Floor, 87/2 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330. Telephone (66) 2305-2900. If you have no acoount in Thailand, no American Express card and it is not written on a bank that has a Thailand branch you can pretty much forget about cashing it here. I would send it back to your bank in the US for deposit then withdraw the money from your account by ATM, but it could take weeks for it to first reach your bank and then clear. Good luck.

[mmushr00m]

Just go to any bank to deposit it. However since its a cheque, the bank has to do all sorts of checks then inform the US banks etc.

I wrote a check to myself and tried to cash it in LOS. It takes 6 weeks!!!!!!!

[SaigonDaze]

I had a BofA check that I wanted to cash in BKK a few years back. I went to the BofA and they told me they weren't affiliated and couldn't cash my check. I hope things have changed.

[chevykanteve]

Just go to any bank to deposit it. However since its a cheque, the bank has to do all sorts of checks then inform the US banks etc.

I wrote a check to myself and tried to cash it in LOS. It takes 6 weeks!!!!!!!

Went to three different banks today: Bangkok Bank, Thai Farmers' Bank and KruengThai Bank. All the panaghan, i.e. employees/tellers did not know how to cope with the check. And in all three cases, there were no supervisory personnel around with prior experience on the issue. What an absolute joke the Thai banking system appears to be. Come on, Thai banks, step out of the third (fourth?) world or just convert your assets into kip or chat.

[longball53098]

If you have a Thai bank account and want to cash the check they will take at least 45 days to process it.

Advice is to send back to US and deposit into your bank there

[TJAN]

If you have a Thai bank account and want to cash the check they will take at least 45 days to process it.

Advice is to send back to US and deposit into your bank there

I have a Thai bankaccount and I cashed 3 times a personel cheque from a bank in Singapore and it took 2 1/2 weeks and the cast 10 us$

Tjan.

[jfchandler]

A couple of things about this.. it's a REAL problem to do here in Thailand..

I checked on this for my own same reason a few months back...

--American Express in BKK told me they don't/won't do this....

--The Bank of America office in BKK doesn't provide any retail banking services even to BofA customers...

--Thai banks where you have an account will do it, with a bit of fussing... But as reported, it takes MANY weeks for completing the process and they typically charge a hefty processing fee on a per check basis for their trouble.

I had a couple of small value checks, so it made absolutely no sense. I ended up mailing them back to a relative in the U.S., and he deposited them into his account and then transferred the funds to me via internal bank transfer.

[chevykanteve]

If you have a Thai bank account and want to cash the check they will take at least 45 days to process it.

Advice is to send back to US and deposit into your bank there

I have several bank accounts here, as does my wife, but the check is made out to our 4 year-old son. Neither he, my wife, nor I live in the US or have bank accounts there.

[jdinasia]

You are going to have to deposit it in an account here, pay the fee, and wait. I have never used a check here after my first week in Thailand (I thought a cashiers check issued on a major bank in the US would be problem free when establishing a bank account here ... I was wrong

[jfchandler]

Given what you mention above...

In my instance, the folks at SCB in BKK were willing to cash it, but it was going to take some time...and I think their fee was about 500 baht ($15) per check...something like that... I didn't pay it and didn't do it..so don't remember exactly.

Depending on who sent the check and in what circumstance, any option for asking the sender to make the payment through some different means...and just tear up the check instead???

[AmeriThai]

Given what you mention above...

In my instance, the folks at SCB in BKK were willing to cash it, but it was going to take some time...and I think their fee was about 500 baht ($15) per check...something like that... I didn't pay it and didn't do it..so don't remember exactly.

Depending on who sent the check and in what circumstance, any option for asking the sender to make the payment through some different means...and just tear up the check instead???

Agreed. Sending via an international wire through a bank (sender's account to the OP's account) would be faster and less hassle. Of course, it depends on the amount to be sent vs the bank's handling fees. It the amount to be sent is pretty small, then it might not be worth it, unless the bank provides free service to wire money.

[sassienie]

Just go to any bank to deposit it. However since its a cheque, the bank has to do all sorts of checks then inform the US banks etc.

I wrote a check to myself and tried to cash it in LOS. It takes 6 weeks!!!!!!!

Absolutely correct.

I can say this from experience.

[way2muchcoffee]

You might have to go to the main branch of the bank. I did this in BKK at Bangkok Bank a few years back, but I had to go to their Silom head office. The fee was high, 500 bt sounds about right, but the check was large. It took about 4 weeks as I recall.

[jfchandler]

At least from my recollection, the fee that SCB wanted was not a % of the check amount, but rather, a fixed amount processing fee, regardless of the check amount.

Terrible for small amount checks... Not so bad if the check amount is large.... But... they were saying it would take about 6 weeks.

[Spee]

If you have a Thai bank account and want to cash the check they will take at least 45 days to process it.

Advice is to send back to US and deposit into your bank there

I have several bank accounts here, as does my wife, but the check is made out to our 4 year-old son. Neither he, my wife, nor I live in the US or have bank accounts there.

Sounds like the check may be a gift for your boy. If that is the case, and the money is intended to be saved for the boy, then possibly you can send it back and have the giver buy something like an EE bond, which can always be given to your son when he is older.

[chevykanteve]

My thanks to everyone above for your kind responses. And there is I might add, a happy ending to the story. We took the check to Ayudha Bank --a small branch just down the street from our house--, opened an account for the boy, and were told the check would clear within 7-45 days with no special processing fees entailed.

[jfchandler]

When you actually do get the funds credited, please do post back here to let folks know the timing...

I'd be very surprised about the short end of the time range offered. The long end is about what typically is considered normal.

But either way, if they're really doing it without charging a fee, that's a pretty good feature of having a BofA account.

[NanLaew]

^ Just a note if you are a BofA account holder, although the Bangkok office is definitely non-retail and is not even able to access the US domestic accounts network, they were able to sort out a 'locked' BofA debit card about 18 months ago. Due to an 'operator error' by the BofA's card fraud division, my plastic was unusable unless I 'presented myself at the nearest domestic branch with proper ID'. The options of flying across the Pacific just to show my bonafides seemed a little extreme but they did work with me on a fix. After I pointed out that there was a BofA branch in Bangkok, their fraud squad confirmed that the Bangkok branch did have access to their security checking system, albeit by phone call and access to their global employee ID system. It took about half an hour to explain to the staff at the Bangkok bank what was wanted, another half hour while they found their 'global ID' and then a quick phone conversation where they verified their identity to the fraud squad and that me, my passport, my dumb plastic and copies of my bank statements all matched.