New Atm Fees?

[wimpy]

forget about increasing your withdrawal amount, bt.20,000 is max for all off-shore banks in thailand

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is not correct. I have cards with two different online banks in the USA. They both allow me to withdraw 28,500 baht each (at the current exchange rate). My daily limit must be $750.00 per card. No fees being charged by my bank or the Thai banks.

[frenchFARANGbkk]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i use a hong kong bank card and withdrawals at the bangkok branch is free

of course you can open an account here and wire your funds into it and get a local debit card, you can then take as much as you like, fee free

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have BKK BANK account but need to withdraw cash from french account monthly, and alll my french (&lt;deleted&gt;) banks charge me 15 euros for 20000 baht withdrawal ! There is a fixed fee + percet, so I would like to withdraw more than 20000 (20 notes) in one time, but impossible with my VISA and MASTERCARD.

Do you know where in the world I can also open a bank account with just a tourist visa? HONG KONG? AMERICA ;-)

[JimGant]

That is not correct. I have cards with two different online banks in the USA. They both allow me to withdraw 28,500 baht each (at the current exchange rate). My daily limit must be $750.00 per card. No fees being charged by my bank or the Thai banks.

You still have to hit the machine twice to get your 28,500, since 20,000 baht max is how Thai ATM machines work (still waiting for proof of a higher amount...). And you're lucky your US bank doesn't charge a fee -- one of mine charges $2 per withdrawal.

But you ARE paying a fee -- all those ATM machines in Thailand aren't there by TOT for your convenience. The fee is 1%, and for most banks, this of off the "interbank exchange rate," so it's not real onerous (google on BOT to compare rates, and note the IER is higher than the telex rate you get when you wire money, although it's certainly not higher after the 1% is subtracted.)

My wire fee from US to Thailand is $50 -- then Bangkok Bank charges me 500 baht. So, I need to wire about $7000 to amortize the fixed fees and come out ahead of ATMing here using my bank with no per use charge. If I was stuck with the $2 per use bank, the break even wire amount would, of course, be less.

[Digger]

90% + of BKK Bank ATM's now dispense 25 notes as a maximum. Therefore the highest limit in one transaction is 25,000. I do this all the time using my Bkk Bank account and a Be1st card. You can also increase the limit over 100,000 per day upon request at your home branch.

Also a friend was telling me that one of the more obscure banks (DBS or OCBC have limits of 40 notes but I have never found one that gives more than 20 notes).

[Erwin1011]

Do you know where in the world I can also open a bank account with just a tourist visa? HONG KONG? AMERICA ;-)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

go to singapore,HSBC, open a euro, $ account, show your passport deposit 2000 currency units, get your card code, apply on internet for banking services and the world is yours

[Erwin1011]

oh and by the way frenchiebkk, while you're there, enjoy the nightlife ALL night! you d on't need to go to Thailand to enjoy a Thai BG ASllthough the prices ARE slightly different

[bkk_mike]

forget about increasing your withdrawal amount, bt.20,000 is max for all off-shore banks in thailand

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is not correct. I have cards with two different online banks in the USA. They both allow me to withdraw 28,500 baht each (at the current exchange rate). My daily limit must be $750.00 per card. No fees being charged by my bank or the Thai banks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed - The amount you can take out in a day is based on your home banks single-day ATM withdrawal threshold. (time to look at the small print).

i.e. I regularly take out 35,000 baht in a day on a Nationwide card because the daily limit is £500. - But that has to be done as 2 withdrawals because of the paper handling limits of the machine (25 notes most Bangkok Bank ATMs, 20 notes most other banks).

If you can't take out more than 20,000 baht, you might simply find you have a $500 daily limit.

The alternative of going into a bank branch and taking out a huge sum of money. does work (because these are daily ATM limits, not cash advance limits). But I've found that it only works at a branch that knows you. (and I mean the bank staff recognise you). You would probably be OK if you're, at the same time, depositing the money directly into your local bank account.

[frenchFARANGbkk]

Do you know where in the world I can also open a bank account with just a tourist visa? HONG KONG? AMERICA ;-)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

go to singapore,HSBC, open a euro, $ account, show your passport deposit 2000 currency units, get your card code, apply on internet for banking services and the world is yours

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, so I can open this account in Singapore having just my passport and being a tourist there, but could you please tell me about:

- How much do they charge a year for using this account?

- What is the interest rate?

- Do they give a credit card? (international?)

Thanks.

[frenchFARANGbkk]

90% + of BKK Bank ATM's now dispense 25 notes as a maximum.  Therefore the highest limit in one transaction is 25,000.  I do this all the time using my Bkk Bank account and a Be1st card.  You can also increase the limit over 100,000 per day upon request at your home branch.

Also a friend was telling me that one of the more obscure banks (DBS or OCBC have limits of 40 notes but I have never found one that gives more than 20 notes).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most of BKK bank atm's now dispense 25 notes at a time? With an international mastercard or visa card?

I've never seen this, but I mostly withdraw at SIAM CITY BANK because they have the best rate in Thailand for EURO, so could you tell me which banks dispense 25 notes? Krungthai bank also doesn't.

Merci!

[bkk_mike]

90% + of BKK Bank ATM's now dispense 25 notes as a maximum.  Therefore the highest limit in one transaction is 25,000.  I do this all the time using my Bkk Bank account and a Be1st card.  You can also increase the limit over 100,000 per day upon request at your home branch.

Also a friend was telling me that one of the more obscure banks (DBS or OCBC have limits of 40 notes but I have never found one that gives more than 20 notes).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most of BKK bank atm's now dispense 25 notes at a time? With an international mastercard or visa card?

I've never seen this, but I mostly withdraw at SIAM CITY BANK because they have the best rate in Thailand for EURO, so could you tell me which banks dispense 25 notes? Krungthai bank also doesn't.

Merci!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He means branches of Bangkok Bank PLC. Not Banks in Bangkok...

And I think you'll find that on credit card withdrawals, it's the visa/mastercard rate you get (with in most cases, a loading applied by your home bank), not the daily FX rate of the bank you're withdrawing money at...

[Neeranam]

On making a transfer yesterday, the bank was busy, the woman at the main help counter said to use the ATM outside. I wanted to withdraw just over 400,000 baht to make a tranfer.

She said Oh, sorry you can only take out 200,000 in one day.

Don't know about you, but I hate carrying around that much in a bag, even if it only from the KAsikorn bank to Krung Thai 10 min walk away.

[buadhai]

A reasonable alternative is the Bank of the Internet, a US Internet only bank. They offer 2% interest on checking, no monthly fees, don't charge for ATM withdrawals and reimburse up to US$8.00 a month for ATM fees charged by other banks. The ATM/Debit card has the VISA logo and can be used in Plus and Star network ATM's.

The online banking service is clean and easy-to-use. They offer a free and flexible bill payment service.

[naomisri]

Over the past few days I have been taking out money as me and the hubbie are buying our house. I had was withdrawing 35,000 baht in two or three atms per day.

A couple of days ago I called Nationwide to see if I could up the amount I could take out i.e. increase my 35,000 baht limit (500 GBP) to 70,000 baht. They told me that their maximum daily withdrawl is 500 GBP. I am since glad that I didn't increase my limit.

While trying to take out 20,000 at a Krungsri ATM I got a message saying there had been a possible error and to count my notes. Problem was I didn't get any notes. Called Krungsri who were helpful, but told me I would have to go through my UK bank to ask fo a refund from Krungsri. Checked my internet balance and seemed that the money hadn't come off my balance at that point in time.

Since I have been keeping an eye on my balance and logged onto my internet banking today there was also a couple of hundred GBP credited to my account under the heading "correction", but no evidence of a withdrawl for the same amount! So I added my credits and debits, they don't seem to make any sense at all.

Normally I wouldn't be too worried as I keep all of my reciepts and it's easy to keep track, but since talking to a (very unhelpful) woman on the phone have found out that the date on your statement that the money has been withdrawn doesn;t seem to have much real validity at all. She says that the Thai bank may add the date they processed the withdrawl or the date that it the withdrawl was made and that this can be different from bank to bank.

I just wanted to post this info to let anyone know who is planning on transfering money this way that it's ###### to keep track of your transactions especially in light of the changing xchange rates. My bank was very reluctant to help me (but that may just be MY bank!). They want me to write to them with the details of the transaction that I didn't make (they don't accept faxes) despite the fact that two went through on the same day (weren't withdrawn on the same day) for the same THB amount (different GBP because of the exchange rates) so that they can then query it. God knows how long it will take.

Meanwhile I am going back to the drawing board and am going to use SWIFT to transfer the rest of my cash.

Good luck with keeping track!