Retirement Visa Renewal

[thailien8]

With less than a month remaining before my first one-year retirement visa expires, I seem to be caught in a frustrating Catch 22. I'm American, 57, lived and worked in Bkk for 11 years on a work permit visa without problems. My mom passed away in 2003, so I got the 800,000 baht needed for a retirement visa transferred from Bank of America to Bangkok Bank when I was in USA.

Now, hoping to continue living in Bkk., I need to "top up" my Bkk. Bank account by having about 200,000 wired here by Bank of America. But BofA has been most unhelpful. When I inquired by online banking about receiving a "Swift transfer", the BofA answer was "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide wire transfer service via e-mail, Online Banking, the Bank of America Web site, or telephone." Instead "please visit one of our local banking centers to perform the wire in person...." I went to the BofA office in All Seasons Place on Wireless Road, only to be told that they do corporate banking only, and could not help me.

BofA also wrote "If you are unable to visit one of our banking centers, we recommend using a commercial wire service." So I went to a Western Union office but was told that they only do person-to-person transfers, not bank-to-bank.

I may be missing an obvious solution, but wonder if anyone else has had problems complying with the Thai Immigration requirement to show that money has been transferred from abroad. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks.

[Sunny Valentine]

Looks more like a problem with your american Bank. Maybe you coulld open an account at Citibank or HSBC here in Bangkok, have them also open up an account somewhere else in the world for you (check what countries BoA transfers to) and transfer all your money there, closing BoA account. Then transfer the necessary amount to Thailand.

Take care: From what I keep hearing, Immigration might not be too happy to hear that you can make a living on 200000 Bt only.

Sunny

[Thetyim]

I just write to my bank and ask them to TT it to my bank.

Takes three days after they get the letter.

I cannot do it inline

[Ken]

Just a thought, but do you have a close relative or friend in the US who could wire you the required money from their account and you can pay them back by sending them a check (or whatever). I have a joint account with my sister in the US and she wires me the funds when needed (yea my bank requires a visit to the bank in person also to do a wire).

[Jeff Jarvis]

They should be able to help you with a faxed signature and a follow up telephone call. That's the way I do it with a Charles Schwab account.

[thaihome]

Having a similar problem with trying to get a US bank to make international wire transfers without being there in person, I came up with this solution. Open a First Internet Bank account from this web site. They will allow you do so via e-mail and fax and make first deposit with a credit card. You must have something to verify you have an address in the US. I used my Bank of America statement that is mailed to my son’s house.

After you open the account, set up an "on demand" ACH deposit to the FIB account from your BofA account. FIB will accept fax requests for international SWIFT transfers at $50 a pop. I send the fax; they send me a confirmation request via e-mail and then make the transfer. Maybe a little awkward, but it works for me.

They pay a small amount of interest on the checking account and if I keep $500 balance, no service charge.

TH

[chico]

Interesting that from a european account you can transfer your money yourself by internetbanking.

Only problem, on my last transfer, Kasikornbank was withholding the transfer for 8 days, citing a new law (since march 204) that transfers over the equivalent of 1 million bt have to be reported to BOT and receiving bank to be contacted prior to crediting.

My guess is, that aas this was at a special high rate (one day after tsunami) they wre just waiting for the rate to go down again.

[sendbaht]

Just a thought, but do you have a close relative or friend in the US who could wire you the required money from their account and you can pay them back by sending them a check (or whatever).  I have a joint account with my sister in the US and she wires me the funds when needed (yea my bank requires a visit to the bank in person also to do a wire).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Charles Schwab accounts seem to work the best, yes.

[naka]

Quite simple.

Just write to your U.S. bank and instruct them to :-

1. Debit your account for US $ XXXX.XX

2. Transfer the funds (in US Dollars) to my

Thai Bank Name.

Thai Bank address.

Thai Bank SWIFT 6 letter code.

Accountholder Name.

Accountholder Number.

Send letter by courier/EMS for speedier response.

[Sunny Valentine]

Quite simple.

Just write to your U.S. bank and instruct them to :-

1. Debit your account for US $ XXXX.XX

2. Transfer the funds (in US Dollars) to my

   

    Thai Bank Name.

    Thai Bank address.

    Thai Bank SWIFT 6 letter code.

    Accountholder Name.

    Accountholder Number.

Send letter by courier/EMS for speedier response.     

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Attention: SWIFT Codes are always 8 letters or 11 letters!

But it seems that some Thai Banks do not know that. Bangkok Bank gave me a little Photocopied slip with a 9 letter SWIFT Code, did not work, so I made a research and found the correct 8 letter Code.

Sunny

[thaihome]

Quite simple.

Just write to your U.S. bank and instruct them to :-

1. Debit your account for US $ XXXX.XX

2. Transfer the funds (in US Dollars) to my

   

    Thai Bank Name.

    Thai Bank address.

    Thai Bank SWIFT 6 letter code.

    Accountholder Name.

    Accountholder Number.

Send letter by courier/EMS for speedier response.     

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you ever sucessfully done this with a US Bank?

TH

[paulfr]

Quite simple.

Just write to your U.S. bank and instruct them to :-

1. Debit your account for US $ XXXX.XX

2. Transfer the funds (in US Dollars) to my

   

    Thai Bank Name.

    Thai Bank address.

    Thai Bank SWIFT 6 letter code.

    Accountholder Name.

    Accountholder Number.

Send letter by courier/EMS for speedier response.     

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If taking money out of an account is this easy with your bank,

can you imagine how vulnerable you are to fraud ?

One look at your passport and they have everything needed

to wipe your US account clean; Signature for forgery, acct nos, etc.

I certainly hope this method is restricted to transfers from/to accounts with

EXACTLY the same name and with xfer amount limits.

[Mali_in_CM]

I gave up on BofA over 30 years ago.

I guess the Thai bank wants it xferred so they can do some creative accounting on the exchange rate. It would be WAY too simple to get the money from an ATM and deposit it.

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank has been getting it right for a long time.

M

[lopburi3]

I gave up on BofA over 30 years ago.

I guess the Thai bank wants it xferred so they can do some creative accounting on the exchange rate.  It would be WAY too simple to get the money from an ATM and deposit it.

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank has been getting it right for a long time.

M

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Immigration is the one that wants it transferred. This is for extension of stay and they would have no way of proving foreign source otherwise without unreasonable matching of accounts/dates/slips/deposits which they are not equipped to do.

FYI: the Thai bank will give you a whole lot better exchange rate than any overseas bank that I know of.

[chuchok]

I come from New Zealand and while our money transfer laws are a little different, I find the whole process easy.

I use a forex company. (very well known in NZ) I simply transfer the money via Internet banking to the forex companies account(Domestic transfer) They then wire the money directly to me.All it takes is a couple of e-mails and about 15 mins on the net.

[lopburi3]

I come from New Zealand and while our money transfer laws are a little different, I find the whole process easy.

I use a forex  company. (very well known in NZ) I simply transfer the money via Internet banking to the forex companies account(Domestic transfer) They then wire the money directly to me.All it takes is a couple of e-mails and about 15 mins on the net.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is normally an option but from what I have read they want to do the currency exchange and the rates are not good (not NZ that I checked so may be wrong in your case).

Most US banks allow phone or fax type wire transfers but you have to sign an agreement first and register a password unless there have been major changes recently.

[ProThaiExpat]

This is a much commented on problem which has been discussed at length on other threads, so you can look them up if you want exhaustive treatment.

I am one of those who gave up on B of A years ago.

I ended up by re-opening my account at Charles Schwab. You can open an account in their International Division in San Francisco and they have excellent 24 hour telephone and e-mail service.

They only charge $25 for a wire transfer, which you can make by phone call or e-mail once you have set up the account and mailed them the Thai Bank Swift code, address, telephone number, etc.

Schwab also has MoneyLink to any U.S. bank account and the forms so they do all the work. A simple online banking access to your account at Schwab ordering a transfer from your U.S. Bank to Schwab and then instructions for them to wire the money to your Bankok Bank and your done.

My preference, however, is to use my Schwab Debit Card, issued when you open your account, with which you can transfer 200k Baht per day from your Schwab Account to your Thailand Bank with minimal or no fees, utilizing the "Teller point of sale transaction" method. Schwab has no limit on the amount debited but SCM has a 200k per day limit. Schwab does have a minimum of 25KUSD to open the account and I don't know if that is a minimum level or not.

[Mali_in_CM]

Why does immigration give a sht where the money comes from?

The point is that you HAVE money.

[buadhai]

How's this:

The Bank of the Internet has a free bill pay service that lets you send money free to any account that has US routing number.

Open an account at Bangkok Bank. You can send money to any Bangkok Bank account using their US routing number: 0260-0896-1.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried this. I have helped Social Security beneficiaries get direct depost to their Bangkok Bank accounts using the US routing number. And, I have used the Bank of the Internet's bill pay service to move money to other US accounts. So, it should work....

And, it should be free!

[dclaryjr]

Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried this. I have helped Social Security beneficiaries get direct depost to their Bangkok Bank accounts using the US routing number. And, I have used the Bank of the Internet's bill pay service to move money to other US accounts. So, it should work....

And, it should be free!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mike,

Can you expand a little on this for me? A bank in Thailand has a U.S. routing number? I'm curious because I've looked in the past at the SSA website and Thailand is listed as not having direct deposit of SSA benefits.

My wife and I will both be recieving SS and government retirement checks (civil service and military respectively). What are the pros and cons of having our income in direct deposit to a Thail bank??

[buadhai]

Can you expand a little on this for me?  A bank in Thailand has a U.S. routing number?  I'm curious because I've looked in the past at the SSA website and Thailand is listed as not having direct deposit of SSA benefits.

My wife and I will both be recieving SS and government retirement checks (civil service and military respectively).  What are the pros and cons of having our income in direct deposit to a Thail bank??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it works like this:

The deposit goes to the New York branch of Bangkok Bank which has a US routing number. They recognize the account number as being in Thailand and transfer the money to the Thai account. I have set this up for several Social Security beneficiaries in Thailand. (I am the soon-to-be-retired manager of the US Social Security office on Saipan.)

I guess the pros of doing it that way are that you have your money in a local (Thai) bank. And, if you need proof of income for retirement visa purposes, there it is.

The cons would include having your money in Baht rather than dollars. But, if you spend all or most of it every month, what's the difference?

Anyone with a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand want to test this out? Private message me your account number and I'll send you five bucks via Bank of Internet. At least we could see if it really works or not.

[harpman88]

To Mali, Re:post 18 The reason Thai Imm. "gives a sh--' is that,unless u arent supposed to be "working under the table ",they want proof that the money is coming from OUTSIDE Thailand.(unless working in Thailand legally,of course)