Red Tape Imposed By British State Pension Dept

[prodriver]

Seems like good news that Thailand will be added to the list of countries that the UK State Pension can be sent directly to your bank as from October this year.

"Payment will be made in the local currency of the country in which the bank account is held......" Does that mean that they will convert into baht before they send it? I hope not as we all know that one gets a better exchange rate when it's converted here.

"No charges are made for this service". Got two and a half more years to go before I'm 65 but I shall be surprised (pleasantly) if this will be the case. I am already in receipt of a small Swedish State Pension (from the age of 61) and although they send direct to my Thai bank account, it's not done free of charge!

[12DrinkMore]

"Payment will be made in the local currency of the country in which the bank account is held......" Does that mean that they will convert into baht before they send it? I hope not as we all know that one gets a better exchange rate when it's converted here.

Pretty obvious that if your account in Thailand is in THB they will convert GBP in the UK and send you THB. Which will, in every case, result in more GBP's to the banks and less THB to you.

You would need to open a Thai account denominated in GBP. Which will probably result in even more money being deducted by the banks.