I have a problem, a customer sent me GBP, however it was sent by a method called "BAHTNET".

The cash went via the Standard Charted in Bkk and the rate was 51.35

On the same day the Bangkok Bank TT rate was 53.28

At the time I informed the customer and he's been talking to the bank, who say they've never heard of SWIFT/FTT and this (BAHTNET) is the only way they can transfer. My experience is that banks can talk BS if it suits them and some staff are pretty clueless when it comes to foreign transfers.

Can all UK banks do SWIFT transfers?

No!

Not all UK banks can do SWIFT transfer. One example is my customer in Wales. He use a very small local bank. However, his bank will use a larger London based bank to do the SWIFT transfer in it's place. The result is the same, but takes a bit longer - typically 3 to 5 days.

For BAHTNET, see:

http://www.bot.or.th/English/Statistics/Pa...dsTransfer.aspx

You should get a rate of about 53.47 (today's rate 15/10/2009 for GBP).

Thank you for your answer, it's very helpful.

The problem is BAHTNET rate is low, my customer is using CLYDESDALE BANK, who claim to have never heard of SWIFT/FTT.

I'm charging in Baht, but am trying so save money for my customer.

Can you give any recommendations for how he can get his bank to do a SWIFT transfer? He is already paying 38GBP for the transfer, do you think there would be further charges?

From my understanding (this was previously explained to me by our company's accounting manager)

If he sent BAHTNET transfer, then he is sending you THB not GBP...

Meaning that the origin bank switches to THB and then transfers to your bank. For SWIFT his bank would send GBP and then the destination bank would change to THB.

From what I have been told, this method of transfer is normally faster...

From my understanding (this was previously explained to me by our company's accounting manager)

If he sent BAHTNET transfer, then he is sending you THB not GBP...

Meaning that the origin bank switches to THB and then transfers to your bank. For SWIFT his bank would send GBP and then the destination bank would change to THB.

From what I have been told, this method of transfer is normally faster...

I'm afraid your accounting manager is wrong, I have the transfer docs, GBP was received by Standard Chartered in Bkk.

We've receive BAHTNET before, but the amounts have never been great, so I haven't looked into that much.

When my staff have asked Bangkok Bank for info on BAHTNET transfers, they've been told it's impossible to provide such.

When I visited myself today, they had no problem printing the docs with all necessary info. Don't you just love banks.