Choices For Transferring Money Into Thailand

[Wentworth]

I'm on the trail of trying to figure out the best option(s) for transferring money into my Thai bank account. I realise the following is probably not accurate but a general guide. Some have told me that there are quite good facilities with other UK banks, however I'm living here and won't be able to open an account in the UK.

Just to let you know I'm from the UK and have a Kasikorn savings account. My UK account is with 'Smile' internet bank. For arguments sake lets assume I want to bring in 1000 GBP.

1. Thai ATM - 'Smile' charge is approx 2.5%, then add the Thai bank's charge on top of that. Never used it but happy to have the facility in an emergency.

2. Swift transfer - Transaction charge is 26 GBP. It is possible that the 'Thai handling agent' will charge an additional fee but there seems to be no rule of thumb on the whys and wherefores. Out of about 10 transactions I have been charged on one occasion, which was about 3,000 GBP. I didn't get hit with the extra charge when bringing a larger amount for property. A routine transfer can take up to 4 working days and so there's no way of knowing what exchange rate I will get.

I found out from 'Smile' that coincidentally they use Kasikorn when transferring into Thailand. When I asked Kasikorn about their handling fees they gave the following:

0.25% of the transferred amount (minimum 200 baht and maximum 500 baht). To transfer money to branches outside Bangkok and vicinity, there will be additional fees, which are leased line fee of 20 baht per transaction, and province to province transfer fee is 10 baht for each 10,000 baht transferred.

If I understand the above correctly they will charge me 260 Baht.

3. Paypal - Investigating this was a real nightmare. I asked the Paypal Service desk about what they considered my best option but got a garbled reply and I was none the wiser - it's almost as if the responder was getting the sack and wanted to destroy Paypal's image. I believe the transfer fee would be in the region of 2.5%. I couldn't find out if it was possible to set up accounts so that I could make a trail from my UK account to my Thai account. On top of that I've been told that the Paypal forex rates are nasty.

4. UK Post Office Overseas Money Transfer - A new service from 'Royal Mail'. It costs nothing to setup or maintain the account. They make their money from the exchange rate and you are quoted a range as it depends on how much you want to transfer. The exchange rates are quite low. They do stress that they will reimburse any additional charges eg from the Thai end. The benefit is that you'll know what rate you get.

5. Moneybookers.com - I must be living in a cave. Vaguely remember hearing the name but just checked out the website. I don't know how I could access the money once I've sent it to myself. Looks like the charges are 1.9% to send and 1.8 to 3.5 Eur to withdraw. Not sure how the Forex works.

6. Western Union - Don't know how difficult it is to set up but believe the transaction charge is something like 15% and not forgetting the Forex.

I would welcome people's ideas on the best way to get money into Thailand as well as any corrections or misunderstandings with details above.

[hunglikea]

5. Moneybookers.com - I must be living in a cave. Vaguely remember hearing the name but just checked out the website. I don't know how I could access the money once I've sent it to myself.

I use Money Bookers. Really simple, when you set up an account they give you an ID number which you quote when transferring from your bank to your MB account at Lloyds. Free wire transfer between UK banks.

MB email to inform you have funds and you can then download to any bank you've nominated eg Kasikorn. Takes about 3 days and costs 88.8 THB.

[Lite Beer]

Money Bookers does work as I tried a small transfer just to try it.

My worry is that you upload in GBP but have to withdraw to your Thai bank in Euro. So I wonder how much you lose with exchange rates.

[Wentworth]

I'm just checking out the Moneybookers website. It asks you to stipulate both the currency you are sending and receiving. I have just tried it and it gives a breakdown of the costs and how much will be received in Baht. I just wondered if I was missing something.

[hunglikea]

Money Bookers does work as I tried a small transfer just to try it.

My worry is that you upload in GBP but have to withdraw to your Thai bank in Euro. So I wonder how much you lose with exchange rates.

I've only had it uploaded as £'s.

[Wentworth]

I have just done a comparison with the exchange rates. The test I did on MB gave me approximately 53.19 Baht to Sterling. I checked Kasikorn, as if I was getting a normal Swift transfer from UK. They give you the TT Buying rate, which currently stands at 55.22. Even with a much higher charge for the Swift transfer it seems to be better than MB, but I'm open to suggestions.

[churchill]

Which ever option you decide - better decide soon as GBP looks like going down .

[planemad]

After Googling Moneybookers and seeing some of the comments regarding their service, I was a little sceptical about using them, so, some weeks ago, I made a trial transfer of 25GBP from my UK bank to Thailand without a problem.

I then decided to send a larger sum, so I transfered 200 GBP into Moneybookers last Monday. Wednesday I received notification that the money had been uploaded so immediately transferred it to my Thai account (less the fee of about 1.6 GBP). I checked SCB online on Friday and my account had been credited with 11,560.84 Baht. I was actually quite pleased and might well use them more in the future.

I hope this helps a little if anyone is considering using this means of transfer………It worked for me!

[bifftastic]

Money Bookers does work as I tried a small transfer just to try it.

My worry is that you upload in GBP but have to withdraw to your Thai bank in Euro. So I wonder how much you lose with exchange rates.

I've only had it uploaded as £'s.

Spoke to Moneybookers yesterday and the told me to have both MB accounts registered in GBP (not applicable if you're sending to your own Thai bank acc. I suppose) then there is a proccess by which you link your bank account to your MB account which involves them sending you a letter with confirmation codes in it, or, they send a dummy deposit to your account with a code in the reference number.

They told me that although their bank deals in Euros because GBP is on their 'list' of currencies there is no fee for that exchange (I'm fairly sure they will make on the rate though) then an email is sent to the recipient MB account and the funds can be withdrawn into the Thai bank acc. which needs to be linked to the MB acc. as described above. The conversion to Thai Baht takes place in your Thai bank and I would assume that different Thai banks have different charges but I'm not sure what kind of transaction the last step would be.

Anyone know?

I've seen/read that MB is one of the cheapest and (after a bit of hassle setting it all up) easiest to use.

Any opinions or corrections on my understanding much appreciated

Edited October 24, 2009 by bifftastic

[RickBlaine]

This is my fourth visit to LOS, and the first time I used my UK debit card at an ATM - awful exchange rates and high charges.

I use Currency Solutions, one of the forex companies you can find with a quick search. I transfer the money via debit card from my UK account to their 'cutomer holding account', and then they tx to my Kasikorn account.

Its all done with a phone call, and confirmed with email - could do it all via em. The charges are 10GBP under 20k, free over, plus 1GBP for the debit card fee. I could easily have set the account up from the UK, but set it up from Thailand on my last visit, they do accept a fax (not email) for the initial setup authorisation.

10GBP seems a little expensive now I look at the MB details on TV, but I've got used to the CS service. I only transfer occassionally, so its not a big hit. I tx'ed a large amount once and simply watched their real-time exchange rate screen over a few days (and hours) until I 'guessed' I had the best deal - you can watch a graph of the exchange rate movement on their site if you fancy yourself as a currency trader.

I think you can even stipulate a minimum exchange rate and period of time to wait when you request a transaction, but I have never tried it. You get the rate as agreed at the time you phone, the transfer then takes about 3 working days.

They are currently quoting 54.56, 55.6 last Friday. Be aware that's their 'Interbank mid-market rate', ie the rate quoted to the customer will be slightly less, but it's still far better than anything my UK bank could offer.

Don't know if this helps, just another option.

[Lite Beer]

Money Bookers does work as I tried a small transfer just to try it.

My worry is that you upload in GBP but have to withdraw to your Thai bank in Euro. So I wonder how much you lose with exchange rates.

I've only had it uploaded as £'s.

They will not upload to Thailand in GBP. The default setting is Euro.

This is what there Site says.

In which currency will Moneybookers process my bank wire withdrawal?

We will process your withdrawal in EUR, USD or the official currency of the country where your bank is located. Information regarding the currency in which Moneybookers processes every particular withdrawal request is displayed in the final confirmation screen of your withdrawal.

The final confirmation page will say Euro.