Banking Transfers Between Chase And Bangkok Bank?

[elshaheen]

Greetings;

I am moving back to Thailand the first part of May and I have a general question about Banking Transfers from a bank here in the U.S. to a Thai bank.

I have an account with Chase here and with Bangkok Bank in Thailand. Have both account numbers, routing codes, etc.

Is it cost effective to do transfer say at the ATM or via Bank to with a wire transfers? The reason is the bank charges around $35.00 for a wire transfer. Which one is more cost effective?

Thank you;

[Maestro]

Obviously, it depends on the amount you want to transfer. Your US bank charges you $35 for a wire transfer. What, if anything, does it charge for a foreign ATM withdrawal?

On the Thai side, for an incoming wire remittance Bangkok Bank charges 0.25% but minimum 200 Baht, maximum 500 Baht. For ATM withdrawals with a foreign card the current charge is 150 Baht per withdrawal, I believe. There is a limit to the amount you are allowed to withdraw at a time. An option I have seen discussed is to withdraw the money at the Thai bank at a teller window, showing your American credit card, without any fee and no amount limit involved. Don’t know if this still works.

--

Maestro

[elshaheen]

Obviously, it depends on the amount you want to transfer. Your US bank charges you $35 for a wire transfer. What, if anything, does it charge for a foreign ATM withdrawal?

On the Thai side, for an incoming wire remittance Bangkok Bank charges 0.25% but minimum 200 Baht, maximum 500 Baht. For ATM withdrawals with a foreign card the current charge is 150 Baht per withdrawal, I believe. There is a limit to the amount you are allowed to withdraw at a time. An option I have seen discussed is to withdraw the money at the Thai bank at a teller window, showing your American credit card, without any fee and no amount limit involved. Don’t know if this still works.

--

Maestro

Thanks for the info. I have just a Debit / Visa ATM card I use here in the U.S.

Thanks for your info.

[bellagrego]

Do the wire from chase even though now its 40 bucks as there is no other way better, safer, or cheaper. Tried everything else in the last five years. Do as large an amount that you may need to reduce your percentage cost. In addition, best way to move your money back to chase when you need to.

[JimGant]

Do the wire from chase even though now its 40 bucks as there is no other way better, safer, or cheaper.

Much discussion on this subject. As you have a Bangkok Bank account, the cheapest way to send money is via the ACH system thru Bangkok Bank NY, not a "40 buck" SWIFT wire.

Read THIS

Per the above, it costs $5 to send between $100-$2000; $10 to send above $2000. The fee on the Thai side is exactly the same as a wire transfer, namely .25% (no more than 500 baht).

Quite a savings compared to 40 bucks for a wire transfer.

With Chase, who has an ACH middleman, you'll also have to pay $3 for them to do an ACH transfer (many banks, like USAA, do their own ACH transfers, thus no additional cost). Still, $13 (or $8) is way better than $40.

Chase ATM cards charge $3 per transaction, plus a 3% foreign transaction fee. (See HERE) Add the 150 baht Thai ATM owner fee, and you'll quickly see an ACH transfer is greatly superior (even a SWIFT transfer would normally beat the Chase ATM card). Only if you had an ATM card from a few select financial institutions (like Schwaab Brokerage), which add no fees -- and "eat" the Visa/MasterCard network foreign transaction fee -- could you beat an ACH transfer for the cheapest way to convert your dollars to baht.

An option I have seen discussed is to withdraw the money at the Thai bank at a teller window, showing your American credit card, without any fee and no amount limit involved. Don't know if this still works.

Possibly a "debit" card. But, cash advances with "credit" cards are always loaded with fees by your issuing bank, plus instant interest charges. And, Thai banks like SCB, even charge a usurious exchange rate for cash advances with credit cards.

[ianguygil]

Depending on how much money being transferred, another advantage of wiring money is that you have an audit trail of the money being moved into Thailand should you decide at a later date to move it back out again (e.g. if you plan to buy property, if you plan to start a business etc.)

Also you will not be walking around with large amounts of cash in the form of banknotes which is not a good idea anywhere

I am pretty sure you will find our services to be the lowest cost and most convenient, particularly if you use ACH in the US as shown in the link (which costs cents) as opposed to CHIPS of FEDWIRE which is expensive and unncessary.

ATM withdrawals add up as fees, take time to do and will not give the tracability of the funds transfer.

Good luck.

[dddave]

I don't remember all the circumstances but several years ago, a friend living in Bangkok did some sort of transfer between Chase and Bangkok Bank. He was charged both ways and royally screwed on exchange rates to the extent that when complaints to Chase went unanswered, he sued them in a New York Small Claims Court when he returned to his home there.

It was pretty funny actually. He had gone to the local Chase Branch to try to resolve the issue and the manager blew him off so he named her as well as the bank as defendants in the suit.

When she was served with the papers, she called him at home and went totally ballistic! "Who do you think you are?, You can't do this to me!!", ect.

He won his case in court and Chase headquarters quickly settled the issue with a written apology and a cash settlement.

He no longer banks with Chase.

Edited March 4, 2010 by dddave

[Pib]

A Big 10-4 to all of JimGant's post above. Recommend you determine if you can do a ACH transfer as that will be the overall cheapest by far...and be sure to transfer in dollars/your home country currency.

[flying]

.....deleted.....

edit: sorry I just skimmed & now see Jim already told you this

Edited March 4, 2010 by flying

[Sabaidii]

If you have an account with Fidelity you can set it up to do ACH transfers through Bangkok Bank in NYC forwarded to your account in Thailand. The nice thing with this arrangement is you can initiate your transfers online as needed. It may not be as quick as a wire transfer but it is certainly less costly.

[JimGant]

I am pretty sure you will find our services to be the lowest cost and most convenient,

Ian, who is "our?" Do you work for Bangkok Bank? If so, in what capacity?

Not to be nosy, but it might be helpful should I need a future 'go to' person for Bangkok Bank questions.

Thanx.

[ianguygil]

I sent you a PM

[lopburi3]

I did a ACH transfer this week using USAA to Bangkok Bank NY as below - and this is the normal time frame.

Monday evening here transfer $4,000 on internet.

Wednesday at 11:15 get confirmation SMS from Bangkok Bank in Thailand.

Received $3,990 at exchange rate 2.53

Fee 324 baht; deposit in local account 129,470.21

So total cost for $4,000 is just about $20

You can ask your bank for larger transfers to make it more attractive.

So in my experience a Swift wire in next day noon - an ACH transfer is second day noon.

[hyperdimension]

Is it possible to do a normal domestic transfer from any USA bank account to your Thai Bangkok Bank account using the following details:

1. Bangkok Bank New York's ABA number (026008691)

2. Your Thai Bangkok Bank account number

From what I've read it seems that is what some people here have been doing to receive their monthly pension payments from USA.

What I was confused about though is that it seemed that everyone was treating it as some special method of transferring money. It's just an ordinary domestic transfer from one USA bank to another isn't it? The only difference is that Bangkok Bank NY then forwards it on to the account in Thailand.

Am I wrong?

Edited April 15, 2010 by hyperdimension

[farangguy]

If you have an account with Fidelity you can set it up to do ACH transfers through Bangkok Bank in NYC forwarded to your account in Thailand. The nice thing with this arrangement is you can initiate your transfers online as needed. It may not be as quick as a wire transfer but it is certainly less costly.

This how I now move my money but since it costs about 25 USD (10 USD plus 500 baht), my plan is once a year.

The exchange rate is good, I'm pretty sure you get the TT rate.

As Sabaidii says it's easy, you just make a few clicks in your Fidelity account.

Ran into a few snags setting it up though, had to get a Fido customer service rep involved.

Little off topic but I was told by one bank that transactions over 20K USD are handled a little differently and that one would have to go to a thai branch to sign and verify the deposit. Anyone hear anything like this?

[longball53098]

Not sure but I think the Thai banks handle the over 20k USD incoming based on their policies. I made a one time transfer last year for about 25K USD and I use SCB. When the money arrived the wire transfer department at SCB Bangkok called to say the money had indeed arrived and number one they wanted to verify what the cash was being used for? They said they would send me a form to sign but I never received it. And number 2 they asked if I wanted them to hold the cash not converted to baht until a better baht rate. They said I had up to one year to effect the conversion. I gave them the why I wanted the cash and to convert and deposit to my savings account immediately. Money was there almost as I told them to convert it.

[Myaimistrue]

How about transferring from Thailand to the US? I can't seem to do it for less than $30, 300 baht from Bangkok Bank and $20 from I don't know who, but when I transfer $1000 I only get $980 and the bank cannot tell me exactly why! They only say something about some mysterious institution getting their cut of international transfers!