Cash Limit And Thai Borders

[corkman]

Hi All,

Does anyone know, is there a limit to the amount of cash a person can carry to / from the UK across the Thai border i.e. Bangkok Airport?

I'll be travelling into Bangkok soon, with my family, and we have some cash but I don't want to take any chances if there is a limit.

Many thanks.

[ongoing]

Let me guess you are waiting for someone to ask you how much ? .... You will say not much just 1 million baht

Then we are all meant to think o i wish i had that much cash. What is wrong with farangs in Thailand... ever

[goldfinger]

baht to thailand- unlimited (but...who takes baht into thailand??)

foreign currencies equal to 20.000 USD/person.

How much out of UK without declaration-ask mr.google

[chiang mai]

baht to thailand- unlimited (but...who takes baht into thailand??)

foreign currencies equal to 20.000 USD/person.

How much out of UK without declaration-ask mr.google

It's slightly different:

There's no limit on the amount of foreign currency that can be brought into the country although amounts over USD 20,000 (or the equivalent) should be declared at the point of entry, that way you can take it out again if you so wish.

You can export up to USD 20,000 (or its equivalent in foreign currency) without BOT approval (or the inbound document you received from the above) or higher amounts subject to a range of criteria that I will not go into here, e.g repatriation of inbound funds following sale of a property where foreign currency was used, etc.

The maximum limit on the export of Thai Baht is quite low and I'm unsure of the current figure.

[goldfinger]

chiang mai, correct

but as the OP mentioned.."we have some cash "

i thought its not more than 20.000, of course to declare if its more.

[corkman]

Let me guess you are waiting for someone to ask you how much ? .... You will say not much just 1 million baht

Then we are all meant to think o i wish i had that much cash. What is wrong with farangs in Thailand... ever

That's very helpful, thank you for your reply.

[corkman]

Thanks everyone.

Good point about how much I can take out of my own country - I didn't even think of that..... better go check that out!

Between myself and the Mrs. we'll be well under 40k anyway (20 + 20).

Incidentally - I'll be looking send home about 45,000Baht per month. I was just going to do it from Thai account to account at home. Am I going to run into problems doing this?

Thanks again.

[chiang mai]

Thanks everyone.

Good point about how much I can take out of my own country - I didn't even think of that..... better go check that out!

Between myself and the Mrs. we'll be well under 40k anyway (20 + 20).

Incidentally - I'll be looking send home about 45,000Baht per month. I was just going to do it from Thai account to account at home. Am I going to run into problems doing this?

Thanks again.

You need to have a valid reason for carrying large amounts of cash out of your home country, if you're caught in the UK airports carrying more than £1,000 in cash you'll be asked to account where it came from and to show the associated paperwork on you proving your story - in case you're wondering, the police have sniffer dogs trained to sniff out large amounts of cash on departing passengers and a friend of mine was stopped and questioned at Heathrow because of this last year. I would guess that most other international airports in a range of countries have adopted similar procedures.

Secondly, you say you are going to be sending 45k Baht back home every month which begs the question, why bring the money over in the first place if you're simply going to turn around and send it back again! Regardless, you need to have a valid reason for sending money overseas from your Thai account and there are Bank of Thailand controls in place that must be dealt with - you can also only send money out of Thailand that you can prove you brought in in the first place and since you're talking about bringing cash, that might prove difficult unless you declare the cash at Thai Customs when you arrive, personally I wouldn't want to go down that route at all! All in all you'd be much better off doing bank transfers from there to here and then later, back again.

[corkman]

Thanks everyone.

Good point about how much I can take out of my own country - I didn't even think of that..... better go check that out!

Between myself and the Mrs. we'll be well under 40k anyway (20 + 20).

Incidentally - I'll be looking send home about 45,000Baht per month. I was just going to do it from Thai account to account at home. Am I going to run into problems doing this?

Thanks again.

You need to have a valid reason for carrying large amounts of cash out of your home country, if you're caught in the UK airports carrying more than £1,000 in cash you'll be asked to account where it came from and to show the associated paperwork on you proving your story - in case you're wondering, the police have sniffer dogs trained to sniff out large amounts of cash on departing passengers and a friend of mine was stopped and questioned at Heathrow because of this last year. I would guess that most other international airports in a range of countries have adopted similar procedures.

Secondly, you say you are going to be sending 45k Baht back home every month which begs the question, why bring the money over in the first place if you're simply going to turn around and send it back again! Regardless, you need to have a valid reason for sending money overseas from your Thai account and there are Bank of Thailand controls in place that must be dealt with - you can also only send money out of Thailand that you can prove you brought in in the first place and since you're talking about bringing cash, that might prove difficult unless you declare the cash at Thai Customs when you arrive, personally I wouldn't want to go down that route at all! All in all you'd be much better off doing bank transfers from there to here and then later, back again.

Thanks for the advise. It is not something I;ve every really thought about until now.

Nothing cloak and dagger - I am relocating to Thailand, so I'm selling the cars etc. here than I'm gonna new ones out there - with the cash. Why "carry" the cash - to be honest, it was the suggestion of friend and it was said in the pub after a few beers ...... something along the lines of "you're better off bring the cash with you because you'll get screwed on bank charges etc." ........

Sending home money every month after that - well I'll be working in Thailand, but I have financial commitments back home that need to be serviced. So if I am reading you right you're saying this could be tricky?

I can show documentation for everything at any rate.

Thanks a mil.!!!

[chiang mai]

Thanks everyone.

Good point about how much I can take out of my own country - I didn't even think of that..... better go check that out!

Between myself and the Mrs. we'll be well under 40k anyway (20 + 20).

Incidentally - I'll be looking send home about 45,000Baht per month. I was just going to do it from Thai account to account at home. Am I going to run into problems doing this?

Thanks again.

You need to have a valid reason for carrying large amounts of cash out of your home country, if you're caught in the UK airports carrying more than £1,000 in cash you'll be asked to account where it came from and to show the associated paperwork on you proving your story - in case you're wondering, the police have sniffer dogs trained to sniff out large amounts of cash on departing passengers and a friend of mine was stopped and questioned at Heathrow because of this last year. I would guess that most other international airports in a range of countries have adopted similar procedures.

Secondly, you say you are going to be sending 45k Baht back home every month which begs the question, why bring the money over in the first place if you're simply going to turn around and send it back again! Regardless, you need to have a valid reason for sending money overseas from your Thai account and there are Bank of Thailand controls in place that must be dealt with - you can also only send money out of Thailand that you can prove you brought in in the first place and since you're talking about bringing cash, that might prove difficult unless you declare the cash at Thai Customs when you arrive, personally I wouldn't want to go down that route at all! All in all you'd be much better off doing bank transfers from there to here and then later, back again.

Thanks for the advise. It is not something I;ve every really thought about until now.

Nothing cloak and dagger - I am relocating to Thailand, so I'm selling the cars etc. here than I'm gonna new ones out there - with the cash. Why "carry" the cash - to be honest, it was the suggestion of friend and it was said in the pub after a few beers ...... something along the lines of "you're better off bring the cash with you because you'll get screwed on bank charges etc." ........

Sending home money every month after that - well I'll be working in Thailand, but I have financial commitments back home that need to be serviced. So if I am reading you right you're saying this could be tricky?

I can show documentation for everything at any rate.

Thanks a mil.!!!

If you have a work permit for Thailand then transferring funds back home is much simpler, if you don't then I think you will have problems.

If you shop around you will see that there some very cost effective ways to transfer funds from abroad into Thailand, loads of expats who live here do so on a regular basis - carrying the cash etc is really not a good way to do what you're trying to accomplish. Maybe leave the cash in your bank at home, come to Thailand and open a bank account and then make a transfer later?

[corkman]

If you have a work permit for Thailand then transferring funds back home is much simpler, if you don't then I think you will have problems.

If you shop around you will see that there some very cost effective ways to transfer funds from abroad into Thailand, loads of expats who live here do so on a regular basis - carrying the cash etc is really not a good way to do what you're trying to accomplish. Maybe leave the cash in your bank at home, come to Thailand and open a bank account and then make a transfer later?

Yes I have (or will soon have) a work permit - I got my B-visa the other day

I obviously need to look into this in more detail - I will check out the "cost effective" ways that you mention above. Any recommendations?

Many thanks for your help.

[chiang mai]

If you have a work permit for Thailand then transferring funds back home is much simpler, if you don't then I think you will have problems.

If you shop around you will see that there some very cost effective ways to transfer funds from abroad into Thailand, loads of expats who live here do so on a regular basis - carrying the cash etc is really not a good way to do what you're trying to accomplish. Maybe leave the cash in your bank at home, come to Thailand and open a bank account and then make a transfer later?

Yes I have (or will soon have) a work permit - I got my B-visa the other day

I obviously need to look into this in more detail - I will check out the "cost effective" ways that you mention above. Any recommendations?

Many thanks for your help.

Phew, everyone seems to have a different answer to this one, why not check with your own bank first and find out how much they will charge. I use HSBC but I've got accounts all over the place so my transfers are free, some UK folks recommend Nationwide and others like Halifax, if you're in Cork (?) I'm not sure of your options, perhaps others can advise here? What ever you do, make sure that you transfer your funds into Thailand in foreign currency, in your case I presume it's Euro's, and make the conversion into Baht in Thailand and NOT in Ireland, the exchange rate difference is significant and there are no commission charges here - check out the exchange rates at home and also here at http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx.

Another thing to think about is whether you should transfer all your Euro's (?) into Baht or whether you should open a Euro account here in Thailand as well as having a Baht account. That way you will not have to re-exchange your currency when you need to send some of it back home again. Personally I reckon the better option would be just to leave some Euro's in an account at home and set up direct debits to pay the bills that need paying.

[connel707]

Thanks everyone.

Good point about how much I can take out of my own country - I didn't even think of that..... better go check that out!

Between myself and the Mrs. we'll be well under 40k anyway (20 + 20).

Incidentally - I'll be looking send home about 45,000Baht per month. I was just going to do it from Thai account to account at home. Am I going to run into problems doing this?

Thanks again.

You need to have a valid reason for carrying large amounts of cash out of your home country, if you're caught in the UK airports carrying more than £1,000 in cash you'll be asked to account where it came from and to show the associated paperwork on you proving your story - in case you're wondering, the police have sniffer dogs trained to sniff out large amounts of cash on departing passengers and a friend of mine was stopped and questioned at Heathrow because of this last year. I would guess that most other international airports in a range of countries have adopted similar procedures.

Secondly, you say you are going to be sending 45k Baht back home every month which begs the question, why bring the money over in the first place if you're simply going to turn around and send it back again! Regardless, you need to have a valid reason for sending money overseas from your Thai account and there are Bank of Thailand controls in place that must be dealt with - you can also only send money out of Thailand that you can prove you brought in in the first place and since you're talking about bringing cash, that might prove difficult unless you declare the cash at Thai Customs when you arrive, personally I wouldn't want to go down that route at all! All in all you'd be much better off doing bank transfers from there to here and then later, back again.

Its 10,00 pounds without a receipt, anything over 10,000 pounds you need to show a bank withdrawal receipt, but you can take as much as you like if you have all your receipts and withdrawal slips. As long as its not Tax Free cash... and you prove its really your money... you can bring as much as you like...

As for sending some home regularly... give it to me and I`ll do that for you.. Another Chang Please..