Paypal Money Transfer To Thailand , Legal Issues

[salomon]

hello,

i want to send money via paypal to my girlfriend (not wife) so she will send it to her bank account from her paypal account.

i do this to avoid the fees that banks take for money transfer.

is there a legal problem ? does she need to explain to anyone where the money came from to her account?

[darrendsd]

No legal issues [unless a very large amount i would imagine]

However paypal will still charge her to receive the money [unless you agree to pay the charges when you send the money]

If memory serves it's 4%, and they also hammer you on the exchange rate, 3-4 baht below normal exchange rates, may work out cheaper to send it via bank transfer.

[BigSkip]

No legal issues [unless a very large amount i would imagine]

However paypal will still charge her to receive the money [unless you agree to pay the charges when you send the money]

If memory serves it's 4%, and they also hammer you on the exchange rate, 3-4 baht below normal exchange rates, may work out cheaper to send it via bank transfer.

Concur!

[darrendsd]

If i have supplied the incorrect information then please feel free to post why [if i am wrong about this i do apologize to the op and would like to know the reasons myself as i am a regular paypal user]

Saying "concur" without explaining why doesn't really help the op, myself or anyone else interested in this thread.

[Penkoprod]

If i have supplied the incorrect information then please feel free to post why [if i am wrong about this i do apologize to the op and would like to know the reasons myself as i am a regular paypal user]

Saying "concur" without explaining why doesn't really help the op, myself or anyone else interested in this thread.

Firstly, the poster was in agreement with you (To "concur" means just that)

Or are you asking WHY he agrees?

Secondly, i just did a "dummy run" with my own Paypal account and the figures are as follows:

The rate quoted by Paypal worked out at 1 GBP =48.25 THB. The exchange rate taken from the website i use was quoted at 1 GBP = 48.5664375 THB (exchange rates quoted by other sites may be different)

Paying the charge on top would have added 1% to the total.

HTH

Penkoprod

[markeewan]

There is no legal problem in sending money to your girlfriend and she will not have to explain where it came from.

I have often sent money to my girlfriend in the past and wasted a lot of money using the banks in the early days. They charged me to send ~1000baht, charged her to recieve ~400baht and would sell to me at 26 baht to the dollar when the interbank rate was 29 baht to the dollar. I reckon they were taking about 12% all up on each transaction.

I have used Western Union, which is okay for small amounts under $1000, exchange rate is good but there is a processing fee which varies dependant upon the amount. One good point is that they can also have the money within 30 minutes so it is really quick. I have done this transaction a number of times using Mastercard and it hasn't been treated as a cash advance and so no interest was payable. I am sure they are not going to let this loophole remain for long.

The next best option is to use a Forex transfer service via the internet. This seems to cost about 0.4 baht less than the interbank rate, there is no additional fee for sending and my girlfriend only pays 100 baht to receive the money direct to her bank. This transaction takes about 2 or 3 days before she received the money. This service is really for larger amounts of money, but they have done amounts as low as $1200 for me. They do have a commission to make so they charged me a bit extra, but even so it was still only about 0.6 baht, still it is heaps cheaper than the bank.

The last option is take cash when you visit and exchange it at Superrich Thailand for the very best rate and put it into her account, or your account and give her your ATM card to draw down when she needs to. There are limits to how much you can take without completing a customs declaration.

I would recommend that you look at each option plus your Paypal option, calculate out which is the cheapest for the amount you want to send. In my case some trial and error was needed as all the costs are not known until you actually send the money. But if you are going to be sending money on a regular basis it is worth spending a few hours researching all the options as you can save or waste a lot.

Hope this helps and answers your question.

[darrendsd]

If i have supplied the incorrect information then please feel free to post why [if i am wrong about this i do apologize to the op and would like to know the reasons myself as i am a regular paypal user]

Saying "concur" without explaining why doesn't really help the op, myself or anyone else interested in this thread.

Firstly, the poster was in agreement with you (To "concur" means just that)

Or are you asking WHY he agrees?

Secondly, i just did a "dummy run" with my own Paypal account and the figures are as follows:

The rate quoted by Paypal worked out at 1 GBP =48.25 THB. The exchange rate taken from the website i use was quoted at 1 GBP = 48.5664375 THB (exchange rates quoted by other sites may be different)

Paying the charge on top would have added 1% to the total.

HTH

Penkoprod

I do apologize, i obviously misunderstood the previous poster

However despite what you are quoting i still feel that paypal is a complete rip off for sending money between countrys

Say the op wants to send 1000 gbp, that will work out at a tenner in charges to send or receive and then also getting a rate of 0.30 baht less to the pound would work out a hefty sum on the original.

Although the op is not particuarly enquiring about exchange rates/charges. i still feel a bank transfer is the cheapest option as long as you request to the sending bank that the money is SENT in sterling and converted here

UK banks normally charge a set fee [mine is 15 quid[ to send

Thai banks [mine anyway] usually charge a % of the received sum for charges [memory escapes me as to how much %]