Safest And Cheapest Way To Send £25,000 To Thailand?

[kunash]

Hi, I am wondering what is the best way to take/send £25k to Thailand. It is for a deposit on a house. At the moment i have the money in a UK building society. i am still in the Uk. I am not sure how they conduct business in thailand as far as house sales go, but in the UK, you do the business through a solicitor, which I will be doing.

Do i take travellers cheques?

or bank transfer to the solicitor or development company? ( i do not have a thai bank account, but when i go to thailand i will try and set one up ).

just wondering the cheapest way of sending/taking money.

( if i send the money by transfer i believe i might get a poorer exchange rate, than if i were to exchange travellers cheques in thailand where the rate will be better - is this right )?

Edited May 22, 2010 by kunash

[gotlost]

You need to remember that legally you can only take out of Thailand the monies you can show that you brought in. So if you bring in cash you would need to declare at customs, no charge. I would like to thank that traveler checks would be no problem but you need to check on that one. A bank draft from home is OK because after you open a bank account and deposit the check it will be on record. About 30 day clearing time on Bank draft. Any body else?

[Anon999]

Open a FCD (Foreign Currency Deposit) Account at Bangkok Bank, for instance; only a limited number of branches can do this for you. You can go there personally, complete some paperwork and show some documents. If you can do that then transferring money is straightforward via SWIFT from your building society account. If it is with Nationwide the charge is £20 and you can select the charge to be taken from either account.

You will also need to open a savings account at a Bangkok Bank Branch anywhere from which to transfer your Sterling into Thai baht. You will then have 2 on-line accounts so transferring the money on-line is straightforward but limited to the hours of 09:30 to 16:00 on trading days. Furthermore you will get the maximum exchange rate, listed under TT in the bank or on-line. Then you have the choice of how to pay your 'builder', cash, cheque, direct transfer to his account, etc. Full details from the sites below.

If you cannot access the sites below, search for bangkok bank and once on their site go to personal banking and look at the links for Foreign Currency Accounts.

See: http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/...es/Default.aspx

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/...and%20Fees.aspx

Edited May 22, 2010 by Anon999

[Crossy]

Talk to your UK bank manager (or BS branch manager) and explain the situation. You should be able to set up an international arrangement the destination being your Thai account (details by fax once it exists).

It's by far the safest method if both ends are in your name.

[clokwise]

If you are not interested in taking the money out of Thailand again (you intend to stay here for good) you could also consider an escrow option.

You will need to find a person in Thailand looking to transfer the same amount of funds out of the country, then use a bank such as HSBC to hold the funds from both parties in escrow then the funds are effectively swapped and there's no forex or other fees, just the escrow fee from the bank which I understand is relatively small.

I've never done this myself, but I can put you in touch with a couple expats I know who mentioned they do this once in a while. I think they deal with more than 25k GBP a pop, but it might be worth asking if they can help you out.

[jsnho]

traveller cheque will have higher value but they do charge a fee and the rate might not be as high as in UK,

best way is to declared the amount you bringing for buying house, no charge at all. simple and best rate.

make sure no one know u are bringing such a big amount except your family member and custom. for your safety reason.

for opening a account in bangkok bank, you need to have work permit or long term visa before they approved.

to buy house in thailand, best is to get a lawyer. well if you need help, you can send me a PM. i'm from singapore and i rented a building in bangkok. i have alot of friends doing business here and have a number of contact. include reliable property agents and lawyers.

[dzocor55]

traveller cheque will have higher value but they do charge a fee and the rate might not be as high as in UK,

best way is to declared the amount you bringing for buying house, no charge at all. simple and best rate.

make sure no one know u are bringing such a big amount except your family member and custom. for your safety reason.

for opening a account in bangkok bank, you need to have work permit or long term visa before they approved.

to buy house in thailand, best is to get a lawyer. well if you need help, you can send me a PM. i'm from singapore and i rented a building in bangkok. i have alot of friends doing business here and have a number of contact. include reliable property agents and lawyers.

i took 25k from uk,, walked into siam city bank with my passport and they opened me an account there and then,,the only poss problem was they wanted an address in thailand for there records,ok for me as brother has house there,,i ended up bringing the money back home after 3 months because of all the scams,bent lawyers, house agents who were last week working as car salesman,,,my advice,,leave your money in your bldg society,,,or if you have to ,use a reputable lawyer,,i had emails from people on this site saying they new of a good lawyer,but wen i checked it out it was there wife on one occasion and another time it was for there employer,,the company i have used on 2 occasions is not cheap,but they do a good job,,,bangkok legal associates,,they are recomended by uk embassy,,in fact the last time i was negotiating to buy house in hua hin ,the developer pulled out of the deal when i told him i was using them,that said it all,,

[personchester]

You need to remember that legally you can only take out of Thailand the monies you can show that you brought in. So if you bring in cash you would need to declare at customs, no charge. I would like to thank that traveler checks would be no problem but you need to check on that one. A bank draft from home is OK because after you open a bank account and deposit the check it will be on record. About 30 day clearing time on Bank draft. Any body else?

Note the following ...

Open a Thai Bank A/c and ask for their electronic transfer details.

Instruct the UK bank to transfer your sum via SWIFT to your Thai A/c.

Upon receiving the amount (within three working days) The Thai bank will contact you via 'phone (the number as stated on your appl.form) and ask for what purpose you intent to use the money, your reply will be short and direct to the point, i.e. house purchase, car purchase, etc ... and this will be accepted.

On the day of purchase go to your Thai bank and ask for a "Bankers Draft" (called cashiere's check) for the requested sum, then go with the house-seller to the local Thai Land Office were the property deeds will be changed into the name of the new owner (it can't be you of course) the office clerk will enter the details of the bankers draft into the files and according to the purchase sum will ask for the payments of the purchase tax, very often this payment is made 50/50 by agreement between buyer & seller.

Unlike property purchase in the UK, a solicitor is not needed, nor required for house purchase in Thailand, in fact if you contacted a solicitor for this purpose he would not know what you wanted him to do.

[fredob43]

I have found in the past that the BKK bank is a pain in the arse KASIKORN bank is a doddle. Just go in with passport NO long term visa or W/P required great service nice peep's, take my word as have done it. Spent over 4 hour's at BKK bank one time, and still didnt end up with account. Just open an account in Thailand an get your Bank in Blighty to transfer the lolly. Take's about 5 working day's unless you express it then 2/3 day's cost extra 6/7 pound's. Best of luck. SAFE.

Edited May 23, 2010 by fredob43

[surfaxxis]

Your best bet is leave the money in the UK,, at least it is safe there.

use an ATM withdrawl when you need cash,,

Do not give any upfront payments to builders,

Pay as you go

Pay for materials direct with cash

Do not rush things

Do not trust people,,, a fool and his money is easily separated

Exchange land papers at the land office, in your wifes name. Make a contract with her.

It is not easy to do this way , but at least you may keep your cash

[sarahsbloke]

You should not be trying to buy your girlfriend/wife a house in Thailand .... end of.

read this thread

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Sell-House-3...se-t364070.html

Edited May 23, 2010 by sarahsbloke

[cshort64]

Good Morning;

One option you may consider is to put your money in Bangkok Bank in London. You can open a bank account there, deposit your funds there and you get an ATM card. When you get to Bangkok, you can open a local bank account and then move the money from the Branch in London to the one in Bangkok. When you move the money there is a 10 pound charge for 3 day transfer and 50 pounds for overnight, but it works fine. I did this just recently as I go back-n-forth on business often.

Cheers

CHS

[thaigold]

You should not be trying to buy your girlfriend/wife a house in Thailand .... end of.

Under no condition (unless you are insane) should you buy, build, or invest in Thai real estate. Why invest in a country where the locals don't trust each other - plus a place where you can't read the contracts. Please - don't do it.

[Tanaka]

Kunash,

Whatever you do, do NOT send any money directly to any solictor, lawyer, seller or whatever in Thailand!

[Anon999]

Further to my previous post the last time I transferred money by SWIFT both banks charged me £20 making it very expensive.

Quote: "Please note that we received your payment instruction from HSBC (HSBC and Midland Bank are the same bank since they had merged.) with the option of charge as "OUR". For charge "OUR" payment, it is a standard banking practice that the receiving bank must credit the full amount to the recipient account and revert to the remitting bank for processing charge. Bangkok Bank then credited your account in full amount and reverted to HSBC (the remitting bank) for our processing fee of GBP20 per transaction.

We have noted the answer from your bank Nationwide that they are aware that payment with "charge OUR" option will incur a charge from a receiving bank as they previously provided the answer to you that "other banks do charge for accepting these types of payments."

We suggest that you may consider sending a payment with option of charge as "Charge BEN or SHA". If we receive a payment with charge BEN or SHA option, we will deduct our charge of 0.25% of the payment amount (minimum charge THB200, maximum charge THB500 per transaction) before crediting funds to your account with us. We will not revert to the remitting bank for any charge."

The Bangkok Bank had not charged me previously.

Alternatively you can take a Visa/Mastecard Debit card into a branch and ask them to transfer whatever amount you want and take cash or have the money paid directly into your savings account at that branch.

Another post refers to lawyers and there are plenty of them that are scam artists. One other reliable Lawyer is isaanlawyers.com run by a farang.

[LivinLOS]

20 quid at both ends very expensive ?? On a 25k transfer..

Call your bank and get a good exchange rate.. It will be FAR more then the swift fees.