Has Anyone Got A Bangkok Bank Savings Account ?

[pkrv]

Now transferring 10,000 GBP I note the rate offered by Bangkok Bank at this moment in time is 46.81

That's the buying TT rate -- which you would get if you sent pounds to Thailand. But, since you're buying your baht at BB London, I have a feeling you'll get a lesser buying rate. How much less will dictate whether or not converting in London -- and thus saving 5 GBPs on sending end and 500 baht on receiving end -- is worth it.

Hi 'JimGant' - I actually trully have no idea what is going to happen.Only the guys from the US have commented so far, and this (as someone said) is no use to the Brits!

The cash, and I have seen this before on UK bill payments, has not yet left our UK SMILE account.

I am monitoring and will get back. If this works it's great but as with all things in life, keep an eye out for changes PKRV

Edited June 7, 2010 by pkrv

[pkrv]

Money left my UK SMILE account this morning the rate today is 46.91250 - now monitoring my Bangkok Bank Bualuang iBanking account - A question of wait and see.

Edited June 8, 2010 by pkrv

[pkrv]

Still awaiting funds to arrive in my Bangkok Bank account - As a matter of interest can the guys from the US comment on the time for transfers using the Local NY branch of Bangkok Bank?

Rate is currently 47.12000

[ianguygil]

If you need some help and the funds do not arrive today, please PM me and I will see what I can do. Thank s

[pkrv]

Thanks ianguygil - Interesting that you will move to help.

For the moment that is not needed, but the offer has been noted and appreciated.

As I said blow by blow

OK this is interesting I called the UK London correspondent branch of Bangkok Bank today on 020 7929 4422 and used option 5.

They were able to confirm that the funds had been successfully received today. They also confirmed that they were sending the funds to Thailand in sterling/GBP. Apparently they only convert in the UK if the amount is under 500 GBP.

This all makes sense, and the BACS system in the UK is slow.

They confirm a 500 THB charge at the Thai end and say I should now allow 5 working days. I SHOULD get the TT rate on arrival of the funds.

I will confirm - Regards PKRV.

Edited June 10, 2010 by pkrv

[JimGant]

They confirm a 500 THB charge at the Thai end and say I should now allow 5 working days. I SHOULD get the TT rate on arrival of the funds.

All my ACH transfers thru BB NY have taken two business days (compared to one business day for a SWIFT wire). Some US banks will take longer, as they use a middleman for their ACH transfers. The extra time for me is due to the ACH process, which is batch processed. Once at BB NY, it is SWIFT encoded for its rapid journey to Thailand.

Have a feeling your money will soon be -- or already is -- in Thailand. The advertised "5 working days" on the BB website probably incorporates the slow BACS time. And you're over that hump.

Ianguygil probably can comment on the mechanisms of this better than I, based on some of his former posts, and inside knowledge of BB operations.

I've always gotten the advertised TT rate (or very close to it, as it seems to vary slightly during the day).

[chris5346]

hi,

just thought i'd mention that aparrently the £35 to £65 charges are for selecting chaps payment rather than the slower bacs at £20.

maybe i'll decide to use this service sometime but it would be nice to confirm with another customer the time it takes and what charges they received.

regards,

chris

[ianguygil]

Another user had the problem in the UK where their bank chose CHAPS (like FEDWIRE in the USA) to send the money to our branch in London. As you said, CHAPS is designed for large value (normally corporate) payments in which the timeliness is essential.

So please make sure you bank defaults to BACS. This could be implied by the date for the availability of funds you specify. However, it is normally the defaul for retail (i.e. consumer) payments in the UK.

Good luck.

Edited June 11, 2010 by ianguygil

[lopburi3]

They confirm a 500 THB charge at the Thai end and say I should now allow 5 working days. I SHOULD get the TT rate on arrival of the funds.

All my ACH transfers thru BB NY have taken two business days (compared to one business day for a SWIFT wire). ((cut)).

My experience is exactly the same - using USAA to BBL NY to BBL Bangkok

[JimGant]

PKRV,

If you're still awaiting the arrival of your loot, I guess it is possible the last leg of your transfer, which should be a SWIFT encoded one, is not so swift out of jolly ole England. The following quote from Sarah from page one:

If you use a bank to do a SWIFT transfer to the Bangkok Bank, the charge is UK SWIFT charge 25-35UKP, 200bht, and the exchange rate you get is whatever the Bangkok bank exchange rate says on the day the money arrives (3-5 days after you send from the UK)

Why SWIFT transfers from the UK to Thailand would be much slower than ones from the US is indeed curious.....

[ianguygil]

This could be a pretty long answer, and as it is Friday night I don't have time for that.

It all depends on the domestic part of this in the UK or the USA. Which bank you are dealing with on the sending end. If they do have a correspondent relationship with the Thai bank in question or if they must go through a domestic correspondent who has that relationship. And how they clear the funds domestically.

So if you send funds from Bank A in the UK, and they do not have a direct Correspondent relationship with the Thai bank - BBL (for example) - they first need to clear the funds domestically with their Domestic correspondent who will do the DT/DF accounting with BBL. So the Domestic side may take 2-3 days if it is BACS (only 1 day for ACH in the US for most banks). Then the second bank will credit the funds to BBL.

I really need to run. So it depends from where, to where, and who is in the middle, and finally how the funds are cleared. And with some methods of transfer there is a period of recourse of a couple of days.

Good luck.

[Pib]

They confirm a 500 THB charge at the Thai end and say I should now allow 5 working days. I SHOULD get the TT rate on arrival of the funds.

All my ACH transfers thru BB NY have taken two business days (compared to one business day for a SWIFT wire). ((cut)).

My experience is exactly the same - using USAA to BBL NY to BBL Bangkok

My experience in using Bank of America to BBL NY to BBL Bangkok for ACH transfers is three business days...BoA's charge for this 3 day ACH transfer is $3. The flow process of ACH is slower than a SWIFT transfer but ACH sure is a LOT cheaper, averaging somewhere around 10 times cheaper. I can wait 3 days vs 1 day to reduce a funds transfer fee by 10 fold.

[lopburi3]

US transfers are normally faster than UK from reports I have seen.

My experience is call US local bank at 11 PM Thai time and money is in my account in Bangkok before noon using Swift.

If using ACH it would be one day later.

Obviously weekends or holidays would change it.

[pkrv]

OK I will share, and thanks for all the advice on this link, because some of this was new to me Please note this is from a UK, or as some say Brit perspective;) .

Using the UK London correspondent branch of Bangkok Bank and doing a simple UK bill payment (via BACS this is standard) and the information here

We (joint account) transferred 10,000 GBP to our (joint) Bangkok Bank (head office branch) account.

We made the payment Monday the 7^th June from our UK SMILE (internet branch of the co-operative bank)

Cash left our SMILE account on the Tuesday.

Cash arrived at the correspondent London Bangkok Bank branch on the Thursday though this was confirmed by us making a phone call they do have our email details IMO they could clean this up a bit, but it works which is the main thing.

Cash arrived in our Bangkok Bank account today Wednesday the 16^th of June.

Amount was 474,523.05 detailed as a Foreign Telegraphic transfer on our Bualuang iBanking internet account though no fees were recorded.

Their rate today (actually at this moment) is 47.59750

So this is not an exact science rates err…. change

15 GBP charge at the UK end, 500 THB charge at the Thai end leaves us with a 238.24 THB or £5.01 discrepancy well the funds were in transit for a week and a half.

IMO the US and the UK can create a direct link between their Thai Bangkok Bank account and their UK/US account just using 'local' payments mechanisms And the exchange rates are not bad.

However - if drawing out small amounts of money in Thailand - the hole in the wall mechanism may still be best.

Edited June 16, 2010 by pkrv

[chris5346]

hi,

thx for info.

it sounds like there's a £20 charge, £15 plus your £5 discrepency ?

which is correct i think ?

this is the last e-mail i got from london branch :

Dear Mr Gascoyne The £20 charge is for us to send your payment to Thailand in Sterling. Barclays can most definately make Bacs payments. the payment should be as follows sortcode: 609398, Account number: 92002000, Credit: Christopher Gascoyne, reference: (your account number in thailand)BKKBTHBK.

did you just send money to them using these same details ? and then call london branch to check on the progress ?

sounds like i can go ahead and do the same thx, i was just a bit concerned when they were talking about exta fees but i presume if i send to london branch via chaps then they will chrge me extra £35-£65.

but if i send via bacs then no extra fee and just £20 to forward to thailand.

thx for all your replies,

chris

[pkrv]

15 GBP charge at the UK end, 500 THB charge at the Thai end leaves us with a 238.24 THB or £5.01 discrepancy – well the funds were in transit for a week and a half.

OK that makes sense - Bangkok Bank London actually charge 20 GBP at the UK end - Thank you.

hi,

thx for info.

it sounds like there's a £20 charge, £15 plus your £5 discrepency ?

which is correct i think ?

this is the last e-mail i got from london branch :

Dear Mr Gascoyne The £20 charge is for us to send your payment to Thailand in Sterling. Barclays can most definately make Bacs payments. the payment should be as follows sortcode: 609398, Account number: 92002000, Credit: Christopher Gascoyne, reference: (your account number in thailand)BKKBTHBK.

did you just send money to them using these same details ? and then call london branch to check on the progress ?

sounds like i can go ahead and do the same thx, i was just a bit concerned when they were talking about exta fees but i presume if i send to london branch via chaps then they will chrge me extra £35-£65.

but if i send via bacs then no extra fee and just £20 to forward to thailand.

thx for all your replies,

chris

[pkrv]

funnies happening on TV - post deleated

Edited June 16, 2010 by pkrv

[pkrv]

did you just send money to them using these same details ? and then call london branch to check on the progress ?

Sorry did not see that question - The answer is yes.

[chris5346]

hi,

i'm just about to use the london branch but i have spoken to someone over the telephone and they have said that there is a limit of 5000 pounds using bacs and if send more they will just send the money back ??

they said that need to use chaps which costs extra 35-60 pounds instead of 20 ?

i'm a bit confused and not sure how they recently did your one for 10,000 ?

i didn't have time on the telephone to ask many questions - maybe they have just changed there policy ? in past few weeks ? or maybe your payment didn't use bacs ?

my online account is limited to 5000 a day , i notice you sent using smile account 10,000 no problem ? maybe a different method ?

not sure if any one can help please,

chris

[aussiebebe]

I thought, reading your post, you want to send funds from the UK to Thailand? BACS and CHAPS are services within the UK bank clearing system - where are you sending the funds? BACS takes 4 days, is free, and I'm unaware of any limits, CHAPS should cost 20 pounds and is same-day if done before 11am.

The email you recieved makes little sense

this is the last e-mail i got from london branch :

Dear Mr Gascoyne The £20 charge is for us to send your payment to Thailand in Sterling. Barclays can most definately make Bacs payments.

So, why not just do a SWIFT from your UK bank to Bangkok Bank? are you trying to use a currency broker? surely your CHAPS charge (which is extortionate by the way) will wipe out any supposed savings? Apologies if I've misread or misunderstood your posts, maybe I can learn something too!

[chris5346]

hello,

no need for help now,

apparently some banks can only transfer 5000 using bacs .

thnx anyway,

chris

[jor]

So, why not just do a SWIFT from your UK bank to Bangkok Bank?

Because it is likely to get routed through the BBL London branch, even if you put the BBL Bangkok SWIFT code, who put their own whopping charge before SWIFTing it to BBL Bangkok. Telephone calls to BBL London for an explanation result in being fobbed off with a "This is our standard charge answer". I don't know whether their system is in disarray or whether it is deliberate and they expect us not to notice the charge. A BM was good enough to step in and get a charge refunded for me. He stated that this situation was getting fixed and maybe it will.

[pkrv]

hi,

i'm just about to use the london branch but i have spoken to someone over the telephone and they have said that there is a limit of 5000 pounds using bacs and if send more they will just send the money back ??

they said that need to use chaps which costs extra 35-60 pounds instead of 20 ?

i'm a bit confused and not sure how they recently did your one for 10,000 ?

i didn't have time on the telephone to ask many questions - maybe they have just changed there policy ? in past few weeks ? or maybe your payment didn't use bacs ?

my online account is limited to 5000 a day , i notice you sent using smile account 10,000 no problem ? maybe a different method ?

not sure if any one can help please,

chris

Hi 'chris5346' - note my past post - I sent 10,000 GBP using this mechanism - no problem - When you deal with Thailand you deal with a small pool of true knowledge holders, you need to get used to this - However your own UK bank may also place limits on the amout you may pay via the BACS mechanism.

I assure you this works - and I am UK. 20 GBP charge UK end, 500 THB end and the TT rate. It is down to you now.

[chris5346]

i have made a transfer i selected chaps in the end because my bank could only do £5000 at a time with bacs.

money arrived in thailand account next day and £11,000 cost £45 in fees and i guess another 200-500 BAht in thailand but i haven't looked at it yet (sending GBP conversion in thailand option).

can phone bangkok bank london branch or they are pretty good at e-mailing - the website doesn't have all the information.

i guess it depends on how quick you want to send money and what you think the rates are doing - i was also looking at buying baht using hifx at the same time but the rate would have been 0.5 of a baht lower than sending GBP - so i saved 5,000 baht but it cost me an extra £30 in chaps fees.

chris

[chris5346]

yes you can just done a swift transfer from uk bank to thailand one but takes longer and is usually more expensive than £20.

because i'm in thailand i could either do two £5000 transactions using telephone/online banking or get someone to do it for me in the u.k.

i got my father so send from his account to mine going via bangkok banks london branch, his bank was also limited to £5000 using bacs so he just paid for chaps same day transfer to london then next day to thailand,

if you can do a swift transfer on the monday then maybe money will arrive that same week ? pound and baht up and down recently so never know wots going to turn out best.

i was following rates and checking against hifx (which is easy to set up and good for jumping in quickly if you want a guarteed rate and easy to pay them too).

hifx or similar are approx. 1% lower then the rate you would get converting in thailand - but there's no fees .

i was following rate on here :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/currency/11/11678/intraday.stm

and if you register with hifx can get online quotes (mon to fri 8 am onwards)

also checking on bangkok bank rates :

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Web%20Services/Rates/Pages/FX_Rates.aspx

money arrived today so i have worked it out exactly but rough calculation was 48.5 (bbc site was at 49 hifx were offering 48 (yesterday) and bkk bank said TT of 48.58 on the web site).

it cost me £45 for chaps using bkk bank london branch and was quicker.

maybe next time i will do swift transfer if the rates are bit more stable and i'm more organised !

i'm also getting a nationwide card sent over which is only 1% so maybe an idea to try and withdraw and catching a better rate ? but i don't know exactly what rates they use and the timing maybe next day also ?

i also check on this for cash withdraws and visa transactions : but i don't know how often the rates change - maybe daily ?

http://www2.visaeurope.com/fxcalculator/

anyway - i've got a lump of money now so i can start saving on some of the charges i've been over paying in the past as long as the exchange rate doesn't change against my favour .

hope this helps,

chris

[pkrv]

Very, Very many thanks for coming back to us Cris.

You are Thai based so many option are not open to you. Yes doing a SWIFT transfer via Nationwide is quite good, but what you have revealed is better. Any account with any bank, a UK BACS bill payment will work.

As a matter of interest I am with SMILE (UK internet branch of the co-op bank) which UK bank are you with? - i.e. the 5,000 does not apply.

Thanks again for helping out - PKRV

[chris5346]

i'm with barclays, they said bacs wasn't possible for £11,000 when my father went to see personal banker, my online banking/telephone banking is limited to £5000 a day also.

i've had the same account for the past 20 years, convenient but i'm sure there's better/cheaper ones available - not easy talking to barclays over the telephone from here with time difference and automated service etc . also i didn't want to make a mistake over telephone .

maybe i could use hifx and make a card purchase for amounts over £5000 ? - they are u.k based so i wouldn't get the overseas charges also, but you get more money if you convert in thailand as long as the rates are fairly stable.

i may try a swift transfer next time see how long that takes - i guess the weekends may hold things up ?

i've only just starrted following the rates past month or two and looking into saving some costs - maybe it's the baht that is a bit more stable and it's the pound that has just suddenlty done well ?

your smile account looks good maybe i should open one next time i'm in the u.k. or maybe can open hsbc because they have branches in thailand ?

all the best,

chris

[pkrv]

Hi Cris, Again very many thanks for getting back to us. I have been on to SMILE this morning and I can confirm the following: As an online transfer from SMILE without intervention I can do a BACS/Bill Payment transfer upto 19,999 GBP in one go. However you can phone them and transfer any amount what so ever. I have done SWIFT transfers in the past and yes they do arrive pretty much the next day, and yes weekends do not count working days is the expression (I bought an off the plan condo so yes I have done a fair number of transfers) I used Nationwide and I understand that they also now have some sort of online mechanism for filling in the SWIFT form. Nationwide is not my primary account so linking my SMILE account to my Bangkok Bank Passbook saving account via their London Correspondent Bank using the account details here is great! And is no more, or no less expensive.

http://www.bangkokba...0from%20UK.aspx

I would however say yes do get a new account or check with Barclays if they can manually (Just like SMILE for larger amounts than the internet sites limits) make a SINGLE transfer. Otherwise you will be hit twice for the charges - not good news. And yes once you have set this up even a phone confirmation of your BACS payment (international trade) will be fine - they will use your existing UK/Local on-line instructions to make the local/international transfer - Its GREAT! Don't worry too much about exchange rates for small amounts - they go up - they go down - If you are buying a Condo it's probably not a great time to do so from the UK basically because of the exchange rates.

However we all essentially need cash to operate in Thailand that's it. And yes I would go with the week and a half BACS option - it costs less

just plan ahead And thanks for educating me in this - PKRV

Edited June 30, 2010 by pkrv

[chris5346]

hi,

i just also remembered that i spoke to someone at bangkok bank london branch and they said if you send to them over £5000 with bacs they would just send it back ? sounds a bit odd considering you managed £10,000 a few weeks ago ? maybe they can make exceptions ?

also if i buy a property i can send chaps they cap charge at £65 - not a lot on large amounts and next day which should help .

i really don't know if i should buy a property here - renting is cheap so probably safer for a while - see what happens next 6 months.

from what i can gather house purchases here are safe investment but like u say the rate not good at he moment.

chris

[pkrv]

Hi Cris 5,000 GBP liimit with BACS viia Bangkok Bank London - rubbish! I just did 10,000.

However we are all in different positions here I used BACS you used CHAPS.

You have helped me so in repayment perhaps I can help you. I think you should begin researching the real estate forum on TV

http://www.thaivisa....land-ownership/

If you choose to buy - unless you have understood every word on this forum I would recommend you buy a freehold Farang Quota condominium in Bangkok, in your own name(s) - that is about it.

Renting anything/anywhere in Thailand is of course fine.

Edited July 1, 2010 by pkrv