Foriegn Curreny Account

[petercallen]

Does anyone have a foriegn currency account with a Thai bank or know what interest rates the different banks pay

[katabeachbum]

Yes, and interest depends on which currency. Some currencies low interest, some high.

For OZ dollar, your best bet would probably be Bangkok Bank, or Ayudhya.

[LivinLOS]

HSBC will give currency accounts.. But its not really high street for us here on Phuket.

Have to also note, I opened a HSCB in Sing last year, one of the premier accounts with a few 100k min balance, and even with that kind of (alleged superior) service its a horrible bank. HSBC havnt impressed me.

[petercallen]

Yes, and interest depends on which currency. Some currencies low interest, some high.

For OZ dollar, your best bet would probably be Bangkok Bank, or Ayudhya.

Thanks for the information i knew you would know.

Cannot get much information from the branches, the all want me to go to there main branch here.

If they would just give me the information i require, which they must have, it would save me a lot of wasted time.

[katabeachbum]

Yes, and interest depends on which currency. Some currencies low interest, some high.

For OZ dollar, your best bet would probably be Bangkok Bank, or Ayudhya.

Thanks for the information i knew you would know.

Cannot get much information from the branches, the all want me to go to there main branch here.

If they would just give me the information i require, which they must have, it would save me a lot of wasted time.

Bangkok Bank claim to be best on 10 currencies, among them OZ dollar, but as you say, Currency account in main branch in town only

[Kered]

HSBC will give currency accounts.. But its not really high street for us here on Phuket.

Have to also note, I opened a HSCB in Sing last year, one of the premier accounts with a few 100k min balance, and even with that kind of (alleged superior) service its a horrible bank. HSBC havnt impressed me.

It would be interesting to know why you think that it is a horrible Bank. I have been a Premier customer in Bangkok, UK and Australia and get excellent service. The service provided by Bangkok is in my opinion far superior to anything provided by a Thai Bank. Like you, no local branch in Chiang Mai but you do not need it. Everything is done on line or by telephone and you can use any ATM in Thailand for a very small fee.

If you visit Bangkok the Premier Centre is impressive and the service excellent. On the negative they do not pay interest on Thai Baht accounts but do pay interest on currency accounts although most rates are very low at present.

[Tawai]

HSBC will give currency accounts.. But its not really high street for us here on Phuket.

Have to also note, I opened a HSCB in Sing last year, one of the premier accounts with a few 100k min balance, and even with that kind of (alleged superior) service its a horrible bank. HSBC havnt impressed me.

It would be interesting to know why you think that it is a horrible Bank.

Hi Kered !

Although it was not me been asked why HSBC Singapore is a horrible bank, I can give some info.

Online banking is limited to SGD 2,000 / day IF you don't apply for a max. amount of 25,000 / day. Don't expect them to tell you this when applying for internet banking,.... Applying for a higher transfer amount than the default 2k MUST be in writing (can't do it on the net,...) and takes 3 working days!! That's what they call "service" to premier customers. They also charge outraging fees for transfers even to HSBC in Hong Kong.

2 years ago I had to tell them NOT to call me anymore because I was sick of their constant customer evaluation questions (of course only for their benefit), but when I mailed them to get questions answered it would take "up to 3 working days",...

Don't expect them to give you nearly similar interest rate on your fixed deposit as compared to Europe - it is a quarter of it! Have asked them if they would give me around 2 % on a not gambling deposit, still waiting for the answer. So I have the impression they are not interested in their customers, but only in their own profits.

But then, what can one expect from a bank even if they call their "service" premier".

[LivinLOS]

OK singapore HSBC rant (you asked for it) here goes..

Firstly I was opening premier accounts with min balances of a couple hundred k, these accounts are supposed to come with advanced 'relationship manager' type services to streamline everything, I have these kind of accounts with other offshore bankers so can compare and contrast. I also was opening some offshore corporate accounts for a venture capital project I started and raised funding from investors.

So the opening of the accounts, both corp and personal. Convoluted and complex, there was one person in charge of opening the account, another assigned as a relationship manager (more on her later) another for net banking (2 lots for corp and personal) and then another to discuss plastic !! Each lot wanted loads of forms, to be fully filled in, with mail back and forth.. This all took weeks. Compare this with the high net worth banking at barclays where I have one assigned person, who takes my details as part of the initial client introduction, fills in all the forms, basically does everything. You may need to sign on some blank forms where they mark the X's but theres no messing around with form filling. They do the accounts, sort your plastic, the whole package. They also sent it by courier and sent a courier to my house to collect the return paperwork.

The the relationship manager, I have called her, goes to voicemail, no indication of when they are due back, and no return call from voicemail left. You can get put through to the main switchboard where your dealt with by someone who doesnt know you, cant authorise anything on your voice, the standard frontline phone service center. This is premier banking ?? this is handling high net worth customers ?? Compare with Barclays IoM, where I have one relationship manager, who answers or has voicemail indicating when he will be back on the phone, and returns calls. He also has a secretary, who also knows my voice, and also can transact any urgent requirement by voice instruction, should I need it done faster than the call back time. Emails of course responded to, HSBC didnt even reply to emails, when I pulled them on unanswered emaisl they did a standard buck passing, Oh I reffered that xx dept, did they not contact you ??

Then when it was finally all done, the internet banking. Its horrible !! Its got stupid low transaction limits, raising those limits requires yet more forms to be filled in and posted (snail mail for a internet account, year 2010 !!!) each account has to manually be set up by the end user, in a complex process with a non user friendly system, great when you have multiple accounts in many currencies for both corp and personal !! Plus each side has to carry its own dongle, for each company I have, its not one access device for all your accounts.. Stupid !! So I end up needing to carry ALL these dongles every time I travel, in case I need to access any account !! Is that really what a biz traveller wants ??

When opening the accounts, I was crystal clear, that I was under the gun with time pressure (due to the crazy amount of time that the accounts took to open) and once it was open I would fund it, and need to bounce that money out to a UK startup we are doing which was literally waiting on the venture capital. This was the prime purpose of the corporate account.. Account opens, I send in a few 100k, once its there try to send it out and am then told its WAY more than the tiny amount the net banking is authorised to do.. Ok fine so you know this is majorly urgent, I am talking to my 'manager' so please send this money manually.. Oh no sir we cant do that on voice alone (despite talking to me for a month over opening the account and being pre warned this was needed BEFORE i funded it).. erm ok, so you cant do it by voice so where do I send a fax.. Again, no we cant do that by fax.. So what do you suggest ?? Why dont you send us a letter !! A fuc_king letter !! this is 2010 and you need snail mail to send my money out !! Money I have been telling you for days would need to go and was urgent and a large VC deal was hanging on. I had to fly to the DHL office and even then it took extra days for the to realize they had the instruction !!! Seriously international corporate offshore banking ??

Then that transfer, the account (gbp) was funded (with gbp) and I sent out the transfer (gbp) couple of days later I log into the corp banking to check the transaction has been done and theres this multi 1000 deduction in the statement marked CILE. I call the bank, whats this ?? Oh thats the currency conversion.. Erm no, GBP in a GBP account sent to GBP.. Ah sir, read the small print, if we send 'foreign currency' we charge 1.5 % as a 'Charge in Lieu of Exchange' !! Basically we want to make a currency conversion fee even if we dont convert currency !! What the hel_l !! I have to pay 1000's of pounds simply to move my money through the accounts if its not SGD ?? Who in the international biz community transacts in SGD ?? Small print, cheating customers since inception !! Enough money to buy a car (in the west) in that one Tx !!

I have to maintain a min balance of a couple hundred K to recieve this 'service' it would appear that my Euros are getting 0.00 interest.. One hel_l of a return !!

Seriously comparing HSBC permier banking versus other ones, old school Euro banks, just no comparison. I am not a snob, I dont need someone kissing my ass, but a major part of my workload is banking, I manage money for corporate, handle trusts for extended family, I maintain active investments, banking is a task and I appreciate it when the communication is swift, and tasks are carried out without fuss as per instructions. Not too much to ask surely ??

[LivinLOS]

Ohh yeah, nearly forgot.. When signing up to the service, I checked the HSBC homepage, and under the premier banking division were big adverts, offering a free video camera if you sign up between xx and xx dates. It wasnt of course why I signed up, but a free mid end Sony digi cam, cool..

I sign up, and at the end of the process I say to the manager OK cool, how do you send me my free camera ?? Er no that offer is only for Singapore residents ?? Hmm, ok.. Go look at small print.. Nowhere in it does it say its for singapore residents only, in fact everywhere through it its emphasizing global high net worth people, worldwide, etc etc.. So I email back asking them to show me where it says its for sing residents only.

This time they come back and say the offer has expired (it had just) and so would not apply for that reason.. OK, back to small print.. Clearly says in the small print, this offer is valid for anyone opening an account between xxx and xxx dates, which was the precise range my accounts were opened within..

I email again, pointing out their own small print says that the offer is valid on those dates and it even said the camera would be supplied a couple of months later, so the 'offer' was still running, I met the conditions, the timescale happened to be perfect, and everything indicated I was due the welcome gift. Plus even tho that camera offer expired, they had from the end of it started a different advert for another welcome gift (netbook IIRC)..

The response from the relationship manager this time was "well you had to stipulate you wanted the welcome gift, when you first applied, if you dont you dont get the gift" again there was nothing like this in the fine print and how 'welcoming' is that ??

Anyway I didnt give a hoot about the camera really, I would have just given it to the missus as a toy and I didnt want to sour any relationship with my new manager.. But it was hardly the way to start a client relationship, make promises then fail to deliver and weasel out of it with unspecified small print.

I can add instead of some gimmicky free gift, which they didnt deliver on anyway, Barclays premier offer you perks like waived fees on platinum cards, which in turn is free travel insurance insurance (claimed on), free purchase insurance, concierge stuff (which I never use) and a real nice perk on a couple of global priority pass cards, with where me and the missus can use first class airline lounges all over the world free (I think 6 times a year, they have never billed me but I dont travel as much as some).. This perk alone is a few 100 pound value each and every year per person.

As I say I dont do it for the perks, but when your sat using the wifi in a peaceful first class lounge, with free drinks and nibbles.. I think of my bankers with a smile.

Edited September 23, 2010 by LivinLOS

[petercallen]

Funny how asking for information about a foreign currency account with a THAI BANK goes completely of track

[LivinLOS]

Kered asked what was wrong with HSBC in Sing.. I told him...

HSBC has banks in Thailand, and offers multi currency accounts, so fits what first post asked.

Edited September 23, 2010 by LivinLOS

[petercallen]

Kered asked what was wrong with HSBC in Sing.. I told him...

HSBC has banks in Thailand, and offers multi currency accounts, so fits what first post asked.

HSBC is not a Thai bank so it does not answer the first post

I have a reason for requesting information on Thai banks.

Interest wise i would be better of leaving my money in an Australian bank 6%

[LivinLOS]

I think you will find.. HSBC Thailand is a local subsidiary and Thai company.

As I said at the start its not a high street bank.. It is however a domestic Thailand banking option and has branches here.

[KarenBravo]

Funny how asking for information about a foreign currency account with a THAI BANK goes completely of track

Think of it as free bonus info.

[ilyelol]

Might be a good place to ask.

I will change all my online banking to euro to save transfers fees(right now it'S costing me 5% fees to get my money to thailand)

What do guys like LivingLOs recommand?

Opening an HSBC account and keeping the currency in euro (therefore no FX fees on receival and choosing the best day out of the week to change it to THB by transfering it to bangkok bank or SCBC but that will cost me a lot.

Opening a foreign currency account at our SBC or bangkok bank branch which we already use for loans, then what is best? leave it in euro and transfer to to THB when its favorable, leave it in euro all the time and only change a small % of it for monthly expenses?

Is it predicted that the euro will do really bad against the THB? i never keep more than 500-800k baht in thailand, but i still would not want to lose a lot.

Im really unsure what to do and im not even sure i understand myself.. since moving here a couple years ago i have paid close to 350 000baht in conversion fees and bank fees.. that's a lot of drpeppers at villa

[Kered]

This post from Petercallen started off as a request for information regarding Banks in Thailand. The replies from Livinlos and Tawai would indicate that there is a problem in Singapore and Livinlos has problems all over the place.

All I say is there is as usual another side to the stories and as far as I am concerned I get excellent service from HSBC. There is no charges for a Premier customer to send funds to any other HSBC account in other countries. I had an account relationship opened in Australia by the Bangkok office and I later simply went to the Melbourne office next time in Australia no hassles limited form filling and all done by the staff I just signed. I recently opened an AUD account in Bangkok simply by a telephone call no forms required. I can only say to balance the remarks that I have not had the same experience as some of our posters. I am sure that there are other satisfied customers in Thailand.

[LivinLOS]

There is no charges for a Premier customer to send funds to any other HSBC account in other countries.

As I made clear.. Thats corporate..

And I wasnt sending it to another HSBC account, I didnt realise the fine print meant it had to stay in only one bank !! I thought, crazy I know, that it was my money, so send where I liked.

Seems that now the charges are 'only' 1% (so 10k GBP on a mil Tx) but if I remember right CILE was only one of the multiple stacked charges they hit me with, simply to make a transfer.

No other bank I have ever used has demanded such fees for 'not doing a currency exchange' !!!!

[LivinLOS]

Might be a good place to ask.

I will change all my online banking to euro to save transfers fees(right now it'S costing me 5% fees to get my money to thailand)

What do guys like LivingLOs recommand?

Opening an HSBC account and keeping the currency in euro (therefore no FX fees on receival and choosing the best day out of the week to change it to THB by transfering it to bangkok bank or SCBC but that will cost me a lot.

Opening a foreign currency account at our SBC or bangkok bank branch which we already use for loans, then what is best? leave it in euro and transfer to to THB when its favorable, leave it in euro all the time and only change a small % of it for monthly expenses?

Is it predicted that the euro will do really bad against the THB? i never keep more than 500-800k baht in thailand, but i still would not want to lose a lot.

Im really unsure what to do and im not even sure i understand myself.. since moving here a couple years ago i have paid close to 350 000baht in conversion fees and bank fees.. that's a lot of drpeppers at villa

Not really clear on the source of the funds ?? Your making money in EUR ?? Outside Thailand ??

If so deal with a western bank, and send money into Thailand as and when you need it..

[ilyelol]

most of my $ is in trading accounts.

I think what im asking is, should i send my $ or EURO to thailand and let the thai bank convert it, or should i send it to a US/EUR account in thailand and switch it myself when the $ is needed. I have no idea how stable the dollard/euro is with the thai baht. None of my sources ever talk about the THB

[Kered]

most of my $ is in trading accounts.

I think what im asking is, should i send my $ or EURO to thailand and let the thai bank convert it, or should i send it to a US/EUR account in thailand and switch it myself when the $ is needed. I have no idea how stable the dollard/euro is with the thai baht. None of my sources ever talk about the THB

I would suggest that if you are going to need Thai baht in the future that you transfer the curency EUR or $ or whatever into a currency accounts with one of the major banks in Thailand who will open currency accounts for you. you should then be able to convert the currency to Thai Baht via a telephone call whenever it is convenient to you at a rate agreed on the telephone with the Bank. This of course needs to be during local business hours. If you later decide that you do not need the Thai Baht then you can easily transfer the funds back overseas provided they have not been converted to Baht.

[LivinLOS]

It depends on the amount.

As I have said before, Thai banks are not what I feel is secure, I personally was able to empty an account that I had no legit access to after my first wife died.. A tiny bit of thinking and my first attempt was able to social engineer full account access and remove all the contents !! Other people I know have had money stolen from Thai banks and no recourse or way to reclaim.

Secondly in the event of a banking failure (and lets face it in 97 they almost went to the wall) I dont know if there are any insured deposits, how transparent the process of making claims would be, and if farangs would go to the back of the queue ??

So for all those reasons I dont keep more than spending money, or visa app money in Thai banks.. Few 100k maybe, but real savings ? not for me. I do think however Asian currencies will continue to fare better than the western ones mid term, but theres other ways to hedge that play than holding THB.

So my suggestion would be to have multi currency accounts offshore, and move money in as and when, if I make an instruction via internet baking in the am, its usually in my Thai bank and accessible by ATM in the PM. Thats fast enough for me.

[petercallen]

I would suggest that if you are going to need Thai baht in the future that you transfer the curency EUR or $ or whatever into a currency accounts with one of the major banks in Thailand who will open currency accounts for you. you should then be able to convert the currency to Thai Baht via a telephone call whenever it is convenient to you at a rate agreed on the telephone with the Bank. This of course needs to be during local business hours. If you later decide that you do not need the Thai Baht then you can easily transfer the funds back overseas provided they have not been converted to Baht.

You have hit the nail on the head.

I will be opening an account with AUD which by all reports will increase in value..

The fact you can transfer money back overseas with no hassles is important.

[LivinLOS]

If your not an oz citizen I would be very wary of AUD at these levels.. Any china slowdown (and thats not that unlikely) will whack the commodity currencies (AUD / CAD / Etc) hard.. They have had a good run based on the interest rate differentials but as a speculative play at these levels ?? Thats not a low risk play IMO.

Of course if your australian, or have connections to Oz holding a home currency account is different, but pure speculative, the best of that trade has passed would be my guess. More interesting personally is to look at the GBP / AUD spread to close.

EDIT :: Also to check is will a Thai bank give the nice Oz interest rates ?? The whole point of having AUD is to pick up on the 5 - 6% return, do the local banks give those nice rates ??

Edited September 24, 2010 by LivinLOS

[katabeachbum]

Might be a good place to ask.

I will change all my online banking to euro to save transfers fees(right now it'S costing me 5% fees to get my money to thailand)

What do guys like LivingLOs recommand?

Opening an HSBC account and keeping the currency in euro (therefore no FX fees on receival and choosing the best day out of the week to change it to THB by transfering it to bangkok bank or SCBC but that will cost me a lot.

Opening a foreign currency account at our SBC or bangkok bank branch which we already use for loans, then what is best? leave it in euro and transfer to to THB when its favorable, leave it in euro all the time and only change a small % of it for monthly expenses?

Is it predicted that the euro will do really bad against the THB? i never keep more than 500-800k baht in thailand, but i still would not want to lose a lot.

Im really unsure what to do and im not even sure i understand myself.. since moving here a couple years ago i have paid close to 350 000baht in conversion fees and bank fees.. that's a lot of drpeppers at villa

Not really clear on the source of the funds ?? Your making money in EUR ?? Outside Thailand ??

If so deal with a western bank, and send money into Thailand as and when you need it..

yepp,

and when you transfer to Thai bank it can be done to a currency account making you able to choose what day/exchange rate suits you. In addition to transfer your Euro on thai account to your thai baht account, you get an ATM card with the account. Fees are close to nothing. Interest on Euro as bank deposits isnt good anywhere I guess

[katabeachbum]

most of my $ is in trading accounts.

I think what im asking is, should i send my $ or EURO to thailand and let the thai bank convert it, or should i send it to a US/EUR account in thailand and switch it myself when the $ is needed. I have no idea how stable the dollard/euro is with the thai baht. None of my sources ever talk about the THB

Thai baht is expected to go more up, bad for exports, bad for tourists and bad for your exchange rate

[LivinLOS]

most of my $ is in trading accounts.

I think what im asking is, should i send my $ or EURO to thailand and let the thai bank convert it, or should i send it to a US/EUR account in thailand and switch it myself when the $ is needed. I have no idea how stable the dollard/euro is with the thai baht. None of my sources ever talk about the THB

Thai baht is expected to go more up, bad for exports, bad for tourists and bad for your exchange rate

But quite possible to hedge against baht rising without making a deposit on a Thai bank..

I do agree tho, asian basket currencies will keep rising against EUR / USD and longer term GBP, the Yuan will drift higher (slowly) while the US howls about currency manipulation on one side yet loves it when the oil producing countries have dollar pegs or Japan performs outright intervention.

All part of the great game.

[petercallen]

If your not an oz citizen I would be very wary of AUD at these levels.. Any china slowdown (and thats not that unlikely) will whack the commodity currencies (AUD / CAD / Etc) hard.. They have had a good run based on the interest rate differentials but as a speculative play at these levels ?? Thats not a low risk play IMO.

Of course if your australian, or have connections to Oz holding a home currency account is different, but pure speculative, the best of that trade has passed would be my guess. More interesting personally is to look at the GBP / AUD spread to close.

EDIT :: Also to check is will a Thai bank give the nice Oz interest rates ?? The whole point of having AUD is to pick up on the 5 - 6% return, do the local banks give those nice rates ??

I am an Australian citizen as most people know by reading my posts

In the last recession Australia is one of the few country's that did not go into recession

All funds in Australian bank accounts are guaranteed by the Australian government

No Australian banks went under.

If China slows down because the recession double dips i would worry about your home currency not the AUD.

I will be bringing funds to Thailand to purchase a house and i believe a FCA is the best way to do it

[LivinLOS]

Good time to step out of AUD then.. Been a nice ride up on the back of the china play, coupled with the carry trade and high yielding deposit accounts.

[katabeachbum]

If your not an oz citizen I would be very wary of AUD at these levels.. Any china slowdown (and thats not that unlikely) will whack the commodity currencies (AUD / CAD / Etc) hard.. They have had a good run based on the interest rate differentials but as a speculative play at these levels ?? Thats not a low risk play IMO.

Of course if your australian, or have connections to Oz holding a home currency account is different, but pure speculative, the best of that trade has passed would be my guess. More interesting personally is to look at the GBP / AUD spread to close.

EDIT :: Also to check is will a Thai bank give the nice Oz interest rates ?? The whole point of having AUD is to pick up on the 5 - 6% return, do the local banks give those nice rates ??

I am an Australian citizen as most people know by reading my posts

In the last recession Australia is one of the few country's that did not go into recession

All funds in Australian bank accounts are guaranteed by the Australian government

No Australian banks went under.

If China slows down because the recession double dips i would worry about your home currency not the AUD.

I will be bringing funds to Thailand to purchase a house and i believe a FCA is the best way to do it

Not sure i would bring funds to LOS planning to buy a house. Many sellers, including me, would prefere to be payed in foreign currency outside LOS

keep a few hundred K baht here for a rapid downpayment, and then transfer according to entered agreement.

Thai banks are in general healthy. During Taksin time, all deposits had "unlimited" government protection. Later this protection has been limited, but of course not made public. Several countries in the west have reduced this government protection to 3 mill baht, some got really hurt when Islands banks whent belly up.

[petercallen]

Good time to step out of AUD then.. Been a nice ride up on the back of the china play, coupled with the carry trade and high yielding deposit accounts.

For someone who knows so much about banking your answer makes no sense.