National Australia Bank - Stay Clear

[bpolky]

I am buying a house in Thailand and will need to transfer a lumpsum of money from Australia to Thailand. To see if it would all work out I did a test transfer of $10,000, and it was lucky I did! My sister went to the bank in Australia where she is a signatory on my accounts. Firstly the NAB did not give her the option of where the money was converted so she could not set it up to be converted in Thailand as I had asked. The Published International Exchange Rate on the day was just over 28 Baht to the dollar. The Exchange rate on telex transfers published by my Thai bank on that day was 27.6 Baht to the dollar. The exchange rate used by the NAB? 25.9!!!! And then they have the gall to charge you $30 for the privelige! Their rate was 7% less than that on offer at the Thai bank and 7.5% below the published International Exchange Rate. That means out of my $10,000 they pocketed a neat $750.

I put in a complaint and pointed out that if I was transferring the full amount, they would be making close to $20,000 out of the transaction and it took more than a week to get a response and the response was "give us more information". When my sister questioned them at the bank they angrily told her that they make nothing out of the transfer other than the $30 fee and that she did not know what she was talking about.

If you are looking at goind overseas, make sure you get your money out of the NAB and transfer it to a bank that will not rip you off this way and has at least some level of customer support!

[electau]

It is up to the customer to advise the bank to transfer in AUD. Otherwise they will convert the AUD to THB at the Australian rate and transfer the amount in THB. Yes there is about a 2 THB difference between the Australian bank rate and the Thai bank rate on any given day.

All banks are the same. $30 is the IMT transfer fee, CBA is now $30 for an over the counter IMT.

Current FX rates are on the NAB website.

http://www.nab.com.au/cgi-bin/calculators/fx_calc/fx_transfer_table.pl

[rick75]

I have used the NAB before, a $30 dollar fee, they will convert the rate to THB unless you stipulate (of course they do its in there interest) once all the paperwork is done they would have handed your sister a piece of paper to sign detailing all the information, it clearly states what currency they are sending it in, at that point She should have got them to change it.

[scorecard]

Well I too have found both NBA and Commonwealth less than helpful to get any clear answers to where the money is changed to Baht. Also, many years back I was arranging a transfer from AMP to a Thai bank. AMP gave me totally wrong answers to my very specific quetions, and If I had followed their advice it the transfer would have been cocked up in big lumps, let alone a huge loss in the total monies I received. Complaints to their management were ignored. Very poor service indeed.

More recently I did two transfers from another Aust. bank to my Thai bank, for both transfers there were mistakes in the receiving bank account no.

First case, the bank in Aust. made an error in typing the account number into their system, missed a digits in the middle of the account number. Took 3 weeks to get it corrected. I asked whether there is something in their system to check that the correct total number of digits, etc., has been entered. The answer was that there is no such check because the total number of digits in bank accounts across the whole world is not standard, therefore no such check. The international Customer Service Manager rang me at one stage, said nothing of any value, no indication of what action they would take, after 10 minutes of no value discussion she said "I'll call you back in 10 days to check if everything is OK", there was no further call.

Second case, the intermediary bank (the Bank of New York) made an error in the Thai bank account number, took 5 weeks to get it corrected. And perhaps even more annoying was that the originating bank in Austrlia did very little to help, and their attitude to my phone calls was totally disgraceful. "I'm really busy today, could you call back tomorrow", "Nothing we can do, Bank of New York won't listen, just have to wait and hope it eventually gets noticed", "would you like us (the Aust bank) to send a further request to the Bank of New York to reverse the funds back to Australia?", my next questions was "Is there a reversal fee, if so, who pays it", and "would there be another full transfer fee to send it again from Australia?". The answers were yes to both fee questions and yes I would have to pay it all. I demanded to speak to the manager of the department which was a total waste of time with the manager saying things like "surely you don't expect the bank to pay any fees, it's just bad luck."

Give me Singapore banks anyday, highly professional, check everything thoroughly, great customer service attitude.

Edited September 30, 2010 by scorecard

[gburns57au]

How does the bank make any money other than the 30 bucks.

The money is exchanged at 25.9.....it is sent as Thai Baht to Thailand....it doesnt get exchanged again to the higher rate so the anount tranferred stays the same.

Why dont you use your credit card to transfer the money...

[rick75]

The banks are buying at the international rate of the day say 28 baht to the AUD and selling it to you at say 25, they are typicaly giving you around 8% -10% less then what the current days rate is. I can assure they are making money out of changing it here. Read the money and financial forum on here, many topics on the best methods to send money.

[xen]

Transfering money to Thailand - try this My link. (First Money Transfer ) I have used them once so far a few weeks ago and their exchange rate was not that far below the going rate , plus they seem to manage not being hit by all the fees the Thailand banks hit us for. It is very popular with all the Thais here in Sydney for sending money back.

[DurianBoy]

agree with Xen, have used First Money Transfer a number of times, money in the Thai bank account within a few hours, excellant exhange rate, and very prompt with any queries, and they keep proof of all transactions and can supply the deposit slip to the Thai bank on request. Have not sent $10,000 though only a few thousand

[BSJ]

News Flash!!! The Big 4 Banks in Australia are A$$holes. Never ever trust them.

[electau]

http://first247.com/en/?page_id=172

Fees and charges. See details on setting up an account.

All financial institutions (banks) have fees and charges when you send an IMT. The Bank is not the only one responsible, the customer has responsibilities also for making sure the information to be processed in correct in the first instance.

One can not complain about the charges for the CBA, $22 for an IMT sent in AUD using internet banking.

Edited October 1, 2010 by electau

[Konini]

http://first247.com/en/?page_id=172

Fees and charges. See details on setting up an account.

All financial institutions (banks) have fees and charges when you send an IMT. The Bank is not the only one responsible, the customer has responsibilities also for making sure the information to be processed in correct in the first instance.

One can not complain about the charges for the CBA, $22 for an IMT sent in AUD using internet banking.

I've transferred large amounts to UK with CBA via internet banking, $22 and importantly when you put in the amount you have to choose if the amount is in AUD or GPB. Never transferred to Thailand, but now have a one year visa and am going to open an account here with a few thousand dollars. I've managed to confuse the he!l out of myself and hope someone with a functioning brain can help me. I'll be back in Aus next week - will I be better off bringing cash (dollars) back with me or doing a transfer in AUD? Today CBA is quoting 1 TB @AUD 0.037147 plus $22. Don't know if there is a 'receiving' fee at this end - some English banks take a commission off incoming IMT's. As far as I can work out, bringing the cash will be better and using it to open a bank account here as I exchange it, but I have a feeling that I'm missing something. I thought I was too young for Senior Moments, but my head won't work out the conversion of cash to Baht.

[nocturn]

It is up to the customer to advise the bank to transfer in AUD. Otherwise they will convert the AUD to THB at the Australian rate and transfer the amount in THB. Yes there is about a 2 THB difference between the Australian bank rate and the Thai bank rate on any given day.

All banks are the same. $30 is the IMT transfer fee, CBA is now $30 for an over the counter IMT.

Current FX rates are on the NAB website.

http://www.nab.com.a...ansfer_table.pl

dont call someone a their just because you haven't done your homework.

[Wallaby]

Australian banks are thieves and not just the big 4. They will give you a low fee for the IMT but then pick up the big bucks with a ridiculous exchange rate. I even phoned my bank to tell them the exchange rate they use is too low and the girl just said it changes all the time and is competitive with the other banks. Wow good for them, lets all get into collusion.

Then of course the Thai bank took a 9% commission on top of it.

Quite a big stack of money if doing large transfers. Lucky I'm too poor to worry too much about that.

[electau]

To-day 04/10/2010 at 0955hrs AEST the CBA rate for AUD to THB was 26.81 for IMTs

Sell AUD buy THB.

The latest from the Bangkok Bank is AUD to THB 29.06 for TTs ( 01/10/2010 )

Sell AUD buy THB.

A difference of 2.25THB per AUD

So you send in AUD to Thailand.

Bangkok Bank charge a commission on incoming funds of 0.25%, minimum 200THB max 500THB.

Total cost by internet banking $22 plus $6.88 cents, over the counter $30 plus $6.88

$6.88 = 200/29.06

Transfered same day.

[bat69]

I have used Commonwealth bank on several occassions to transfer money to Thailand and have never had any issues. I have always done this via internet banking and you get to choose to send it in AUD. It does take a few days to arrive in the Thai bank account however.

There is another company in Sydney (X Wing) that will also transfer money to Thailand for you and the rate is normally pretty good. I have not used them to transfer money to Thailand but I have used them to Transfer money to Australia and was very satisfied. Thai banks make you jump through so many hoops to transfer money out of the country and this was so easy. We simply transferred the funds from our Thai Bank to their Thai bank and within approx 2 hours (once they could verify the tranfer had gone through) I walked into their office and collected the cash ($10,000). The rate was also very good.

[4evermaat]

I have used Commonwealth bank on several occassions to transfer money to Thailand and have never had any issues. I have always done this via internet banking and you get to choose to send it in AUD. It does take a few days to arrive in the Thai bank account however.

There is another company in Sydney (X Wing) that will also transfer money to Thailand for you and the rate is normally pretty good. I have not used them to transfer money to Thailand but I have used them to Transfer money to Australia and was very satisfied. Thai banks make you jump through so many hoops to transfer money out of the country and this was so easy. We simply transferred the funds from our Thai Bank to their Thai bank and within approx 2 hours (once they could verify the tranfer had gone through) I walked into their office and collected the cash ($10,000). The rate was also very good.

do you have a website for this company?

[electau]

I have used Commonwealth bank on several occassions to transfer money to Thailand and have never had any issues. I have always done this via internet banking and you get to choose to send it in AUD. It does take a few days to arrive in the Thai bank account however.

There is another company in Sydney (X Wing) that will also transfer money to Thailand for you and the rate is normally pretty good. I have not used them to transfer money to Thailand but I have used them to Transfer money to Australia and was very satisfied. Thai banks make you jump through so many hoops to transfer money out of the country and this was so easy. We simply transferred the funds from our Thai Bank to their Thai bank and within approx 2 hours (once they could verify the tranfer had gone through) I walked into their office and collected the cash ($10,000). The rate was also very good.

do you have a website for this company?

First Money Transfer they are located in Sydney.

Website: http://first247.com/en/

[electau]

here is another transfer service . Oz Forex. For amounts over $2000.

http://www.ozforex.c...ex-generic.html

Edited October 14, 2010 by electau