Bank Of America To Bangkok Bank Ltd

[dseawarrior]

Anyone know if Wells Fargo (California based account) offers a similar on-line transfer option???

I have been asking and their customer service says "maybe" not very helpful... I will try an electronic transfer of a small amount in the near future to see if I can do it. The WF customer service people seemed to indicate that they could not "guarantee" the funds transfer... "funds might be 'lost.'" Hmmm...

But, this is a pretty technical issue and most folks know very little...

Thanks for all the BofA info! I may become a BofA customer very soon!

dseawarrior

[Thaigreg]

Strange...I just spoke with an online BOA rep. It seems if you want to open an account, they have a java chat window that opens with a live BOA rep to assist you.

When I tried to ask about the transfer problems, she said she didn't know anything about it.

This is getting to be the standard line from BOA.

ThaiGreg,...I was able to find some info on transfers.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/onlinebanking...q_transferfunds

I hope this helps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Richard. It seems that transfer of funds outside of BOA does not apply to Washington state accounts. When I click on the link and put Washingtion as my home state I get difference page then when I enter California. There is no "Tranfers Outside Bank of America service" statement on the Washington stae page but there is on the California page.

[Upcountry]

Thanks for all the BofA info!  I may become a BofA customer very soon!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! That's the opposite reaction I would expect, based on the problems I've reported anyway. It's also the opposite of what I'd recommend.

It's good to go with a solid bank, but sometimes a bank can be too big. BOA is too big. This transfer problem is not the only one I've had that ticks me off and indicates a lack of respect for the small guy.

I've searched for negative reports on BOA, and I've found a healthy number of complaints. But it's been said that large companies or very successful organizations expect a small percentage of negative press.

It would take a huge withdrawal of funds by many customer for BOA to feel the pain and respond to it, I think.

This transfer feature promises a lot, but at least when it comes to working with Bangkok Bank NY it's an iffy and poorly understood/supported process.

[Upcountry]

Word back from the Bangkok Bank New York office.

1. They found my transaction, which they noted the day before it showed up in my Thai account.

2. Their term for it is a wire.

3. They charge $5 US separate from BB Thailand's 500 baht charge, which means that the total BB fee amounts to around 700 baht. If you add in the $3 fee that BOA charges, the actual total comes to around 820 baht/$20.50 per transaction (except for smaller ones). That's still better than wiring.

If only it worked.

Edited October 27, 2005 by Upcountry

[Thaigreg]

Strange...I just spoke with an online BOA rep. It seems if you want to open an account, they have a java chat window that opens with a live BOA rep to assist you.

When I tried to ask about the transfer problems, she said she didn't know anything about it.

This is getting to be the standard line from BOA.

ThaiGreg,...I was able to find some info on transfers.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/onlinebanking...q_transferfunds

I hope this helps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Richard. It seems that transfer of funds outside of BOA does not apply to Washington state accounts. When I click on the link and put Washingtion as my home state I get difference page then when I enter California. There is no "Tranfers Outside Bank of America service" statement on the Washington stae page but there is on the California page.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sent email to BOA as to why the difference in info and this is their reply. "The option to transfer funds to accounts outside of Washington or Idaho is unavailable to accounts opened in those states at this time. We are working on updating the online service for Washington and Idaho customers. Regretfully, we do not have an estimated time when this will be completed." I guess our dollars are worth less than the rest of the country.

[UncleDonald]

Thanks for all the BofA info! I may become a BofA customer very soon!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wouldn't rush to open a BofA account in the hope of transferring anything. I've struck out, having successfully initiated the two small transfers to Bangkok Bank New York. Subsequently my attempted $1700 transfer failed, and the half dozen emails requesting assistance were answered with perverse unintelligibility, followed by silence after I raised the tone of my complaint. Does anyone have a phone number or name of someone? Perhaps continued complaint by many people would drive them to straighten this out. Most annoying is that the BB transfer option which I set up and which is provided in a drop down menu has disappeared from my online options.

All of this makes me feel that American culture is seriously sinking to banana republic standards.

[Upcountry]

BOA has phone numbers on their customer service page.

I've used Skype to contact them, and I spent hours talking to front-line support people to no avail. I also spoke to an on-line banking manager a few weeks ago, and came to a dead-end there - getting a second-hand interpretation (my sense) that the reason for

a) the rejection of my transaction

the effective invalidation of my previously validated and functioning out-of-bank "account" setup

was that Bangkok Bank is not "domiciled" in the U.S.

As I've complained before, the most frustrating thing here is the silly game they seem to be playing (out of ignorance of the needs of their off-shore customer). Their on-line system actually lets us set up a transfer account. It even (apparently inconsistently) allows some transfers to go through - like my $2500 transfer and other smaller ones - but biffs others - such as UncleDonald's $1700 attempt.

I contacted them again recently about my most recent transfer rejection, and I have not heard back - subsequent requests about other issues resulted in responses, but not the transfer ones.

This indicates to me that they are either ignoring it or looking into the issue and not bothering to let me know this until they are ready.

My concern at this point is that they will come back to tell all of us that we can foggeddaboudit.

Apologize for raising the profile of this process and causing others to loose their ability to transfer. We probably should have tried to stay under the radar on this.

As far as the option disappearing. I set up another connection just the other day, and I await the two small transaction to validate for a third time. The plan is to try another smaller transaction.

The way I get BB to show up is to enter the routing number as I listed earlier in this thread, which brings up Bangkok Bank and lets me select it.

It is beginning to look like a "bug" in their electronic business rules that recognizes BB and allows transactions until they are flagged somehow and biffed by a human or "Patriot" act electronic flag.

[richard10365]

Don't enter the routing number. Do a search for Bangkok Bank already in their database. Thats how I did it and it worked the first time.

My BOA account is in Los Angeles which is the largest population of Thai people in the USA (I think). It would make sence for the Thai community in Los Angeles to work this out so they can send all them dollars back to Thailand.

[UncleDonald]

BOA has phone numbers on their customer service page.

I've used Skype to contact them, and I spent hours talking to front-line support people to no avail. I also spoke to an on-line banking manager a few weeks ago, and came to a dead-end there - getting a second-hand interpretation (my sense) that the reason for

a) the rejection of my transaction

the effective invalidation of my previously validated and functioning out-of-bank "account" setup

was that Bangkok Bank is not "domiciled" in the U.S.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for this informative commentary. I tend to agree with your diagnosis, though the last email from BOA vaguely complained about my zip code.

Rethinking all of this, it now occurs to me that the reason I got into this in the first place is that I was trying to avoid $75 wire fees or six week delays which is what I was dealing with when I wrote a US dollar check deposit to my local Thai bank account here in Bangkok. (vs a week which is what it used to take in Korat in 1963, believe it or not; what in hel_l are they doing with our money for six weeks? I was given a significant reduction in smile intensity when I asked that question here at my bank, but no answer of course)

But now that I have the BB New york account, I suppose I can just write a check on my US accounts at BOA or WF and send it from here in Bangkok as a deposit to my New York BB, maybe take a week or so....and with luck I'll be happily back where I was up country in 1963!

[richard10365]

Tomorrow is payday again. I will attempt to send some money from my BOA account to my Bangkok Bank account. I'll let you know how it goes.

[richard10365]

After being successful with my BOA transfer, I began to think bigger. The Department of Defense has a program called MyPay which gives its employees more control of their money.

The option that I am interested in most is the direct deposit option. This allows me to select the financial institution to send my money to without ever visiting a bank.

There are only 3 required pieces of information needed when setting up the direct deposit option. (See the attachment)

1. Financial Institution Routing Transit Number

2. Account Number

3. Account Type

This is the same information required by BOA when setting up transfer to Bangkok Bank.

When I originally decided to send my military pension check to BOA, this is the process I used to do it.

What I intend to do now is put in the Bangkok Bank routing number from New York, my account number, and account type.

If this works as planed, the Department of Defense will send my retirement check to Bangkok Bank New York for free and Bangkok Bank New York will transfer it over for $3.

Since I am sending this to my savings account, I will still have the use of the ATM card.

If this doesn’t work, then I will not get money for Christmas.

[Upcountry]

BOA charges $3 for its out-of-bank transfers.

Bangkok Bank NY charges $5 to convert the dollars to baht and send them to BB Thailand.

UC

[richard10365]

I've had a request for help in selecting Bangkok Bank as the financial organizaion to send your money to. Look at the photos to see how I did it.

The photos start after I signed on to my BOA account online.

Edited November 1, 2005 by richard10365

[UncleDonald]

Do we still have two angry and frustrated BOA customers who cannot get this service to work (Upcountry and myself) and one happy customer (richard) or does Upcountry's last message suggest he has succeeded in making a transfer?

[richard10365]

My wife says I can't play with the paycheck yet without building up some kind of savings incase DODs MyPay Direct Deposit option dosen't work. So, I will put off switching Direct Deposit from BOA to BB for a few months. If anyone else is in a better position to try, please do.

UncleDonald, I'm happy,.....maybe a little greedy because I am trying to cut BOA out of the loop but then again,.....it's my money (and the wife's) and I don't want to give it to BOA.

[Upcountry]

...or does Upcountry's last message suggest he has succeeded in making a transfer?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not at all.

I succeeded in creating a transfer account for the third time today. This time, it indicated BB NY as the banks in stead of Bangkok Bank. It's a good sign, I suppose.

I've opened an Everbank account, and I'll probably use them for transfers from now on. Maybe I'll try another BOA-BBNY transfer if Everbank proves problematic.

It wasn't clear from my original look into this that BBNY would add $5 to the cost. Given the possibility that only transfers of $5,000 or less can make it through, it increases the percentage cost so that is is more than Everbank.

Everbank's limit is $5,000.

UC

[thaihome]

When initially setting up the transfer, I searched their database and selected Bangkok Bank, NY as the other financial institution to transfer my money to.

Bangkok Bank initiated the 2 small transfers ($.01 - $.99). Once I confirmed the deposited amount, the transfer function of my bank account became active.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How did you get the USD amount of the validating transfer. When I (actually my wife) went to the main branch of Bangkok Bank (Silom Road), they said they could not get the USD amount as it only showed up as baht. I assumed this was because the NY branch had made the conversion before sending to Thailand.

TH

[richard10365]

When initially setting up the transfer, I searched their database and selected Bangkok Bank, NY as the other financial institution to transfer my money to.

Bangkok Bank initiated the 2 small transfers ($.01 - $.99). Once I confirmed the deposited amount, the transfer function of my bank account became active.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How did you get the USD amount of the validating transfer. When I (actually my wife) went to the main branch of Bangkok Bank (Silom Road), they said they could not get the USD amount as it only showed up as baht. I assumed this was because the NY branch had made the conversion before sending to Thailand.

TH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try calling the main office at Bualuang Phone 1333 or (66) 0-2645-5555 and asking yourself. It is possible your wife spoke with someone not use to dealing with farangs and didn't know what she was talking about.

Bangkok Bank NY forwards the dollars and the conversion is made here in Thailand.

When you call that number, select english, then select transfers. You will be connected with someone who speaks English and works in the transfer section.

When I called, they told me in baht first. Then I asked them to research the exact dollar amount and they told me.

If that dosent work, ask her to tell you when it arrived and what the exchange rate was that day.

If she can't do that, ask her how she was able to land a job with the biggest bank in Thailand with no math skills.

[richard10365]

I emailed Bangkok Bank in New York about DODs MyPay and they said:

*******************************************

As long as you give the correct account name and account number in Thailand to the remitter, there should be no problem as they can wire transfer funds through our Fed routing no. 026008691 and we will pass it to our Bangkok office who will further credit your account.

However, kindly check with DOD whether there is any restriction on this money., i.e, in case of the death of beneficiary, will the funds be continued after your decease.

If there is, you may need to inform our local branch that you will expect

the funds from DOD so they may advise you to open a suitable account for that.

Regards.

Sirivan

******************************************

I think I will open a new thread on this.

[divndave]

I have made several sucessful transfers from my BOA account to my Bangkokbank account under USD 5000.I tried a USD5500 and it was rejected by Bangkok bank (they claimed the money was never sent by BOA!

If anyone is interested here is the number to the NY branch in The US calling them was a big help when I need to know about any problems.

212-422-8200

[Rainmon]

hey everybody, Fideltiy Investments has free ATM and free transfers (Via moneyline the same ARC sys as BOA).

When I was in Pattaya, last month my BOA atm's cost me $6.20 total fees on both sides, all my Fidelity amt's were free both sides (they allow 4 a month)

[Langsuan Man]

When I lived in Bangkok I set up a local "Savings Account" with the Citibank Branch in Thailand on Sathorn. Fortunately before the Patriot Act insanity, (You now must have an actual US address to open a bank account) I was able to open up a CitiBank US account via the internet. The purpose was to be able to transfer funds from the US account to the Thai account. Good idea, impossible in practice. The only way to get funds from my US account was to either spend $50 for a wire transfer or to withdraw cash from the ATM in the lobby and take it upstairs and deposit it in my Thai account. BUT I then had free ATM access throughout Thailand without a cent in fees, since CitiBank, Thailand is part of the Cirrus network.

Unfortunately this is a pretty expensive way to do it because you must have $1,500 minimum in the US account to prevent any fees. It is worse in CitiBank, Thailand since there I must maintain a minimum balance of 100,000 THB to keep from paying a 100 THB monthly fee. (plus as another poster mentioned, CitiBank on both sides of the Pacific pay anemic interest rates.) So basically I have $4000 tied up to save some fees???

If you can live with a $1000 a day maximum ATM withdrawal limit and find CitiBank convenient this is a way around the fees. I know that CitiBank US does not consider CitiBank, Thailand as a "branch" since US banks cannot have more than one location in Thailand so CitBank, Thailand is more like a franchise, that uses the CitiBank logo but is a separate entity due to the strict Thai Banking laws.

I don't understand how Bank of America is able to circumvent the Thai banking laws with their association with Bangkok Bank, to do Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTS) since my understanding of the law is that wire transfers are the only legitimate way to transfer "foreign" / "off shore" funds into Thailand.

If you read the other threads in this forum on how to transfer funds to pay for a Condo or house, you will see that there are some very strict legal requirements to prove the money came into the country from outside. And I doubt a bank statement showing EFTS is adequate to satisfy the Thai banking law.

In my humble opinion I think our BOA posters have just gotten lucky and found a way around the system. I have contacted ING, Barclays, Nat West, Chase and all have told me that EFTS to Banks in Thailand are not possible.

To our poster who just opened an account with Everbank a word of caution, the good rate you got when you opened the account will not last forever. If you read the fine print you will see that it automatically goes down after a certain period. I closed my account with them because every time I logged in I would get this flashing ad offering me 3% ; but was only for NEW customers.

LSM

[Thaigreg]

I use a credit union that allows me up to 10 withdrawals a month from any ATM with no ATM fees, but how does one avoid the 1% CURRENCY CONVERSION FEE charged by the card companies (Visa/MasterCard)?

[JimGant]

I use a credit union that allows me up to 10 withdrawals a month from any ATM with no ATM fees, but how does one avoid the 1% CURRENCY CONVERSION FEE charged by the card companies (Visa/MasterCard)?

Some have posted on this forum that it can be done, but I'm not sure any bank/credit union 'eats' that 1% they have to pay Visa/Mastercard. At least I haven't found any.

I'm just happy to only pay the 1% with my USAA ATM and USAA credit card. My other bank -- Suntrust -- has started charging -- in addition to $2 per -- 1.5% for international ATM transactions (although they won't admit it, even when I show them the math; they erroneously accuse *this*end of the transaction for the charge). And MBNA Visa recently went the route of most other large banks (Chase, BOA, etc), charging 3% for international credit card purchases. But with USAA's Mastercard, I even get a 1% 'cashback', so my international fee nets out to zero.

But maybe some businesses *do* eat the 1% ATM conversion fee. I think someone on this forum mentioned Bank of the Internet -- but I've not checked it out.

[richard10365]

My November transfer of $1000 went through again. No problems. I just updated my passbook from BKK Bank that shows the transfer of over 40,000 baht a month. I think I can use this for my Non-O visa extension.

[jing jing]

My November transfer of $1000 went through again. No problems.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I followed this thread with great interest as I've been banking online with B of A for quite awhile. Went ahead and opened a Bangkok Bank account, then proceeded to add that account to my B of A funds transfer list as described so thoroughly by Khun Richard. After verifying the account per Bof A's instructions I successfully transferred $9500 USD (staying clear of the $10K limit) using the online transfer feature.

Imagine my surprise when, as I was preparing to initiate another transfer (Bof A permits up to $20K USD per month and I'm buying a vehicle over here), I logged onto B of A and clicked over to the transfer funds screen and found the Bangkok Bank account didn't appear on the pull-down "transfer to" menu. I then moved to the "manage accounts" screen and found that the BB account was "inactive"!

After a few confusing and contradictory responses from the B of A customer service department (initially saying BB had refused the transefer, which I of course refuted) via email, I was instructed to start over and add the BB account again. I am now awaiting the notification that the initial small transfers have taken place so I can again verify the account.

After being quite excited about the apparent ease and economy of the first successful B of A online funds transfer process, I was disappointed to see problems arise thereafter. I'll keep the members posted as to the outcome of my second attempt.

By the way... great forum here!

[Rainmon]

Thanks for the post, I have same transfer feature with Fidelity Investments with 4 free atms a month even on int banks, also free phone number for Thailand and many other countries...

I also have BOA account, they are the worst, most difficult site to navigate...

[jing jing]

^^Yes, I have a Fidelity account as well, but the problem with their funds transfer function is that they will not allow the recipient bank account to be a passbook savings type account, which is the only kind I could get at BB without a work permit. Unfortunately I left my Fidelity ATM card stateside - I'll retrieve it on my next trip back - but that still wouldn't help me very much on a transfer the size I need. Even if they allow 40K baht per withdrawal (about $1000 USD as you know) I'd need a lot more than 4 to get the amount I'm looking for.

[UncleDonald]

My November transfer of $1000 went through again. No problems.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I followed this thread with great interest as I've been banking online with B of A for quite awhile. Went ahead and opened a Bangkok Bank account, then proceeded to add that account to my B of A funds transfer list as described so thoroughly by Khun Richard. After verifying the account per Bof A's instructions I successfully transferred $9500 USD (staying clear of the $10K limit) using the online transfer feature.

.........................

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had exactly the same history, am waiting results of my most recent attempt to transfer after re-establishing the Bangkok Bank link. Keep posted.

[jing jing]

My November transfer of $1000 went through again. No problems.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I followed this thread with great interest as I've been banking online with B of A for quite awhile. Went ahead and opened a Bangkok Bank account, then proceeded to add that account to my B of A funds transfer list as described so thoroughly by Khun Richard. After verifying the account per Bof A's instructions I successfully transferred $9500 USD (staying clear of the $10K limit) using the online transfer feature.

.........................

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had exactly the same history, am waiting results of my most recent attempt to transfer after re-establishing the Bangkok Bank link. Keep posted.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, just reestablished my BB link as well, and attempted another transfer. Let's hope they've got it sorted now ... will post results.