Banking Fees In Thailand Outrageous!

[kuffki]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

You are correct the fee is completely outdated and was justified when each province operated as if it was a separate Bank. Payments had to be sent manually between their provincial clearing centres.

With the computer systems of today there is absolutely no justification for this charge. The time and cost to transfer funds within any account within the Bank is exactly the same. All accounts are kept within the same computer and it is merely an instantaneous account to account transfer entered on a terminal regardless of the Branch location.

However the Banks do not want to lose this lucrative source of income and will come up with many excuses to try and justify it.

I understand that the Bank of Thailand has been looking at some of the unjustified charges charged by the Thai Banks, But?

Maybe the staff could work for free and instead of aircon have a punka walla operating a fan...and lets hope they send us all 'happy new year' cards as well as we of course are friends not customers.......come on....banking is a service/business, why does everybody think banks are there for free.......how can you expect to run a business without inflowing revenue...the computer systems that do the transfer need to be bought and updated, where is that money supposed to come from?.......ok stop charges but then interest rates on savings will need to fall and on loans increase, so you are no better off anyway...what % is 1000 baht of 1,000,000....??? hardly outrougeous.

I have serious doubts that you actually understand how banks operate and make money, unless of course you just feel like trolling.

In case you are serious, Banks make money from your money, when you keep your money in the bank, they use your money to invest and make more. They also lend your money to other people or business or even countries at an interest rate.

They give you 2% on your money, but lend it at 4%

Fees are nothing but money making scheme and is not justified by any means. If banks made $1 000 000 per year, then i could say yeah ok, but not when they make few billion dollars per year.

It is irrelevant if the fee is 1000 baht on 1000 000 baht transfer or 100 baht, it is your money for which you worked. Bank has already made profit on your money 3 times over, so to keep customer happy, this transfer, especially internal, should be free or at least at a reasonable rate of like 20 baht.

Banks do this worldwide, so you really do not need to justify it with sarcasm as you have.

Edited December 14, 2010 by kuffki

[Pib]

Banks are a business, pure and simple. All businesses try to maximize profits....fees (clearly understood or hidden) are the goldmine, cash cow, the pot of gold, etc., for banks.

A person needs to treat banks like you are shopping for auto insurance renewal....base the renewal on cost and your experience with the business. If the cost and experience hasn't been pleasant, then switch. I know switching banks may not be easy and quick, but if the switch is planned-out like signing up with a new bank and then gradually over a few weeks/months switch all-to-most of your funds and financial transaction to the new bank then it's worth it IMHO. It's worth it from cost and peace of mind standpoints. By peace of mind, I mean you have a feeling you threw out the person that was robbing you and treating you bad while always smiling. Hopefully the new person will treat you better, will be reaching into your pockets a lot less, and also have a nice smile.

[Pib]

Even back in 1995 people were complaining about rising bank fees....this 1995 short article gives a brief overview of how banks keep raising fees and creating new ones. And with recent financial law changes in different countries banks are looking to fees even more to make up for reduced profits or increase losses in other income generating areas like mortgages, investments, etc: http://www.allbusine...e/510609-1.html

Never fall in the train of thought that banks are your friends...they are not. They purely want your business, and that is OK as that is what businesses do. It's just how they conduct their business (or maybe call it the the devil in the details) is where the true customer service truth lies.

[ESB7]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

You are correct the fee is completely outdated and was justified when each province operated as if it was a separate Bank. Payments had to be sent manually between their provincial clearing centres.

With the computer systems of today there is absolutely no justification for this charge. The time and cost to transfer funds within any account within the Bank is exactly the same. All accounts are kept within the same computer and it is merely an instantaneous account to account transfer entered on a terminal regardless of the Branch location.

However the Banks do not want to lose this lucrative source of income and will come up with many excuses to try and justify it.

I understand that the Bank of Thailand has been looking at some of the unjustified charges charged by the Thai Banks, But?

Maybe the staff could work for free and instead of aircon have a punka walla operating a fan...and lets hope they send us all 'happy new year' cards as well as we of course are friends not customers.......come on....banking is a service/business, why does everybody think banks are there for free.......how can you expect to run a business without inflowing revenue...the computer systems that do the transfer need to be bought and updated, where is that money supposed to come from?.......ok stop charges but then interest rates on savings will need to fall and on loans increase, so you are no better off anyway...what % is 1000 baht of 1,000,000....??? hardly outrougeous.

I have serious doubts that you actually understand how banks operate and make money, unless of course you just feel like trolling.

In case you are serious, Banks make money from your money, when you keep your money in the bank, they use your money to invest and make more. They also lend your money to other people or business or even countries at an interest rate.

They give you 2% on your money, but lend it at 4%

Fees are nothing but money making scheme and is not justified by any means. If banks made $1 000 000 per year, then i could say yeah ok, but not when they make few billion dollars per year.

It is irrelevant if the fee is 1000 baht on 1000 000 baht transfer or 100 baht, it is your money for which you worked. Bank has already made profit on your money 3 times over, so to keep customer happy, this transfer, especially internal, should be free or at least at a reasonable rate of like 20 baht.

Banks do this worldwide, so you really do not need to justify it with sarcasm as you have.

I seriously doubt that you have any idea of banking overheads....compliance, money laundering, fraud, do you even have any idea of the costs involved for these areas that banks must keep on top of constantly.....I agree that banks make millions but the fact of the mater is, they are a business and not a charity.....as stated, if charges were non existent, then savers and borrowers would be hit with lower and higher inerest rates respectively....all consumers can do is shop around for the best deal tha suits their needs...same as any other product/purchase/service.

[ESB7]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

You are correct the fee is completely outdated and was justified when each province operated as if it was a separate Bank. Payments had to be sent manually between their provincial clearing centres.

With the computer systems of today there is absolutely no justification for this charge. The time and cost to transfer funds within any account within the Bank is exactly the same. All accounts are kept within the same computer and it is merely an instantaneous account to account transfer entered on a terminal regardless of the Branch location.

However the Banks do not want to lose this lucrative source of income and will come up with many excuses to try and justify it.

I understand that the Bank of Thailand has been looking at some of the unjustified charges charged by the Thai Banks, But?

Maybe the staff could work for free and instead of aircon have a punka walla operating a fan...and lets hope they send us all 'happy new year' cards as well as we of course are friends not customers.......come on....banking is a service/business, why does everybody think banks are there for free.......how can you expect to run a business without inflowing revenue...the computer systems that do the transfer need to be bought and updated, where is that money supposed to come from?.......ok stop charges but then interest rates on savings will need to fall and on loans increase, so you are no better off anyway...what % is 1000 baht of 1,000,000....??? hardly outrougeous.

I have serious doubts that you actually understand how banks operate and make money, unless of course you just feel like trolling.

In case you are serious, Banks make money from your money, when you keep your money in the bank, they use your money to invest and make more. They also lend your money to other people or business or even countries at an interest rate.

They give you 2% on your money, but lend it at 4%

Fees are nothing but money making scheme and is not justified by any means. If banks made $1 000 000 per year, then i could say yeah ok, but not when they make few billion dollars per year.

It is irrelevant if the fee is 1000 baht on 1000 000 baht transfer or 100 baht, it is your money for which you worked. Bank has already made profit on your money 3 times over, so to keep customer happy, this transfer, especially internal, should be free or at least at a reasonable rate of like 20 baht.

Banks do this worldwide, so you really do not need to justify it with sarcasm as you have.

Lets suppose I deposit 1,000,000 today at Siam Hua Hin and then immediatly transfer to my Siam in BKK, then tomorrow back again and then withdraw...so they have had the money for less than 24 hours but I have transferred twice and that has cost labour/admin costs, so charges can be justified.

[kuffki]

I seriously doubt that you have any idea of banking overheads....compliance, money laundering, fraud, do you even have any idea of the costs involved for these areas that banks must keep on top of constantly.....I agree that banks make millions but the fact of the mater is, they are a business and not a charity.....as stated, if charges were non existent, then savers and borrowers would be hit with lower and higher inerest rates respectively....all consumers can do is shop around for the best deal tha suits their needs...same as any other product/purchase/service.

Yes poor banks, this is probably the reason for 5-6 BILLION $$ dollar NET profits per year.

Just to confirm so there is no confusion. Net profit means money earned after all the expenses and everything else, including fraud.

Banks do not make millions, Banks make BILLIONS. Some bigger banks make NET profit of 5 BILLION per quater NOT per year

[kuffki]

Lets suppose I deposit 1,000,000 today at Siam Hua Hin and then immediatly transfer to my Siam in BKK, then tomorrow back again and then withdraw...so they have had the money for less than 24 hours but I have transferred twice and that has cost labour/admin costs, so charges can be justified.

You can transfer money every 20 seconds it does not make any difference as the actual amount stays within the bank. So if you transfer from your A account in BKK to your A account in Pattaya, bank does not loose any money, money still stays in the the same bank just attached to different account.

The labour involved is approx 5 mins (and thats for the slow ones) so you are saying that their salary is 12 000 baht per hour????

So if they had 1 person doing this full time, this person would do 12 transfers per hour, Bank fees would be 144 000, surely this would cover the wages of all staff for a year just in 1 hour

[aurelius]

The BOT has announced that it has agreed fee reductions with the banks which will be implemented progressively throughout next year. Fees for inter-province cheques, inter-province cash withdrawals and transfers will all be reduced.

Keep in mind that Thailand has basically no minimum balance restrictions and no monthly account-keeping fees, and limited inter-bank ATM charges if you're in Bangkok - and these province transfer charges (which I agree are high) are also only on a user-pays basis (someone has to pay ). In general I find that I can conduct my basic accounts with almost no charges at all - so in comparison to US charges its a bargain. I think the benefit of the existing approach is that there are no barriers to opening accounts and so low income people can get access to the financial system.

[rizla]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

You are correct the fee is completely outdated and was justified when each province operated as if it was a separate Bank. Payments had to be sent manually between their provincial clearing centres.

With the computer systems of today there is absolutely no justification for this charge. The time and cost to transfer funds within any account within the Bank is exactly the same. All accounts are kept within the same computer and it is merely an instantaneous account to account transfer entered on a terminal regardless of the Branch location.

However the Banks do not want to lose this lucrative source of income and will come up with many excuses to try and justify it.

I understand that the Bank of Thailand has been looking at some of the unjustified charges charged by the Thai Banks, But?

Maybe the staff could work for free and instead of aircon have a punka walla operating a fan...and lets hope they send us all 'happy new year' cards as well as we of course are friends not customers.......come on....banking is a service/business, why does everybody think banks are there for free.......how can you expect to run a business without inflowing revenue...the computer systems that do the transfer need to be bought and updated, where is that money supposed to come from?.......ok stop charges but then interest rates on savings will need to fall and on loans increase, so you are no better off anyway...what % is 1000 baht of 1,000,000....??? hardly outrougeous.

One important point missed, banks have the pleasure of using yor money on business ventures and wheeling and dealing...thats where they make their profits also..

Sorry i see that this was mentiond many times before..took a pee break while posting..lol

No such thing as a free lunch, sums it up..really

Edited December 14, 2010 by rizla

[asiawatcher]

I had the same problem trying to deposit a refund in excess of 1M in Kanchanaburi and the same fee. I put the money back in my bag, walked out and banked with when I returned to Bangkok. Yes it is 'stupid' and archaic, but their bank charges on most other items leave the rest of the world behind. They are FAR cheaper than western banks. Look at the overall picture and not the one off and yes, we know that it is a push of a button only on a computer keyboard and no physical cash goes inter-province but that is how they think here. Same with TT's and no matter how much I get transferred in from overseas (in the millions) I am only ever charged Baht 500 per transaction. Try doing that in the West.

[kuffki]

Bottom line, sure bank has all the right to charge fees for a service. BUT fees should NOT differentiate according to the amount.

So if the service fee is 100baht, then this fee should be the same if you moving 10 000 baht or 1 000 000 baht, because the actual work done is the same.

[Kered]

I had the same problem trying to deposit a refund in excess of 1M in Kanchanaburi and the same fee. I put the money back in my bag, walked out and banked with when I returned to Bangkok. Yes it is 'stupid' and archaic, but their bank charges on most other items leave the rest of the world behind. They are FAR cheaper than western banks. Look at the overall picture and not the one off and yes, we know that it is a push of a button only on a computer keyboard and no physical cash goes inter-province but that is how they think here. Same with TT's and no matter how much I get transferred in from overseas (in the millions) I am only ever charged Baht 500 per transaction. Try doing that in the West.

In the West Banks generally do not charge for a credit to a personal account whether it is a TT or a cheque unless it requires special presentation unlike the Thai Banks who charge a substantial fee for depositing a cheque to your account and take about a week to provide cleared funds.

I recently transferred funds from one Australian Bank to another. There were no fees by either Bank and the funds were in the account next morning, try that in Thailand.

[NHJ]

the fees are indeed outrageous, i'm also from europe and i send, receive, withdraw with my atm free in europe.

now i'm living in thailand since few years, to try to explain why the banks have so many fees in here, i found an article on thaivisa maybe last year stating the number of bank office for the entire country.

a quick calculation showed each office has an average of 1100 customers, now you can understand why they charge fees for almost any transaction inside the country.

thai banks are btw very cheap to receive and send money to/from abroad.

[Fookhaht]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

Banks are a business, not a charity.....they have staff and overheads to pay.......

Yes, and what a pitifully small pittance that staff gets. Know anyone who's a teller in Thailand? Your reasoning doesn't hold water.

[Kered]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

Banks are a business, not a charity.....they have staff and overheads to pay.......

Yes, and what a pitifully small pittance that staff gets. Know anyone who's a teller in Thailand? Your reasoning doesn't hold water.

I am afraid that it is your reasoning that does not hold water.

The Thai Banks are very profitable and well able to pay their staff whatever is considered to be a fair wage for the work done. The real issue is how much is paid to the staff and how much to the Shareholders. The Banks are reluctant to reduce fees which they know are unjustified because it could reduce profitability in the short term and affect the share price and that would not go down well with the Investment Analysts, staff wages are unfortunately of little concern to them and are really unrelated to the fees charged.

[Wavefloater]

I would go to the bank, withdraw the funds, and then go to another bank and open an account -- not another branch of that bank but another bank. Why let these guys use your million baht to make money from your deposit then try to screw you when you want to do what you correctly state is a simple computer transaction that incurs little if any expense to the bank? Thai business people have no idea what the term "customer service" means.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Wavefloater

[JimsKnight]

.. but if I am living where my account holding the money is and have to transfer it to a companie's account in the SAME bank but in another 'province', I am f@kked.

As I said, the fee would have been justified 50 years ago when they'd have to send a horse, but not in the days of computers.

thanks for your responses,

p.

Banks are a business, not a charity.....they have staff and overheads to pay.......

They make enough money off the cash held via fractional reserve banking than to pull out that bs excuse.

[JimsKnight]

I would go to the bank, withdraw the funds, and then go to another bank and open an account -- not another branch of that bank but another bank. Why let these guys use your million baht to make money from your deposit then try to screw you when you want to do what you correctly state is a simple computer transaction that incurs little if any expense to the bank? Thai business people have no idea what the term "customer service" means.

You don't get it, the banks are all in the gang together.

If there existed a bank that was perfect in charging no excess fee's, low transfer charges and a fair rate of interest it would be bought out or taken over.

Banking is a monopoly. That's why you won't see any new banks arrive now, they are all in a club and it's closed shop. Either you're in the club or you aren't.

Fractional reserve banking is paramount for banks to make obscene profits and then give the account holder a pittance plus the staff are kept on a peanuts wage in comparison.

Compared to the west (where fractional reserve banking is even more deeply embedded) the Chinese and Thai banks do hold more funds and the country

s currency is backed by gold.

[Gumballl]

It is irrelevant if the fee is 1000 baht on 1000 000 baht transfer or 100 baht, it is your money for which you worked. Bank has already made profit on your money 3 times over, so to keep customer happy, this transfer, especially internal, should be free or at least at a reasonable rate of like 20 baht.

Banks charge fees so as to dissuade the customer from performing lots of transactions. Your recommendation of a 20 Baht fee to transfer money from one province, or even one country, to another seems hardly like a disincentive. By making the fees higher, the bank is telling its customer that it wants to hold onto the cash, for no other purpose than you pointed out, to lend to others.

If a customer does not like to pay fees to transfer monies from A to B, then there is always the option to mail the cash via the post. But as we can all agree, that would be foolish.

[pepi2005]

Some of the arguments posted in this thread are just funny - yours, Gumball, is just like that.

If the reason for fee 'XY' is to 'dissuade the customer from [using service XY]', then it would be better to use no banking services at all, because they are charging fees for pretty much every service - in Thailand especially with the province ripoff scheme.

In reality, they are businesses and just try to see 'what goes' ... if the customers accept it, they will try to go a little bit further. The only way to stop the ripoffs (and to define a borderline) is not to use these services and find other ways.