Sending Aud Tt To Bangkok Bank

[happyjune]

Is it better to convert AUD to Baht in Australia and then wire baht.

Or better to send AUD and get the bank here to convert t to Baht?

Last time send $30,000 AUD to Bangkok Bank, the exchange rates were pretty stable, was checking my account several times a day and noting exchange rates on the BK Bank website hourly on buying rates TT. So I knew to within 2hrs of what exchange rate to use, was still 12,000b short of what was expecting.

On the Australian side, it was routed through Westpac bank and a $25 fee additional to the wire TT was imposed, I was assured that Wespac do not charge a commission, and BK Bank say they max there fee a out at 500 baht. Still don't know were that 12,000b went.

Any Tips please ? I need them !!!!!!

[Pib]

Usually when you convert home country currency to Thai baht before sending, your home country bank gives you a lower exchange rate of several % lower than a Thai bank TT Buying Rate. The home country bank will instead use the bank's exchange rate which is usually geared to make money for them by giving a lower exchange rate...bank's will usually say their exchange rate for wire transfers is a competitive exchange rate....sometimes you can find a calculator on the home country bank website that will tell you exchange rate they give. When the word competitive is used that usually means the rate is not as good as most other competing banks/rates. Pretty much like using a credit card and accepting a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) transaction set by a merchant which gives a 2 to 4% lower exchange rate (closer to 4% probably).

Summary: I seriously doubt letting your home country bank convert to Thai baht before sending will give you a better exchange rate than a Thai bank exchange rate

Edited June 3, 2011 by Pib

[happyjune]

I do agree with you pip.

Spoke to a credit union on Oz I have an account with. Said 3 Options, they don't personally send TT, they use a bank.

1. They can route it via Westpac and get 30.49b with a $25 fee and sent it as Tahi baht

or

2. through Americian Express at a rate of 31.69 with a $25 fee and it comes as Thai baht

3. send AUD through Westpac with a $25 fee and ti get changed at Bangkok Bank here at 32.075

All three have a $25 fee form the Australian end and a max 500b at this end (aprox $15)

Thanks.

[mark5335]

My experience has been that the conversion rate offered by Thai banks has been notably more favourable than that of Australian banks. I would recommend remitting AUD and getting the Thai bank to convert it to THB.

[12DrinkMore]

Always find out the actual rates, but in fifteen years exchanging THB in Thailand has been consistently by far the better option.

The UK banks "competitive rates" are bullshit.

And here's a little story.

A couple of years ago I needed to transfer some GBP's in a UK bank to my EUR account in the same offshore branch bank. I was better off sending the money to the Bangkok Bank, changing it at the TT rate and then sending the money back in EUR.

Look at the spread on TT rates in Thailand, for example the SCB

http://www.scb.co.th/en/home/

Currently the USD spread is 30.46 to 30.21.

Try that at your friendly UK bank. They don't even publish the exchange rates on the internet, you have to call them. And generally the spread will be over 6%.

[Pib]

All of you need to stop talking negatively about banks because they are just trying to put caviar and champagne on their table....everyone has to eat. Remember, most banks live by the unwritten motto of Fees-R-Us.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Pib

[andvari26]

I have found the most cost effective way is to open an AUD account in a Thai Bank, transfer funds in AUD - this allows minimal gouging, then only take out funds as needed and subject to the daily exchange rate, the last transfer I did; the cost at this end was only $7.00 per $1,000.0 AUD. And it is fast & easy to open said account, one down side is if you want to withdraw in AUD there are minimum charges of 1000 Baht, so no small withdrawals !

[12DrinkMore]

I have found the most cost effective way is to open an AUD account in a Thai Bank, transfer funds in AUD - this allows minimal gouging, then only take out funds as needed and subject to the daily exchange rate, the last transfer I did; the cost at this end was only $7.00 per $1,000.0 AUD. And it is fast & easy to open said account, one down side is if you want to withdraw in AUD there are minimum charges of 1000 Baht, so no small withdrawals !

Bangkok Bank make no charge for making withdrawals from an AUD account if you convert to THB.

Taking out AUD in cash costs 2% with minimum of 500 Baht.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transaction%20Accounts/Foreign%20Currency%20Account/pages/fcd%20fees.aspx

[luap]

Try using the link above OzForex.

I use them, yesterday I transferred 215,000bht = cost AUD 6730.04 at exchange rate of 31.9463.No fees if you transfer over AUD 2,000 (under AUD 2,000 $15 fee)I just sent them the money by Bpay.

The exchange rate is consistently changing every minute or so, just wait till your happy with the exchange rate then process with payment.

Does take a few days to transfer as they don't work Sat. or Sun the money will be in my BKK bank account next Wednesday.

If you are in Sydney their is another company Xwing/ Mwing that also transfer Bht yesterday their rate was 31.50 and it is in your BKK account in 4 hours - 1 tranaction no fee (to BKK bank to other banks I think the fee is 30bht ($1), 2 transactions $5 fee.

If you want their address just email me

Hope this helps..........Luap

[bails]

You might want to have a look at the website of Hifx.com.au. They have real time exchange rates that you can view when you transact. I have used them several times and found their service excellent.

[IMA_FARANG]

From my experience you will ALWAYS get yourself a slightly better conversion rate sending the money to your Thai bank in your country's currency than to have it converted to Thai Baht in your country before being sent here. If you send a signifigant amount of money, that will make a big difference in the Thai Baht total.

Also you will often get a better rate if you open a Thai bank account in Thailand, and send the money from your country to Thailand for deposit in your Thai bank account. That is simply because the Thai bank expects you to keep the money in your account once it is deposited...and like all banks they make a profit on lending money to borrowers who repay the loan with interest.

And finally, if you are married to a Thai or have a "joint account" with a Thai at your Thai bank...and you have the funds deposited in your joint account rather than an account in your name alone, you may also get a sligltly better exchange rate by doing that.

[12DrinkMore]

And finally, if you are married to a Thai or have a "joint account" with a Thai at your Thai bank...and you have the funds deposited in your joint account rather than an account in your name alone, you may also get a sligltly better exchange rate by doing that.

Now that is a new one to me.

Where can I find substantiation of that?

[Pib]

And finally, if you are married to a Thai or have a "joint account" with a Thai at your Thai bank...and you have the funds deposited in your joint account rather than an account in your name alone, you may also get a sligltly better exchange rate by doing that.

Now that is a new one to me.

Where can I find substantiation of that?

A person does not get a better/different exchange rate as to whether it's a joint account or individual account. Everybody gets the TT Buying Rate on wire-type transfers assuming they have not made special arrangements with the receiving bank to earn a slightly higher TT rate due to a large transfer of funds. I have both a joint account with the Thai wife and an account in my name only....whenever I have sent money to either one of these accounts, I got the TT Buying Rate.

Maybe IMA_FARANG is confusing exchange rates given with interest rates earned on accounts, where some farang's apparently are not getting paid interest on their Individual account because the account is coded as not living in Thailand most of the year, doesn't have long stay type visa, doesn't have a work permit. Thai banks actually code the accounts as to whether you are a long stay resident or not a long stay resident. If coded as a long stay resident you earn interest on the account; if coded as a non long stay resident you probably won't earn interest depending on the bank.

[happyjune]

I saw that the Australian bank ANZ is a 'partner' bank for bangkok bank on their website, (on BK Bank website, the one that is down now). So would one expect it to be in my favor to send AUD from a ANZ account?

When using Westpac, I always seem to be missing about 1.3% from the BK Bank TT Buying Rate after factoring in the Aust fixed fee and the 500b K Bank fee.

Maye it's the middle man?

[ianguygil]

I saw that the Australian bank ANZ is a 'partner' bank for bangkok bank on their website, (on BK Bank website, the one that is down now). So would one expect it to be in my favor to send AUD from a ANZ account?

When using Westpac, I always seem to be missing about 1.3% from the BK Bank TT Buying Rate after factoring in the Aust fixed fee and the 500b K Bank fee.

Maye it's the middle man?

You can put instructions in your payment to prevent the use of an intermediary bank if an existing correspondent relationship exists between your bank and us. I will post on this in the morning as I do not remember the exact term to use in the SWIFT message. Please remind me if I have not posted this by noon tomorrow. It is late here and I'm still in the office. Thanks

[happyjune]

Just to avoid confusion, it was meant to be BK bank fee on the end. My silly typo, was not referring to green team bank in that post.

When using Westpac, I always seem to be missing about 1.3% from the BK Bank TT Buying Rate after factoring in the Aust fixed fee and the 500b K Bank fee.

Thank you ianguygil for the above post and information

EDIT: Oops, after looking at the BK Bank site that is now up, I think I screwed up, ANZ has a relationship with the green team K bank, I can find no reference to ANZ on the Bangkok Bank site when using the search function. I think my mistake. Just clearing up so pleople in the future reading this get better information.

Edited June 6, 2011 by happyjune

[meatboy]

today i went to bangkok bank to up date my account,i had a telex swift transfer which arived on 7june sent in £sterling,i had been checking the rates so i had a good idea what i should recieve,tues8.30am ex.rate49.3700,14.50 ex rate49.37,wed 8.30 49.44 checked weds.rate at the bank [staff did] ex49.44,but when my account had been up dated i recieved a rate of 49.14 i had been ripped off for 2250bht on £10000 allowing for 500bht service charge.i spoke to head office reply sorry sir that was the rate,so this is my reply to bangkok sorry but i am going to move elswhere,and the wife,just renewed our house ins.last week so next year that will be moved.this is not the first time i have queried the rate i had recieved

[ianguygil]

Just to avoid confusion, it was meant to be BK bank fee on the end. My silly typo, was not referring to green team bank in that post.

When using Westpac, I always seem to be missing about 1.3% from the BK Bank TT Buying Rate after factoring in the Aust fixed fee and the 500b K Bank fee.

Thank you ianguygil for the above post and information

EDIT: Oops, after looking at the BK Bank site that is now up, I think I screwed up, ANZ has a relationship with the green team K bank, I can find no reference to ANZ on the Bangkok Bank site when using the search function. I think my mistake. Just clearing up so pleople in the future reading this get better information.

happyjune

Sorry for the delay. I have been pretty busy.

ANZ do have a direct relationship with us as the largest bank in Thailand (all the major OZ banks do).

Apparently the "do not convert" no longer applies. If you make it clear to your sending bank that you want to send the funds directly to Bangkok Bank (SWIFT BKKBTHBK) then it all should be fine. You can even say to them that you do not want to use an intermediary bank. Otherwise what happens is your funds hit the other bank in Thailand which is often not a Thai bank at all - call them Bank B.. Then Bank B convert the funds at their rate and they send them on in THB to us. So you get hit with a less than optimal exchange rate and the charges for a Domestic transfer in THB which can cost a fair bit.

I hope this explains all. Please PM me if you want more info or if you need help to do another transfer.

Ian

Edited June 8, 2011 by ianguygil

[ianguygil]

today i went to bangkok bank to up date my account,i had a telex swift transfer which arived on 7june sent in £sterling,i had been checking the rates so i had a good idea what i should recieve,tues8.30am ex.rate49.3700,14.50 ex rate49.37,wed 8.30 49.44 checked weds.rate at the bank [staff did] ex49.44,but when my account had been up dated i recieved a rate of 49.14 i had been ripped off for 2250bht on £10000 allowing for 500bht service charge.i spoke to head office reply sorry sir that was the rate,so this is my reply to bangkok sorry but i am going to move elswhere,and the wife,just renewed our house ins.last week so next year that will be moved.this is not the first time i have queried the rate i had recieved

Before you move, please PM me and I will see if I can help. Thanks.

[happyjune]

Thank you Ian.

[ianguygil]

Thank you Ian.

Happyjune, you are most welcome

On a separate note (and not referring to happyjun), if any posters ask me to help with a specific case I will need you to provide your name at least so I can help.

I will provide my Bank email address via PM and I will insist you communicate with me there to ensure your privacy. In the past this has never been an issue with anybody but today somebody objected and I totally respect that person's choice. However, we have about 15 million customers and there is absolutely no way I can really help with your specific issues unless I know who you are. General questions are fine without a name and I try to answer them. But not a specific question dealing with a transfer or an account.

Ian

[ianguygil]

Duplicate. Site froze. Sorry

Edited June 8, 2011 by ianguygil

[ianguygil]

Duplicate. Site froze. Sorry

Edited June 8, 2011 by ianguygil

[meatboy]

this is not the first time i have been ripped off by bangkok bank,2009 my visit to immigration was due to renew my yearly visa,bangkok bank gave me a letter of confirmation for my account details and placed it in an envelope,imm.officer on checking the account details found that the bank official had put somebodys bank account no which was not mine,as we had a taxi to imm.he had to take me to bkkb.in the town,saw the manager took over 1hour then back to imm.200bht lighter and another wait .went to the branch that gave me the letter of account and told them one of your bank staff had cost me 600bht inc.the extra for taxi,reply from the manager sorry sir.

[meatboy]

Thank you Ian.

Happyjune, you are most welcome

On a separate note (and not referring to happyjun), if any posters ask me to help with a specific case I will need you to provide your name at least so I can help.

I will provide my Bank email address via PM and I will insist you communicate with me there to ensure your privacy. In the past this has never been an issue with anybody but today somebody objected and I totally respect that person's choice. However, we have about 15 million customers and there is absolutely no way I can really help with your specific issues unless I know who you are. General questions are fine without a name and I try to answer them. But not a specific question dealing with a transfer or an account.

Ian

nobody in their right mind would give their bank details to an e-mail address.

[ianguygil]

Thank you Ian.

Happyjune, you are most welcome

On a separate note (and not referring to happyjun), if any posters ask me to help with a specific case I will need you to provide your name at least so I can help.

I will provide my Bank email address via PM and I will insist you communicate with me there to ensure your privacy. In the past this has never been an issue with anybody but today somebody objected and I totally respect that person's choice. However, we have about 15 million customers and there is absolutely no way I can really help with your specific issues unless I know who you are. General questions are fine without a name and I try to answer them. But not a specific question dealing with a transfer or an account.

Ian

nobody in their right mind would give their bank details to an e-mail address.

Well, plenty of people on this site have given their name to me and have been helped by the Bank. As I said in my post i respect your decision. But if you want to call these other people somehow foolish I think you are inpolite to them, not me. Giving your name is not giving your Bank details. Even account numbers are not sufficient for authentication.

Anyway, as I said if anybody wants my help they will need to provide at least a name. You chose not to, and that is fine with me.

[meatboy]

Thank you Ian.

Happyjune, you are most welcome

On a separate note (and not referring to happyjun), if any posters ask me to help with a specific case I will need you to provide your name at least so I can help.

I will provide my Bank email address via PM and I will insist you communicate with me there to ensure your privacy. In the past this has never been an issue with anybody but today somebody objected and I totally respect that person's choice. However, we have about 15 million customers and there is absolutely no way I can really help with your specific issues unless I know who you are. General questions are fine without a name and I try to answer them. But not a specific question dealing with a transfer or an account.

Ian

nobody in their right mind would give their bank details to an e-mail address.

Well, plenty of people on this site have given their name to me and have been helped by the Bank. As I said in my post i respect your decision. But if you want to call these other people somehow foolish I think you are inpolite to them, not me. Giving your name is not giving your Bank details. Even account numbers are not sufficient for authentication.

Anyway, as I said if anybody wants my help they will need to provide at least a name. You chose not to, and that is fine with me.

struck a nerve have i?

[CharlieH]

Thank you Ian.

Happyjune, you are most welcome

On a separate note (and not referring to happyjun), if any posters ask me to help with a specific case I will need you to provide your name at least so I can help.

I will provide my Bank email address via PM and I will insist you communicate with me there to ensure your privacy. In the past this has never been an issue with anybody but today somebody objected and I totally respect that person's choice. However, we have about 15 million customers and there is absolutely no way I can really help with your specific issues unless I know who you are. General questions are fine without a name and I try to answer them. But not a specific question dealing with a transfer or an account.

Ian

nobody in their right mind would give their bank details to an e-mail address.

Generally speaking you may be right, but as far as Ian from Bangkok Bank is concerned I would give him whatever he asked for, he is totally 100% legitimate and extremely useful to know. I could not recommend his advice or help highly enough. He has helped me and many many people in this forum and I consider him to be an invaluable contact for Expats and an excellent Ambassador for the bank.

Edited June 9, 2011 by CharlieH

[flying]

nobody in their right mind would give their bank details to an e-mail address.

Ian has been around a long time & has helped many here on Thai Visa.

Myself & my wife included. He has not said to give bank details via email....

What he did say was that he would at least need your actual name. He also said he would provide his bank email address to ensure your privacy in regards to your name

You have to consider how impossible it would be for him to help with a problem if all he knows is Meatboy has an account.

Unless of course that is the name you bank under. You are under no obligation to accept his help but at least it is there.

We are very fortunate to have Ian here. He has helped many as I said. Folks like myself who are thousands of miles away at times & cannot walk in & sort it out. He has not only helped my wife & I but he also had other staff members at Bangkok Bank contact us & FED-EX us the papers we needed in 3 days or less.

I highly doubt he is getting paid to come here & help folks like myself or others yet he does.

I do not see any helpers from SCB, Ayudhya etc here helping folks.

Again we are lucky to have Ian here

[meatboy]

can i respond to charlie h and flying,i am sorry if what i have posted has caused some ill feeling towards ian but i was asked for my name and account details in a pm.if i cant sort it out at branch level that will be the end of it,i still think i have been ripped off,so until i am proved wrong i will continue to think this,if i am proven wrong i will make an apologie. the money has gone so i will let my feet do the talking,it is not hard to find out anytime on tues7/6 did the t.t.rate hit 49.14 for sterling.once again i apologies if anyone has found me to be unreasonable.