Sending Money

[narrad]

Hi All.

Myself and my wife (Thai national) live in the UK and we send a little money home on a monthly basis.

We have a pre paid credit card that the family in Thailand have. We load it up from this end and they go to an ATM and make the withdrawal.

I understand that rates aren't what they used to be, but does anyone have any ideas as how we get the best exchange

Thanks

[JAG]

I use the same system, it works out cheaper than Western Union or Moneygram. It is also a lot less hassle - no form filling or going to offices, producing passports etc.

with Western Union the money is changed into dollars before it is sent, so you lose twice.

Edited October 18, 2011 by JAG

[KhunBENQ]

Basically this method is the best that I am aware of.

There is only one trap that I am aware of, called "dynamic currency conversion" which results in inferior rates.

It means that the exchange rate is not determined by the card issuing bank but by the bank that operates the ATM.

AFAIK it applies to Mastercard and e.g. Bank of Ayudhya.

With a VISA debit card and using AEON ATMs (no 150 THB fee) I always get a very good rate overall.

Edited October 19, 2011 by KhunBENQ

[Vit77]

With a VISA debit card and using AEON ATMs (no 150 THB fee) I always get a very good rate overall.

AEON is the best, however VISA charges you 2%, MasterCard - nothing.

[soundman]

Moved to banking forum.

[gk10002000]

Does any Westerner live outside of Thailand, have a Thai wife and NOT send money back to Thailand? Just looking for one counter-example to the send money back to Thailand stereotype.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

Does any Westerner live outside of Thailand, have a Thai wife and NOT send money back to Thailand? Just looking for one counter-example to the send money back to Thailand stereotype.

Sure, plenty of guys leave enough money behind for their partner to live on long-term, but it's the rare Thai that can manage this properly, usually they'll burn through it much faster than originally planned.

Some set them up in a business that is supposed to be able to help them support themselves, but rarer still is the case where this works - the usual result is to burn through money faster than just supporting the partner directly would.

Now if you mean "are there men who have wives who actually support themselves?" then that would be very rare. I've come across a few guys that have married into very wealthy families where the wife has income/assets on her own, but don't know to what extent they manage it themselves or are just in effect supported by Daddy.

Keep in mind that 99% of Thai women will expect a husband to support them, the recent modern Western feminist ideas of women being independent have (thank God) made little headway here, especially among the poor peasant classes where most farang get their partners.

And among that group the whole purpose of marrying a farang is economic security, if not actually just scamming as much cash in as short a time as possible, so of course the counter-examples would be far and few between. But even among the "real love" relationships, the woman would expect to be supported.

If you're looking for a woman who will support herself IMO you might as well marry a western one, and put up with all the BS that comes with that. Again just my opinion, but if you found an Asian girl who is willing to support herself, you'd have all the same BS plus the language/cultural etc issues that make a successful long-term relationship so difficult and in fact very unlikely.

My recommendation is no matter what the outer surface appearances and professions are, in your heart of hearts treat the whole thing as a pay-for-service transaction. As long as you're getting good value coming in relative to the outgoing costs, all is well. When the equation starts to change do your best to steer it back on track, and if it doesn't come good within a few months, cut her loose and find a new one. And never never never put large assets in her name unless you're willing to consider them an outright gift at the time, in your heart of hearts kiss them goodbye and you won't be disappointed later on.

This might seem cynical to some but I'm more optimistic/idealistic than most, and I believe it's just realistic, from hard-won experience.

Edit - in reviewing the OP, I realize that your question may include their situation, where both the couple live overseas and you're asking about money sent back to Thailand to support her family as opposed to her directly.

This would only be the case if you marry a girl who is an orphan and has no obligations to those that raised her - very rare but highly recommended. Otherwise it is every good daughter's obligation to send (often a large) part of her income home to mum and dad. I had one girl that actually ran away from home, apparently had been abused there - at least she expressed bad feelings about them - and she didn't send anything regularly, but did give in to help out in exceptional situations - short of school fees for her older sister, auntie's funeral things like that.

These are all normal obligations and the farang partner will be expected to pay up. In my (again long and hard-won) experience the best way to handle this is to set aside a fixed monthly amount for such contingencies, along with discretionary things like saving up for the latest new smartphone, clothes shopping etc. Depending on her emotional/financial maturity, require a minimum balance to be maintained in this account, and let her know that to the extent she wants to send money home, she has less for the other stuff.

It will be necessary to take a hard line sometimes and put with the resulting tantrums, pouting etc, that's just par for the course. I find it helpful to have a system of "extra tips" for good performance, as well as random, unexpected gifts - not just cash, but high-value status symbols like a netbook, if they've done really well over a period of years maybe something big like buying land and building a small house back home for when they retire, maybe even a car if you're rich, etc.

Tough but generous, the key word is fair, don't try to get a lot for too small a price, and don't give too much away relative to the value you're receiving and of course your own resources.

And always always keep things in your control.

Edited October 20, 2011 by BigJohnnyBKK

[KhunBENQ]

AEON is the best, however VISA charges you 2%, MasterCard - nothing.

That depends on your issuing bank.

I have two different types of VISA debit cards (with the VISA Plus symbol).

Both do not charge a transaction fee.

Does not help to name (german banks).

Edited October 20, 2011 by KhunBENQ

[Pib]

With a VISA debit card and using AEON ATMs (no 150 THB fee) I always get a very good rate overall.

AEON is the best, however VISA charges you 2%, MasterCard - nothing.

It's the bank that issues the card that charges the 2%. While Visa/Mastercard apparently charge a 1% fee to all card issuing banks for international transactions it's up to the bank whether they pass that along to you or not. Most do pass along the fee; some don't.

When a person has a zero percent foreign transaction fee debit/credit card that means the bank/credit card issuing company absorbs the Visa/Mastercard fee plus they don't add any additional fees. I have two Visa debit cards from two different banks and they do not charge any foreign transaction fee....I get the Visa exchange rate on each ATM withdrawal which basically equals (usually beats) the TT Buying rate provided by Thai banks which is about the best exchange rate a common man can get.. I also have a CapOne Mastercard credit card that does not charge any foreign transaction fee.

Yeap, it's the bank that issued you your Visa card that is charging the 2% fee in not absorbing the Visa 1% fee (Mastercard charges a 1% fee also to issuing banks) and then adding on another 1% fee. Your bank says thank you.