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[bookay]

Dear Forum

What is the best value for money way of transferring money to my wife's Thai Bank account from the UK?

Currently we are using Paypal which even after fees works out at about ฿47 per £1.00 Sterling?

We have tried Moneybookers before despite offering low fees moneybookers make there money from a very poor exchange rate of about ฿43.

Western Union are very expensive and only used this in emergencies when had to get money to Thailand instantly.

Looking into sending a bankers draught. Is this done electronically or via snail mail hard copy?

How is anyone else sending money?

Look forward to your replies.

Bookay.

Cheshire, UK.

[cardholder]

Forget the bank draft idea.

Have a look at Halifax Reward account and making transfers via Internet banking.

Costs me GBP 9.50 per transfer. Kasikorn bank charge 0.25% (min 200, max 500 Bt) plus another circa 20 Bt for the transfer from Bangkok.

[JSixpack]

GBP15 total if she has a Bangkok Bank account:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20into%20Thailand/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK/Pages/UK_Over%20Counter.aspx

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20into%20Thailand/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20UK/Pages/UK_Internet%20Banking.aspx

Next time, leave a goodly sum in a Thai account that you transfer to her account at intervals via Internet. If you have separate accounts you may be able to do that now, by making a large transfer to your account to avoid multiple transfer charges.

[craigt3365]

Let's try this over in the Banking forum.

Topic Moved.

[CharlieH]

If the account is in Bangkok Bank move it from your account to London BkB and they'll pass it to Thailand, dont do this with small amounts its better larger sums and more cost effective.

Other alternative is : http://www.hifx.co.uk/?gclid=CNDysPKztawCFYEa6wodUBgDHA

Good service NO fees but they do shave the rate by about 0.5 baht depending on amount.

[MaiChai]

I try not to use ATM cards in Thailand because the chances of fraud are much higher and I have better things to do that go than drawing on ATMs and then paying the money into my Thai bank. Especially finding Aeon machines which don't charge the 150 baht ATM fee, which always have queues of Thais paying their finance off! Alot of fraud occurs at ATM machines in Thailand, which is the simple reason you pay so much to use one. These fees are used to offset the fraud.

So whats the alternative? Well there is the traditional SWIFT transfer from UK banks, but invariably these are expensive with upfront transfer fees (20 quid or so) and can also be quite cumbersome. So I don't bother with these.

I have gcen; that works but their website is cumbersome and depositing funds is painful.

Moneybookers (now Skrill) works well and is fast. Uploading funds from Natwest uses a screen scrape app that logs into your Natwest internet banking, and then uses your secure card machine to transfer the money in. Then Moneybookers sits on your money for about a day, just in case of fraud, and then they transfer it and I get it in Kasikorn next working day. Fastest I have done a transfer is one day; which is pretty fast considering they sit on it for a while. Exchange rate is 1.86% above the mid rate on xe.com, so its pretty good and the fee is between 1.50 and 3 pounds. They do the transfers much faster once they see your transfers are going through without any fraud issues.

I setup a Currencies Direct transfer that goes out on the 15th of each month. I find Currencies Direct admin to be a bit naff; eg telling them to change the money transfer normally involves a couple of emails before they do it. Also some months they are up to three days late and then the transfer takes another three days; eg depending on whether the 15th falls on a weekend. So you should get the money somewhere between the 20th and 22nd of the month. Its a free service, but nothing is really free? So they mark up the exchange rate. I make it 2.51% above the xe.com mid rate.

I am going to try xe.com for transfers as they now support Faster Payments. I am also going to try a couple of other forex transfer services.

Bearing in mind the exchange rate will include the 0.25% charged by your receiving Thai bank.

I also have a Nationwide card, but don't use that much. Also a Lebara Money Mastercard, but thats a bit rubbish as it doesn't work on most card machines in shops in Thailand (although it works on Aeon machines for money; but the check balance doesn't work). I only use these as emergency, get money quickly methods, since they cost much more than other methods.

Then you can always use your UK credit cards at large stores, petrol stations, resteraunts, etc. This saves bring money in.

I think the important thing is to have 3 or 4 different routes to doing a transfer. Just incase any of the routes are blocked, for whatever reason. Planning a couple of days ahead saves you money rather than just using an ATM card.

Edited January 19, 2012 by MaiChai

[meatboy]

if you are sending money to los every month you will get hit and there is no way out,why cant you send it in say every 6months or yearly that way you will cut down on charges,and only send in sterling that way you will get t.t.rate which is a big diff.yesterdays rate was about 48.70 for t.t.