Can I Do Bkk Bank Ach Transfer To My Usa Bank Account?

[farang000999]

So for those of you who didn't know, you can set up your USA bank account to make an ACH domestic transfer to Bangkok Bank in New York. You just send it to ur Bkk Bank account number and it is credited in Thailand.

What I am wondering is if it will work the other way? My brokerage account allows me to deposit money as well, can I just deposit money from bkk bank via ACH and receive it? if this works, are the fees/rate any worse coming back? thx

[aurelius]

If you earn income in Thailand it can be transferred via Bangkok Bank's internet banking service using SWIFT to accounts in the US; you need internet banking and you need to register the destination account first by doing a paper registration at a branch.

[farang000999]

nah i am not talking about sending money from my thai bank account. i am talking about requesting money from Bkk Bank New York via ACH to my USA bank account.

this is how i send money to Thailand. i log on my USA bank and do an ACH transfer to Bkk Bank New York and then the funds show up in my Thai account... so i am wondering if the opposite is possible?

[aurelius]

Dont think so, Bkk Bank NY is an intermediary only, you can't initiate a request with them.

[Jingthing]

No, that deal is one way only! In fact, don't even try doing that.

[chanwit]

Deleted

Edited November 20, 2011 by chanwit

[chanwit]

I knew there was a Bangkok Bank in New York but have been unable to find a branch in Thailand that knew how to transfer money there.

Could you please elaborate on "send it to ur Bkk Bank account number and it is credited in Thailand"

How exactly do you do this?

And more to the point, most big banks in the US now limit transfers to $1000 without the extra security systems they have initiated in the pass 3 years.

What I mean now they send an SMS to your US mobile phone or other device which would make it impossible to do a transfer from Thailand.

Even if you could handle the SMS message the US banking system recognizes your Thailand Internet provider ICP address and voids the attempted transfer.

My Bank of America account requires you visit a US branch and fill out 20 pages of documents to enable a phone transfer over $1000.

I've had good luck around this transfer limit by using Bill Pay instead of an ACH transfer. I wonder if I could Bill Pay my Thailand Bangkok Bank account though the New York branch.

Any thoughts?

Edited November 20, 2011 by chanwit

[MTH]

I knew there was a Bangkok Bank in New York but have been unable to find a branch in Thailand that knew how to transfer money there.

Could you please elaborate on "send it to ur Bkk Bank account number and it is credited in Thailand"

How exactly do you do this?

And more to the point, most big banks in the US now limit transfers to $1000 without the extra security systems they have initiated in the pass 3 years.

What I mean now they send an SMS to your US mobile phone or other device which would make it impossible to do a transfer from Thailand.

Even if you could handle the SMS message the US banking system recognizes your Thailand Internet provider ICP address and voids the attempted transfer.

My Bank of America account requires you visit a US branch and fill out 20 pages of documents to enable a phone transfer over $1000.

I've had good luck around this transfer limit by using Bill Pay instead of an ACH transfer. I wonder if I could Bill Pay my Thailand Bangkok Bank account though the New York branch.

Any thoughts?

Someone at a local BKKB office here would most likely not know anything about setting up an ACH transfer.

Your branch back home should be able to help you though.

Here is some information from BKKB.

Here is my post from another tread about this.

It's great if you need to transfer a larger amount quickly without paying huge fees.

[Jingthing]

I personally have an ACH link between Bangkok Bank and a US bank account. Trust me, this is only ONE way. No ambiguity at all. You can do an ACH transfer to your Bangkok Bank Thailand based account. You set up the ACH transfer through your US bank website. It's a bit complicated to do the initial setup. Then you can do ACH transfers anytime you want TO Thailand. You can never do them from Thailand back to the linked US account. You don't open an account with BB NYC (or London) but you do the ACH transfers to those banks with your Thai bank account number.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jing is correct... No matter what banking or brokerage arrangements you may have in the U.S. or UK, you can't use those to pull funds out of a BKK Bank account the same way you might for a home country domestic transfer.

The BKK Bank ACH route via the New York branch is, as stated, a one-way street from the U.S. to Thailand. It doesn't operate in the reverse direction.

However, starting at BKK Bank in Thailand, you can send funds, via a bank branch visit, back to the U.S. or UK through various means, including a traditional wire/SWIFT transfer (with a variety of fees likely involved) or through Western Union (which has a poor exchange rate). For the wire transfer, you have to document what the source of the funds is.

If you're legally working in Thailand and have the proper documentation, they also have a means thru BKK Bank's online banking to repatriate your salary earnings to your home country, provided you set up and register the whole thing with them first.

BKK Bank's info on the various options is located here:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20out%20of%20Thailand/Pages/Transferring%20out%20of%20Thailand.aspx

It may also be possible to do the same thing via PayPay, provided you have previously set up a Thailand based PayPal account linked to your BKK Bank account, and then also a separate PayPal account linked to your home country bank account. In that example, you move the funds from BKK Bank to the Thai PayPal account, and then move from the Thai PayPal to the home country PayPal, and from there to your home country bank account. I haven't done it personally, but I have seen the detail from PayPay on how it can be done.

[Pib]

Regarding sending/pulling funds from a Thai bank account, below is a partial quote from Bangkok Bank 28 Sep 11 email to its customers regarding International Funds Transfers:

Partial Quote

New funds transfer purposes allowed. While foreigners can still only repatriate their salary, Thai nationals can now send funds overseas for a wider range of purposes including the following:

- Educational expenses

- Family support

- Living expenses

- Payment for goods

- Payment for services

- Travel expenses

- Personal expenses

- Grant payments

- Donations

End Quote

Since these rules are based on Bank of Thailand regulations, I expect all Thai banks are pretty much the same. I expect above purposes are the day-to-day/most common purposes but other purposes do exist like sending funds back to your home county from a home sale....a home sale where you have the earlier documents showing you originally sent the money to Thailand to buy the home.

[MTH]

I personally have an ACH link between Bangkok Bank and a US bank account. Trust me, this is only ONE way. No ambiguity at all. You can do an ACH transfer to your Bangkok Bank Thailand based account. You set up the ACH transfer through your US bank website. It's a bit complicated to do the initial setup. Then you can do ACH transfers anytime you want TO Thailand. You can never do them from Thailand back to the linked US account. You don't open an account with BB NYC (or London) but you do the ACH transfers to those banks with your Thai bank account number.

I know you’re correct. I too have one US account linked to BKKB via ACH through NY.

I never stated you can send monies back to the US through this system.

I just supplied chanwit with some information on how to set up and ACH link, as he asked for it.

[JimGant]

From the Bangkok Bank website:

Important Note

You cannot transfer funds from Bangkok Bank's account in Thailand to your account with banks or online

payment service providers in the US via Bangkok Bank's New York branch and the ACH system. If you

initiate direct debit or ACH debit transactions to Bangkok Bank's New York branch, banks in the US and

online payment service providers may suspend your account.

From the Virginia tax website:

International ACH Transactions: New federal banking regulations have imposed additional reporting requirements on all electronic banking transactions that directly involve a financial institution outside of the territorial jurisdiction of the United States at any point in the process. These are called International ACH Transactions (IAT). At present, TAX does not support IAT. If an international transaction is processed by TAX as a domestic transaction, it may be rejected by your bank, subjecting you to late penalties. By instructing TAX to process your electronic banking transaction, you are certifying that your transaction does not directly involve a financial institution outside of the territorial jurisdiction of the United States at any point in the process.

Hmmmmm. Sounds like a transaction from overseas possibly could physically enter the domestic ACH system. But probably Bangkok Bank New York has a filter to prevent this -- and also has no plans to recode to allow International ACH transactions (at least from Thailand, as the current policy is not to allow unfettered "pulls" from your Thai account into your US account).

Interestingly, I couldn't even attempt a "pull" into my USAA account, as they set it up as a "push" only account upon instructions they received from Bangkok Bank. This was several years ago, and I understand that now you, indeed, do get the two "trial deposits" into your BB account to verify control over that account, thus (presumably) allowing a "push/pull" setup. Can anybody verify?

And more to the point, most big banks in the US now limit transfers to $1000 without the extra security systems they have initiated in the pass 3 years.

I routinely send $10k via ACH thru BB NY to my account in Thailand. And have sent as much as $20k. The money leaving BB NY is SWIFT encoded, and as such has all of the security features inherent in a SWIFT wire transfer. Thus, no International ACH issues -- at least from the US to Thailand.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jim, the last quote you responded to above, I believe, was referring to per transaction dollar amount limits imposed on domestic ACH transfers by various of the U.S. banks. Although I don't think $1000 per ACH is a particularly common limit.... I think $3000 or $5000 per ACH are more common U.S. bank restrictions.

BofA is one of those that has limited the ACH amounts they'll allow their own customers to do, unless you go through the jerk around process of their Safe Pass system, which requires the sending of an SMS to a U.S. mobile phone (hard to do in Thailand) and then entering that code into BofA online banking. Various other banks allow ACHs through their systems, but arbitrarily limit the amounts per ACH.

But you're correct in your comments that there aren't any inherent dollar amount limits on the BKKB New York ACH system moving from the U.S. to Thailand, at least not any imposed by BKKB. Whether the sender's U.S. bank has limits on originating ACH transfers is an entirely separate matter.

BTW, a couple years ago, when I set up BKKB NY links with several of my U.S. accounts, each of those setups involved a trial deposits transaction going from my U.S. bank into my BKKB Thailand account, and then having to enter those two small amounts back into my U.S. bank online banking setup to confirm and finalize the link.

Lastly, I've never tried to do a reverse ACH transfer, such as trying to use a U.S. account to pull funds out of a linked BKKB Thailand account. But it's been my understanding in the past that if, for example, I were to attempt that with the BofA online banking, that the link would then be frozen or disabled.

Edited November 21, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Jingthing]

...

But it's been my understanding in the past that if, for example, I were to attempt that with the BofA online banking, that the link would then be frozen or disabled.

Yes, that's why I said don't even TRY that.

[JimGant]

But it's been my understanding in the past that if, for example, I were to attempt that with the BofA online banking, that the link would then be frozen or disabled.

If you recall, several years ago, BofA even stopped for several months the ability to "push" via BBNY to Thailand. They (actually, their middleman) finally were assured that the payments were sent across the pond SWIFT encoded (you can see the SWIFT trail if you ask your Thai bank for a printout of the ACH transfer).

Presumably, since you did do the two trial deposits, you theoretically could do a "pull" from your Thai account (at least that option appears, I assume, when you bring up the transfer screen?). And based on the following, an explanation of why new encoding for International ACH transfers, it sounds like such a "pull" could slip through:

In the current environment, many U.S. financial institutions are receiving international payments that cannot be properly identified. These unidentifiable payments enter the U.S. through correspondent banking relationships and are often difficult to trace or accurately process as international payments. The new IAT code supports the end of anonymity and promotes traceability of international electronic payments.

Anyway, just a passing curiosity -- and, again, Bangkok Bank NY is right in the middle of any such transaction -- and I doubt it would slip past them to the final domestic destination. (But, I'd love to know what would happen next..... )

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jim, fyi, in BofA online banking, I have both BKKB and SCB accounts linked... the BKKB New York branch as a "domestic external" link and the SCB account as an "international external link"

When I start with the FROM account as my BofA account, all of my linked accounts show up as available TO accounts, including the BKKB and SCB accounts. Meaning I can send from BofA to all of them.

But, for some reason, when I choose BofA as the TO account, the list of available FROM accounts is a shortened list that doesn't include BKKB, SCB and even a Schwab brokerage account.

Those distinctions are all BofA's doing. In the original setups, there was never any choice about TO vs TO/FROM options. Only the choice to create a link.

That's just the situation with BofA. I haven't tried as yet with some other accounts where I have BKKB linked as well.

Edited November 22, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[JimGant]

Jim, fyi, in BofA online banking, I have both BKKB and SCB accounts linked... the BKKB New York branch as a "domestic external" link and the SCB account as an "international external link"

When you fill-in SCB as the "To" destination, that can't go ACH (BB NY is the only ACH route to Thailand). Is this, then, a SWIFT wire, with all the attendant fees?

My transfer options with USAA are only ACH types. For a SWIFT wire, I've pre-established templates, with all the destination data. But I have to phone USAA, give the template name -- and the amount I wish to send.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jim, fyi, in BofA online banking, I have both BKKB and SCB accounts linked... the BKKB New York branch as a "domestic external" link and the SCB account as an "international external link"

When you fill-in SCB as the "To" destination, that can't go ACH (BB NY is the only ACH route to Thailand). Is this, then, a SWIFT wire, with all the attendant fees?

Well, the underlying issue was BofA online banking does allow you to pull funds in from external accounts... but the BKKB New York branch disappears from the domestic accounts list when you want to pull from there. The BKKB NY branch, though, resurfaces if you want to send funds to that account.

As for SCB, I haven't used it. But when BofA redid their transfers system/module some time back, I believe they added the ability do execute international wire transfers from their online banking module (as opposed to having to go into the branch and do all the paperwork). The SCB link definitely is not a domestic ACH one.