Transferring 5,000,000 Baht Out Of Thailand

[steven100]

Go to some money changers who will take your money here and give you money wherever you want it. The Indians call it hawala. Do it through the bank of Thailand is impossible unless you can show you transferred the money into Thailand.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Yeah sure ... just pop into one of those honest money changer boths along the soi and hand him the 5,000,000 baht in a bag and tell him you want to collect it in a few days in the US.

I'm sure he will be only too willing to help you !

[samran]

Go to some money changers who will take your money here and give you money wherever you want it. The Indians call it hawala. Do it through the bank of Thailand is impossible unless you can show you transferred the money into Thailand.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Yeah sure ... just pop into one of those honest money changer boths along the soi and hand him the 5,000,000 baht in a bag and tell him you want to collect it in a few days in the US.

I'm sure he will be only too willing to help you !

Who knows? I know our Burmese maid in Bangkok sends money back to her family this way. Sure it is a system based on trust, but hawala dealers have to maintain their reputation too, so if they want to be in the business, then trust and discretion in essential.

[Naam]

Go to some money changers who will take your money here and give you money wherever you want it. The Indians call it hawala. Do it through the bank of Thailand is impossible unless you can show you transferred the money into Thailand.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Yeah sure ... just pop into one of those honest money changer boths along the soi and hand him the 5,000,000 baht in a bag and tell him you want to collect it in a few days in the US.

I'm sure he will be only too willing to help you !

Who knows? I know our Burmese maid in Bangkok sends money back to her family this way. Sure it is a system based on trust, but hawala dealers have to maintain their reputation too, so if they want to be in the business, then trust and discretion in essential.

hawala works. but transferring money to the U.S. of A. has stopped since several years (Patriot Act).

[WarpSpeed]

Currency Export regulations:

local currency (United States Dollar-USD) and foreign currencies: no restrictions, provided that arriving and departing passengers must report to US customs any money or other monetary instruments exceeding USD 10,000.-. Gold: Importation of gold coins or small, non-commercial quantities of gold must be declared upon arrival.

http://www.iatatrave...ons-details.htm

I've asked this before but received no answer, it's only slightly off topic as it pertains to my situation but is still a valid and related question.

If I go back with my 2 boys and they are given money by their mother and family members but it is technically NOT mine but I would obviously be carrying it for them what would be the case if I do not report it but then was found to be carrying it as technically it is not me bringing in the money as it's their money and less then $10,000 per person.

[chiang mai]

If you had a family of ten children and you traveled carrying 10k for each, how do you think the Customs folks would react to that excuse, my guess is that they would label it a sham but I can't say for sure. At a minimum any reasonable person might expect documentary proof and an audit trail.

[WarpSpeed]

If you had a family of ten children and you traveled carrying 10k for each, how do you think the Customs folks would react to that excuse, my guess is that they would label it a sham but I can't say for sure. At a minimum any reasonable person might expect documentary proof and an audit trail.

In short I say yes, what should be wrong with it? Your scenario doesn't apply however as I don't and am not trying to pass off that I have 10 children only the 2 I truly have. However in any case I don't see it as a scam as it's not but regardless of how many children one may legitimately have and just because someone does do it does not make them a scammer or criminal, nor should they be labeled as such without actual proof or be required to prove their innocence without any legitimate proof of their guilt other then they have money on them.. Besides, how hard is it for the mother or family members to write a letter (which would have to be written by me anyways as they don't write English) saying it's for their college and/or other future expenses, that's it's actual origins so to say other wise would be truly a lie.. So what documentary proof would apply? She has a very good job and income as do her family back in her home in China, this money is their umbow (spl?) from holidays and birthdays over several years if you're not familiar, nothing illegitimate about it and I'm not going to let a 7 and 8 year old carry it nor does a bank have any rights to make money off it through transfers and currency exchanges but I don't feel the need to claim it as it's not mine it's theirs and frankly not the business of the US customs either..

You're suggestion is the same insidious form that has suspended all of our personal rights, it's supposed to be benefit of the doubt and innocent until proven guilty not the other way around..Anyway I would appreciate an informed response and not one based on unfounded insinuations and conjecture, can anyone provide that?

Edited December 31, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[chiang mai]

There's black and white and then there's grey, folks that want certainty in everything they do in life want the former, the reality is that most things sit in the middle and for the benefit of everyone, most things in life are grey and long may that continue!

[impulse]

On a related topic- Is it feasible to go to a market that trades in non-cash commodities (gold, oil, nickel, copper, shares of stock, etc) and buy those commodities with Thai Baht, then go to the USA, UK, etc and sell those same commodities for Pounds, Euro's, USD, etc?

Or, for that matter, is it feasible to do forex trading from Thailand, buy Euro's for your account, then go to Europe to redeem those same Euro's?

Once again, I'm asking- I'm not competent to advise.

I have read above that it's quite possible to transfer money, given the correct documents, time, patience and competent bank help. But that seems like a lot of "ifs", wasted time, and no small level of uncertainty.

Edited December 31, 2011 by impulse

[impulse]

Warpspeed, I don't think this answers your question directly, but here's my experience. In over 40 trips to the USA from China since 9/11, I have on several occasions carried very close to the maximum $10,000 USD in cash. If you include the small amount of Yuan, Won, Yen and Rubles I keep in my travel bag, I've probably been over the limit once or twice. Other than asking me if I was carrying over $10K, I have never gotten a second look from US Customs. When asked, I simply say "no, I'm not" or "I wish" and that's the end of it.

The only time I've ever had to go through the "open your bags" screening is when I declared 50+ fishing rods in my luggage. I used them as gifts for customers so I could not reasonably claim they were "non-commercial for personal use" and I declared them. The Customs guy (off the record) suggested next time I not declare them if they were worth less than $2,000 as that seems to be some kind of trigger for them. Even those went through with no duties or excise taxes charged and there was no detailed search of my bags once they saw the rods.

I know when you fill out a US Customs form on the airplane, you only have to fill out one per family. That would lead me to believe the exemption is $10K per family, but I don't know for sure.

By the way, you're looking (I think) for Hong Bao, meaning red envelope which is used for gifts of a both a personal and "graft and corruption" nature in China.

[WarpSpeed]

Warpspeed, I don't think this answers your question directly, but here's my experience. In over 40 trips to the USA from China since 9/11, I have on several occasions carried very close to the maximum $10,000 USD in cash. If you include the small amount of Yuan, Won, Yen and Rubles I keep in my travel bag, I've probably been over the limit once or twice. Other than asking me if I was carrying over $10K, I have never gotten a second look from US Customs. When asked, I simply say "no, I'm not" or "I wish" and that's the end of it.

The only time I've ever had to go through the "open your bags" screening is when I declared 50+ fishing rods in my luggage. I used them as gifts for customers so I could not reasonably claim they were "non-commercial for personal use" and I declared them. The Customs guy (off the record) suggested next time I not declare them if they were worth less than $2,000 as that seems to be some kind of trigger for them. Even those went through with no duties or excise taxes charged and there was no detailed search of my bags once they saw the rods.

I know when you fill out a US Customs form on the airplane, you only have to fill out one per family. That would lead me to believe the exemption is $10K per family, but I don't know for sure.

By the way, you're looking (I think) for Hong Bao, meaning red envelope which is used for gifts of a both a personal and "graft and corruption" nature in China.

Thanks for that response, it is a little outside of my concerns so I'm going to have to get more info I can see, from some other source as I know the card is not relative to an entire family as each person is considered an individual especially an adult, my wife for example is allowed to have her own $10,000. That question is the problem though as clearly I am perjuring myself if I say "no" in spite of who's it is and I'm carrying it on their behalf should I get questioned and frankly I can't see how it wouldn't be discovered these days given all the personal violations they are entitled to, especially the Xray searches.

Thanks for the correction on the "hong bao" that sounds correct to me too and it is what you're describing, I just had a brain fart and couldn't remember at the time of my posting..

[jalansanitwong]

I'm amazed at the extent to which some posters here are turning the OP's simply request into a government conspiracy theory against farangs and the repatriations of funds. Heads up, it's not illegal to repatriate your money and there's a range of ways to do so, many already described here, gold purchases, ATM transfers, multiple bank accounts, midnight transfers and false hollow legs stuffed with fifties really are not part of the essential picture!

No need for a hollow leg anymore.. euro 500 dollar note (20,000 b )denomination . you would be suprised how much you could stuff into a wallet.

[steady]

I have just helped a friend to send his money from the sale of his house out of the country ( 2 weeks ago). As earlier posters have said it's all about the land office tax receipt - you do need that, and if the house was bought in a company name you need a paper trail to prove that you and the company are one and the same. My friend took all of this to the local branch of his bank who really did not understand what he wanted - and told him why it wasn't possible!!!

The next day we went to the main branch of his bank, Kasikorn in Pattaya and asked for "International Transfers" we got sent upstairs and got a young man who not only spoke fluent Engish he actually knew all the rules. The money was in my friend's UK account within 3 hours. No problem, no hassle, no "front desk" misinformation - dead easy. And from reading the first posting, exactly the same circumstances.

My friend had even mislaid his original tortor3, money transfer certificate but because that was eleven years earlier when he bough his house, even that wasn't a problem.

So don't worry about the gloom and doom merchants, but do be aware that in Thailand if people do not know what to say they will say that you cannot do it. Get your Thai wife to find the international exchange section's number and give them a call, especially if the local branch appears to be putting the block on things.

[stiggy]

Agree with above post, go to banks head office for advice often told cannot at local branches.Alternatively transfer 19k at a time limit without BOT cert is 20k (to Australia anyway)Also from my experience hsbc internal transfers max out on 75% of declared salary when you set up thai account.

If you get really stuck bot allows more than 20 k if you have an invoice proving what it's for, hong kong co set up is easy and good for this.

[steven100]

I've got the answer ! .... Just give me the 5,000,000 baht in cash in brown paper bags and I'll see that it gets to the US as soon as possible.

I really promise it'll all be ok ... I'll give you my mobile number so you can call me if you have any concerns.

What do you think about that idea ?

[RKASA]

I've got the answer ! .... Just give me the 5,000,000 baht in cash in brown paper bags and I'll see that it gets to the US as soon as possible.

I really promise it'll all be ok ... I'll give you my mobile number so you can call me if you have any concerns.

What do you think about that idea ?

Your type of offer is only good if it comes in an email from Africa - you can't fool us.

[KRS1]

Kasikornbank global ATM cards have 100k baht limits per day.

Open 10 accounts and you can have your money within 5 days stateside.

I have 4.

[Stefanix]

I'd talk to a bank. As a Thai citizen, I can transfer money overseas quite easily, though it is a tiny bit bureaucratic to set up.

The other quirk is that I can't transfer money to myself, but I can send it to family (so long as I prove the relationship). Sending monies overseas to support family is an acceptable 'reason'. In my case, providing proof of what that money was for wasn't required, only the relationship.

As such, I've set up transfers which wire money to my parents and my wife's accounts in Australia. The first case my parents then simply wire the money to my Aussie account as soon as they have received it, the latter case my 'wife's account' is actually our own joint bank account to which I have access anyway.

Bangkok Bank set this up for me after I inquired. So as long as you trust your wife (which I am sure you do!!) then that is one option.

Hi Samran,

this sounds interesting! After selling a house, which was under my Thai wife's name, we have a couple of million Baht on our account and I want to get a part of it to Europe. I have a work permit and try currently to enable the "International Funds Transfer" option on my Kasikorn CyberBanking account.

I understand that I am basically entitled to transfer money abroad, but that there is a yearly limit depending on my yearly income ( I think I read somewhere minus 30% for cost of living). If this is true, therer must be a central tracking.

I will try this as soon as it works, but the amount I want to transfer would exceed my yearly income minus x% cost of living.

(I also have nothing to confirm earlier inbound transfers)

If this yearly limit is true and there is some kind of tracking, sending in multiple fractions would not work either.

Now it seems it's even easier for Thai nationals to transfer money out of Thailand, as you wrote.

My wife could transfer the money to my account in Europe to "support the family", right?

How does the "tiny bit of bureaucracy" look like?

Thanks!

[PattayaParent]

^if you have a work permit just go into the bank with it, fill in the transfer form and your done.

[Daveroc]

The Banking system is allowed under BOT rules to remit up to 70% of your annual earnings. Proof of earnings is by way of a letter from your employer. This is lodged with the Bank where you do your transfers and they monitor it.

[PattayaParent]

The Banking system is allowed under BOT rules to remit up to 70% of your annual earnings. Proof of earnings is by way of a letter from your employer. This is lodged with the Bank where you do your transfers and they monitor it.

My bank didn't require proof of earnings, and my salary is not even paid into my Thai bank anyway yet they still allowed me to send money to UK by showing my work permit!

[Stefanix]

Now I am able to transfer money using Kasikorn's CyberBanking. Took 1 week to set up. They did not mention any yearly limit, the daily limit for online international fund transfers is 1 Million THB.

Anyway, before Kasikorn was finally ready, we tried to use my wife's bank account after reading Samran's post. No problem at all, after showing the source of the income (house sold) and a translated marriage certificate, we could transfer 2 Million to "support family" to Europe.

Contrary to my initial impression, it's even easier for a Thai national to send a little bit bigger chunks of money abroad. Normally the proceeds of a house sale should be bigger than a yearly salary. If all of this should be sent abroad, it seems to be better to use the Thai partner's account to not hit the above mentioned limit. Although to "support the family" abroad with 7-10 Million would be very generous, it might not matter too much for the bank...

[marquess]

Is it possible to transfer about 100k from a Bangkok Bank to my account in Australia without a WP?