Porked & busted: Thai woman nabbed for telling ‘pork’ pies 208 times

[Daffy D]

Looking through the posts I frequently see references to 'Foreign Exchange Transaction Form" that must be completed when transferring moneys over a certain amount.

"if you are transferring money into Thailand to buy a condominium under the full or partial foreign 49% ownership quota, you must identify the

purpose of the funds on the transfer form, otherwise you run into difficulties"

"any transfer exceeding the equivalent of 20,000 USD will in any event require a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form to be completed before it can be finalised here"

Is this form issued here in Thailand or something that has to be done in the country where the transfer originates?

Thanks.

[CMSteve]

Thailand. Receive a large transfer and the bank person will hand you the form. The country/bank of origin may also have a form for you to complete.

Edited June 28, 2012 by CMSteve

[GuestHouse]

A point of note, while the regulation states that the form shall be issued for sums of $20K and over, I have recently been issued foreign exchange transaction forms for sums as low as $2500.

Another point to note, ask for a certified copy of the transaction form from the bank. Use the copy at the land office (or for the transaction you intend to make) and save the original for taking the money back out of Thailand , should the need arise.

[GuestHouse]

Also note that not all branches issue these forms, the bank will tell you which branch to go to.

[thaitero]

"any transfer exceeding the equivalent of 20,000 USD will in any event require a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form to be completed before it can be finalised here"

The amount has been raised to 50 000 USD or equivalent so this info is old..

If condo you buy is below 50 000 usd you can get similar paper also from bank but the form name is different and in this paper it has to be excatly said what you are buying..And when you get this paper from bank doublecheck this paper carefully because landoffice may send you back to the bank if there is error with condoaddress you are buying.. This happened to me last may and it was a quite hassle.

[Daffy D]

Thank you all

[Langsuan Man]

A point of note, while the regulation states that the form shall be issued for sums of $20K and over, I have recently been issued foreign exchange transaction forms for sums as low as $2500.

Another point to note, ask for a certified copy of the transaction form from the bank. Use the copy at the land office (or for the transaction you intend to make) and save the original for taking the money back out of Thailand , should the need arise.

Your second point to note is not valid. The Land Office requires the original be placed in the file once the Chanote is issued, you will be given back the copy from the Land Office and that is what you will use to repartiate the funds

[Zen]

I am buying a condo and have transferred money from overseas several times.

For example the condo cost 1,200,000 baht and i transferred the equivalent of 300,000 baht 4 times. Each time i got a document called "credit advice" from the bank.

So i have 4 of these documents. All of them look like ordinary A4 paper with some details printed on it. In fact the bank said it was faxed to them from HQ that's why they look like copy.

Do i have to ask the bank to stamp and sign "certified true copy"?

Or they are they the "original" that the land office requires?

[GuestHouse]

ZEN you need to get a Foreign Exchange Transfer Certificate from your Thai Bank.

When you transferred the cash you should have stated the reason for transfer was to purchase property/condo - if you did not you might have a problem getting the bank to write 'Condo Purchase' on the certificate. In which case take you sale/purchase agreement with you and talk very nicely to the bank staff.

[jmcdougall45]

Does anyone know? If you're transferring foreign currency to be converted into baht, what box is ticked on the FETF in Section 3, under Type of transaction? Is it selling, because you're selling your foreign currency?

[Maestro]

I searched my hard disk and for easy reference, this is the current version of the FETF as a PDF file:

FETF Foreign Exchange Transaction Form USD 50k.pdf

I made the above PDF from the Microsoft Word document the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has here on its website: http://www.bot.or.th/Thai/ForeignExchangeRegulations/Report%20Form/Report/FX_TranForm.doc

The FETF is filled out by the Thai bank that receives your remittance, after the arrival of the money. It is a report that the BOT requires form the Thai banks for transactions equivalent to USD 50,000 or more. On request you, the account holder, can get a copy of it from the receiving bank.

I don't know what instructions the banks have about completing the form but from the look of it your remittance to the Krung Thai Bank will have to be recorded as foreign exchange bought by the bank. I guess that "Purchase" applies to cash (banknotes), "Deposit" to an incoming remittance received by the bank, which is the case with your transaction.

[jmcdougall45]

Thanks for that.

[Maestro]

Searching some more, I found the following PDF document in Thai language which I understand contains the BOT's instructions on filling out the FETF, apparently starting at page 61. The Thai font used in the document seems to be UPCCLight (for Apple computers?) and unfortunately Adobe's built-in optical character reader (OCR) cannot save it correctly as a Word document on my PC. It looks like No. 7 in the table starting on page 66 refers to the type of foreign exchange transaction that must be selected under No. 3 on the FETF.

(Beware, the document is large, 2.49MB) Thai language

FETF instructions - Exchange Regulations.pdf

Extract from PDF covering FETF (pages 61–76) Thai language

FETF instructions.pdf

Edited November 11, 2012 by Maestro
Added extract from PDF

[jmcdougall45]

Can anyone give guidance on foreign exchanges coming out of Thailand? My wife and I want to buy a condo and let it out in the meantime. So we want to get the rent out of Thailand, from our Thai bank account, back to our UK bank account on a regular basis (not necessarily a monthly basis). Any suggestions on how to get the best exchange rates and minimise or avoid bank charges?

Also, one post I saw said the Thai bank would need to see documentation proving what the transaction was. Any guidance on what this documentation might be?

Thank you.