Swift Transfer Fee By Thai Bank?

[sms747]

Recently transferred quite a large amount from UK- Bkk bank by swift. Bank in UK charged 25 pounds, three weeks later the bank here Thanachart took another 25 pounds out of my UK account as a transfer fee. This seems too much to me but going into the local branch only results in total non interest and no explanation. Have a friend who is a manager of another branch who told us there was no such fee, they have not charged on other transfers. Anybody know what the truth is and if there is a fee how much it normally is?

Edited August 8, 2012 by sms747

[lopburi3]

How exactly did a Thai bank take 25 pound from your UK bank? Sounds as if you need to be talking to your UK bank.

Expect a transfer will involved your UK bank fee for SWIFT and likely a fee at another bank for the transfer and then a .25% fee in the range 200-500 baht at Thai bank. At least that is the drill from US. And you did send as pounds to be converted to baht in Thailand?

[Pib]

As lopburi3 mentioned Thai banks do have a funds receipt/conversion fee they apply, which is in the 0.25% (200 baht min, 500 baht max) ballpark. This is charged whether the funds arrive in a foreign currency or already converted to baht. And this is charged when the funds are posted to your account; not days or weeks later.

What makes you think Thanachart could debit your home counry bank account without your permission/signing some document? Maybe you just noticed another fee your home country sending bank tacked onto the SWIFT charge. Some sending banks charge some healthy fees for wire/SWIFT transfers.

Or maybe you are really saying the money that was posted to your Thanachart account, excluding the SWIFT fee, seems to be about 25 pounds low? If so, hopefully you didn't allow the Sending bank to convert to baht before sending as chances are high you will get a significantly lower exchange rate or another fee applied by the Sending bank. Then again maybe your Sending bank has just double charged you by mistake.

[Naam]

three weeks later the bank here Thanachart took another 25 pounds out of my UK account as a transfer fee

it was your UK-bank that debited your account. since a couple of months i am experiencing the same when i transfer funds from Singapore to another country (no matter what currency). my bank charges the regular SWIFT fees of SGD 25.- and a couple of weeks later i am hit with an additional fee from an intermediary bank. found that out only day before yesterday when i checked some details.

[fletchsmile]

When you do an international funds transfer using SWIFT, there are 3 options on charges to be selected:

1) fees to be paid by sender

2) fees to be shared (sender picks up sending fees, receiver receiving banks fees)

3) fees to be paid by recipient

In addition the recipient bank my also decide to deduct fees as part of their service. This is usually around THB 400 in Thailand

Furthermore where banks don't have a clearing bank in a particular country, they may go thru a correspondent/ intermediary bank, who will also charge fees. This also varies depending on currency. The correspondent bank is the most annoying one, and the one you often don't find out what the fees are until after you have done the question. If you think about it the sending bank will not always know the fees all its correspondent banks in every country uses on every transaction level. So it can be somewhat trial and error

If you are crossing 2 different banks: The best solution is often to send from a bank "native" to the country you are in. eg in UK send from a UK bank, then in Thailand receive it in a Thai bank. The native banks usually have no need for a correspondent bank as they can do themselves. Also you can then look up their charges on their websites, and work out which is best, without worrying about a correspondent bank.

If you can keep within the same bank, that sometimes has advantages. eg I send from Stan Chart Singapore to Stan Chart Thailand, and they waive the fees as a priority banking customer.

Key is avoiding correspondent banks in the middle which are usually unknown for fees, and usually take liberties. Smile in UK give a reasonable explanation:

http://www.smile.co.uk/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Smile/Page/smView&inifile=futuretense.ini&c=Page&cid=1027951510531

All that in mind, it looks unusual to me they took it 3 weeks later. That part in particular I would query with the people who deducted it

[CharlieH]

Fail to see how any Thai bank can deduct money from a UK account ?, any fee's etc would be deducted from the sum transferred when it hits your Thai account.

Edited August 8, 2012 by CharlieH

[sms747]

Nationwide say it was Thanachart who debited the money and say take it up with them, when i tried I just got nowhere. Will send in the mrs tomorrow to see if she can get anywhere with them. Seems odd that they never charged me last year. I would expect a figure of about 500-1000 but they just charged the same as Nationwide so in effect 2500 baht for one transfer. Did not convert to baht before sending but Thanachart held it for a week (had to go in and sign) and when they put it in my account the amount was about 30k less than when they got it due to falling rate. I will be changing my bank as they are no better than Siam city were. K bank looks the best bet. Thanks for the replies.

[Penkoprod]

Nationwide, you say?

Could this "other" £25 be an erroneous charge from them, as they route all their tranfers via HSBC?

Penkoprod

[Pib]

My guess is a Nationwide intermediary/agent, not Thanachart, is the one generating the 2nd 25 pound charge. I seriously doubt a Thai bank would be generating exactly a 25 pound charge/fee (I'm assuming it's an "exactly" amount)...now I could see that for a UK intermediary bank/agent that Nationwide is using. See this link regarding Nationwide fees for SWIFT transfers...some potential, unspecified fees are quite vague. Also beware of the charge/fee "coding/descriptions" as banks many times give them coding/descriptions that "implies" the charges came from some one else, not them.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Pib

[sms747]

I had an explanation from Tanachart that I still do not understand. They say i made a choice on the transfer form between 'our' and 'benefit' as a means of paying the fee to Tanachart and as I chose 'ours' the fee was somehow 1250 baht instead of 500 baht. I do not recall any such choice on the transfer form but it is stated as 'our' on the official transfer form Tanachart gave me today. There was a choice to deduct transfer fee from my flex account, but I assumed that was the 25 quid due to nationwide. Tanachart say their usual fee is 200-500 baht and can only say the extra is due to my choosing 'our' bizzare, Tanachart definitely debited my UK account 3 weeks after the transfer.Just the latest in a long line of frustrations with Tanachart and before that Siam City, staff are the same of course, (nana nua) Wife blames me of course!

Edited August 9, 2012 by sms747

[lopburi3]

Have no idea what "our" would mean but suspect you elected to have the full amount in baht credited to your account so a billing had to be made back for the normal fee (which would have normally been deducted from the total amount going into your account).

[Pib]

Here's how one financial agency describes the "OUR" transfer selection: The OUR instruction means you pay all transfer charges. We receive all your payment.

See this Link for more transfer code info.

[Sophon]

I had an explanation from Tanachart that I still do not understand. They say i made a choice on the transfer form between 'our' and 'benefit' as a means of paying the fee to Tanachart and as I chose 'ours' the fee was somehow 1250 baht instead of 500 baht. I do not recall any such choice on the transfer form but it is stated as 'our' on the official transfer form Tanachart gave me today. There was a choice to deduct transfer fee from my flex account, but I assumed that was the 25 quid due to nationwide. Tanachart say their usual fee is 200-500 baht and can only say the extra is due to my choosing 'our' bizzare, Tanachart definitely debited my UK account 3 weeks after the transfer.Just the latest in a long line of frustrations with Tanachart and before that Siam City, staff are the same of course, (nana nua) Wife blames me of course!

This is not a problem with Thanachart but a result of your/Nationwide's choice of "costs" option (see post 5 from Fletchsmile).

When you select that you will pay all costs including the costs of receiving bank (which is what "our" means), then receiving bank has to send a SWIFT message back to Nationwide to give them information about how much their costs were. This means extra work and extra expenses for Thanachart (and Nationwide) and results in the total charges being higher than normal. It is not Thanachart that debits your account but Nationwide based on the information they receive from Thanachart.

If transferring money to your own account you should always select costs option "shared". Options "ours" and "beneficiary" should only be used when an exact amount has to reach beneficiary (costs option "ours") or be deducted from your account including all charges (costs option "beneficiary").

So no need to blame Thanachart for this, it's a result of the way you (or your bank) decided to make the payment instruction. the result would have been exactly the same with any other Thai (or foreign) bank (although the resulting charges could have been higher or lower).

Sophon

Edited August 9, 2012 by Sophon

[Pib]

It's called bank/financial services talk which all too often can be very cryptic/vague...and often results in additional fees (which banks just love). Sound like Nationwide likes cryptic/vague instructions.

[sms747]

Thanks for the explanations, it certainly is NOT clear on the sending form. People on here actually seem to know more than the banks do, or at least are able to explain it.

[GreenSnapper]

Here's how one financial agency describes the "OUR" transfer selection: The OUR instruction means you pay all transfer charges. We receive all your payment.

See this Link for more transfer code info.

"OUR" SWIFT transfer should be used only if you need to pay someone an exact amount without deductions.

In that case, all fees of all banks go back to the original sender. And that can be weeks later if the participating banks are slow on billing.

But if you transfer to your own accounts, "OUR" is almost always more expensive. What you should use is "SHARED" instead.