Singapore Contract - Best Option For Depositing Remittance

[jonnyscot]

Hi, My situation is as follows:: I stay in thailand less than the 180 days in the year (working outside thailand the remainder of days), I'll be renewing my work contract soon and considering changing the way I'm paid,, I've previously had my remittance paid into my account in UK pounds from the office in Singapore,

I'm now considering opening an account in Singapore eg,, a UOB account and having my remittance paid into that account in Singapore dollars and use a UOB ATM card for which I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) carries no transaction costs if used at their branches in Singapore, Thailand or Malaysia rather than transfer large amounts of money every couple of months into my Thai Bank account for use in Thailand.

Can anyone advise whether there are any disadvantages with being paid in Sing Dollars? Also anyone doing similar and find its working ok for them or not? The negative side I see considering a security aspect is I'd be using the ATM card where my remittance is paid into, although to counter this I can cap the daily withdrawal limit.

Any further advice/ideas appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonny

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[lujanit]

I use a Singapore bank account to have money remitted to. Advantages are:

1. safe

2. if they ask whether or not it is wages (which they probably won't) the tax rate in SIN is way below GB or Thailand

3. most banks will automatically limit the amount you can withdraw unless you ask them to change it. My bank has an automatic limit of SIN2k per day.

Dis-advantages

1. Depending on the bank and I am not sure about the UOB you will probably incur some fees in transferring larger amounts (bank fees plus the 3% they make on the exchange rate

It's all pretty simple really, actually a no-brainer. I know quite a few people who use Singapore as their 'bank' of choice, especially those who work off-shore.

Something you may want to think about is in what currency you want your new contract in. Asian currencies are fairly stable while a lot of western currencies fluctuate a fair bit. This could hurt if, say, the GBP devalues significantly to the SIN

[jonnyscot]

Hi Lujanit, thanks for your reply, probably the only possible drawback I could see from my point of view was that I never travel to Singapore even though the company office is based there with regard to solving any banking issues, however its been over a year since I've been back in UK where my main bank currently is, so I suppose much easier for me to travel from LOS to Sing if there were any issues.

Ok so all I have to do now is hop on a flight to Singapore to set up the account bringing the relevant i.d. documents with me.

Thanks again

Jonny

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[negreanu]

Singapore:

Open citibank singapore. Open Citibank Thailand.

Free Global transfers from citibank - citibank worldwide.

Just make sure citibank Singapore you open under domestic Citibank not Citibank IPB to be able to get the free transfers.

Edited November 22, 2012 by negreanu