Best Bank For Foreign Currency Account With Low Fee?

[sas_cars]

Hi Guys,

I am interested in opening a foreign currency account (USD). Can people recommend which bank in thailand has the lowest fee for deposit/withdrawals for such an account? Thanks

[Hugh Jarse]

Try SCB.

[djayz]

A few years ago, I opened two foreign currency accounts (Euro and USD) with Kasikorn bank.

They charged me 1% every time I deposited cash in those accounts AND every time I withdrew cash from them. 0% interest.

Needless to say, I closed the accounts and I wouldn't recommend Kasikorn bank for foreign currency accounts (assuming they haven't changed their policies/fees in the mean time).

[sas_cars]

Yeah, Kbank are a total ripoff. 1 % isnt the only charge, they impose a minimum of 1000 baht as well. Say you deposit 10 $ , the fees you have to pay for depositing your 10 $ note is 1000 baht. Not 1% of 10$

[yoshiwara]

Yeah, Kbank are a total ripoff. 1 % isnt the only charge, they impose a minimum of 1000 baht as well. Say you deposit 10 $ , the fees you have to pay for depositing your 10 $ note is 1000 baht. Not 1% of 10$

Quite reasonable actually for those nickel and dime transactions.

[akampa]

SCB have had a euro account for a few years there are no charges except for the usual ones when i transfere money over the internet from my bank in europe any amount whether 100 or 1 million euro the fee the same.

[smacko]

Wouldn't it be better to just bank offstore.

[youbuyshirt]

Do most Thai banks charge a fee for deposits and withdrawals to a foreign currency account? What an outrage. I've had it up to here with ever-increasing bank fees, especially the fees to "receive" a transfer. Oh, and the famous "intermediate" bank fee, which is just a scam IMO.

akampa, I see that SCB offer a HKD deposit account, which is what I'm interested in. No info about fees on their webpage, though. Do you think there would be no deposit/withdrawal fees, same as with your Euro account?

[Naam]

SCB have had a euro account for a few years there are no charges except for the usual ones when i transfere money over the internet from my bank in europe any amount whether 100 or 1 million euro the fee the same.

how much do they charge if you want to withdraw cash?

[BlackPuddingBertha]

All the banks in Thailand that I looked at seem to charge 1% for cash transactions on currency accounts. It sounds rather like a money-laundering tax to me.

[meatboy]

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand? if you want to spend any you have to change to thai.bht.if your paid in dollars and dont want to spend any put it offshore or bank in usa.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand?

Perhaps for people who expect the USD to rise in value against the THB? Or who will be needing to take USD cash with them somewhere else?

[pbeieio]

HSBC Premier Account???? I had a THB and AUD$ account.

Charges were reasonable and no transaction fees

[Naam]

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand? if you want to spend any you have to change to thai.bht.if your paid in dollars and dont want to spend any put it offshore or bank in usa.

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand?

one man's junk is the other man's treasure

[yoshiwara]

HSBC Premier Account???? I had a THB and AUD$ account.

Charges were reasonable and no transaction fees

HSBC no more in Thailand but if you have a Premier account in HK then you can deposit up to 1000 pounds cash (or other currency equivalent) per day in your foreign deposit account without charge.

[overherebc]

KBank were asking for 10,000 sterling as first deposit to open the account, Don't know if that still applies.

[bender92]

All the banks in Thailand that I looked at seem to charge 1% for cash transactions on currency accounts. It sounds rather like a money-laundering tax to me.

Bangkok Bank does not show a fee, of course there might still be one.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/ForeignCurrencyAccount/Pages/FCDNonResidents.aspx

[bender92]

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand? if you want to spend any you have to change to thai.bht.if your paid in dollars and dont want to spend any put it offshore or bank in usa.

I want to convert some baht to $$ while the baht is strong and $$ are cheap. When the Baht gets adjusted down I can switch back to Baht, make some money. I don't want to send money to the US as the IRS might be notified.

[Langsuan Man]

what are the benefits of having a usd currency acc.in thailand? if you want to spend any you have to change to thai.bht.if your paid in dollars and dont want to spend any put it offshore or bank in usa.

I want to convert some baht to $$ while the baht is strong and $$ are cheap. When the Baht gets adjusted down I can switch back to Baht, make some money. I don't want to send money to the US as the IRS might be notified.

Good luck with that

[15Peter20]

Not sure if its the same with other banks, but with a Bangkok Bank FX account it is very expensive to withdraw the money into the THB account of any other bank (into a BKK Bank account, there's no charge).

The BKK Bank lady who set up the account highlighted this to me straight away and advised that if I wanted to do this it is much better to withdraw into a BKK Bank account first and then use a Bank Draft or Cashier's Cheque to move the money to another bank's account.

[youbuyshirt]

When you talk about fees for withdrawing foreign currency from a foreign currency account, are you talking about actually withdrawing the foreign currency notes? What if your withdrawal is to convert some of your foreign currency into THB and the bank gives you baht? Is there a 1% fee for that?

That's what I would be doing, usually.

15Peter20, are you saying that at Bkk Bank you can withdraw from your foreign currency account and deposit the money to your Bkk Bank THB account and there is no 1% fee?

[bender92]

When you talk about fees for withdrawing foreign currency from a foreign currency account, are you talking about actually withdrawing the foreign currency notes? What if your withdrawal is to convert some of your foreign currency into THB and the bank gives you baht? Is there a 1% fee for that?

That's what I would be doing, usually.

15Peter20, are you saying that at Bkk Bank you can withdraw from your foreign currency account and deposit the money to your Bkk Bank THB account and there is no 1% fee?

There is no fee if you take dollars out and change to baht. If you want dollars you pay a fee.

[youbuyshirt]

Thanks. But to fund the foreign currency account, with a transfer from a bank in another country to the Thai bank...is that deposit subject to a 1% deposit fee? Is there any way to get around that?

Also, if I opened a HKD account and transferred USD into it from abroad, is the conversion made at a fair rate or do they convert the USD TWICE -- first into THB, then into HKD?

[sas_cars]

After carefully examining foreign currency accounts of many banks, I came to conclusion that it's of no use to open a foreign currency account in thailand, due to extortinately high fees in nearly every transcations you can imagine of. Here are few examples

1, Minimum Amount requirement. You must be a foreigner either working in Thailand with a work permit or a Permanent Resident. You must maintain 10,000 to 5,000 USD/other currency equivalent at all times in the account. Or else, you pay a high monthly charge.

1, Deposits, if you buy foreign currency from the bank to fund your new account, you buy it at foreign currency notes selling rates, not the TT rate, which is already worse than buying it from money changers, and to deposit it in your account, the bank further charges a 1 or 2 % fee, depending on the bank. If you deposit your account from an incoming wire transfer from abroad, then you pay 200 THB or 500 THB Max in foreing currency.

2, Withdrawal, is free if you re-convert it into Baht. But if you wanna wire transfer it out of country, you pay minimum charges of at least 50-70 USD and it increases with the amount of transfer, i.e. no maximum, for example, if you transfer 100K out, your wire transfer charges alone may well be 250 to 300 USD. Plus wire transfer out isn't a simple go to your bank and do it, you must be a foreigner working in thailand with a work permit and you can only wire out the amount equivalent of your salary.

So my conclusion is that, unless they really overhaul the charges structure of foreign currency accounts, you are must better off to open your foreign currency account offshore.

[bender92]

After carefully examining foreign currency accounts of many banks, I came to conclusion that it's of no use to open a foreign currency account in thailand, due to extortinately high fees in nearly every transcations you can imagine of. Here are few examples

1, Minimum Amount requirement. You must be a foreigner either working in Thailand with a work permit or a Permanent Resident. You must maintain 10,000 to 5,000 USD/other currency equivalent at all times in the account. Or else, you pay a high monthly charge.

1, Deposits, if you buy foreign currency from the bank to fund your new account, you buy it at foreign currency notes selling rates, not the TT rate, which is already worse than buying it from money changers, and to deposit it in your account, the bank further charges a 1 or 2 % fee, depending on the bank. If you deposit your account from an incoming wire transfer from abroad, then you pay 200 THB or 500 THB Max in foreing currency.

2, Withdrawal, is free if you re-convert it into Baht. But if you wanna wire transfer it out of country, you pay minimum charges of at least 50-70 USD and it increases with the amount of transfer, i.e. no maximum, for example, if you transfer 100K out, your wire transfer charges alone may well be 250 to 300 USD. Plus wire transfer out isn't a simple go to your bank and do it, you must be a foreigner working in thailand with a work permit and you can only wire out the amount equivalent of your salary.

So my conclusion is that, unless they really overhaul the charges structure of foreign currency accounts, you are must better off to open your foreign currency account offshore.

Bangkok Banks minimum is $250 for a savings account. No fees if you change baht to dollars, and withdraw in Baht. Works for me.

[youbuyshirt]

After carefully examining foreign currency accounts of many banks, I came to conclusion that it's of no use to open a foreign currency account in thailand, due to extortinately high fees in nearly every transcations you can imagine of. Here are few examples

1, Minimum Amount requirement. You must be a foreigner either working in Thailand with a work permit or a Permanent Resident. You must maintain 10,000 to 5,000 USD/other currency equivalent at all times in the account. Or else, you pay a high monthly charge.

1, Deposits, if you buy foreign currency from the bank to fund your new account, you buy it at foreign currency notes selling rates, not the TT rate, which is already worse than buying it from money changers, and to deposit it in your account, the bank further charges a 1 or 2 % fee, depending on the bank. If you deposit your account from an incoming wire transfer from abroad, then you pay 200 THB or 500 THB Max in foreing currency.

2, Withdrawal, is free if you re-convert it into Baht. But if you wanna wire transfer it out of country, you pay minimum charges of at least 50-70 USD and it increases with the amount of transfer, i.e. no maximum, for example, if you transfer 100K out, your wire transfer charges alone may well be 250 to 300 USD. Plus wire transfer out isn't a simple go to your bank and do it, you must be a foreigner working in thailand with a work permit and you can only wire out the amount equivalent of your salary.

So my conclusion is that, unless they really overhaul the charges structure of foreign currency accounts, you are must better off to open your foreign currency account offshore.

Thanks for that info, Sas cars. So if I just have a retirement visa, I don't qualify to open a FC account? A wire transfer into the account would be charged only up to 500 baht, not a 1% deposit fee? Which bank has that policy? All of them?

One can use a service like XE Trade to convert the money and have them wire it to the Thailand bank. This might get you a much better rate than letting the bank convert it, though I'm not sure as I've never done it.

Where is a good country to open a FC account? So many countries' banks have outrageous fees these days.

[Nisasina]

As my experiences for currencies, every bank will charge you 1% when you deposit foreign currency and each year you should maintain your balance or having the transaction if not the bank will charge you about 10 USD. I had a friend who work for bank dealer, when you want to withdraw a big amount let say 10,000 euro( I forgot about minimum about of USD dollar) you can ask the counter teller to contact bank dealer to give you higher exchange as different from screen board. As my opinion BAY could give you high amount of exchange. If you'd like to open foreign account, I recommend Standard Charted bank, you can avoid ATM charge. But you need to ask them to give you ATM without no bank fee when you want withdraw the money in bkk or oversea. Also UOB is quite good too.