Are Older Men in Thailand Trading Love for Financial Ruin

[scorpio]

we have sent a lot of money over to thailand in last few years. we were planning on living there but now we have run into some difficulties back home , also we did not take into account our daughters education in thailand ( seems the cheapest decent school for our kid in pattaya is around 80k - 100k baht per year ) hindsights a wonderfull thing indeed !!!

saying we have 4m baht in bank in thailand now, how much would we lose exchanging that amount back into gbp ? the money is sitting gathering 3% in thai bank and is due to mature in sept 13. should i send bank an email and tell them to keep it there another year or would me and wife have to personally go to bank and sign documents for a further year ?

any idea,s on what we could do ?

thanks in advance

[HullyGully]

First point 3% is better than the UK

With the weak BAHT its not a bad time to send back, however if you need to change again in the future, its probably better to leave in a THAT account

To transfer money to a UK bank, you need their SWIFT CODE / YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER / NAME

If you can show all the money came into Thailand, then the transfer is not an issue

If not you can transfer around GBP20k without your Thai bank report / getting permission from the THAI CB

[Naam]

First point 3% is better than the UK

With the weak BAHT its not a bad time to send back, however if you need to change again in the future, its probably better to leave in a THAT account

To transfer money to a UK bank, you need their SWIFT CODE / YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER / NAME

If you can show all the money came into Thailand, then the transfer is not an issue

If not you can transfer around GBP20k without your Thai bank report / getting permission from the THAI CB

"With the weak BAHT..." =

make that

"with the strong Baht..." =

[scorpio]

hmmmmm thanks. i think we cannot take this money back, just spoke to my wife and she doesnt want to lose 1 baht ( yes, shes thai ) anyway she wants to buy land with the money or try some kind of business.

jsut wish i hadnt of jumped in too quick and sent all this money over in first place but i thought we were going to build a future in thailand.....ah well

[Thailand1977]

hmmmmm thanks. i think we cannot take this money back, just spoke to my wife and she doesnt want to lose 1 baht ( yes, shes thai ) anyway she wants to buy land with the money or try some kind of business.

jsut wish i hadnt of jumped in too quick and sent all this money over in first place but i thought we were going to build a future in thailand.....ah well

But you'll be making money on the exchange rate only in the last few weeks the baht has gained 10%.

[scorpio]

most 90% of the money we transfered over we got around 50 baht to the pound.

[Thailand1977]

most 90% of the money we transfered over we got around 50 baht to the pound.

So approx 10% profit on 4million baht is 400,000BHT or 8000 Pound.

Not a bad days pay if you can get it.

[kyb789]

most 90% of the money we transfered over we got around 50 baht to the pound.

And you regret sending it over? Sounds like you just made a killing with your investment in the Thai baht. Plus it is earning 3% in Thailand. Not a bad investment at all. Whatever the transfer fees will be, you did quite well.

[falang07]

hmmmmm thanks. i think we cannot take this money back, just spoke to my wife and she doesnt want to lose 1 baht ( yes, shes thai ) anyway she wants to buy land with the money or try some kind of business.

jsut wish i hadnt of jumped in too quick and sent all this money over in first place but i thought we were going to build a future in thailand.....ah well

Of course she would rather buy a land in her name than you getting the money back with a nice profit on the exchange rate I like her reasoning that "she doesnt want to lose 1 baht (yes, shes thai)" ))))

[aussiebebe]

Who's name is the Thai bank account in? That person flies to Thailand, goes to the bank and does a SWIFT transfer to the UK account. Given the presently strong baht, if you kept records of the pounds you have been sending over the years you'll easily be able to show your wife that the amount of pounds you transfer back are equal to or greater than the amount you sent.

[CHRISTIANa9]

hmmmmm thanks. i think we cannot take this money back, just spoke to my wife and she doesnt want to lose 1 baht ( yes, shes thai ) anyway she wants to buy land with the money or try some kind of business.

jsut wish i hadnt of jumped in too quick and sent all this money over in first place but i thought we were going to build a future in thailand.....ah well

Of course she would rather buy a land in her name than you getting the money back with a nice profit on the exchange rate I like her reasoning that "she doesnt want to lose 1 baht (yes, shes thai)" ))))

Agree. As expected.

[yoshiwara]

It really does depend on how much you need now and whether you can spread it out.

Assuming that you can treat the 4m baht as an income stream for your planned life now in the UK, what you might do is make one trip each year to Thailand and withdraw ~ 0.8m baht in cash each trip and get the best exchange rate (eg from TT) and bring back the maximum equivalent of $20k in sterling. The balance you leave on deposit. That would be 5 trips.

[yoshiwara]

'er forgot something... With cash, if you are bringing in (or taking out) amounts in excess of 10,000 euros cash or equivalent, you are legally obliged to declare it. Also you might be asked to show the source of that money. It is a risk which you need to bear in mind.