International Fund Transfer With Siam Commercial Bank

[germandude]

I have a "small" problem and I hope somebody could give me some advice on how to solve it:

I recently established my own company and I will pay myself the minimum salary of 50K THB. As my business will involve a lot of travelling, I expect to claim approx. 150K THB travel expenses each month from my company. Most, if not all of those expenses, are paid with my german credit cards, so I will have to transfer basically this amount of approx. 150K THB each month to my german bank account to balance these credit cards.

Until now I only have the informtion from SCB that this will not be possible, as I can not transfer 150K THB each month from my account, because my salary is only 50K THB.

How can I get this organized?

Regarding the credit cards:

I obviously asked them if I could get credit cards from SCB, but they told me my monthly salary must be at least 150K THB/month. If I would like to have a corporate credit card in my companies name, the minimum amount that the company would have to make would be 500K THB/month!!

Any help in this matter would be highly appreciated, as I start to panic "a little bit" already....

[sting01]

I have a "small" problem and I hope somebody could give me some advice on how to solve it:

I recently established my own company and I will pay myself the minimum salary of 50K THB. As my business will involve a lot of travelling, I expect to claim approx. 150K THB travel expenses each month from my company. Most, if not all of those expenses, are paid with my german credit cards, so I will have to transfer basically this amount of approx. 150K THB each month to my german bank account to balance these credit cards.

Until now I only have the informtion from SCB that this will not be possible, as I can not transfer 150K THB each month from my account, because my salary is only 50K THB.

How can I get this organized?

Regarding the credit cards:

I obviously asked them if I could get credit cards from SCB, but they told me my monthly salary must be at least 150K THB/month. If I would like to have a corporate credit card in my companies name, the minimum amount that the company would have to make would be 500K THB/month!!

Any help in this matter would be highly appreciated, as I start to panic "a little bit" already....

Welcome to paradise.

First you have to know it's a one way ticket formoney in thailand, mean money enter but never go out. OR with huge problems. How dare are you to move what is rightfully thai owned (your money in that case) to somewhere else and use it on your own?

Well, it can sound a bit crazed to say that, but it's just a way to make short a long story, and at then end of the day it's what will happend (consider your CC problem if you think I am joking).

The easy solution will be to have a personnal loan from your company (if you are a director or a member of the board it's legal), I mean you company will advance you 150 K (must be made legally), and then you will use it to cover your first expenses (first month), then the company will pay you back the expenses (you will have bills, and that is a normal process according to the usual accounting laws), and then you will have money back for the second month ... The advance for the forst month, and then the reimboursement every month must be made in cash , then to avoid the regulation on the money in the airports, you should pre send the money by western union or money gram to the place where you will go, it mean when you arrive them oney will be there waiting for you.

A bit of headhache, but it's easy and legal, even if you have some cost every time.

There is other way to do, I am sure other will tell you, but they imply paperworks (a lot), agreement by some bureaucraty (mean it can be cancelled at any time), and uncertainity of the result (there is story of SWIFT transfert that was waiting around during weeks and with cost hight as 20 $ per each 100$ if you get my point).

Edited March 22, 2006 by sting01

[grahamb]

Until now I only have the informtion from SCB that this will not be possible, as I can not transfer 150K THB each month from my account, because my salary is only 50K THB.

Sting's right that money always flows in easier than out from Thailand. I think the information from SCB is based on the Bank of Thailand ruling. I've just opened a Bangkok Bank account to allow me to transfer money overseas via their internet banking and to do that, I had to fill in a form specifying the account it is going to and the reason for transferring. There were only 3 valid reasons listed:

1. Thai paying for school fees overseas (they require proof of the school fees and that is the maximum amount you are allowed to transfer)

2. Thai transferring money to family overseas (I can't remember what the proof was for that but the limit was USD100k per year which is the standard transfer limit)

3. Foreigner working in Thailand who wants to remit money back to home country (they require a letter from your employer stating your salary and set the maximum transfer amount based on that minus expenses)

It takes approximately 2 weeks to get all this set up so I don't know the final transfer limit they have set with me but if I was 'earning' 50k THB per month, I would not be able to transfer 150k THB per month overseas because the BoT would question where the extra income is coming from.

When I have done ad-hoc transfers over the counter with Kasikornbank, they have not asked for this proof so that may be an option but then the question is how to get the money into a Thai bank account without it appearing to be salary. There is also the consideration that my transfers through Kasikorn have never gone smoothly so that is why I'm setting up an account with Bangkok Bank to do it myself because then I know the details will be entered correctly

[sting01]

I went to Western last sunday (it's how my abroad clients pay me). I noticed that even there the transfert from thailand to abroad is limitate (Amount and reasons) and subject to acceptance.

So I am unsure of what I proposed, I think at the end the best would be to buy traveller cheqs, assuming you get the initial money from your society.

A bit OT, but still in relation :

the actual people walking on the streets for ousting the PM are doing so because basically he sold his familly business to foreigners who will then own something ofconcrete in thailand. I know it's not true for all the protesters, and that is a shortcut to say what I said. But if you read thai and understand the bilboards carryied by the average citisen , it's that (Thaksin sold a part of Thailand).

I would like to do a stupid and silly joke (I felt depress and need to express my feelings):

to move money outside thailand, just go abroad with 2 or 3 bargirls from nana, and then resold them when arrive (Assuming you already paid the bar fees lol).

[Thaipwriter]

this is not a problem at all...

I have an account with SCB

I have applied and enabled their "international fund transfer" function via the online banking service that they offer.

It is possible to send any amount any number of times a months from your account as long as your abide by 2 simple rules:

1 Your balance must be more than the value of your transfer

2. any single transaction must not exceed 20,000 usd.

Charge for each tranaction: 300 baht.

All this talk about it being difficult to get money out of thailand is 100% rubbish. i have sent out 3 million baht in the last 4 months or so.

The SCB branch in Khon Kaen had no idea about this service until i showed them a cached image of the service on Thier website.

It is an uphill struggle to get the online method set up. You can just as easilty fill out a form in the branch though

[sting01]

this is not a problem at all...

I have an account with SCB

I have applied and enabled their "international fund transfer" function via the online banking service that they offer.

It is possible to send any amount any number of times a months from your account as long as your abide by 2 simple rules:

1 Your balance must be more than the value of your transfer

2. any single transaction must not exceed 20,000 usd.

Charge for each tranaction: 300 baht.

All this talk about it being difficult to get money out of thailand is 100% rubbish. i have sent out 3 million baht in the last 4 months or so.

The SCB branch in Khon Kaen had no idea about this service until i showed them a cached image of the service on Thier website.

It is an uphill struggle to get the online method set up. You can just as easilty fill out a form in the branch though

That is not so rubbish, that is a reallity, but maybe the reason is simply the one you give : informations is never accurate.

After 5 years as SCB clients, and using weekly internatinal transferts that is the first time I hear what you are saying, and I am glad to learn it

[thohts]

I used to have problems wire transferring money overseas, too, at SCB. The simplest transfers would be accompanied with loads of questions. That is, until I started using a method that works like a charm for me now. PM me for details.

[sting01]

I forgot to precise something when I given my advice.

If you are earning let say 200 K bht, you will never have problem to transfer 150 K abroad.

If you are earning 50 K. so that is difficult and have to rely on something else.

So, to move monthly 150 K abroad, there is different cases.

I went to my bank this morning (SCB Thong Lhor), and they told me I can not move 150 K abroad, as my earnings (that are not salary in more) are barely 25 K. So I do not have justification to do so.

Just to say what is rubbish in one case, can be fully true in another case (not every farangs is earning more than 50 K per month as salary).

[givanno]

Why are you using your German credit card in the first place? I don't think that is necessary, it just makes things complicated and expensive because you get hit with credit card, money transfer and currency conversion fees. Get some debit card type plastic money from SCB or some other Thai Bank. I have a Visa debit card from Bangkok bank and a Visa Electron card from Bank Ayudhya which can both be used abroad to pay for the most common travel expenses. You can't use these cards for online purchases or hotel reservations and of course you can only spend the money that is actually in your bank account but otherwise they work like real credit cards.

Most, if not all of those expenses, are paid with my german credit cards, so I will have to transfer basically this amount of approx. 150K THB each month to my german bank account to balance these credit cards.

Until now I only have the informtion from SCB that this will not be possible, as I can not transfer 150K THB each month from my account, because my salary is only 50K THB.

[germandude]

Thanks for all the advice and sorry for not replying earlier here, but I am travelling at the moment again so I had no chance to reply earlier:

@Thaipwriter:

I am aware of the International Fund Transfer option on Easynet and I am so far unsuccessful in getting it approved as I want to transfer more money out of Thailand then my salary is (as mentioned in my original post, I will have coming money into my personal account of approx. 200K THB each month, consisting of 150K expenses and 50K salary.)

@thots:

PM is on the way and I am curious to hear what advice you have...

@givanno:

In theory its good advice, but as you mentioned I would not be able to make online reservations or purchases with my cards. What I find really hard to believe is that they set such high standards for issuing a normal credit card to a person that is the "owner" and MD of a company owner that has a registered capital of 2M Baht! ( I know this is the minimum, but couldn't they see this also as a sort of security when they consider issuing cards to a foreigner?).

Well in the end I may have to go that route and I considered this approach as a sort of last solution...

[sylvafern]

Regarding the credit cards:

I obviously asked them if I could get credit cards from SCB, but they told me my monthly salary must be at least 150K THB/month. If I would like to have a corporate credit card in my companies name, the minimum amount that the company would have to make would be 500K THB/month!!

Any help in this matter would be highly appreciated, as I start to panic "a little bit" already....

The company I work for uses SCB and lots of staff members have credit cards (not just debit cards/electron) and very few people have salaries over 150,000 (most would be less than 100,000). I got my first credit card in Thailand when my salary was only 45,000 a month (with bank of Asia ... now UOB) ... so that statement is definitely not true .... however as I'm an employee of a company rather than the owner, this may be different. I also transfer money regulary and now have an automatic payment set up ... every 1st of the month a specified amount is taken out of my account and so far I've never had problems with this ... however, I've never tried sending more than my monthly salary. Like everywhere in Thailand, often the employees of a company don't necessarily know all the rules and information themselves, so it might just be a matter of talking to someone else to get the correct information.

[Valjean]

I have a Bangkok Bank and have found this easy. There are forms to be filled out that seem to go in a serial proecss but there is a process. 1. set up accout. 2. Set up internet banking. 3. Set up international transfer with Internet banking, 4 set up credit card 5 set up credit card with internet banking.

For the credit card they wanted me to either have my company sign or me leave funds in my saving. For now I leave 100,000 there and have 100,000 limit. Assume after a year of using and paying with the card they will let holding the deposit go.

I set up the online internatonal transfer. US$19,999 limit on any one transfer. There is a yearly limit of US$104,00. The yearly limit is less than my salary so I'm not sure if the cap is related to law or salary. The $20,000 is more than the monthly salary so there the seem happy to let me send more than my salary at least on a monthly basis. I think the $20,000 limit is staturary because before I was all set up just went to the desk and did this with a passport and the form filled out. 300 THB at BKK Bank, $10 at Bank of America on the receiving end. Note above for the three reasons is correct.

The online banking is OK. pay almost all my bills that way now, can transfer money to non Bangkok Bank accounts. Works good for me. I'm a happy customer with Bangkok Bank and have them easy to work with, abet with plenty of forms. It is easy to send money out of Thailand in my experience and do it every month (not that I like doing that but a man has obligations...)

[grahamb]

I set up the online internatonal transfer. US$19,999 limit on any one transfer. There is a yearly limit of US$104,00. The yearly limit is less than my salary so I'm not sure if the cap is related to law or salary.

As I mentioned earlier, the yearly limit is related to your salary - it is the salary you earn in Thailand (as stated on the company letter) minus expenses (they don't explain what expenses they consider). I finally got the transfer set up on my Bangkok Bank online account and the yearly limit is very close to the annual salary that I declared so the expenses seem to be minimal in my case but YMMV.

I double checked all the small print on the forms and Bangkok Bank's website because the branch that I deal with told me that this was the first time they had anyone setting up international fund transfers so I wanted to make sure they were doing things correctly.