Geeeezzzz.

[lopburi3]

From other reports this BA system may or may not work. When checked manually for whatever reason it seems to be "not allowed" as Bangkok Bank is not considered a US bank. So what works one time may not work the next. Just something to be aware of.

Bangkok Bank, and believe all Thai banks, charge 1/4% in the range 200-500 baht when making the conversion to Baht.

[Kruang]

From other reports this BA system may or may not work. When checked manually for whatever reason it seems to be "not allowed" as Bangkok Bank is not considered a US bank. So what works one time may not work the next. Just something to be aware of.

Bangkok Bank, and believe all Thai banks, charge 1/4% in the range 200-500 baht when making the conversion to Baht.

I've successfully used the BofA system 4 times in the last few months to transfer funds to Thailand. It did fail once, for reasons that the Bank's customer service couldn't explain to me. So I just made another transfer.

Given that the service may not be 100% reliable, don't count on it for emergency use. But for me, it's been a very effective way to move cash, sometimes in large amounts, to Thailand easily and cheaply.

[sfokevin]

Yes Bangkok Bank is different from most other Thai banks in that it has a US operation that has an ABA number to integrate with the US Federal Reserve system. These online inter-bank transfers are a new function in the US - I have used it many time without problems to move money within the US - I would guess (Bit prejudiced) that Bangkok Bank bounced back the one that failed for you - But if they get the kinks worked out it will be very nice to sit at the Starbucks on Sukhumvit and transfer funds!

PS Fidelity has the Interbank Transfer function and it's FREE!!!!

Edited April 23, 2006 by sfokevin

[jas007]

I spent a few hours last week trying to figure out which banks don't charge international or other ATM fees. The are some. For example, Schwab Bank doesn't charge an international ATM fee. Neither does a bank called Commerce Bank out of New Jeresey. Nor does Netbank.

When the time comes, I'll have to try the Bank of America/Bangkok Bank approach for money transfers.

J

[Carmine6]

From other reports this BA system may or may not work. When checked manually for whatever reason it seems to be "not allowed" as Bangkok Bank is not considered a US bank. So what works one time may not work the next. Just something to be aware of.

Bangkok Bank, and believe all Thai banks, charge 1/4% in the range 200-500 baht when making the conversion to Baht.

I've successfully used the BofA system 4 times in the last few months to transfer funds to Thailand. It did fail once, for reasons that the Bank's customer service couldn't explain to me. So I just made another transfer.

Given that the service may not be 100% reliable, don't count on it for emergency use. But for me, it's been a very effective way to move cash, sometimes in large amounts, to Thailand easily and cheaply.

The last time this came up it seemed like the issues were transaction size related. Transfers for $1k -$2k generally went through ok, but $5k was usually stopped. Things like that. Someone was actually told that it was stopped because they knew it was an attempt to get around the international wire system.

My thought was that every large transaction to Bangkok Bank was looked at by someone, while smaller ones were not all scrutinized since there are so many of them. So once in a while a big one would slip through, while once in a while a small one was stopped.

Was your stopped transaction a large one?

[Kruang]

All of my transfers were for amounts between $5k and $10k. The one that failed was for $6k. Customer service at BofA couldn't explain to me why the transfer failed (actually I asked several times and got a different answer each time, so I didn't trust any of the answers).

From other reports this BA system may or may not work. When checked manually for whatever reason it seems to be "not allowed" as Bangkok Bank is not considered a US bank. So what works one time may not work the next. Just something to be aware of.

Bangkok Bank, and believe all Thai banks, charge 1/4% in the range 200-500 baht when making the conversion to Baht.

I've successfully used the BofA system 4 times in the last few months to transfer funds to Thailand. It did fail once, for reasons that the Bank's customer service couldn't explain to me. So I just made another transfer.

Given that the service may not be 100% reliable, don't count on it for emergency use. But for me, it's been a very effective way to move cash, sometimes in large amounts, to Thailand easily and cheaply.

The last time this came up it seemed like the issues were transaction size related. Transfers for $1k -$2k generally went through ok, but $5k was usually stopped. Things like that. Someone was actually told that it was stopped because they knew it was an attempt to get around the international wire system.

My thought was that every large transaction to Bangkok Bank was looked at by someone, while smaller ones were not all scrutinized since there are so many of them. So once in a while a big one would slip through, while once in a while a small one was stopped.

Was your stopped transaction a large one?

[Kruang]

Yes Bangkok Bank is different from most other Thai banks in that it has a US operation that has an ABA number to integrate with the US Federal Reserve system. These online inter-bank transfers are a new function in the US - I have used it many time without problems to move money within the US - I would guess (Bit prejudiced) that Bangkok Bank bounced back the one that failed for you - But if they get the kinks worked out it will be very nice to sit at the Starbucks on Sukhumvit and transfer funds!

PS Fidelity has the Interbank Transfer function and it's FREE!!!!

I wanted to use the Fidelity Money Line transfer, but your account in Thailand has to be a checking or money market deposit account (not a passbook savings account). Since Thai banks won't give checking (current) accounts to foreigners who don't have work permits, that's a problem for many of us ....