Overseas transfer for condo purchase: Ayudhya bank or Kasikorn?

[chakatee]

Soon I will need to make an overseas money transfer for a condo purchase.

Euro's will be sent.

Have bank accounts in both Ayudhya as Kasikorn bank. Do / Should they give the same rates? Any better than the other to use?

Thank you!

[Pib]

You can use the web site at this link to compare rates among Thai banks. Just select your currency and TT for wire transfers. Or visit the banks' website for their rates. You might also want to call the banks and talk about this large incoming amount as they may offer you a slightly higher rate than their standard TT Buying Rate to get your business.

Just as FYI, ignore the statement on the web site where it says, "For ATM rates, select the TT currency type" as that is a completely bogus statement just to keep people coming to the site for ad revenue/site visit count purposes. ATMs provide the Visa/Mastercard/AmEx/etc exchange rate (minus any foreign transaction fee your card-issuing bank may apply)....and the ATM may also offer a DCC ripoff rate which the ATM might call Bank Rate, Home Rate, or some other warm and fuzzy name. Yes, the a TT Buying Rates and Visa/Mastercard exchange rates are usually pretty close to each other give or take approx 0.25 to 0.50%...and sometimes the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate can be slightly higher than the TT Buying Rate. I try to time my counter/ATM withdrawal with my Visa no foreign transaction fee cards to a day when the card exchange rate is a little better than the TT Buying Rate used for incoming transfers.

[pgardiner]

Can not speak about Ayudaya but have been with Kasikorn for 12 tears. Used to be really good but now their charges seem to be getting exhorbitant. A good friend agrees, anybody else find this or are all banks getting on the bandwagon?

[chakatee]

At what kind of charge would I be looking at in case of a transfer from let's say 100,000Euro?

Is it a percentage? A fixed fee?

[TomDoc]

I have been transfering funds for some months, so I have looked into this in detail. If I transfer local currency then K bank charges me a high rate. If I transfer Baht to Thailand, then my bank here rips me off (I was oncee chaged 5%). The cheapest opiton is to join HiFX (Englsih), TORFx (Swedish) or similar, then you get a quote from them (Euros to Baht), decide if the time is right and make the transfer. It is usually completed in about 48 hours even with the two steps. There are problably German currency excahnge companies you can use too.

[1FinickyOne]

I have used Kasikorn many times - From USA, the money is always available the first morning. Last time I used Bkk Bank and the same wire, same method, took 5 days and was troubling as I was afraid the funds were lost and had to call my bank in USA several times...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Normally for incoming funds transfers into Thailand, you always want to have your sending bank send in your own native currency, and let the receiving Thai bank handle the conversion to baht, which would be done at their buying TT rate for that day. Most outside Thailand currency conversions to baht are going to be at a very poor rate.

The receiving Thai bank normally will charge 0.25% of the incoming funds as a commission, but capped at 500 baht maximum.

Unlike ATM transactions where the VISA and MC networks set the rate, each Thai bank sets their own buying TT rates for incoming funds transfers, and those vary from bank to bank company, and will change as much as a couple times each day. It pays to compare using a reference like Pib provided above what kind of rate your intended recipient bank is providing.

But what you really have to be careful of...is what kind of sending fees your home country sending bank will want to charge, as well as any intermediary bank fees enroute to Thailand. That's where international wire transfer fees usually pile up -- not on the receiving Thai bank end.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have used Kasikorn many times - From USA, the money is always available the first morning. Last time I used Bkk Bank and the same wire, same method, took 5 days and was troubling as I was afraid the funds were lost and had to call my bank in USA several times...

BKK Bank has the advantage of having the only setup among all the Thai banks where you can send money from the U.S. or UK using their own internal system, and typically pay less in fees that most any regular SWIFT/international wire transfer.

But you have to have a BKK Bank account as the recipient on the Thai end. In the U.S., that's handled by sending an often free domestic ACH from one's sending account to the Bangkok Bank New York branch and their U.S. ABA routing number. And the funds then get sent onward from there to your BKK Bank Thailand account.

A similar system exists for BKK Bank's branch in London for UK folks.

[chakatee]

Thx TallGuy, well explained.

I think I, as a complete layman, can't do too many engineered ways via German, Swedish, ... banks as I will need to get the Overseas Currency transfer form to get the condo in my name. The 500THB cap is good to hear.

[GreasyFingers]

Can not speak about Ayudaya but have been with Kasikorn for 12 tears. Used to be really good but now their charges seem to be getting exhorbitant. A good friend agrees, anybody else find this or are all banks getting on the bandwagon?

I have used both Kasikorn & Bank of Ayudhya and both their fees seem to be similar but they do not tell you how much they are. They are also higher if your account is not with the Bangkok branch as there are two lots of fees to get to your local branch.

As an example the International rate was 29.28, the Ayudhya T/T rate was 28.99 but when the fees were taken out the conversion rate was 28.35 so they were above the 500 baht cap.

[MeowBundit]

1. You MUST send foreign currency and NOT thai baht for condo purchase. The Thai bank will do conversion to Thai baht and issue FET form.

2. When I moved out from my country of origin, I use Ayudhya and conversion rate was good. The bank also call me and inform about transfer and ask transfer purpose and fill form in bank branch. After I agree with conversion rate and promise to visit bank soon, transfer was deposited to account.

[Maestro]

Thx TallGuy, well explained.

I think I, as a complete layman, can't do too many engineered ways via German, Swedish, ... banks as I will need to get the Overseas Currency transfer form to get the condo in my name. The 500THB cap is good to hear.

If your EUR transfer is equivalent to USD 50,000 or more you ask your Thai bank for the Foreign Exchange Transaction Form. If the amount is below the equivalent of USD 50,000, ask for what by some banks is called the credit advice, by some other banks the credit receipt, and by other banks perhaps something else, and often the bank employees don't know what their bank calls it. If you run into this problem, call the bank's helpline and they will sort it out for you.

Headers of credit advice of Bank of Ayudhya and Kasikorn Bank:

[chakatee]

Seeing the crappy comments that sometimes are being given in other threads on all kinds of smart, dumb or not so dumb questions, I am more than happily surprised with the good info and advice given here by several posters ... thanks to all.

[Pib]

When it comes to the Thai bank charge for receiving/converting funds from an international transfer it's generally 0.25% (Bt200-300 min, Bt500 max). At the Thai banks the minimum charge seems to vary from Bt200 or Bt300, but with maximum of Bt500. This applies whether the funds arrive in foreign currency or already converted to baht. DO NOT let your home country Sending bank convert to baht when sending as you will surely lose a few percent in that conversion and fatten the profit pocket of the Sending bank....home country banks sometimes press you hard (i.e., try to fool you with vague language) in converting when sending because their lower exchange rate generates a nice profit for them...and you can bet they will refer to their exchange rate is as being competitive. When I see a bank/company refer to their rates/prices "as competitive" that tells me their rates/prices are probably worst than many of their competitors but in the same ballpark with their competitors.

The Thai bank TT Buying Rate is about the best exchange rate the common man can get through a typical bank-to-bank transfer; it will definitely be better than your home country bank because outside of Thailand (off-shore) the Thai baht is a rarely used currency/not a reserve currency. I see people sometimes mention Forex rates and how they are a little higher than the TT Buying Rate, but that's the wholesale rate and not the rate the banks, credit cards, etc., offer. To me it's a non-player unless you have some kind of brokerage/forex account where you can get those slightly higher Forex rates.

And when it comes to home country Sending bank transfer fees, and possible fees charged by any correspondent banks they may have to use, well that varies quite a bit and a person needs to get that info from their Sending bank---and remember, don't let them convince you in letting them convert the funds. There's no shortage of posts on ThaiVisa complaining about a low exchange rate received and trying to blame it on the receiving Thai bank when it fact the sender allowed the home country bank to convert when sending, or it's correspondent banks converted the funds/also sliced off a fee. Be sure you know and understand the transfer fees your home country bank will charge as sometimes the fees can be healthy. But whatever amount finally arrives your Thai bank they will charge the fee mentioned in this post's first sentence...and if it's less than expected don't got asking the Thai bank what fees were charged along the way because they won't know...they only know how much arrived their front door...they can't tell what fees your Sending bank/correspondent bank applied....you can only get that fee info from your Sending bank (which may be like pulling teeth sometimes).

[JimHuaHin]

I have used Kasikorn many times - From USA, the money is always available the first morning. Last time I used Bkk Bank and the same wire, same method, took 5 days and was troubling as I was afraid the funds were lost and had to call my bank in USA several times...

I have also used KBank to transfer money from Australia ... the shortest time between sending the money and getting it here was about 45 minutes ,,,, last weekend was the longest time it took ... 24 hours and 45 minutes (could have been the public holiday!!!) ...... but generally I have found it takes around 20-22 hours.

[noodle]

One way to make this process more transparent is to open an FCD account at your Thai bank branch.

Then when your transfer foreign funds you can see where any fees are applied.

You also better flexibility in deciding when to exchange the foreign currency into Baht.