Warning - double bank charges on money transfers

[JacChang]

To Maejo Man: "Bangkok Bank in Bangkok have never charged me for recieving funds." Wrong. They charge you every single transfer with a minimum of 200 Baht.

To JacChang: "Bangkok Bank charges no fees for receiving." Completely wrong.

To clear up any misunderstandings: AFAIK, no bank in the world works for free when it comes to international bank transfers. I am a Bangkok Bank customer since about 28 years and presently BBL charges as follows (already since years):

Charge fee from beneficiary: 0.25% of the transfer value (minimum 200 Baht, maximum 500 Baht)

Note You will not receive the full amount of funds

as Bangkok Bank will deduct a fee prior to depositing

funds into your account.

You can check this out here.

The more, when you initiate your transfer from a foreign bank and indicate that you want to split charges between sending and receiving bank, BBL will charge you half of the sending banks transfer charges. For an example: my Swiss bank charges me CHF 10.--, I opt for splitting, so my Swiss bank charges me CHF 5.-- and BBL the same in Thai Baht.

As my late dad used to say: there is no such thing as a free meal in this world.

Learn to read properly.

"

For example,

Bangkok Bank charges no fees for receiving, and the exchange rate they will buy your US dollar is 33.

You will get 9945USDx33= 328,185THB

"

[horstthaivisa]

The subject of bank fees for outgoing and inward funds to be sent from abroad to Thai Banks seems not coming to an end although it is very easy:

All banks in the world have their own tariffs in their General Terms and Conditions showing also very clearly their fees for outgoing and inward

fund transfers. Money senders to Thailand should ask their home bank about fees for a "normal" SWIFT Money Transfer (in their home

currency) based on the condition of sharing fees: home-fees to be charged with home bank and foreign inward fees to be charged with the

bank in Thailand. The home fees are checkable/visible charged to the home account and inward fees charged by the bank in Thailand are not

extra revisable/checkable shown on the account but automatically (hidden) deducted from the incoming Baht amount before it is credited to the account.

Hence you should inform yourself about the not revisable (hidden) bank fees for inward transfers before you are sending money to your

Thai account. I understand from investigations with several banks that it is irrelevant whether more banks (than the sending and receiving bank)

are involved in the transfer, the valid tariffs remain valid only to be charged only one time regardless how many banks are involved in the transfer.

Customers of SCB - Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand can easily verify the inward fees here in Internet:

http://www.scb.co.th/stocks/media/ratesfees/fcd-fee-en-55-1.pdf

For ex. EUR: SWIFT / Telex Other Fees (last column): Fee for inward remittance is 0.25% of the remitted value: Min. Baht 300, Max. Baht 500.

Knowing this you can roughly check whether inward fee deduction is correct by consulting SCB-Website: http://www.scb.co.th/scb_api/index.jsp

and make a note of the exchange rate in the column "Bank Buying Rates > TT" which is the acutal basis to convert transferred funds into Baht

to be credited to yout Baht account. Hence from the credited Baht amount the above mentioned inward fees are already deducted you have to

calculate back by "adding" the deducted (invisible/hidden) inward fees to the credited net-amount. And this gross-amount you have to devide

through the exchange rate "Bank Buying Rates > TT" resulting to your ordered amount in your own currency. I am German and I transfer

money online via "NORMAL SWIFT" on share fee-basis from my German bank (fixed outgoing fee is EUR 15,00 upto money transfers of EUR 12.500,00) to my SCB-account (inward fee 0,25 p.c. - minimum Baht 300 but maximum Baht 500) and this procedure takes maximum 15 hours during banking days until the money is credited to my account about which I receive a free SMS-Info from SCB to my Thai Mobile Number (wherever I stay in the world) included in the SMS-Service for Baht 199 per year. If you experience deviations in fees you should intervene immediately with banks to provide their schedule of fees and to explain why deviating from the tariffs in their price conditions.

[Liquorice]

Some good replies, but some miss the point.

With any International transfer your funds must be cleared through an International Clearing bank.

1. Your UK bank will clearly state a transfer fee for the transaction.

2. Bangkok bank do not charge any fees for receiving. They charge a small fee for exchanging your currency to Thai baht (200 - 500)

Most UK banks use either HSBC or Lloyds International banking services to transfer your funds to Thailand.

Previously they made no charges, but it appears that HSBC are now charging a £20 fee for transfers to Bangkok bank which they call a 'Correspondence Fee'

It is not clear if they are charging this fee to other Thai banks.

It is this extra charge to which the OP is referring.

When you complete your transfer application, it will give you options to choose from which account the transfer fees are to deducted..

Your UK account, Thai account, or split between the two.

There is also a 'disclaimer' warning that other banks (may) make a charge.

In my case I elected all charges to be charged to my UK account.

My home bank charged the standard £25 transfer fee.

Bangkok bank charged a 200 baht fee for exchanging the currency (Not a transfer fee)

3 weeks later my UK account was hit with another £20 transfer fee from HSBC.

During my enquiries at Bangkok bank, they gave me a copy of the whole transfer notice (maybe they shouldn't)

It gives detailed information of your UK bank including your full name and UK address. Details of your Thai bank and HSBC as the Intermediary bank but with no details.

Unless you are fortunate enough to already bank with an International clearing bank, then extra charges for International transfers could become the norm.

It's an easy way to make extra money from you.

For UK account holders use the Bangkok bank in London to do transfers and avoid the extra fees now being imposed by some Interim banks.

[Pib]

Some good replies, but some miss the point.

With any International transfer your funds must be cleared through an International Clearing bank.

1. Your UK bank will clearly state a transfer fee for the transaction.

2. Bangkok bank do not charge any fees for receiving. They charge a small fee for exchanging your currency to Thai baht (200 - 500)

Most UK banks use either HSBC or Lloyds International banking services to transfer your funds to Thailand.

Previously they made no charges, but it appears that HSBC are now charging a £20 fee for transfers to Bangkok bank which they call a 'Correspondence Fee'

It is not clear if they are charging this fee to other Thai banks.

It is this extra charge to which the OP is referring.

When you complete your transfer application, it will give you options to choose from which account the transfer fees are to deducted..

Your UK account, Thai account, or split between the two.

There is also a 'disclaimer' warning that other banks (may) make a charge.

In my case I elected all charges to be charged to my UK account.

My home bank charged the standard £25 transfer fee.

Bangkok bank charged a 200 baht fee for exchanging the currency (Not a transfer fee)

3 weeks later my UK account was hit with another £20 transfer fee from HSBC.

During my enquiries at Bangkok bank, they gave me a copy of the whole transfer notice (maybe they shouldn't)

It gives detailed information of your UK bank including your full name and UK address. Details of your Thai bank and HSBC as the Intermediary bank but with no details.

Unless you are fortunate enough to already bank with an International clearing bank, then extra charges for International transfers could become the norm.

It's an easy way to make extra money from you.

For UK account holders use the Bangkok bank in London to do transfers and avoid the extra fees now being imposed by some Interim banks.

For some reason you don't want to call the Bangkok Bank currency receipt fee a "receipt fee" but that is exactly what it is whether the funds arrive in foreign currency or already converted to baht. And other Thai banks charge the fee also. It's basically an international funds transfer "receipt" fee. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck. Below is a quote regarding their fee from their fee webpage. Their web page use to refer to the fee as a "currency receipt/conversion fee" as in "currency receipt and/or conversion fee."

Just pointing this out to ensure no gets confused and thinks they can avoid the fee by using certain transfer selections or letting the Sending bank convert to baht which will also surely get a person a lower exchange rate. In fact, I've seem a fair amount of posts over the years which indicates to me a person should "not" select the transfer method of having your Sending bank cover all the fees as what happens the Sending bank ups the fee amount to a higher than average amount to cover the unknown receiving bank cost, or the Thai bank fee that flows back to the Sending back is a higher amount to cover the extra work involved, or you still end up getting mistakenly charged by your Sending bank and the Thai bank. Probably best to choose the transfer method that "shares" the costs...that is, let each bank take what it may as the money flows from beginning to end as you are going to pay their fees regardless and best to avoid any method which causes extra work for any bank.

Also for folks listening in and as already stated in other posts, the Thai bank receipting fee will "not" reflect on the Thai bank passbook/statement as the fee is applied "prior" to posting of the funds to your account which fools some folks into thinking no fee was applied...but a fee was indeed applied. This is one reason some folks can never get the exchange rate received to match any of the daily exchange rates on the bank's website...and of course if a correspondent bank fee was also applied resulting in less money arriving the Thai bank that complicates the "exchange rate received determination" even more unless contacting the bank or possibly getting a Transfer Remittance SMS which states the exchange rate received and the receiving fee in the Bt200 to 500 ballpark like Bangkok Bank will send you if signed up for the free Transfer Remittance SMS service. At SCB they charge a slightly higher 0.25% (Bt300 min, Bt 500 max) fee, but it seems the great majority of Thai banks charge 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max).

[AhFarangJa]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have not replied to any posts but been busy earning the readies!! I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the posters on this topic. When I started it, I was thinking of just warning anyone in a similar situation. I am overwhelmed by the amount of information that has come to light,and will be spending many hours poring through it. Yet again, Thai visa members come to the fore and show how willing they are to share the knowledge and experiences. I will of course let you know the outcome with my little fight!! Take care in the L.O.S. and thanks again.