Warning - double bank charges on money transfers

[MW72]

Once I opened an acount in Thailand I tried a few different ways to transfer money from the UK and so far the best method has been a company called World First.

I tranfered £1000 direct from RBS to my BKK bank acount. RBS charged me £22 for the service so £1022 in total. I checked Western Union and to transfer £1022 they were giving me around 500 THB less than RBS. I also tranfered £1022 with the Post Office (no fee) and got around 500 THB more than the RBS transfer. A few weeks later a friend told me he used World First. I tried them and they had an even better tranfer rate than the Post Office. They charge no fee and you can pay by debit card or internet banking. Even sending THB I got a better rate than sending Sterling direct from my bank which most people advise is the best way.

The more you send the better the exchange rate. I was keeping an eye on the Baht since the coup and the other day the rate went over 55 THB to the £ so transfered £3000 and got 54 THB to the £. Not a bad rate IMHO. Bangkok Bank took 100 THB for the transfer.

[arawan]

if you send 250 pounds with the post office international payments there is no charge for the service.

I have just sent 250 pounds which was received in 4 working days.

[Pib]

I, on the other hand, have just experienced a significant reduction in bank charges for transfers from the UK to Thailand.

For transferring funds from HSBC (UK) to Bangkok Bank, the sending bank (HSBC) used to charge me £17.00, but I believe the Ombudsman has been applying pressure to the UK banks, so this was recently reduced to just £4.00. Yes, £4.00, even if I am transferring £10,000 ... difficult to believe I know.

Furthermore, Bangkok Bank do not levy any charge for receiving the funds. I always ensure that the funds are transferred in Sterling, as I find I get a much better exchange rate at the receiving bank than if I were to accept the sending bank exchange rate.

Incorrect regarding Bangkok Bank does not levy any charge for receiving funds. For whatever reason you are just not noticing the fee. Maybe you are assuming if they did apply a fee it would be reflected in your Bangkok Bank account statement/passbook; however, the fee is applied "before" the funds are posted to your account therefore no record of the fee appears on your account. Neither would any correspondent bank fees as the Thai bank don't know what may have been sliced off during the transfer by the Sending or Correspondent bank before it arrived the Thai bank...all it knows is how much "arrived"...not how much began the trip. Now if you sign up to get the free Funds Remittance SMS it will show the amount of funds arriving, the exchange rate, the fee, and the final amount posted to your account.

As mentioned earlier, the currency receipt/conversion fee is 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) which is pretty much the standard for all Thai banks give or take a few baht. Below is a quote from the Bangkok Bank website regarding the currency receipt/conversion fee. And remember the fee applies whether the funds arrive in a foreign currency or already converted to baht.

[fxe1200]

There are three ways to send money from abroad: OUR, SHARED, and BEN.

If you use the OUR option, all bank charges are being applied to the sending account, but make sure you get a halfway acceptable rate. Lately the Bangkok Bank charged me for incoming money 300 THB. Upon my request, they denied, that they received a part of the fees. After my complaint at the sending Bank, the 300 THB (at that time 9 Euro and 10 cents) were refunded by the sending bank. Banks are just greedy, and if you do not precalculate all costs involved and check the competition (Forex), the you definitely will get screwed.

[RBOP]

I made a claim for medical insurance (Alianz) to make a direct payment to my Bangkok Bank account. They (Alianz) are suppose to cover 100% including any bank transfer charges. I noticed there was a charge of 100 Baht I my account. I questioned Alianz and they said the Bank charged me that. I gave up fighting Bangkok Bank and Alianz for 100 baht. Wasn't worth my time. But they could be doing this to thousands of people and it adds up.

Edited June 7, 2014 by RBOP

[Postmaster]

GeorgeO. I am sorry you are wrong. The receiving Thai Bank does make a charge upon receiving funds, usually it's between

200-500 thai baht dependent upon the amount sent. One poster mentioned the percentage. This is certainly the case with the Bank that's under discussion here.

[AhFarangJa]

OP - what bank are you sending from in Jersey?

Santander.

[AhFarangJa]

Correspondent bank charge would have been made in UK rather than Thailand and is the route your home bank uses to transfer the funds. The charge in Thailand is only a fee of between 200-500 baht for the exchange service based on a fee of 1/4% on foreign remitted currency. Are you sure funds were not converted to baht prior to sending to Thailand in this case? Suspect that may be the reason for large additional change. Thailand would not be charging a fee in pounds.

Wrong,,since June last year I got an extra charge of $35 AUD on my statement from my bank in AUS on top of their $22 AU I asked them and they said ,,Its your bank in Thailand fee gone up.

Seems to be the same reply I am getting.

Sorry for the delay in replying to questions but I was watching England v New Zealand...

[Pib]

There are three ways to send money from abroad: OUR, SHARED, and BEN.

If you use the OUR option, all bank charges are being applied to the sending account, but make sure you get a halfway acceptable rate. Lately the Bangkok Bank charged me for incoming money 300 THB. Upon my request, they denied, that they received a part of the fees. After my complaint at the sending Bank, the 300 THB (at that time 9 Euro and 10 cents) were refunded by the sending bank. Banks are just greedy, and if you do not precalculate all costs involved and check the competition (Forex), the you definitely will get screwed.

Keep in mind when selecting the option for the Sending bank to cover all transfer fees if the Receiving bank like Bangkok Bank honors the request and does not apply a fee on their end when initially receiving the funds "they will still send a fee charge back to the Sending bank" which is probably going to be more than if you had allowed the receiving bank to charge their normal fee. Why more? Because of the extra effort involved to collect the fee. The receiving bank is still going to get its fee one way or another...or said another way, "you" are still going to pay the fee one way or another.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Pib

[mercman24]

newbie question (bear with me) i was going to send £6000 to my savings account in bangkok, from my halifax account, i do not have internet banking yet as i do not have an address in Bangkok yet, i was going to send it via Bangkok Bank in the uk, they want £15, is that the only charge. so if send £ sterling to london and they send on to my Bangkok account in bkk, is that ok?, later on when i am full time i think Halifax charge about £10, but as another posted some time ago i get paid £5 a month for my pensions going in so in real terms it is only a fiver (and do it every 3 months)

[Sandman77]

Never heard about this!

[Toscano]

Firstly , I would suggest that you are sending money from an off shore account in Jersey , that is charging you £20 per month account fee because you have less than the required £2500? in your account . I had such an account in the Isle of Man , they didn't charge me anything to transfer money and neither

does my bank in Thailand . I didn't like paying the £20 account fee , so transfered back to my mainland account which I hadn't closed . I now pay £10

transfer charge , but nothing in Thailand . I always transfer money in pounds sterling , the Thai exchange rate is infinitely better . I check Bangkok Post

exchange rates and receive the amount under heading TT .

[elgordo38]

Deal with Forex. Haggle with them on a good exchange rate to change your money into bahts and send bahts here to receiving bank. You have to set up an account with Forex. BKK bank charges you a couple hundred baht for handling. You can lock in the exchange rate. Stay away from Western Union bandido's

[glegolo]

I know that since at least 5 years back since we discovered it. The bank with the same name as the capital here has the right of all transfers going to all other banks in Thailand.

I have Khrung Thai bank, so I pay firstly to the BKK Bank some 250 baht and than I do pay to Khrung Thai bank additional 200 baht.... So it is not something new BKK bank has monopoly for ALL transfers from Sweden, if that is the case from your countries I cant say really!!!

Glegolo

[humph]

i use FX in the UK. they take all their charges out of the rate they give for the Baht. no other charge is made by them. i do note that the sum received in the thai bank is about 600 baht less than the sum sent (on £2000). this is not taken by the thai bank but by the intermediary. i seem to be getting a fair deal, or am i kidding myself and they all take about the same in the end?

[AhFarangJa]

Firstly , I would suggest that you are sending money from an off shore account in Jersey , that is charging you £20 per month account fee because you have less than the required £2500? in your account . I had such an account in the Isle of Man , they didn't charge me anything to transfer money and neither

does my bank in Thailand . I didn't like paying the £20 account fee , so transfered back to my mainland account which I hadn't closed . I now pay £10

transfer charge , but nothing in Thailand . I always transfer money in pounds sterling , the Thai exchange rate is infinitely better . I check Bangkok Post

exchange rates and receive the amount under heading TT .

Toscano, If you are referring to me, ( it is not clear in your post), then yes it is an offshore account. But, I have considerably more than the £5000 minimum allowed, ( at the moment anyway!! ) also, I have been transferring money for the best part of 20 years without a problem, that is why i am perplexed now, and thanks to Thai visa members, now have a lot of ammunition to go back to my bank with. Unfortunately, I do not have an account on the mainland, and cannot open one as I am non resident there any more.

[ozviking]

All banks will screw you when they can. The bank you did not mention is the worst.

When you send money from one country to another, it is always expensive. Here is some advice:

A Canadian company XEtrade - find them on the net - they have a bank in almost every country, so you do not send money to another country.

They are quick and reliable. I have been using them now for about 9 years.

However, you still have to pay B bank for receiving and keeping your money for 1 or 2 days.

Good luck

[SunsetT]

newbie question (bear with me) i was going to send £6000 to my savings account in bangkok, from my halifax account, i do not have internet banking yet as i do not have an address in Bangkok yet, i was going to send it via Bangkok Bank in the uk, they want £15, is that the only charge. so if send £ sterling to london and they send on to my Bangkok account in bkk, is that ok?, later on when i am full time i think Halifax charge about £10, but as another posted some time ago i get paid £5 a month for my pensions going in so in real terms it is only a fiver (and do it every 3 months)

No need to involve Bangkok Bank in London. Send direct from Halifax branch, who seem to have the cheapest transfer charge in the UK of £9, to your Thai bank account. If your Thai 'savings' account is an account that does not accept transfers in, then open a Thai 'current account' which does.

[SOTIRIOS]

....I have wondered about that....

[mdmayes]

There is more than one big city along the Chao Phrya with a bank named after it....lol

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Begins with a B !

End with a K then?

[mok199]

i see ATM fees for international withdrawls have gone from 150 to 180 at ( the yellow and black bank) machines

[SunsetT]

Nationwide BS tried this on with me a few yrs ago. On top of the original £15/£20 Swift transfer charge, another £20 charge appeared in my UK account about a month later. It happened twice and the 2nd time the 2nd charge was different. Nationwide head office, who didnt seem to really know what happens with these transfers, said it must be coming from the receiving Bangkok bank. On arriving in Udon Thani I went to the branch, who were very helpful but had no idea what the charges were, and they gave me print outs of the 2 transactions. One showed an intermediary bank as HSBC, the other was, I think, London Midland bank. Udon even phoned Bangkok bank head office that initially receives their international transfers. I actually spoke to the dept head, who spoke excellent English, and she assured me that no charge was ever made by them. The only charge was 200baht at the Udon branch.

I scanned and sent the transaction print outs to the Nationwide dept Id previously dealt with, along with a letter containing the name and phone # of the lady in Bangkok to confirm no charges were made. I received no reply so I phoned them again on returning to the UK 4/5 mths later, They claimed no knowledge of my correspondence.so I then filed an official complaint arguing that if charges are made by intermediary banks then they surely must know about these and include them in their sending charge or they should inform customers of the amount in advance. They later refunded the charges without any real explanation. I have not made any Swift transfers thru them since, preferring to ATM withdraw all my money in Thailand with fee free UK credit and debit cards. I have found the Visa and Mastercard exchange rate is nearly always better than any bank's exchange rate even including the 150/180bt fee. Halifax £9 international transfer fee is the cheapest charge I know of in the UK.

[davidst01]

Whenever doing an IMT put in the narrative 'DO NOT CONVERT'. ie get it converted when the money arrives in thailand to thai baht

[pgardiner]

All banks are becoming very greedy, even charging to deposit if it is another province, shop around!

[Strangebrew]

I suggest you switch to citibank then open a account in Bangkok at citibank. Then do online transfers account to account no charge and if you keep in US dollars no exchange charge

[peergin]

Just use western union..

Sent from my SM-T2105 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I did check Western Union's fee structure a few times in the past and found that they were extremely expensive. MUCH more expensive than any bank. The last time I checked (may be 2 years ago) their fees for a transfer from Thailand to Canada. The fee was astronomical so I decided against using them. However, I saw a recent ad somewhere which said that transfers from the UK to Thailand do not incur any fees.

[GeorgeO]

GeorgeO. I am sorry you are wrong. The receiving Thai Bank does make a charge upon receiving funds, usually it's between

200-500 thai baht dependent upon the amount sent. One poster mentioned the percentage. This is certainly the case with the Bank that's under discussion here.

..well, gentlemen, regardless of whether you insist that Bangkok Bank is applying a charge for receiving the funds, the absolute fact is that in mid-May, I was quoted a total of THB 291,655 for a transfer of £5,500 from HSBC using the UK exchange rate.

Having declined the UK rate, and insisted that the funds were transferred in Sterling, the amount that I received into my Bangkok Bank account was THB 297,160 (THB 5,505 baht more) with no indication of any additional receiving bank charges; of course, if there were additional receiving bank charges, then the exchange rate gain was even more impressive.

The gain roughly equates to £1.00 = 53.02 vs 54.02, for the UK rate vis-a-vis the Sterling transfer ... almost 1 baht on every 50 baht = a 2% gain...!!

As I have already mentioned, the transfer fee from HSBC is now £4:00, regardless of the amount, so if anyone is looking for an extremely cheap way of transferring funds, here it is...!!

Edited June 7, 2014 by GeorgeO

[GeorgeO]

Nationwide BS tried this on with me a few yrs ago. On top of the original £15/£20 Swift transfer charge, another £20 charge appeared in my UK account about a month later. It happened twice and the 2nd time the 2nd charge was different. Nationwide head office, who didnt seem to really know what happens with these transfers, said it must be coming from the receiving Bangkok bank. On arriving in Udon Thani I went to the branch, who were very helpful but had no idea what the charges were, and they gave me print outs of the 2 transactions. One showed an intermediary bank as HSBC, the other was, I think, London Midland bank. Udon even phoned Bangkok bank head office that initially receives their international transfers. I actually spoke to the dept head, who spoke excellent English, and she assured me that no charge was ever made by them. The only charge was 200baht at the Udon branch.

I scanned and sent the transaction print outs to the Nationwide dept Id previously dealt with, along with a letter containing the name and phone # of the lady in Bangkok to confirm no charges were made. I received no reply so I phoned them again on returning to the UK 4/5 mths later, They claimed no knowledge of my correspondence.so I then filed an official complaint arguing that if charges are made by intermediary banks then they surely must know about these and include them in their sending charge or they should inform customers of the amount in advance. They later refunded the charges without any real explanation. I have not made any Swift transfers thru them since, preferring to ATM withdraw all my money in Thailand with fee free UK credit and debit cards. I have found the Visa and Mastercard exchange rate is nearly always better than any bank's exchange rate even including the 150/180bt fee. Halifax £9 international transfer fee is the cheapest charge I know of in the UK.

SunsetT, as I have posted already, the cheapest, as of May 2014, is now HSBC, at £4:00, for any amount up to £10,000 (the maximum).

If any Tv.com member has any issues with any bank in the UK, the way to deal with them is to write directly to them and make it clear that you are going to forward your complaint to the banking/financial ombudsman, who you can contact at:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

You will invariably find that the bank will write off the charge rather than having to place resources into dealing with a complaint raised by the Ombudsman...!!

Edited June 7, 2014 by GeorgeO

[peergin]

All banks are becoming very greedy, even charging to deposit if it is another province, shop around!

They have been doing that for as long as I can remember.

[Pib]

GeorgeO. I am sorry you are wrong. The receiving Thai Bank does make a charge upon receiving funds, usually it's between

200-500 thai baht dependent upon the amount sent. One poster mentioned the percentage. This is certainly the case with the Bank that's under discussion here.

..well, gentlemen, regardless of whether you insist that Bangkok Bank is applying a charge for receiving the funds, the absolute fact is that in mid-May, I was quoted a total of THB 291,655 for a transfer of £5,500 from HSBC using the UK exchange rate.

Having declined the UK rate, and insisted that the funds were transferred in Sterling, the amount that I received into my Bangkok Bank account was THB 297,160 (THB 5,505 baht more) with no indication of any additional receiving bank charges; of course, if there were additional receiving bank charges, then the exchange rate gain was even more impressive.

The gain roughly equates to £1.00 = 53.02 vs 54.02, for the UK rate vis-a-vis the Sterling transfer ... almost 1 baht on every 50 baht = a 2% gain...!!

As I have already mentioned, the transfer fee from HSBC is now £4:00, regardless of the amount, so if anyone is looking for an extremely cheap way of transferring funds, here it is...!!

Yes, the exchange rate provided by Thai banks, their TT Buying Rate, will almost always be significantly better than what a foreign bank will provide since Thai baht is not used outside of Thailand like the USD, Euro, Sterling, etc. Hundreds, probably thousands of TV posts over the years, saying be sure "not" to let your home country sending bank convert to baht--let the Thai bank do the conversion.

And your Sending bank wouldn't have a clue what receiving fee the Receiving bank may apply so they don't/can't include that in any conversion estimate with any accuracy. As as already identified in other posts above, the Thai bank currency receipt/conversion fee is applied "before" the funds are posted to your Thai bank account and the fee "will not" be reflected on you Thai bank account/passbook; therefore, it can appear no fee was applied but there was.

It's great your Sending bank is only charging a 4 pounds sending fee, but your Thai bank is still charging the 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) on the Thailand end.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Pib