Cheapest ways to send money UK to Thailand

[socrates28]

On a larger transacton around £50k what is peoples advice - bank to bank? or Currency dealer?

I have a Halifax Account already set up and in place - I also have a K Bank Account set up and in place

Thanks in advance.......

[Jip99]

On a larger transaction around £50k what is peoples advice - bank to bank? or Currency dealer?

I have a Halifax Account already set up and in place - I also have a K Bank Account set up and in place

Thanks in advance.......

The answers remain as above - with the exception that you will incur UK bank to bank transfer costs for an EFT payment (unless you make, say, 5 x £10k BACS transfers on the preceding 5 days). Sending the £50k (in Sterling) to K Bank from Halifax online will cost £9.50.

Charges at K Bank will be 500 Baht + 0.1% + 20 Baht/ You will also find a correspondent bank charge in there of circa 500 Baht.

The issue/risk you have is any movement in the exchange rate in the 3 days that it will take to get to your Thai bank. I would also avoid transit over a weekend i.e. send on Monday to Wednesday.

For that amount I would personally want to fix my rate, so think about someone like World First to at least get a quote.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Jip99

[mercman24]

lots of posts about transferring money from bank to bank but did any one of you compare the rate with a money agent as 99% of the time the bank transfer rate is sh*te. i havenet see any posts as to this, but then again i just transferred £4000 from uk via TORFX and in real terms in related to VASU exchange i have lost the sum of £127-44 i just wondered how much i would have lost by going the bank route, just wondered how VASU can offer 49.85 and i got 47.9 ?

[mercman24]

and as to the HALIFAX have you ever found there rates.they are hidden away somewhere , i could not find them and i have a Halifax bank account also

[Paulzz]

I have used world first a few times for large transactions as you can get a good fixed rate.

I generally do transfers from my Lloyd's international account which doesn't charge and send in sterling to my Bangkok bank account as their rate for TT is always much better than any others.

I also have a Norwich and Peterborough account and a debit card and they don't charge any fees for worldwide transactions although the ATM withdrawal is charged by any ATM in Thailand at 160 baht

[Jiu-Jitsu]

and as to the HALIFAX have you ever found there rates.they are hidden away somewhere , i could not find them and i have a Halifax bank account also

You don't need to know their rates, just use their online service to send in £s to your Thailand bank account. Halifax charge £9.50. Thailand bank charges between 200 and 500 baht to receive, dependent on the amount.

[chris2004]

I've just sent a fairly large amount from my Halifax bank in the UK to my Kasikorn account here. I sent Sterling of course and paid the 9.50 GBP fee from the Halifax. When Kasikorn rang me to say the money was here it was down a further 14.50 GBP from the amount i sent, which i suspect is another fee from a UK intermediary bank. Kasikorn of course knocked off their fees as well. So overall quite an expensive transfer.

[mercman24]

thanks for that info but somewhere along the line the £s must have beem changed to Baht, so i presume Kasikorn. you are bound to lose money on the currency exchange, so is the best way is to send £s to my Bangkok Bank and they change to baht, so do yoy know what rate yo had for the exchange ? what i did was change from £'s to baht at the Halifax, so maybe the wrong way to go > thanks KC

[Paulzz]

thanks for that info but somewhere along the line the £s must have beem changed to Baht, so i presume Kasikorn. you are bound to lose money on the currency exchange, so is the best way is to send £s to my Bangkok Bank and they change to baht, so do yoy know what rate yo had for the exchange ? what i did was change from £'s to baht at the Halifax, so maybe the wrong way to go > thanks KC

you get a better rate when you send sterling to Thai banks its something to do with the telegraphic transfer someone told me...

I regularly now send funds. from my international Lloyds account free.. in sterling to Bangkok and pay no fees either way and its there within 48 hours sometimes quicker depending on what time i send it.

its then credited to your account and they use exchange rate published on there web site or in branch.I sent 40k sterling a few months ago before it dropped. in uk rate was about 49. i got around 51.5, which is a big difference for a large amount.. its 49.87500 today for TT at Bangkok bank but UK bank is only giving 49.1

[mercman24]

thanks PAULZZ i will keep that in mind.

[Chivas]

Halifax Bank online transfers up to £75,000 charge £9.50 plus a charge of 300/500 baht is taken by the Thai Bank

Yes bang on the money and very reliable although not the quickest........figure 3rd working day at receiving end including day sent if before midday