Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

[ukrules]

I transfer money into the country from the UK, normally just once a month to cover my expenses in Thailand.

Yesterday I sent £4000 in UK Pounds via the same SWIFT process as I normally do - I've got my Kasikorn account setup as a verified recipient for international transfers and I login to my bank in the UK (Lloyds) and send however much I need.

I've been doing this every month for some time now. I know for sure that I will be lucky to get the money before the weekend. Transfers often take 5 business days to arrive so maybe it will not arrive until next Monday.

Does anyone have any idea why this is and how I can speed this process up ?

This delay happens every time although once or twice it's been a little bit quicker, but only by maybe one day.

I'm thinking it could be due to the type of bank account I have. It's just the basic savings account. I know enough about banking to know that once that SWIFT message has been sent Kasikorn have my money the same day so I'd like to know why they don't credit it to my account immediately.

I did phone them about this some time ago but all they would say is 'it takes a week'.

This is not good enough and I'm thinking of changing bank because of it.

Any thoughts ?

[meatboy]

normally you have a choice,express within 24hrs,2-3days or a budget transfer.

as i only trans once a yr.when the exchange rate is ok.i always send express,10am.uk.time say[monday] then it will be in my acc.9am.thai time.tuesday.the cost is 30gbp.but i can also do it budget way,but you could loose out on the exchange rate.

as you are trans.every month and its taking a week you cant be paying much for the transfer.its well documented what other banks are charging in the forum.if your in the uk.i would maybe try the halifax.but be wary of banks saying no fees and calculateing the rate in the uk.

[ukrules]

I send wires all the time and they arrive elsewhere either same day within Europe or very quickly elsewhere (1 day or same day if early enough) like the US.

For SWIFT transfers from Lloyds sent in GBP of course they offer one level of service in my online banking, the one that's instant elsewhere but takes a week for Kasikorn.

My Thai bank account is a run of the mill savings account but the Lloyds account I use is one of the higher level accounts. I don't think I could use the 'slow' service even if I wanted to.

The delay here is on the Kasikorn side, I have no doubt about that.

Has anyone else wired to Kasikorn savings accounts from Lloyds in the UK - if so, how long does it take to arrive for you ?

[meatboy]

I send wires all the time and they arrive elsewhere either same day within Europe or very quickly elsewhere (1 day or same day if early enough) like the US.

For SWIFT transfers from Lloyds sent in GBP of course they offer one level of service in my online banking, the one that's instant elsewhere but takes a week for Kasikorn.

My Thai bank account is a run of the mill savings account but the Lloyds account I use is one of the higher level accounts. I don't think I could use the 'slow' service even if I wanted to.

The delay here is on the Kasikorn side, I have no doubt about that.

Has anyone else wired to Kasikorn savings accounts from Lloyds in the UK - if so, how long does it take to arrive for you ?

this to me smells of the 80's when the banks in thailand held on to your money [sorry no come]

if lloyds cant tell you what day and time the trans.took place you are being f------- about.every time when in the uk.the wife would trans.to her savings acc.here she would receive confirmation in the post within 24hrs.time and date and the confirmation no.from the receiving bank.i wouldnt think it was this end unless you are not paying for the trans.then lloyds would be doing the exchange rate gbp to thai baht.

[Questador]

I have been considering changing my UK account from Nationwide to Lloyds since I became aware that the Lloyds charge for online SWIFT transfers was considerably less. My transfers from Nationwide to Kasikorn are usually in next day, but it's expensive. I would be reluctant to change if there was excessive delay however, so I hope you get more opinions on this matter.

[williewolf]

HSBC have an offer on at the moment, £4 per transfer. Money comes into my Kasikorn a/c same day with no further charges. I do send GBP and the conversion is done here in Thailand by Kasikorn at a fairly decent rate

Maybe worth a look but do not know how long this "offer" is on for.

[manarak]

I send wires all the time and they arrive elsewhere either same day within Europe or very quickly elsewhere (1 day or same day if early enough) like the US.

For SWIFT transfers from Lloyds sent in GBP of course they offer one level of service in my online banking, the one that's instant elsewhere but takes a week for Kasikorn.

My Thai bank account is a run of the mill savings account but the Lloyds account I use is one of the higher level accounts. I don't think I could use the 'slow' service even if I wanted to.

The delay here is on the Kasikorn side, I have no doubt about that.

Has anyone else wired to Kasikorn savings accounts from Lloyds in the UK - if so, how long does it take to arrive for you ?

Ask for a trace of your transfer, SWIFT allows for this.

Also make sure you use the correct SWIFT code, for private savings account, the code is KASITHBKXXX

[chris2004]

Change banks. My Halifax a/c takes 2 working days and charges 9.50 GBP. That HSBC deal sounds good as well.

[theoldgit]

I send cash from my Nationwide International account, usually monthly, to my basic Kasikorn savings account, in the years I've been doing it it's never failed to hit my Kasikorn account the following morning.

[williewolf]

Update, I transfered some money yesterday HSBC to Kasikorn and the rate I got was 51.875, so I dont think that was bad for £4 and in my account same day

[ukrules]

Update, I transfered some money yesterday HSBC to Kasikorn and the rate I got was 51.875, so I dont think that was bad for £4 and in my account same day

I'm still waiting for mine from Monday, nothing yet. I'll know when it arrives at Kasikorn as they send me an SMS whenever there's a transaction.

[Pib]

HSBC have an offer on at the moment, £4 per transfer. Money comes into my Kasikorn a/c same day with no further charges. I do send GBP and the conversion is done here in Thailand by Kasikorn at a fairly decent rate

Maybe worth a look but do not know how long this "offer" is on for.

There should also be a currency conversion/receipt fee applied by K-bank as shown below. The fee is most likely applied "before posting" to your account so that can make it appear no fee was applied. Typical of Thai banks...for example, Bangkok Bank charges the same fee. I think the min fee for SCB is Bt300.

Product Fee

0.25% of total deposit amount

the minimum fee is 200 baht,

the maximum fee is 500 baht

[ukrules]

Well I just got the SMS advising of a deposit so it took 4 days for a SWIFT transfer from Lloyds Bank to Kasikorn.

They charged me £10 for this which is pretty cheap compared to years ago. I sent £4000 and received 205,707 Baht which works out to 51.42 Baht/GBP.

XE ( http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=THB ) tells me that the mid market rate right now is 52.04 Baht/GBP

When I used to go into the branch a few years ago and fill the form out to send a payment I'm pretty sure I could pay a higher fee to get the payment there quicker, this option isn't on the online banking service that I use.

[williewolf]

I thought there would be a charge but I have used this method three times now and have never had any charges applied this end. Maybe they factor the charges into the exchange rate

HSBC have an offer on at the moment, £4 per transfer. Money comes into my Kasikorn a/c same day with no further charges. I do send GBP and the conversion is done here in Thailand by Kasikorn at a fairly decent rate

Maybe worth a look but do not know how long this "offer" is on for.

There should also be a currency conversion/receipt fee applied by K-bank as shown below. The fee is most likely applied "before posting" to your account so that can make it appear no fee was applied. Typical of Thai banks...for example, Bangkok Bank charges the same fee. I think the min fee for SCB is Bt300.

Product Fee
0.25% of total deposit amount
the minimum fee is 200 baht,
the maximum fee is 500 baht

[Jip99]

HSBC have an offer on at the moment, £4 per transfer. Money comes into my Kasikorn a/c same day with no further charges. I do send GBP and the conversion is done here in Thailand by Kasikorn at a fairly decent rate

Maybe worth a look but do not know how long this "offer" is on for.

There should also be a currency conversion/receipt fee applied by K-bank as shown below. The fee is most likely applied "before posting" to your account so that can make it appear no fee was applied. Typical of Thai banks...for example, Bangkok Bank charges the same fee. I think the min fee for SCB is Bt300.

Product Fee

0.25% of total deposit amount

the minimum fee is 200 baht,

the maximum fee is 500 baht

Kasikorn charges are:-

0.25% max 5500 Baht + 0.1% + 20 Baht transfer fee

[Jip99]

Well I just got the SMS advising of a deposit so it took 4 days for a SWIFT transfer from Lloyds Bank to Kasikorn.

They charged me £10 for this which is pretty cheap compared to years ago. I sent £4000 and received 205,707 Baht which works out to 51.42 Baht/GBP.

XE ( http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=THB ) tells me that the mid market rate right now is 52.04 Baht/GBP

When I used to go into the branch a few years ago and fill the form out to send a payment I'm pretty sure I could pay a higher fee to get the payment there quicker, this option isn't on the online banking service that I use.

Kasikorn are simply the recipient bank - I don't believe that any delay is their fault.

It is likely that Lloyds use a correspondent bank (Halifax do) and that adds time and cost.

The HSBC system is by far the best of the UK banks that I have experienced - low cost and VERY fast transfers.

I don't know if £4,000 is a typical transfer value but at that level the rate of exchange becomes the major factor. A 20 satang movement in the rate equates to 800 Baht which outweighs most charges.

I worked for HSBC and can do my transfers for free. I am also very impressed with the fact that transfers are usually credited by Kasikorn within a few hours. That gives me a good stab at knowing the rate that I am likely to get.

Notwithstanding that, I have used World First for my last 2 transfers because I wanted to fix the exchange rate. WF gave me a rate that was on par with Kasikorn's TT rate. No charges from WF and Kasikorn charged 225 Baht for handling the payment. The only negative, compared to HSBC, is that the funds seem to arrive on the 3rd working day (same as I previously experienced with Halifax) - not an issue for me if the exchange rate is more important. By buying Baht from WF you are taking out any exchange rate risk/gamble during the time taken to transfer.

I would recommend that you have a look at World First because Lloyds are awful for SWIFT payments to Thailand.

[meatboy]

Well I just got the SMS advising of a deposit so it took 4 days for a SWIFT transfer from Lloyds Bank to Kasikorn.

They charged me £10 for this which is pretty cheap compared to years ago. I sent £4000 and received 205,707 Baht which works out to 51.42 Baht/GBP.

XE ( http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=THB ) tells me that the mid market rate right now is 52.04 Baht/GBP

When I used to go into the branch a few years ago and fill the form out to send a payment I'm pretty sure I could pay a higher fee to get the payment there quicker, this option isn't on the online banking service that I use.

at 9.35 scb.rate was 51.73 so your about 1200bht.different.so if you sent with a different bank who charged say 20gbp.you would still be 13gbp.better off.so you see if your sending larger amounts it makes sense.

[ukrules]

Well I just got the SMS advising of a deposit so it took 4 days for a SWIFT transfer from Lloyds Bank to Kasikorn.

They charged me £10 for this which is pretty cheap compared to years ago. I sent £4000 and received 205,707 Baht which works out to 51.42 Baht/GBP.

XE ( http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=THB ) tells me that the mid market rate right now is 52.04 Baht/GBP

When I used to go into the branch a few years ago and fill the form out to send a payment I'm pretty sure I could pay a higher fee to get the payment there quicker, this option isn't on the online banking service that I use.

at 9.35 scb.rate was 51.73 so your about 1200bht.different.so if you sent with a different bank who charged say 20gbp.you would still be 13gbp.better off.so you see if your sending larger amounts it makes sense.

The fees are still negligible for transfers like mine. If I was sending 40k instead of just 4k I would look into different methods.

Compare this to the ATM method and I'm doing pretty well doing it this way.

I don't mind paying the fees, so long as I get a good service. I would pay 20 or 30 pounds for a next day arrival.

Edited October 30, 2014 by ukrules

[Pib]

As mentioned, they apply the charge "before posting" which means you wouldn't see any fee on your statement. Now if you were trying to figure out what exchange rate you got using math you wouldn't be able to get it to exactly match any of the bank's TT Buying Rates used for that day (which usually change several times per day) because not taking the fee in account distorts the math....makes it appear the exchange rate was a little lower. If you can't get they amount posted to "exactly" math one of the exchange rate their is a undocumented fee distorting the math.

I thought there would be a charge but I have used this method three times now and have never had any charges applied this end. Maybe they factor the charges into the exchange rate

HSBC have an offer on at the moment, £4 per transfer. Money comes into my Kasikorn a/c same day with no further charges. I do send GBP and the conversion is done here in Thailand by Kasikorn at a fairly decent rate

Maybe worth a look but do not know how long this "offer" is on for.

There should also be a currency conversion/receipt fee applied by K-bank as shown below. The fee is most likely applied "before posting" to your account so that can make it appear no fee was applied. Typical of Thai banks...for example, Bangkok Bank charges the same fee. I think the min fee for SCB is Bt300.

Product Fee
0.25% of total deposit amount
the minimum fee is 200 baht,
the maximum fee is 500 baht

[Pib]

Kasikorn charges are:-

0.25% max 5500 Baht + 0.1% + 20 Baht transfer fee

5500 max!!???....that's a huge receiving fee. Sure you didn't mean Bt500 max. And that 0.1% + Bt20 must be some inter-K-bank/Thai bank transfer fee. You got a Kbank web link for above info? Thanks.

[Pib]

As FYI regarding the Thai bank currency receipt/conversion fee finding the fee on some Thai bank websites can be challenging, for some it's easy, for some you have to call. But the Bank of Thailand collects a variety of fee info from Thai banks and lists them on BOT webpages. At this BOT webpage you can see the currency receipt/conversion fees charged by "most" Thai banks....you'll see that 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) is used by most with a few opting for some flat fee in the Bt200 to Bt500 range. Google Translate is your friend at above webpage.

[Jip99]

Kasikorn charges are:-

0.25% max 5500 Baht + 0.1% + 20 Baht transfer fee

5500 max!!???....that's a huge receiving fee. Sure you didn't mean Bt500 max. And that 0.1% + Bt20 must be some inter-K-bank/Thai bank transfer fee. You got a Kbank web link for above info? Thanks.

Sorry Pib, I had a bit of a stutter on the '5' key!! Yes, 500 Baht max.

I will find a link for the charges

[Jip99]

Well I just got the SMS advising of a deposit so it took 4 days for a SWIFT transfer from Lloyds Bank to Kasikorn.

They charged me £10 for this which is pretty cheap compared to years ago. I sent £4000 and received 205,707 Baht which works out to 51.42 Baht/GBP.

XE ( http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=THB ) tells me that the mid market rate right now is 52.04 Baht/GBP

When I used to go into the branch a few years ago and fill the form out to send a payment I'm pretty sure I could pay a higher fee to get the payment there quicker, this option isn't on the online banking service that I use.

at 9.35 scb.rate was 51.73 so your about 1200bht.different.so if you sent with a different bank who charged say 20gbp.you would still be 13gbp.better off.so you see if your sending larger amounts it makes sense.

The fees are still negligible for transfers like mine. If I was sending 40k instead of just 4k I would look into different methods.

Compare this to the ATM method and I'm doing pretty well doing it this way.

I don't mind paying the fees, so long as I get a good service. I would pay 20 or 30 pounds for a next day arrival.

You can pay £4 for same day arrival if you have an account with HSBC. Better online banking system than Lloyds as well.