I know there is answer somewhere here and you can blast me for being lazy, but can someone answer quickly with yes or no,

Does the 400,000 baht for marriage visa need to be transferred from your country bank or can I just deposit the cash?

I would obviously like to avoid the outrageous low exchange rate fees my bank would impose on such transfer.

There is no requirement for the funds to come from abroad to get an extension of stay (it is not a visa) based upon marriage. It just has to be in your name only for 60 days.

If you were to do a conversion at immigration to get a non immigrant visa you would need to show proof it came from abroad by way of a letter from the bank.

I would obviously like to avoid the outrageous low exchange rate fees my bank would impose on such transfer.

If you mean the low rate of exchange when transferring your (dollars, pounds, Euros??) to Thailand, you should always make the transfer to Thailand in (dollars or pounds or Euros or whatever). The rate of exchange will be the current rate in Thailand which is almost always far better than the rate a foreign bank would give you changing into baht and your Thai bank will charge less for a foreign exchange deposit than if you have your foreign bank send baht.

If your Thai bank has a branch in your home country, it's even simpler & cheaper to make the deposit to that branch using your local Thai bank account number.

Certainly at the moment the US $ exchange rate is better than it's been for awhile, but other currencies may be down in baht terms now.

Foreign sourced deposits may not be required for an extension, but when making the application the immigrations officers could always ask about the source of the deposits, especially if you're not legally employed here.

Never convert to Baht before sending - if your bank encourages you to do that they're trying to rip you off.

I do wires to Thailand all the time and I send it in pounds, the last one came in at around 52.xx to the pound which was the proper rate at the time.

Out of interest what exchange rate did your bank offer you ?

Edited November 17, 201411 yr by ukrules