SWIFT Pounds sterling to Thai baht denominated bank account

[hathairat2711]

Am I correct in saying that you can send money by T/T from the UK in pounds sterling to a Thai baht account and if so which is the better option, to send sterling or Thai baht from the originating UK bank?

Cheers

[MAZ3]

Yes you can and its much better than sending Thai baht from the UK. You will get Bangkok Banks rate in Thailand (its the clearing Bank and better than its UK rate). Do not let your Uk Bank bully you into sending Baht, Halifax has a warning not to send £,ignore it(I've sent £ many times.

HSBC only charge £4 to send an International Transfer,Halifax £9.50 online (£19.50 if you call them). The Thai receiving Bank will charge you a minimum of 200B,but a maximum of 500B.

The first transfer takes 4/5 days,but after that 2/3(extra checks I assume). Swift is about £20/£25,not used it for years. Thai Banks don't have a sort code,you need the receiving Banks account address. You can Google the swift code. Regards

[Crash999]

Yes you can send GBP to a Thai Baht account. It will be converted to Baht as it arrives or if a very large amount your bank may call you to reconfirm the exchange rate. Much better to send Pounds and have it converted locally as you'll get a much better rate than trying to buy Baht abroad.

[hathairat2711]

Thanks guys, you've answered my question.....

[Jip99]

Send Sterling.

I did an exercise this week sending £1,000 from HSBC.

I normally transfer Sterling but I quite like the Thai Baht they offered so I thought I would test it out.

Normally, £1,000 gets to Kasikorn within hours. Kasikorn take 0.25% (max 500 Bt) + 0.1% + 20 Baht (to transfer out of province). Total costs on £1,000 (say 49,500 Baht) 254 Baht - I receive 49,246 Baht.

By taking the Baht rate the SWIFT payment has to be routed through HSBC bank in Bangkok. That adds 1 day to the transfer and another circa 700 Baht.

Overall, I think I lost around 600 Baht by not transferring Sterling as I normally do.

Lesson learned.

[wgdanson]

I just did a GBP 5000 SWIFT from Nationwide UK to Bkk Bank Foreign currency account. GBP 20 to Nationwide, only GBP 4980 arrived and Bkk Bank took Bht 500, all in all about 50 quid to do it (1%). I complained but to no avail.

It's best to have a Foreign Currency account here, internet enabled, so you can exchange however much you want/need as and when the exchange rate is favourable or otherwise.

[Pib]

I just did a GBP 5000 SWIFT from Nationwide UK to Bkk Bank Foreign currency account. GBP 20 to Nationwide, only GBP 4980 arrived and Bkk Bank took Bht 500, all in all about 50 quid to do it (1%). I complained but to no avail.

It's best to have a Foreign Currency account here, internet enabled, so you can exchange however much you want/need as and when the exchange rate is favourable or otherwise.

Is that really true regarding a foreign currency account? You still pay the Thai bank 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) receiving fee, you still pay your sending bank fee, and since a SWIFT transfer arrives so fast (within a day or so) a person can still take advantage of favorable exchange rate upward trends...it's not like exchange are bouncing up and down several percent each day. And if it's a "savings" foreign currency account you have the 15% withholding tax on interest earned (not applicable to a current account that pays no interest). And then there are a variety of fees that might bite you, like minimum balance requirements.

I just don't see the advantage for having a foreign currency account if wanting to have one just for "exchange rate" purposes to meet personal day-to-day living expenses.. Sure there are probably favorable considerations if wanting to expatriate funds or needing to make payments in a foreign currency, but having one for exchange rate purposes to meet day-to-day personal living expenses I don't see it. I've often thought about opening a foreign currency account, but keep running up against the wall of not being able to justify it to myself for my financial needs in Thailand.

[wgdanson]

Then don't open one. It works fine for me.

[Naam]

Then don't open one. It works fine for me.

your posting at 09:42 today doesn't sound like "working fine"

I just did a GBP 5000 SWIFT from Nationwide UK to Bkk Bank Foreign currency account. GBP 20 to Nationwide, only GBP 4980 arrived and Bkk Bank took Bht 500, all in all about 50 quid to do it (1%). I complained but to no avail.

[Trebilcock]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

[Changoverandout]

Santander charge £25 and needs fax's and other checks to send here so I've used www.hifx.com in Windsor for the past few years @ £9 per transaction although they leave the £ conversion to Thailand it hasn't seemed that bad a rate and only takes a few days.

[Pib]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

When say "Sender pays fees" that usually means the Sending is to pay for "all" sending & receiving fees along the way, even on the receiving bank end. Since the sending bank don't know what all the fees are for the thousands of possible banks it might end up sending to, the Sending bank will usually charge a high sending fee that they feel should cover their costs in the great majority of situations. But what can also happen is the receiving bank will still charge its normal receiving fee (ie.,the typical Thai bank 0.25% Bt200 min, Bt500) fee and you were just left with the Sending bank charging you a higher fee they never had to pay out on. I love it when the Sending bank always tries to blame the Receiving bank or Correspondent/Intermediary bank. You probably should select the option that says you pay the sending fee and the beneficiary pays any receiving fee.

[puck2]

I just did a GBP 5000 SWIFT from Nationwide UK to Bkk Bank Foreign currency account. GBP 20 to Nationwide, only GBP 4980 arrived and Bkk Bank took Bht 500, all in all about 50 quid to do it (1%). I complained but to no avail.

It's best to have a Foreign Currency account here, internet enabled, so you can exchange however much you want/need as and when the exchange rate is favourable or otherwise.

With a probability of 99,9 % I guess you lost 20 GBP for a correspondence bank fee. This is a "normal" fee for international SWIFT transfers, when the 2 concerned banks don't have a direct relationship, but need an intermediary bank for the transfer.

Ask your Thai bank for a receit which will explain the deduction.

You are charged by this fee the banks normally are silent about. Good example to understand it is here -->

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/22/middleman-charges-bank-transfer

[Jip99]

Then don't open one. It works fine for me.

Are you for real ?

You would have been better sending your money to BKK London for a start.

[Jip99]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

Make sure you just tick the box 'sender pays all HSBC UK charges'.

But, that said, I imagine that is what happened before - she picked up £4 at the UK end and the Thai bank (BKK) deducted their normal 0.25% etc handling charge. That would normally be no more than 250 Baht.

It is possible that she ticked the box to send Thai Baht - in that case (see my earlier post) there would have been a HSBC Bangkok correspondent bank charge.

Always send GBP.

[Ricardo]

By taking the Baht rate the SWIFT payment has to be routed through HSBC bank in Bangkok. That adds 1 day to the transfer and another circa 700 Baht.

<snips for brevity>

Just to point out that HSBC closed their branch in Bangkok a couple of years ago.

And definitely send the transfers in Sterling, also suggest to your wife that a larger-transfer every 2/3 months might cost slightly-less, in transaction-charges ?

[Trebilcock]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

Make sure you just tick the box 'sender pays all HSBC UK charges'.

But, that said, I imagine that is what happened before - she picked up £4 at the UK end and the Thai bank (BKK) deducted their normal 0.25% etc handling charge. That would normally be no more than 250 Baht.

It is possible that she ticked the box to send Thai Baht - in that case (see my earlier post) there would have been a HSBC Bangkok correspondent bank charge.

Always send GBP.

Many thanks for the reply. My wife insists she did everything exactly the same as she's always done. Her sister is going to make enquiries at the Bangkok Bank, and I will post any results here. Thanks again.

[Trebilcock]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

When say "Sender pays fees" that usually means the Sending is to pay for "all" sending & receiving fees along the way, even on the receiving bank end. Since the sending bank don't know what all the fees are for the thousands of possible banks it might end up sending to, the Sending bank will usually charge a high sending fee that they feel should cover their costs in the great majority of situations. But what can also happen is the receiving bank will still charge its normal receiving fee (ie.,the typical Thai bank 0.25% Bt200 min, Bt500) fee and you were just left with the Sending bank charging you a higher fee they never had to pay out on. I love it when the Sending bank always tries to blame the Receiving bank or Correspondent/Intermediary bank. You probably should select the option that says you pay the sending fee and the beneficiary pays any receiving fee.

Thanks very much for the reply. Still looking into it.