Paypal Thailand : transferring baht from Thai bank account ...

[MrWorldwide]

Hi All,

This was a doddle with my Australian paypal account - just click on 'Add Funds' from my main Account Overview page, select my linked bank account and add whatever I needed. Took longer than I was happy with, but I could avoid the fee charged for using a Debit/Credit card.

Despite having linked both my Thai debit card (and verified it via the 70 baht deposit) and my KT savings account, I dont seem to have an 'Add Funds' link. Googled it and the 'solution' seems ridiculous - add funds to my Australian Paypal account then send myself money using my Thai Paypal gmail address : granted, it is setup for AUD but there will inevitably be currency conversion costs at some stage.

Without turning this into a 'why I hate Paypal' epic, am I missing something here ? All I want to do is transfer baht from my Thai bank account into my Paypal THB balance : can that really be so hard in 2015 ?

Thanks,

MrWW

[ronthai]

I must be missing something here.

Why would you want or need to put a balance on your (Thai) PayPal Account?

You have your Thai bank card and bank account registered with (Thai) PayPal, yes?

Whenever you would buy something online and use Paypal as the payment option, it would simply be withdrawn from your registered card and bank account.

I have both Thai PayPal and Bangkok Bank. Yes, impossible to add funds on it, but again NO NEED to.

The only reason I can think of would be to try and transfer funds OUT of Thailand and into your Aussie account, which is by Thai law not allowed.

Maybe also by international law due to money laundering and such.

Transferring money out of Thailand (without any purchase) is only allowed under special circumstances, which I am sure can be found online or an other TVF poster may post them here.

Edited April 17, 2015 by ronthai

[chrisb720]

Hi, I have the same problem and haven't found a solution. It just can't be done for some reason in Thai PayPal

[charliebadenhop]

Not actually sure what is being asked...

I have paypal accounts in three different countries.

You cannot transfer funds from the acct. of one country to the account of another country.

I think this is due to intl. banking laws.

If you wanted to send money TO Thailand from a paypal account in Thailand, you might be able to do this with no transfer fee, as that is what I do when I sometimes send money to a friend in Manila. I click something like "sending money to a friend or family member" and there is either no transfer fee, or something about 50 cents US.

If you are going to be switching from one currency to another in order to get access to the money, then yes of course, you will not be getting the best possible rate.

Does this help?

[saminoz]

I must be missing something here.

Why would you want or need to put a balance on your (Thai) PayPal Account?

You have your Thai bank card and bank account registered with (Thai) PayPal, yes?

Whenever you would buy something online and use Paypal as the payment option, it would simply be withdrawn from your registered card and bank account.

I have both Thai PayPal and Bangkok Bank. Yes, impossible to add funds on it, but again NO NEED to.

The only reason I can think of would be to try and transfer funds OUT of Thailand and into your Aussie account, which is by Thai law not allowed.

Maybe also by international law due to money laundering and such.

Transferring money out of Thailand (without any purchase) is only allowed under special circumstances, which I am sure can be found online or an other TVF poster may post them here.

I transfer funds from my Paypal account (linked to my Bangkok Bank account) regularly. I have never had an issue. Easier, cheaper and faster than a bank transfer or crazy charging from Western Union. I can't see the problem.

[SGX]

Do you use paypal to change currency with less fees? How does that work?

[mike324]

Keep your eye out for Transferwise, heard good things about it so far but Thai baht is not supported yet. Transfer fees are less than 1%.

(DELETED)

Edited April 18, 2015 by seedy
link to website

[gnatman]

I do the same thing with a Paypal account tied to my US bank account and a second Paypal account tied to my Thai account (SCB) and have the same restriction. I can withdrawal to my SCB account from Paypal, but not add funds from SCB to Paypal. I queried Paypal and they replied that it was a limitation due to Thai banking law. I agree with Mike324 that Transferwise may ultimately be the answer. I also have heard very positive things about it.

[meltingpot2015]

Keep your eye out for Transferwise, heard good things about it so far but Thai baht is not supported yet. Transfer fees are less than 1%.

Have had positive experience with Transferwise, transferring to Australian Dollors.

Thai baht is not supported yet

You can (DELETED) when Transfers to Thai Bhat is available:

Edited April 18, 2015 by seedy
link to website

[Roger Lee]

As mentioned above, just send money to yourself or other PayPal account using your email address. I gift myself painlessly when needed and it's instantaneous.

You take a small hit on the exchange rate.

There is no provision on the Thai account to add funds, it must be sent from another PayPal account.

[seedy]

Posts with links to websites edited.

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[MrWorldwide]

I do the same thing with a Paypal account tied to my US bank account and a second Paypal account tied to my Thai account (SCB) and have the same restriction. I can withdrawal to my SCB account from Paypal, but not add funds from SCB to Paypal. I queried Paypal and they replied that it was a limitation due to Thai banking law. I agree with Mike324 that Transferwise may ultimately be the answer. I also have heard very positive things about it.

Wow - one, possibly two people in the entire thread who got what I was trying to do - as you confirmed, I suspected this was an aspect of Thai banking law possibly caused by the high incidence of fraud claims they already have to investigate.

For those who still dont get it:

- the issue isnt that I can't pay with my Thai Debit card - I can.

- when I pay with said Debit card, I will be charged 323 baht for the privilege

- I do have balances in AUD and USD and I can use those to buy goods and services where the seller specifies their price in that currency - awesome

- what I do *not* have is a THB balance beyond the 70 baht deposit PP made to verify my account - not a fortune when you want to buy from a Thai e-tailer.

- I can convert some of my USD or AUD balance into THB, but Paypal stacks the conversion in their favor and charge me for the privilege.

- my Australian Paypal account has an 'Add Funds' option where I can topup my AUD balance directly from my linked bank account, the Thai Paypal account does not

- I'm not even remotely interested in trying to transfer AUD into my Thai Paypal account from my Australian Paypal account - see the part about PP's conversion costs. Technically, I'm not even supposed to have more than one 'Individual' PP account anyway - the last thing I need to do is draw their attention to my efforts in that regard.

To summarise, I'm not handing Paypal any more money than I have to, esp when I have baht in a Thai bank account. Clearly, its not an option courtesy of Thai banking law - that's all I needed to know and I thank gnatman for passing that on. I'm not going to discuss Transferwise - there is already plenty of online debate re the merits of each service - but all my buyers are happy to use PP so I guess I'm stuck with it.

[MrWorldwide]

Just while I think of it, I assume most here know you can now book hotels and pay using PP ? Very handy. I'm not allowed to link to the site, but Google is your friend.

[meltingpot2015]

Or any other search engine...

BTW Just wonder how much sucking-up one has to do, before one is officially someones <deleted>.

Edited April 19, 2015 by meltingpot2015

[Roger Lee]

Ok, sorry to waste your time.

I'll take this into account next time I think I'm helping someone.

Have a good day.

[meltingpot2015]

Not you. The op.

[thailandforumaddict]

Hello, sorry, can you confirm, it is not possible to transfer money from my Thai bank account to my paypal account to refill Paypal and keep money there ? I can only pay with my debit card if I have money on my Thai bank account ?

Thank you for confirmation.