Transferring funds to Thai bank acct

[watgate]

I want to transfer some funds to my g/f's Thai bank acct and am concerned about getting hit with exhorbitant bank fees and charges. I understand you can use your Charles Schwab debit card inside the bank to have funds sent directly to your acct, or in this situation to my g/f acct. Normally I just go to my favorite banks ATM and withdraw funds periodically and Charles Schwab reimburses me for the ATM fee. But since I want to transfer a decent amount of funds I would prefer to have it sent all at once instead of making multiple withdrawals from the ATM due to the limit on how much you can withdraw at one time. Does anyone know what the bank fee should typically be to have funds sent directly to the bank? I don't know the bank name but I am sure it is one of the large Thai banks, Also, when I go speak to a bank official to explain what I want to do, do you know if you can get a breakdown of charges or fees to execute the transfer of funds from the US to the Thai bank acct? I don't want any built in extra charges when the funds are transferred here and see additional fees and charges associated with the transfer.

[lopburi3]

The Thai charge for receiving and currency conversion will be .25% in range 200-500 baht - so not more than 500 baht.

In almost all cases you want to send foreign funds and have them converted to Baht inside Thailand for best exchange rate.

Only other charge will be your sending bank and fee at connection bank in home country.

If you have US account and Thai account is held at Bangkok Bank a domestic transfer using ACH process is another option.

[Afook]

Using my US bank debit card to withdraw funds to Bangkok Bank is fast, and my US bank charges me on the average $28 per $1500 sent....if anyone here can do it for less, let me know, thanks....

[lopburi3]

$10.65

Cost for $1,500 using ACH transfer - zero charge by US bank - $5 charge by Bangkok Bank New York - 200 baht in Thailand so total cost would be $10.65 at todays exchange rate of 35.43

Edit to correct exchange rate.

[Pib]

The great majority of U.S. banks do not charge an ACH sending fee or may charge a low fee of around $3 for a 3 business day transfer; the more fee-hungry banks charge more (sometimes much more) and in a few cases may not even offer ACH transfer but only pricey domestic wire or international SWIFT transfers. If transferring to your Bangkok Bank account using ACH (Bangkok Bank is the only Thai bank with ACH receiving capability), then the total sending fee will be as lopburi3 described above for a $1500 transfer.

[Pib]

Using my US bank debit card to withdraw funds to Bangkok Bank is fast, and my US bank charges me on the average $28 per $1500 sent....if anyone here can do it for less, let me know, thanks....

And I wouldn't be surprised that $28 fee is "their sending fee only" and does not includes the approx 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) Thai bank receiving fee which does not appear in your Thai bank or Sending bank statement/passbook since it's applied before posting to your account.

[Pib]

OP,

You will not be able to get a Thai bank to initiate a transfer from your U.S. bank such as Schwab Brokerage/Bank like a "pull" transfer. You must initiate the transfer from the Sending bank end by their online banking, you contacting them to see if they will accept a telephone or fax authorization from you, etc.

If your g/f has a Bangkok Bank account you can use Schwab to send low cost ACH transfers like in the examples above. Schwab does not charge an ACH sending fee; you would only incur the Bangkok Bank fees like mentioned in above posts. If your g/f's account is with another Thai bank you must use the pricey SWIFT transfer method which means the SWIFT sending fee (not sure how much Schwab charges for that) plus the Thai bank receiving fee which is generally 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) for most Thai banks. I have a Schwab account, transfers links setup to Bangkok Bank, use their debit card in Thailand, etc.

[topt]

The Thai charge for receiving and currency conversion will be .25% in range 200-500 baht - so not more than 500 baht.

In almost all cases you want to send foreign funds and have them converted to Baht inside Thailand for best exchange rate.

Only other charge will be your sending bank and fee at connection bank in home country.

If you have US account and Thai account is held at Bangkok Bank a domestic transfer using ACH process is another option.

Using my US bank debit card to withdraw funds to Bangkok Bank is fast, and my US bank charges me on the average $28 per $1500 sent....if anyone here can do it for less, let me know, thanks....

And I wouldn't be surprised that $28 fee is "their sending fee only" and does not includes the approx 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) Thai bank receiving fee which does not appear in your Thai bank or Sending bank statement/passbook since it's applied before posting to your account.

Just a very small correction that if you bank with SCB outside of BKK they will charge you an extra 30 baht for out of area transfer from the head office receiving account to your local account - do not know about other banks.