lorddaverichards Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 I have been living in Thailand for some time work ( with WP ) married to Thai lady and have a mortgage on our home in Bangkok. I have on recent occasions been transfering money from my UK bank to our Thai bank here in Thailand just to top up our income. I noticed that the rates i receive are not always the best and are now looking at other options. The amounts that i transfer each month vary from 500 to 750 and will be looking in the near future to transferring around 60k sterling to help pay off my mortgage here and put a deposit down on a new car. I have looked at FX brokers and they seem to give good rates but before jumping in I thought I would see if anyone from the UK has any experience in this area where they have used these brokers, and if so are they reliable? or is it best to stick with the UK banks ? any help or advice would be appreciated BW Dave Richards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaPhom Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Moneycorp and Transferwire give good rates but you will still need to provide them money laundering docs to set up an account. At 20 quid a Swift transfer isn't that bad through Nationwide etc.....you may wanna be quick as Sterling has already gone down 2 baht in the past 7 weeks.....quite a bit on 60K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatboy Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 when i have transfered amounts over 20k.gbp.to my thai bank [sCB] i have always got a phone call from their head office bkk.offering me a better rate than TT. BUT DONT FORGET WHEN YOU MAKE THE TRANS.TO THAILAND TELL THEM WHAT ITS FOR. you should also get an international trans.certificate incase you want to take it out of thailand in the future. as for the best rate you wont beat onshore rates eg.TT.TELEX.TRANS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacky54 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Transferwise did not ask for any anti laundering doc and you don't even have to ring them like fx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champken Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Moneycorp and Transferwire give good rates but you will still need to provide them money laundering docs to set up an account. At 20 quid a Swift transfer isn't that bad through Nationwide etc.....you may wanna be quick as Sterling has already gone down 2 baht in the past 7 weeks.....quite a bit on 60K Funnily enough i have just used a swift transfer through Nationwide for 59k to purchase another condo. The money arrived in my newly set up Krunsri bank account this morning where they gave me a rate of 54.10. and you are right, Nationwide charged me 20 quid. HSBC only charge 4 quid for a swift transfer but the maximum they will do in one go is 50k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaPhom Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Transferwise did not ask for any anti laundering doc and you don't even have to ring them like fx Your lucky then as a friend tried to about 5 weeks ago and they wanted scans of his PP and utility bill in UK which he couldn't provide, maybe they ask if sending over a certain amount. Was a good rate they were offering as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) Moneycorp and Transferwire give good rates but you will still need to provide them money laundering docs to set up an account. At 20 quid a Swift transfer isn't that bad through Nationwide etc.....you may wanna be quick as Sterling has already gone down 2 baht in the past 7 weeks.....quite a bit on 60K Be Aware! Nationwide route their Swift transfers through HSBC in Bkk and recently they (HSBC) have been charging an additional 15 quid, which gets deducted 2-3 months after the transfer has taken place. See below my reply from Nationwide when I queried where the charge came from. Now I use Transferwise or Xendpay. Takes 3-5 days but gets here ok and with a better rate and no additional charges. https://transferwise.com/u/322106 https://secure.xendpay.com/signup/ur/E368103 Thank you for your message. For us to be able to send a payment directly to a bank, we need to have a direct banking relationship with them. As we do not have a direct banking relationship with the Kasikorn bank in Thailand, we have to send our payment through an intermediary bank who share a banking relationship with them; in this case HSBC. I can confirm that all payments to Thailand have always been routed in this manner, With regards to the additional charge, it may be a one-off relating to this SWIFT payment being sent, but any future SWIFT payments to Thailand may also incur an additional charge. Edited November 12, 2015 by Expattaff1308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmaxdan Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Moneycorp and Transferwire give good rates but you will still need to provide them money laundering docs to set up an account. At 20 quid a Swift transfer isn't that bad through Nationwide etc.....you may wanna be quick as Sterling has already gone down 2 baht in the past 7 weeks.....quite a bit on 60K Be Aware! Nationwide route their Swift transfers through HSBC in Bkk and recently they (HSBC) have been charging an additional 15 quid, which gets deducted 2-3 months after the transfer has taken place. See below my reply from Nationwide when I queried where the charge came from. Now I use Transferwise or Xendpay. Takes 3-5 days but gets here ok and with a better rate and no additional charges. https://transferwise.com/u/322106 https://secure.xendpay.com/signup/ur/E368103 Thank you for your message. For us to be able to send a payment directly to a bank, we need to have a direct banking relationship with them. As we do not have a direct banking relationship with the Kasikorn bank in Thailand, we have to send our payment through an intermediary bank who share a banking relationship with them; in this case HSBC. I can confirm that all payments to Thailand have always been routed in this manner, With regards to the additional charge, it may be a one-off relating to this SWIFT payment being sent, but any future SWIFT payments to Thailand may also incur an additional charge. I think Nationwide have only changed the way they route SWIFT transfers as of this year. I actually got charged two additional payments of £15 which meant I ended up paying £50 in total to do a SWIFT transfer....which is crazy. Your email explains a lot to me because I emailed them and spoke on the phone and Nationwide never admitted any of that to me.....all I got was 'nothing has changed' I suppose it could be HSBC who have changed their policy, not Nationwide. I have just done a trial run with Transferwise which seemed to work fine, although I never got an email to say the transaction had been completed, like they said they would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackcab Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 How does that compare to transferring the money to Bangkok Bank in London and letting them transfer it to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) Moneycorp and Transferwire give good rates but you will still need to provide them money laundering docs to set up an account. At 20 quid a Swift transfer isn't that bad through Nationwide etc.....you may wanna be quick as Sterling has already gone down 2 baht in the past 7 weeks.....quite a bit on 60K Be Aware! Nationwide route their Swift transfers through HSBC in Bkk and recently they (HSBC) have been charging an additional 15 quid, which gets deducted 2-3 months after the transfer has taken place. See below my reply from Nationwide when I queried where the charge came from. Now I use Transferwise or Xendpay. Takes 3-5 days but gets here ok and with a better rate and no additional charges. https://transferwise.com/u/322106 https://secure.xendpay.com/signup/ur/E368103 Thank you for your message. For us to be able to send a payment directly to a bank, we need to have a direct banking relationship with them. As we do not have a direct banking relationship with the Kasikorn bank in Thailand, we have to send our payment through an intermediary bank who share a banking relationship with them; in this case HSBC. I can confirm that all payments to Thailand have always been routed in this manner, With regards to the additional charge, it may be a one-off relating to this SWIFT payment being sent, but any future SWIFT payments to Thailand may also incur an additional charge. I think Nationwide have only changed the way they route SWIFT transfers as of this year. I actually got charged two additional payments of £15 which meant I ended up paying £50 in total to do a SWIFT transfer....which is crazy. Your email explains a lot to me because I emailed them and spoke on the phone and Nationwide never admitted any of that to me.....all I got was 'nothing has changed' I suppose it could be HSBC who have changed their policy, not Nationwide. I have just done a trial run with Transferwise which seemed to work fine, although I never got an email to say the transaction had been completed, like they said they would. Thats correct, I had been transferring monthly for almost 7 yrs, then this year started getting the additional charge 2-3 months later. Another mate also got caught and he assumed it was the Thai Bank until I put him straight. I paid it the once then looked for alternative ways and found Transferwise & Xendpay. Now if these can do it and get a more preferential rate why cant the Banks? You should get an email telling you the conversion has been completed, then its just a wait for it to arrive. Usually 3-4 business days depending on the time the conversion was completed. Edited November 12, 2015 by Expattaff1308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 How does that compare to transferring the money to Bangkok Bank in London and letting them transfer it to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand? I transfer between 1000 - 1200 GBP per month depending on my needs, and Transferwise and Xendpay are cheaper and give a better rate than the TT rate thro the Banks. I looked into using Bkk Bank in London but they still charge 20 quid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacky54 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I will never use swift again from Nationwide as it cost me over 60 quid last time with the extra 15 quid bank charge later then Tanachart charging me an unauthorised 27 quid, Transferwise was very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I will never use swift again from Nationwide as it cost me over 60 quid last time with the extra 15 quid bank charge later then Tanachart charging me an unauthorised 27 quid, Transferwise was very good. Heres another good one I use after the Nationwide/HSBC charges Xendpay - https://secure.xendpay.com/signup/ur/E368103 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacky54 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 how much is a fair payment for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 how much is a fair payment for them? I pay what they quote I think thats very fair considering what the banks charge. £4 for £1000 (40p per £100) so If I transferred £1200 it would be £4.80p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Parrot Fish Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Yes. I transfered £4,900 from Nationwide to SCB last month and paid the £20 fee. Yesterday I was deducted £15 and £15.10 from my Nationwide acc. I queried it and got this reply. Hello Mr --------Thanks for getting back to us. I've just had a look at your account, and I can see that the two charges taken from your account on 17 November were in relation to your recent SWIFT payment. I can see that we have charged £20.00 for your SWIFT payment back in October, however the receiving bank can still apply a charge for receiving this type of payment. In order to find out more about these charges, you will need to contact the receiving bank. I hope this answers your query, but if there is anything else I can help you with, please reply to this message or give our 24/7 Customer Service Centre a call on 0800 30 20 11. If calling from abroad please dial +44 1793 656 789. Kind Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expattaff1308 Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Yes. I transfered £4,900 from Nationwide to SCB last month and paid the £20 fee. Yesterday I was deducted £15 and £15.10 from my Nationwide acc. I queried it and got this reply. Hello Mr --------Thanks for getting back to us. I've just had a look at your account, and I can see that the two charges taken from your account on 17 November were in relation to your recent SWIFT payment. I can see that we have charged £20.00 for your SWIFT payment back in October, however the receiving bank can still apply a charge for receiving this type of payment. In order to find out more about these charges, you will need to contact the receiving bank. I hope this answers your query, but if there is anything else I can help you with, please reply to this message or give our 24/7 Customer Service Centre a call on 0800 30 20 11. If calling from abroad please dial +44 1793 656 789. Kind Regards, Same happened to me Nationwide route their Swift payments thro HSBC Bkk. Thats where the additional charge came from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Parrot Fish Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Time to stop doing that and find another method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert24 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 If you transfer 60k sterling I wouldn't worry about feed but how many bips margin they take on the FX unless you have a foreign currency act here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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