Inexpensive Transfer of money from US to Thailand

[tjansen]

Hello,

Any suggestions on transferring money from a US bank to my Thai Bank. My US bank charges a hefty rate by way of a poor exchange rate, I think around 3%, in addition to the wire transfer fee. Using a Thai ATM with my US card ends up costing around the same amount.

I just ran across a company called Transferwise.com. The reviews I saw were very positive, with the low reviews being about delays of a few days or a week. There were some slightly negative comments about subsequent transfers being more expensive than the first one.

Anyone have a comment about Transferwise.com or similar companies?

[lopburi3]

What Thai bank do you have? Bangkok Bank has a US office that can accept ACH domestic transfers for very inexpensive transfers to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand at current Thai rate.

In no case would you want to transfer baht - always send USD for exchange here in Thailand.

[tjansen]

What Thai bank do you have? Bangkok Bank has a US office that can accept ACH domestic transfers for very inexpensive transfers to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand at current Thai rate.

In no case would you want to transfer baht - always send USD for exchange here in Thailand.

A friend told me about that Bangkok Bank ACH in New York, but he thought their exchange rate was probably similar to my bank's. Given your suggestion, I will call Bangkok Bank and see if I can find out the overall cost of doing it that way.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[lopburi3]

The exchange rate will be as listed on there Thai website for TT transfer (which is the best rate). The cost will vary by amount sent from free to $5 up to $2,000 and $10 for normal amounts above that deducted at New York - at exchange in Bangkok a normal fee of .25% in range 200-500 baht is removed from the Baht total.

[Spaniel]

I'm not suggesting or recommending you do it this way but it works ok for me. I have a brokerage account with Fidelity and when I need to transfer money to my Bangkok account I can either call Fidelity or go to my account on line and instruct them to wire x number of dollars to my Bkk Bank NY account and they transfer the money to my Bkk Bank account in Bangkok. Assuming it's not a weekend or holiday I usually have the money in my local Bkk Bank account in 2 days. For this service Fidelity charges me $ 10.00 and Bangkok Bank charges another foreign bank charge of $ 10.00. Plus there is a B 500 processing fee which is deducted by Bkk Bank here. So the total charges are around $ 35.00.

[tjansen]

What Thai bank do you have? Bangkok Bank has a US office that can accept ACH domestic transfers for very inexpensive transfers to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand at current Thai rate.

In no case would you want to transfer baht - always send USD for exchange here in Thailand.

A friend told me about that Bangkok Bank ACH in New York, but he thought their exchange rate was probably similar to my bank's. Given your suggestion, I will call Bangkok Bank and see if I can find out the overall cost of doing it that way.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I just checked with Bangkok Bank. Their exchange rate is 99,7 % of what I see on the Internet, decent. The fee is 0.25% with 200 baht min, 500 baht max. All in all, very decent. Thanks for the suggestion.

[tjansen]

I'm not suggesting or recommending you do it this way but it works ok for me. I have a brokerage account with Fidelity and when I need to transfer money to my Bangkok account I can either call Fidelity or go to my account on line and instruct them to wire x number of dollars to my Bkk Bank NY account and they transfer the money to my Bkk Bank account in Bangkok. Assuming it's not a weekend or holiday I usually have the money in my local Bkk Bank account in 2 days. For this service Fidelity charges me $ 10.00 and Bangkok Bank charges another foreign bank charge of $ 10.00. Plus there is a B 500 processing fee which is deducted by Bkk Bank here. So the total charges are around $ 35.00.

Great suggestion. I have a Fidelity account, but I didn't consider using them because when I checked, their exchange rate was around 3% different. But your method sounds a lot better.

Does anyone know if anything like this exists in Canada? I have a friend from there with the same issue.

[thaihome]

The ACH transfer to Bangkok Bank is the cheapest way to move money (less then $5,000) to Thailand. Transfer wise is the next best deal due favorable exchange rate they give but that is offset by much higher fee.

TH

[dddave]

Charles Schwab is another bank worth considering. They absorb all international ATM fees without a lot of account limits. I don't know if still true but international transfers were awkward with them...had to arrange it by fax rather than online.

You can only open an account with them within the USA.

[Pib]

The 3% transfer fee you mention regarding your bank must be "them converting the dollars to baht while sending" which is actually just them using "their" crappy exchange rate which in effect is an indirect fee. Many banks will offer a low or free SWIFT/wire fee if you allow them to convert while sending, but if you say no then they charge you a higher SWIFT/wire fee. If you are sending a significant amount of money it should always be better/cheaper to instruct them not to convert....send in USD. That way the Thai bank will convert the funds upon arrival at their TT Buying Rate which is about the best the common man can get.

As others have mentioned routing your funds through the Bangkok Bank "New York" branch using their ABA/ACH routing number to your in-Thailand Bangkok Bank account is a low cost way to go. Full details at Bangkok Bank's web site on how to do it....this method has been around for many years...used my many, many U.S. folks to send funds, have monthly pension deposited, etc.

[NovaBlue05]

I have been using the Bkk Bank New York ACH route for years and am quite satisfied.They have a fee as mentioned above but I dont have a transfer fee assessed by my USAA account on this end.

[Mrjlh]

Any fee over $20 is expensive. BofA to BB NY is $10 next day, add 300B (average) from BB less than $20 total. You can go 3 day from BofA for$3 if you want to save even more $. Only cheaper one I know is with USAA which re-reimburses fees. I continually read from others that have investment accounts that transfer charges are cheaper but the forget to include maintenance fees they pay for these accounts are high (or hidden). My checking/savings is free. To each his own, I'm happy.

[Suradit69]

I also use Bangkok Bank.

You open an account here and use that account number when you transfer money to their branch in NY.

It's a domestic transfer within the US. My US bank does it for free.

The amount in baht will appear in your Bangkok Bank account here in a few days depending on weekends, holidays, etc.

Whatever method you use, you TRANSFER US $ to your Thai bank. Don't ask a US bank to transfer baht.

[jerojero]

Try USForex.com

[Suradit69]

The ACH transfer to Bangkok Bank is the cheapest way to move money (less then $5,000) to Thailand. Transfer wise is the next best deal due favorable exchange rate they give but that is offset by much higher fee.

TH

re: fees.

I usually transfer something in the $2500 to $3000 range per month. Bangkok Bank in New York seems to deduct $10 regardless of the amount and in Thailand it appears to vary depending on the amount, but around Baht 200.

This month for a $2500 transfer they charged Baht 218.93, which seemed an odd amount.

The exchange rate used appears to always be the one posted on their website under the TT buying column on the date it cleats into the local account. http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/WebServices/Rates/Pages/FX_Rates.aspx

With my impeccable timing, this month I managed to hit the low in recent months ... Baht 35.09 ... immediately after my account was credited, the rate shot back up to around Baht 35.55.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Suradit69

[Thailand J]

The cheapest I can do is via Vanguard Brokerage account SWIFT transfer USD ( not thaibaht) , free at Vanguard website to initiate, 2 USD for Chase Bank as the intermediary and 500B for Bangkok Bank to receive. Bangkok Bank in Pattaya, not in in NY. If I send it into KBank I have to pay 500B plus 0.01% fee to transfer from their main branch to Pattaya

[Thailand J]

oops..K-Bank charged me 500B plus domestic transfer fee of :720B for 20,000USD, 620B for 17000USD and 750B for 30000USD. I dont know how do they calculate the charges but It is not 0.01% as I have stated above.

[lopburi3]

The ACH transfer to Bangkok Bank is the cheapest way to move money (less then $5,000) to Thailand. Transfer wise is the next best deal due favorable exchange rate they give but that is offset by much higher fee.

TH

re: fees.

I usually transfer something in the $2500 to $3000 range per month. Bangkok Bank in New York seems to deduct $10 regardless of the amount and in Thailand it appears to vary depending on the amount, but around Baht 200.

This month for a $2500 transfer they charged Baht 218.93, which seemed an odd amount.

The exchange rate used appears to always be the one posted on their website under the TT buying column on the date it cleats into the local account. http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/WebServices/Rates/Pages/FX_Rates.aspx

With my impeccable timing, this month I managed to hit the low in recent months ... Baht 35.09 ... immediately after my account was credited, the rate shot back up to around Baht 35.55.

If exchange rate was exactly 35.09 the fee should have been 218.43 rather than 218.93 from my math - but then you did hit a low point and a half baht would not likely clear that depression so mi pen li.

[Pib]

Try USForex.com

Yes, they do have a low direct/upfront sending fee but their USD to THB exchange rate is low. For example as of a few minutes ago their USD-THB exchange rate was 35.1016 compared to the Thai banks average TT Buying Rate of 35.42 a few minutes ago, which equates to the USForex rate being 0.9% lower. USForex generally sets their exchange rate around 1% lower than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate....that's where USForex makes their money through their indirect/hidden fee of lower exchange rate.

http://www.usforex.com/our-services/transfer-money/thailand

[Pib]

When transferring funds via the Bangkok Bank NY branch to your in-Thailand Bangkok Bank branch, here is the sequence of fee application. Say you send $3000, as the funds flow through the NY branch they will slice off their fee which is $10 for anything over $2K up to $50K (they have 4 possible fee amounts depending on the amount you send). So $2,990 arrives your in-Thailand Bangkok Bank for exchange to Baht. Let's say the TT Buying Rate of the minute was 35 baht/USD. 35 times 2,990 gives you Bt104,650 baht. Now the bank applies its 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) fee which equate to Bt261.63. They now substract that Bt261.63 from the Bt104,650 which leaves Bt104388.37 which is posted to your account.

The two mentioned fees above are applied "before" posting to your account and "do not" appear on any statement which fools some folks into thinking no fees were applied...it also explains why some folks can not get their personal exchange rate math to match any of the TT Buying Rates posted for that date.

Bangkok Bank New York Branch Fee

In-Thailand Bangkok Bank Fee to receive/convert incoming funds (Applied to one time transfers, monthly direct deposits, foreign currency deposit accounts, whether the funds arrive in foreign currency or already converted to baht, etc. This is the same fee mentioned in above NY branch fee chart...it's not applied twice; only applied at the in-Thailand branch)

Edited February 19, 2016 by Pib

[keeniau96]

Pib makes it very clear. One added consideration is the cost of the domestic USA transfer from your USA bank to BKK bank in NYC. I use AICH online transfer which is free from my bank, so the full amount arrives in BKK-NYC, whence they apply their fee, typically $10, and send the funds to TH.

[KhunG]

I transfer only twice a year, so the sum is large enough that the fees are lost in the noise. About $25 on the US side and 500 Baht on the Thai side no matter how much I send.

Second point, as mentioned above, only transfer USD and let the exchange happen at the Thai bank. US banks have terrible exchange rates.

[Langsuan Man]

I'm not suggesting or recommending you do it this way but it works ok for me. I have a brokerage account with Fidelity and when I need to transfer money to my Bangkok account I can either call Fidelity or go to my account on line and instruct them to wire x number of dollars to my Bkk Bank NY account and they transfer the money to my Bkk Bank account in Bangkok. Assuming it's not a weekend or holiday I usually have the money in my local Bkk Bank account in 2 days. For this service Fidelity charges me $ 10.00 and Bangkok Bank charges another foreign bank charge of $ 10.00. Plus there is a B 500 processing fee which is deducted by Bkk Bank here. So the total charges are around $ 35.00.

Fidelity doesn't charge for an electronic funds transfer (EFTS)

Your problem is that your are having Fidelity send a wire, don't' use a wire, use EFTS that are free , since you will be transferring via the New York branch using a domestic routing number , with a Thai account number

See post by Pib above for the real costs

source: www.fidelity.com/trading/commissions-margin-rates

[Lodestone]

What would the fees be if you used a U.S. Citibank savings account ATM card to withdraw 35000 baht (or whatever the daily max is) from a Thai Citibank ATM (such as at the Asok Citibank branch)?

[eppic]

What would the fees be if you used a U.S. Citibank savings account ATM card to withdraw 35000 baht (or whatever the daily max is) from a Thai Citibank ATM (such as at the Asok Citibank branch)?

As noted in other threads, Citibank still charges U.S. clients the ATM fee (not so for those from select other countries and/or Citigold clients).

Not sure if the limit is different at Asoke, but as of two days ago at Centralworld the maximum per transaction was 50k and the fee was 180bt. You can also do repeated transactions up to your card daily limit. The fee works out to 0.36% (or zero if your card reimburses fees and takes no fx spread), which is a very cheap and dead simple vs other options.

Edited February 20, 2016 by eppic

[50baht]

Moneygram at all walmarts $9.00 to Thailand many places to pick up.

[tjansen]

I'm not suggesting or recommending you do it this way but it works ok for me. I have a brokerage account with Fidelity and when I need to transfer money to my Bangkok account I can either call Fidelity or go to my account on line and instruct them to wire x number of dollars to my Bkk Bank NY account and they transfer the money to my Bkk Bank account in Bangkok. Assuming it's not a weekend or holiday I usually have the money in my local Bkk Bank account in 2 days. For this service Fidelity charges me $ 10.00 and Bangkok Bank charges another foreign bank charge of $ 10.00. Plus there is a B 500 processing fee which is deducted by Bkk Bank here. So the total charges are around $ 35.00.

Great suggestion. I have a Fidelity account, but I didn't consider using them because when I checked, their exchange rate was around 3% different. But your method sounds a lot better.

Does anyone know if anything like this exists in Canada? I have a friend from there with the same issue.

I am the OP. Thanks for all of the interesting discussion and suggestions. I just completed my first transfer using Bangkok Bank ACH and was very satisfied with the results. By my estimate, the cost was less than 0.5% of the transferred amount. Far less than any way I have come up with to date.

Edited February 23, 2016 by tjansen

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

What would the fees be if you used a U.S. Citibank savings account ATM card to withdraw 35000 baht (or whatever the daily max is) from a Thai Citibank ATM (such as at the Asok Citibank branch)?

As noted in other threads, Citibank still charges U.S. clients the ATM fee (not so for those from select other countries and/or Citigold clients).

Not sure if the limit is different at Asoke, but as of two days ago at Centralworld the maximum per transaction was 50k and the fee was 180bt. You can also do repeated transactions up to your card daily limit. The fee works out to 0.36% (or zero if your card reimburses fees and takes no fx spread), which is a very cheap and dead simple vs other options.

Last time I checked, Citibank cardholders from the U.S., if they're NOT Gold or higher status, are charged BOTH a flat Thai ATM fee and a 3% or so foreign currency transaction fee on the U.S. end if they use their U.S. Citi card in a Thai Citibank ATM. For non Gold card holders from the U.S., there's no advantage here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Moneygram at all walmarts $9.00 to Thailand many places to pick up.

Neither Moneygram nor Western Union are particularly economical ways of moving money from the U.S. to Thailand. Same for Paypal and all the other similar commercial services. They're businesses, and they make their money by taking a cut of YOUR money.

You'll not only often pay a fee, but you'll also get a much worse exchange rate than the standard Thai bank TT exchange rates that apply to incoming international fund transfers where the Thai bank handles the currency conversion, including the Bangkok Bank New York branch method..

I've done the comparison math in the past, and compared to the BKK Bank-New York branch option, the BKK Bank route option wins every time.

The same is true for BkkBank-NY compared to doing an international wire transfer from the U.S. Most U.S. banks charge pretty hefty fees for sending international wires, and in most cases, those are going to be higher than the relatively modest handling fees that the BKK Bank New York branch charges.

There may be a few kinds of accounts out there in the U.S. that waive the normal sending fees for international wire transfers, but those are rare AFAIK. I believe I've seen some situations like that for very high $ balance accounts as a perk, but that's certainly not the norm, and most folks here don't have access to those as a sending method.

[Pib]

Moneygram at all walmarts $9.00 to Thailand many places to pick up.

A missing key detail is the low Moneygram exchange rate. And the upfront fee is closer to $10 ($9.99 specifically) than $9 for amounts up to $500. Above $500 the upfront fee climbs pretty substantially.

Below are snapshots from the Moneygram U.S. website showing upfront fee costs and exchange rate for sending $500 and $2000 from a Moneygram location (like Walmart) in the U.S. to Thailand. Please note the exchange is almost 4% lower than the Thai bank TT Buying Rate using for incoming international transfers. Moneygram is is showing a 34.2 exchange rate for today...the average Thai bank TT Buying Rate for today is 35.57. And also note how the upfront sending fee went up to $40.

Now below snapshots were when sending from a MoneyGram location. What about sending online with Moneygram. Their calculator showed a "little lower" exchange rate of 33.93 and an upfront fee that was a little less (not much). So using online or at a location you endup with very, very similar upfront fees and exchange rate.

Moneygram, PayPal, and Western Union are all in the same low exchange rate league but with a low upfront fee tasty worm on their hook...but once biting their hook the low exchange rate should really hurt (if noticed).