Cheapest Bank Transfers From Uk To Thailand

[Khun Bob]

Whats the cheapest charge for a bank transfer from a UK bank to a Thai bank (not hsbc or citibank) that you know of ?

I've heard it is usually in the range £15 to £20 and there may be extra routing charges and a receiving charge by the Thai bank. But this way I'm hoping i would get the interbank rate and not some loaded rate to cream more cash off.

It is not for a large amount as I know there are currency conversion co's that will get a good rate and throw on discount or free transfers as well for larger (5K+) amounts.

I have heard in some countries bank transfers can be as cheap as £3-£5, but i dont think so from the UK. Do any of the UK offshore banks do good deals for transfers ?

I do recall that BKK Bank, who have a branch in London, were offering transfers for £15 at the battersea festival a couple of years ago, but i guess it would have to go into a bkk bank account - dont really want that, but if it would go to any bank, then that would be one of the cheapest i know of so far.

Cheers and TIA

[briley]

Khun Bob - you have a nationwide card so walk into bangkok bank and ask to transfer xxx,xxx baht using your debit card to your saving account. I know it works up to over £1,000 as I have done it and friends have used it to transfer up to 600K baht.

No charges - period.

[Tolley]

Citibank does free international transfers from a citibank account in UK to one in Thailand.

[Khun Bob]

Thanks briley - thats one to remember - do you know what the max is ? Problem is I'm not in thailand at the mo...

Tolley - as much as i would like to have a thai citibank account - i didnt meet their criteria for an account - i tried - I thought i might have a chance but no - went for hsbc as well but got told plain no there and then - also i didnt want to tie 100K in citibank or 500K in hsbc

The banks i'm interested in are :

Bkk bank

Krungsri

Krung Thai

Kasikorn

Siam Commercial Bank

But of the above I prefer Kasikorn as they are the most (online) friendly and forward looking of the banks i have had dealings with...

Cheapest transfers from UK anyone ?

[Khun Bob]

Spoke to bkk bank in london today and was told :

* transfers up to £500 done for £15 to any bank account in thailand - not just bkk bank accounts - got quoted a rate of 68.8 which is about 1 baht below spot rate - so looks like there is a bit of loading on the exchange rate - woman i spoke to seemed unhappy that i knew other exchange rates and insisted i have to call or visit to get rates - so seems they are making a bit on this too

* for transfers can just turn up with the cash, id and proof of address and it is done

* there is a faster method for under £501 which is £30

* over £500 - you have to have an interview with the manager and bring other docs along - didnt ask alot about this

Oh woman mentioned that their routing had changed - so need to check if there is a sneaky routing charge as well. And most banks have a receiving charge too. I know Kasikorn have a 200 baht charge for receiving foreign funds. Not sure about the other thai banks or how bkk bank do the trasnfer - need to ask some more questions - unless someone here care to offer...

Transferring £500 via paypal works out at £12.50 on their 2.5% spread. And I dont think there would be a receiving charge into the thai account as the money is in baht all ready - but not sure of this as havent done it yet...

Any one else know a cheaper way ?

Edited October 31, 2006 by Khun Bob

[jbaldwin]

I use Nationwide. Can withdraw from ATM with no charges and you get wholesale exchange rate. However, the maximum is only £300 per day (they reduced the limit from £500 about a year ago). For larger amount SWIFT transfers are a flat £20. Make sure you ask to send in Thai Baht as the receiving Thai bank will give a better exchange rate than the UK banks do. Money always arrives in my Bangkok Bank account next day.

[Tolley]

I have a Kasikorn account but the big problem is that if i try to transfer from my Commonwealth Australian bank account it goes thru another Thai bank first. So you need to check that your UK bank has an agreement with Kasikorn otherwise it will go thru an intermediary who will also charge something and it will take a lot longer to arrive.

[lotus eater]

Make sure you ask to send in Thai Baht as the receiving Thai bank will give a better exchange rate than the UK banks do.

Did you mean they should send in £s - If the receiving thai bank is to do the conversion?

(Anyway this is presumably advisable if part of the purpose is to have evidence of bringing in foreign funds.)

[manjara]

Make sure you ask to send in Thai Baht as the receiving Thai bank will give a better exchange rate than the UK banks do.

Did you mean they should send in £s - If the receiving thai bank is to do the conversion?

(Anyway this is presumably advisable if part of the purpose is to have evidence of bringing in foreign funds.)

Over the last few years Visa's rates have got progressively worse. Spread is almost 10% with my Lloyds TSB card. I thought it was a centralised exchange rate for all Visa transactions (with the banks adding their pound of flesh in charges?). Does Nationwide actually get a better rate??? I've done some experimentation with Moneybookers, for transfers within their sphere and it is pretty good, but they're not in Thailand yet!

Basically, whatever you do, it costs a lot, and way more than it should do.

[jbaldwin]

Make sure you ask to send in Thai Baht as the receiving Thai bank will give a better exchange rate than the UK banks do.

Did you mean they should send in £s - If the receiving thai bank is to do the conversion?

(Anyway this is presumably advisable if part of the purpose is to have evidence of bringing in foreign funds.)

Over the last few years Visa's rates have got progressively worse. Spread is almost 10% with my Lloyds TSB card. I thought it was a centralised exchange rate for all Visa transactions (with the banks adding their pound of flesh in charges?). Does Nationwide actually get a better rate??? I've done some experimentation with Moneybookers, for transfers within their sphere and it is pretty good, but they're not in Thailand yet!

Basically, whatever you do, it costs a lot, and way more than it should do.

Yes Visa does have a common exchange rate. However, most UK banks make two separate charges for using an ATM overseas. A withdrawal fee (normally around 1.75%) and a foreign excharge loading (normally around 2.5%). The second charge is normally hidden. All you see on a statement is the exchange rate, which is worse than the one charged by Visa. Nationwide makes no charge for either of these and hence the after charges rate you receive is, on average, around 4.25% better than with other banks.

[jbaldwin]

Make sure you ask to send in Thai Baht as the receiving Thai bank will give a better exchange rate than the UK banks do.

Did you mean they should send in £s - If the receiving thai bank is to do the conversion?

(Anyway this is presumably advisable if part of the purpose is to have evidence of bringing in foreign funds.)

Sorry, yes I did mean send in £s. As I said currency conversion is Thailand normally gives significantly better rates

[Khun Bob]

Thanks for the replies so far.

OK then I wonder how much you pay for a bank transfer to a thai bank..

Can you please state the following so everyone can get an overall idea of the total cost

* UK Bank where money transferred from (or other organisation)

* UK Bank (or other organisation) charge

* Routing - ie intermediaries in the transfer (if any)

* Routing charges (if any)

* Thai bank receiving transferred money (and account type if you like)

* Thai bank receiving charge (if any)

* Which exchange rate used ie interbank, interbank +1%, etc - NOT the actual rate ie 69.6667

* Time taken from initiation at UK to receipt in Thailand

* Reliability/problems

* Ease/difficulty of initiating

* Anything else ?

This makes the assumption that the money is sent in £ GBP and the receiving organisation does the conversion. This would be useful for many people as it seems to be considerably more expensive to transfer money from a UK bank to a Thai bank than other European countries. Also if you have a look how much international transfers from Thailand to the UK are - well about 500 to 700 baht I believe..

[Maestro]

Which exchange rate used ie interbank, interbank +1%, etc - NOT the actual rate ie 69.6667

You can look up the rate for GBP on any bank’s website and see how it compares to the interbank rate you have from your sources.

For example, at the moment oanda.com tells me that the interbank bid/ask rates are 69.88684 / 69.99434, bbl.co.th gives a buying rate of 69.67 for inward remittances, sbc.co.th a rate of 69.725

The bank charges for inward remittances are usually also quoted on the banks’ websites. SBC, for example, quotes “0.25 % of the remitted value, minimum fee is at 200 Baht, maximum is 500 Baht”

---------------

Maestro

[Khun Bob]

Khun Bob - you have a nationwide card so walk into bangkok bank and ask to transfer xxx,xxx baht using your debit card to your saving account. I know it works up to over £1,000 as I have done it and friends have used it to transfer up to 600K baht.

No charges - period.

briley - is there a name for this sort of transaction ? I'm very interested in doing this next time I'm in Thailand. Also most people that mention this seem to use Bkk bank and go to the head office in Silom.

I have a BKK bank account and could get the money in that way, but what I would prefer to do is to receive the money into a kasikorn bank account. But I dont want to be charged when I know BKK bank do this without charges. I know it is just like doing an ATM withdrawn and as the flex card is a visa debit card, a cash withdrawl not at an ATM should not attract any extra fees. But this is probably rarlely done and the Thai staff may not be comfortable or familiar with doing it.

600K baht is quite a large transaction especially in one go - around £8600 !

Edited November 8, 2006 by Khun Bob

[Khun Bob]

Just out of curiosity I asked how much for a transfer in HSBC UK to HSBC Thailand, the other day. Told £10, regardless of amount.

Shame HSBC Thailand make their accounts so hard to get.

HSBC Malaysia are not so hard - I got a muslim friendly account which gets profit (not interest) allegedly - not seen it yet - still got a few months to wait - and only need to fund it with 250RM (about 2500 baht) - internet service is excellent, and they are happy for my uk address to be on file and send statements there. Also was not necessary to bluff over wanting it for the Malaysia my Second Home program either.

HSBC Thailand - work permit, 500K deposit and a pound of flesh, just for a savings account. But the main building looks cool and inside the air con is just too good - I had to keep going out to get warm again - still the guard is happy to open the door for everyone !

[Khun Bob]

Looks like this will get few takers, but if anoyone does want to divulge, many people may benefit from it...

Can you please state the following so everyone can get an overall idea of the total cost

* UK Bank where money transferred from (or other organisation)

* UK Bank (or other organisation) charge

* Routing - ie intermediaries in the transfer (if any)

* Routing charges (if any)

* Thai bank receiving transferred money (and account type if you like)

* Thai bank receiving charge (if any)

* Which exchange rate used ie interbank, interbank +1%, etc - NOT the actual rate ie 69.6667

* Time taken from initiation at UK to receipt in Thailand

* Reliability/problems

* Ease/difficulty of initiating

* Anything else ?

[Tolley]

The cheapest way to actually send money is not to send money at all.

Get a credit card that has no foreign conversion fee and no ATM fee. In Australia Wizard has this product.

You have this card linked to a saving account and keep it paid up every month to avoid interest charges.

If you are sending money to a girlfriend you could give her a second card. Change the pin number on the day the money is needed and set a daily limit so she can't get more than the daily limit then change the pin number as soon as the money is withdrawn.

The only charge that you will incur is on the bank's excahnge rate which is usually not too far off the going rate.

[Khun Bob]

There are several ways to get money into Thailand but for larger amounts a bank transfer may be the best way - thats why I am asking about that..

Can you please state the following so everyone can get an overall idea of the total cost

* UK Bank where money transferred from (or other organisation)

* UK Bank (or other organisation) charge

* Routing - ie intermediaries in the transfer (if any)

* Routing charges (if any)

* Thai bank receiving transferred money (and account type if you like)

* Thai bank receiving charge (if any)

* Which exchange rate used ie interbank, interbank +1%, etc - NOT the actual rate ie 69.6667

* Time taken from initiation at UK to receipt in Thailand

* Reliability/problems

* Ease/difficulty of initiating

* Anything else ?

Anyone ? (I give up after this - got to search deeper in those past posts - but things do change)

[Tolley]

Large amounts are a different kettle of fish.

If you can afford large amounts the amount of time you are spending trying to save a few bucks would be probably better spent trying to earn more money!!!!

I earn about 100 dollars an hours so i figure if i start to spend inordinate amounts of time trying to save a few bucks i am actually wasting my time and would be better off just working and making more money.

[libya 115]

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