Transfer £ Sterling To Baht

[Ground Engineer]

Could anyone advise me on the cheapest way to transfer £100,000 to Thai Bhat. Im moving over to Thailand in December with the TW and kids.

Thanks,

Rob.

[Bredbury Blue]

the cheapest, but not the quickest, is to get a Nationwide Flexiaccount card, and you can draw money at the ATM's here without incurring any fee (i.e. same as using it at home). works well for me.

[JCCR6]

the cheapest, but not the quickest, is to get a Nationwide Flexiaccount card, and you can draw money at the ATM's here without incurring any fee (i.e. same as using it at home). works well for me.

Lol, it'll take you nearly a year to bring transfer it that way, 300ukp a day limit, works out at 333 days, visiting the ATM every day.

Maybe look into SWIFT transfers....

[The Dan Sai Kid]

the cheapest, but not the quickest, is to get a Nationwide Flexiaccount card, and you can draw money at the ATM's here without incurring any fee (i.e. same as using it at home). works well for me.

Lol, it'll take you nearly a year to bring transfer it that way, 300ukp a day limit, works out at 333 days, visiting the ATM every day.

Maybe look into SWIFT transfers....

Your bank can do a transfer for about 20 quid. You need to have a Thai account.

There are other threads about this. Search for them cos some of the have some good advice.

[Casanundra]

the cheapest, but not the quickest, is to get a Nationwide Flexiaccount card, and you can draw money at the ATM's here without incurring any fee (i.e. same as using it at home). works well for me.

Lol, it'll take you nearly a year to bring transfer it that way, 300ukp a day limit, works out at 333 days, visiting the ATM every day.

Maybe look into SWIFT transfers....

I swifted in 1.5 million and it cost me 30 GBP all in from my offshore bank to Kassikorn. The woman at kassikorn even phoned me when the funds arrived to negotiate the rate of exchange which I have to admit was quite favourable

[naka]

Yes, open a local savings account and do a SWIFT transfer into it.

Better rates with SWIFT than with ANY card.

Naka.

[smilingjim]

Yes, open a local savings account and do a SWIFT transfer into it.

Better rates with SWIFT than with ANY card.

Naka.

Agreed but also make sure you put the reason for the transfer. Are you planning to buy property?

If so make sure you say so and get the necessary certificate from the bank in case at some stage you want to transfer the money out of Thailand again.

[GuestHouse]

GBP100K

Unless you need to cash to buy a house, leave it in the UK, make use of PEPs and high interest savings accounts together with your unused UK tax allowance to get the best return on income.

You could quite easily achieve GBP6000~7000 of tax free income (Bht420K~490K per year)

As others have said open an account at the Nationwide to get yourself the best ATM deal.

If 100K is your life's savings then don't take it to Thailand, leave it where banks give you the same interest as everyone else, and where banking law protects you against theft and fraud.

[lannarebirth]

If your intent is to transfer 100k GBP to THB, then the part of the transaction where you stand to lose the most money is the exchange rate and not the transfer fee. If it were me, I would convert the GBP to THB in Britain in a brokerage account that allows trading of niche currencies. There will be much less slippage (buy/sell spread)than if you wired the GBP here first. Then wire the THB to your account in Thailand.

[Indifferent]

If (as other people have already pointed out) it is for property or some type of investment then you will have to do a bank-bank transfer and get the appropriate forms for importing the money for investment purposes. You will have to prove that as a forigner you have brought the money in from overseas and these are the forms that the bank supplies.

If it's not for that but just subsistence then don't bring it at all. Forigners DO NOT get interest in Thai banks i.e interest rate= 0% (another ethnocentric policy). Leave it in your UK bank account and withdraw what you want as and when you need it either by a monthly Swift/Bank TX or using your UK debit card (e.g Maestro).

You money is better not in Thailand at all.

[Indifferent]

If (as other people have already pointed out) it is for property or some type of investment then you will have to do a bank-bank transfer and get the appropriate forms for importing the money for investment purposes. You will have to prove that as a forigner you have brought the money in from overseas and these are the forms that the bank supplies.

If it's not for that but just subsistence then don't bring it at all. Forigners DO NOT get interest in Thai banks i.e interest rate= 0% (another ethnocentric policy). Leave it in your UK bank account and withdraw what you want as and when you need it either by a monthly Swift/Bank TX or using your UK debit card (e.g Maestro).

You money is better not in Thailand at all.

[Ground Engineer]

If (as other people have already pointed out) it is for property or some type of investment then you will have to do a bank-bank transfer and get the appropriate forms for importing the money for investment purposes. You will have to prove that as a forigner you have brought the money in from overseas and these are the forms that the bank supplies.

If it's not for that but just subsistence then don't bring it at all. Forigners DO NOT get interest in Thai banks i.e interest rate= 0% (another ethnocentric policy). Leave it in your UK bank account and withdraw what you want as and when you need it either by a monthly Swift/Bank TX or using your UK debit card (e.g Maestro).

You money is better not in Thailand at all.

Great advice, thanks everyone. The money is intended for property. However I was thinking of swapping the money with someone with Thai Bhat wanting to do the reverse of what Im doing. But from what you say I wouldnt be able to use this money for purchase of the house. How about purchase of the land in my TW name - could she use that money.

[GuestHouse]

If you are moving large amounts of money, do it by the book.

The last thing you want to happen is having your money siezed on suspicion of money laundering.

Likewise, offering to do an exchange with someone wanting to move money out of Thailand would be extremely unwise, who knows what they do to get that money. You could be getting mixed up in serious crime, drugs, prostitution, people trafficking etc.

Do it by the book.

[taxexile]

If your intent is to transfer 100k GBP to THB, then the part of the transaction where you stand to lose the most money is the exchange rate and not the transfer fee. If it were me, I would convert the GBP to THB in Britain in a brokerage account that allows trading of niche currencies. There will be much less slippage (buy/sell spread)than if you wired the GBP here first. Then wire the THB to your account in Thailand.

if you do this , then you may have trouble getting the t.t.3 certificate from your bank that you will need to show before you can purchase property.

i know a couple of people who wired money for property this way and the bank would not issue the tt3 ( its been renamed now , but i dont know what to) . they will issue another document to say that an amount of baht has been transferred , but the land office wouldnt accept that document , leading to hassles and delays in transferring title.

[libya 115]

When transferring larger amounts of cash from the U.K. consider using CAXTONfx.

You can save a lot of money in the long run.

www.caxtonfx.com

U.K. Tel: 0845-658-2224

Recommended.

[Bredbury Blue]

the cheapest, but not the quickest, is to get a Nationwide Flexiaccount card, and you can draw money at the ATM's here without incurring any fee (i.e. same as using it at home). works well for me.

Lol, it'll take you nearly a year to bring transfer it that way, 300ukp a day limit, works out at 333 days, visiting the ATM every day.

Maybe look into SWIFT transfers....

Err don't recall the original posting saying anything about transferring 100k in one go!

[chiang mai]

Could anyone advise me on the cheapest way to transfer £100,000 to Thai Bhat. Im moving over to Thailand in December with the TW and kids.

Thanks,

Rob.

Never ever change Sterling to Thai Baht in the UK. Why, (1) the exchange rate in Thailand is far more favorable and (2) if you are using the money to buy a house you need to prove the funds came from outside Thailand and in a foriegn currency. Take a look at opening an HSBC account in the UK and get them to open one for you with HSBC in Bangkok - same day transfer.