Easy Sterling Money Transfers

[king_of_the_dancing_apes]

Hi all,

I am travelling to Thailand in June to buy either a house or condo. I know that I have to have a Tor tor sam and to get this I need to transfer the money into a Thai bank account in sterling. After speaking to both ING Direct and the woolwich in the UK it doesn't appear to be easy to get them to transfer the currency in STERLING to be converted into the local currency at the other end, ING don't do it full stop and the woolwich say that they don't normally do this, preferring to convert into foreign currency themselves !!

The question I have is does anyone here have any previous experience in this and can tell me the easiest way to transfer the money into a Thai bank account in sterling.

Many thanks in anticipation,

D

[MadFrankie]

HSBC or CITIBANK is probably yer best bet..

[astral]

Royal Bank of Scotland.

Make it clear what you want.

They did convert my money once before sending it.

I wrote them a stinker of a letter, to which they never replied.

Money here in foreign currency is an absolute must.

Otherwise you will never get the money out again.

[king_of_the_dancing_apes]

Many thanks both of you, I already have a RBS account, and I've just signed up online with HSBC (covering all of the bases).

I'll give RBS a call and see what the score is with them.

Cheers,

D

[pitrevie]

My recommendation would also be HSBC, I am with First Direct and have had no problems. If you do it through a HSBC branch just make sure you tick the box, "to be transferred in sterling". Also if you are buying a condo this can be done in your own name but use a good lawyer. If its an house then its a little more complicated as farangs cannot own land so even more reason to use a good lawyer.

[Thaicoon]

send it in sterling from the uk, cost me £14 per transaction, with international moneymover, takes 24 hours. tsb

[natee1]

My trnansfers usually take 2 weeks, Uk bank to Thai bank, also 14 P.

Is 'international moneymovers' something like Western Union?

Do you have more details, please?

[wcr]

I am also with First Direct (HSBC) and have transferred stirling over here on several occasions. Very east to do and usually in my Thai account within 3 -4 working days.

[bkk_mike]

If you're in London - use Bangkok Bank. I've used the branch in the city (near the new "gherkin" building) to send money before now. I've heard there's another branch somewhere near the Thai embassy.

You'll need to take proof of address, and ID with you to do the transfer, and above a certain amount, you'll need a good explanation for why you're transferring that much money (buying a condo is fine).

As a general rule - NEVER let a UK bank do currency conversion for you. (Their buy/sell spreads on their FX rates are horrendous.)

Always send it as Sterling to Thailand...