Transfer money back to the US?

[emgthailand]

For any Americans here, how do you transfer money back to your US bank account?  This is super frustrating. I don't want to go through Western Union because their fees are not only high, but also ambiguous. But I'm getting to the point where I need to transfer money back my US bank account to pay bills.

 

My bank here is SCB. None of my banks in the US accept international funds transfer. Has to be ACH only. None of the online currency exchange services deal in Thai Baht. TorFX has a THB account setup in the UK where you have to internationally wire money in THB, but the SCB website won't let me setup an international funds transfer in THB. So that's out. I can go to a branch and see if it's possible to do it there. Transferwise, currencyfair, and all others I've looked at are the same - no transfer from THB to other currencies.

 

I'm told it's possible to have a Citibank account here and the US and have free transfers between them, but I don't have a Citibank account in the US, so that poses a problem.  And I think Citibank here has a really high initial deposit amount.  Plus it appears that SCB doesn't allow online funds transfer to Citibank Thailand.  It's not an available bank in their app or website.

 

I read this in another post: "Bangkok Bank is the "only" Thai bank with ACH transfer capability which allows you to transfer funds from the U.S. to your Bangkok Bank account a lot cheaper than using a wire/SWIFT transfer."

 

However I want to go the other way.  Does anyone know if Bangkok Bank has a way to ACH transfer funds from a Thai account TO a US bank account?

 

What other things have you done to transfer the money?  I really really don't want to have to resort to Western Union.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Jingthing]

Hello there.

Yes, getting money OUT of Thailand is an issue.

First of all, no, you absolutely can't transfer using ACH from Bangkok Bank to any U.S. bank account.

That scheme is strictly ONE WAY.

On your assertion that none of your U.S. banks accept incoming transfers -- I find that hard to believe. 

Not by ACH. By SWIFT transfer.

Look up your U.S. bank's SWIFT codes. If they have a SWIFT code, they accept SWIFT transfers.

Now the hard part ... getting your Thai bank to ALLOW a SWIFT transfer out. 

[emgthailand]

37 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Hello there.

Yes, getting money OUT of Thailand is an issue.

First of all, no, you absolutely can't transfer using ACH from Bangkok Bank to any U.S. bank account.

That scheme is strictly ONE WAY.

On your assertion that none of your U.S. banks accept incoming transfers -- I find that hard to believe. 

Not by ACH. By SWIFT transfer.

Look up your U.S. bank's SWIFT codes. If they have a SWIFT code, they accept SWIFT transfers.

Now the hard part ... getting your Thai bank to ALLOW a SWIFT transfer out. 

 

That's very much not true.  Case in point:

 

https://helpcenter.capitalone360.com/Topic.aspx?category=TRANS1#FCOMXFRB07

 

"

Does Capital One 360 accept international wires?

No, we will not accept an international wire transfer. We only accept wire transfers from banks within the U.S.

"

I believe a normal Capital One Bank account may have a SWIFT code and accept international wire transfers, but not a 360 account.  And I don't have a regular Capital One Bank account.  The same is true for my bank accounts at other institutions in the US. They don't have SWIFT codes and they don't accept international transfers.  It doesn't help that I use credit unions besides my 360 account.

 

[emgthailand]

Also, I just signed up for a 2nd PayPal account w/ my SCB debit card. They charge about a 4% fee if coming straight from a debit card.  Or 1% if it's coming from a PayPal balance.  So in theory I could dump money into my PayPal account for a few days and then transfer it (assuming there are no fees associated w/ that)  But there's no way to know what their exchange rate is going to be.  I don't really trust PayPal to give a favorable exchange rate.

[Jingthing]

I see. Well, you said none of your U.S. banks accept international transfers so I assumed you had multiple accounts. Surely, most U.S. bank accounts support SWIFT two ways. But if you don't have a such an account, then O.K., sorry. 

[chiang mai]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Hello there.

Yes, getting money OUT of Thailand is an issue.

First of all, no, you absolutely can't transfer using ACH from Bangkok Bank to any U.S. bank account.

That scheme is strictly ONE WAY.

On your assertion that none of your U.S. banks accept incoming transfers -- I find that hard to believe. 

Not by ACH. By SWIFT transfer.

Look up your U.S. bank's SWIFT codes. If they have a SWIFT code, they accept SWIFT transfers.

Now the hard part ... getting your Thai bank to ALLOW a SWIFT transfer out. 

 

"Now the hard part ... getting your Thai bank to ALLOW a SWIFT transfer out".

 

Lots of people, foreigners and Thai's, make funds transfers overseas from Thai banks daily, I sent 900k baht (equivalent) to the UK from UOB Thailand last Monday. Why do you think that's the hard part? As long as you have a Foreign currency Exchange Transaction certificate proving that the funds originated from overseas, it's a very straight forward process.

[emgthailand]

6 hours ago, chiang mai said:

 

As long as you have a Foreign currency Exchange Transaction certificate proving that the funds originated from overseas, it's a very straight forward process.

 

Could you please elaborate on this?  It seems if I were to transfer from SCB into a $USD account in the US, it would be ok (website states that foreigners can transfer money if they are transferring salary to their home country or something), but since I don't have one that accepts international transactions, I may have to either try to open one online (not sure how easy that will be from Thailand) or find another way.

[chiang mai]

12 minutes ago, emgthailand said:

 

Could you please elaborate on this?  It seems if I were to transfer from SCB into a $USD account in the US, it would be ok (website states that foreigners can transfer money if they are transferring salary to their home country or something), but since I don't have one that accepts international transactions, I may have to either try to open one online (not sure how easy that will be from Thailand) or find another way.

 

A foreigner in Thailand can transfer funds overseas as long as they can prove that the funds were earned here (work permit) or that they were sent to Thailand from overseas in the first place (FET certificate), it's as simple as that. I can't speak to the US banks position on receiving funds from Thailand into your account but If indeed your bank wont accept transfers from overseas, you need to find a new bank and I doubt you will be able to do that without being there in person!

[emgthailand]

These are funds earned in Thailand and I have a work permit, so that part should not be an issue. What about transferring to an account that's not in my name (family member, for instance)?  Maybe one of my relatives has a Citibank or HSBC account.

 

And has anyone tried transfers via PayPal?