British pounds. Transfer now or wait?

[wjdw]

I get really bored of repeating this. 

Head to the app store on your phone. 

Search "Revolut" (https://www.revolut.com)

 

Download, install, set up an account (give a UK address and remember to update to Thai before ordering physical card. ), Thai number (if it states can not, put a friends uk number in temporary and update from your account settings when set up). - it grew too big too quick.

 

Wholla you have a Revolut account. 

Verify yourself (simple again). 

Use your bank in the UK to upload funds (either by bank transfer or Debit card charge, even CC charge if you prefer). 

Wholla you now have funds in your Revolut account. 

Now Withdraw them from there to your Thai bank directly 

 

Wholla you have just transferred the money without commision, without bank charges and at Interbank rates. 

- Note you can also organise a physical card to be posted to thailand for your account (costs 35USD), arrives in a couple of days, you can also use the card for "Card Charges via machine, online, over the phone or ATM (remember to withdraw in GBP or your source currency USD, EURO, Sterling) on the screen, charges are 200 THB per 20-25k). Max usage is 30k USD per annum before you have to verify source of funds. 

Futher more if your a smart cookie and need to get money out of Thailand... 

 

Credit your credit card with the funds, charge the credit card as a topup to revolut, then send the funds to bank offshore or use the card to withdraw in the new country. 

As to whether you can do by Bank transfer to Revolut in THailand, this is also possible but may raise flags, as then it's a transfer and not a charge. 

Please for the love of life, try it, save money and share, so no other expat has to ask about bank transfers again, as it's painful getting notifications about such in the generic feed per day when this is so simplistic. 

* Is your money safe? google "Revolut".

Early adopter (£100,000 transferred this year), Investor and  lover, only a fool does not use Interbank rates.

Edited November 5, 2016 by wjdw

[wjdw]

Just now, wjdw said:

I get really bored of repeating this. 

Head to the app store on your phone. 

Search "Revolut" (https://www.revolut.com)

 

Download, install, set up an account (give a UK address), Thai number, 

 

Wholla you have a Revolut account. 

Verify yourself (simple again). 

Use your bank in the UK to upload funds (either by bank transfer or Debit card charge, even CC charge if you prefer). 

Wholla you now have funds in your Revolut account. 

Now Withdraw them from there to your Thai bank directly 

 

Wholla you have just transferred the money without commision, without bank charges and at Interbank rates. 

- Note you can also organise a physical card to be posted to thailand for your account (costs 35USD), arrives in a couple of days, you can also use the card for "Card Charges via machine, online, over the phone or ATM (remember to withdraw in GBP or your source currency USD, EURO, Sterling) on the screen, charges are 200 THB per 20-25k). Max usage is 30k USD per annum before you have to verify source of funds. 

Futher more if your a smart cookie and need to get money out of Thailand... 

 

Credit your credit card with the funds, charge the credit card as a topup to revolut, then send the funds to bank offshore or use the card to withdraw in the new country. 

As to whether you can do by Bank transfer to Revolut in THailand, this is also possible but may raise flags, as then it's a transfer and not a charge. 

Please for the love of life, try it, save money and share, so no other expat has to ask about bank transfers again, as it's painful getting notifications about such in the generic feed per day when this is so simplistic. 

* Is your money safe? google "Revolut".

Early adopter (£100,000 transferred this year), Investor and  lover, only a fool does not use Interbank rates.

 

2 minutes ago, wjdw said:

I get really bored of repeating this. 

Head to the app store on your phone. 

Search "Revolut" (https://www.revolut.com)

 

Download, install, set up an account (give a UK address and remember to update to Thai before ordering physical card. ), Thai number (if it states can not, put a friends uk number in temporary and update from your account settings when set up). - it grew too big too quick.

 

Wholla you have a Revolut account. 

Verify yourself (simple again). 

Use your bank in the UK to upload funds (either by bank transfer or Debit card charge, even CC charge if you prefer). 

Wholla you now have funds in your Revolut account. 

Now Withdraw them from there to your Thai bank directly 

 

Wholla you have just transferred the money without commision, without bank charges and at Interbank rates. 

- Note you can also organise a physical card to be posted to thailand for your account (costs 35USD), arrives in a couple of days, you can also use the card for "Card Charges via machine, online, over the phone or ATM (remember to withdraw in GBP or your source currency USD, EURO, Sterling) on the screen, charges are 200 THB per 20-25k). Max usage is 30k USD per annum before you have to verify source of funds. 

Futher more if your a smart cookie and need to get money out of Thailand... 

 

Credit your credit card with the funds, charge the credit card as a topup to revolut, then send the funds to bank offshore or use the card to withdraw in the new country. 

As to whether you can do by Bank transfer to Revolut in THailand, this is also possible but may raise flags, as then it's a transfer and not a charge. 

Please for the love of life, try it, save money and share, so no other expat has to ask about bank transfers again, as it's painful getting notifications about such in the generic feed per day when this is so simplistic. 

* Is your money safe? google "Revolut".

Early adopter (£100,000 transferred this year), Investor and  lover, only a fool does not use Interbank rates.

And just to add, if you like (my wife and i travel alot and sometimes sep to Swiss/EU UK/US/ ETC)  and it works everywhere where mastercard is accepted. 

The wife (Thai) can organise her own card also :) 
Oh and you can transfer funds from revolut user to revolut user at the click of a button and no charges, for those that work from home for offshore companies (regardless of your legal requirements there), you can also then tell your payer to do the same, and wholla you now save a small fortune on your remittance. 

 

[nongsangcity]

1 hour ago, maingmoom said:

I have a nice bundle waiting to exchange but not at this low rate. I think it's worth the gamble to wait.

this low rate could be a peak........i remember 10 years back i was going to exchange a few quid...the rate was 72.5...i popped to the bank and the rate had fallen to 72...i thought sod that...i will wait for 72.5......it never happened .......

[paulbj2]

I had a conversation on this subject in a bar the other night. The north American pundits were saying that the £ sterling had dropped as far as it was going to go whereas I was predicting that it would drop much further; eventually to parity against the Euro and maybe even parity against the US$. Maybe I should explain that the bulk of my pension is paid in Euros so they are more relevant to me than £s sterling however if the £ sterling drops against the Euro, it usually drops against the Thai Baht as well although the Baht tends to follow the US$ exchange rate more than the £ sterling or Euro, as you would expect.

 

The north Americans were wrong. When Theresa May announced her intention to invoke article 50, the £ sterling plummeted to new lows against the US$ and against the Euro, with the £ -v- Baht rate tagging along with the trend.

 

Trying to figure out what will happen next is fraught with difficulty right now. I have read, in a number of places, that the Thai Central Bank have been buying Baht to support the currency as they thought the King's death could cause a run on the Baht due to fears of instability in the country and the Baht therefore rose in value following the announcement of the death of the King. Assuming the rumours of Central bank support are true, presumably they will stop supporting it at some stage as continuing to do so for a protracted period can drain currency reserves pretty drastically and now that the succession has been formally announced, there is less of a risk of instability in the Thai economy.

 

The wild card in the immediate future is the US election. If Trump takes the White House, is the US$ going to soar or crash? My assumption is that it will crash if Trump is elected. If that is correct, then the £ Sterling (and the Euro) will probably rise significantly against the Thai Baht after the US election. 

Here is the £ -v- US$ chart

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=1Y

and here the £ -v- Baht

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=THB&view=1Y

 

As you can see they follow each other very closely. 

 

Me, myself, I would wait until after the US elections and make your decision after that but I could be wrong...

[Briggsy]

Definitely wait / change the minimum amount of sterling necessary.

 

There are 2 sides to every exchange rate equation. Everybody here is talking about the £ (or going off on a tangent on their brilliant transfer scheme). The other side of the equation is the Baht.

[Boycie]

8 minutes ago, paulbj2 said:

Me, myself, I would wait until after the US elections and make your decision after that but I could be wrong...

 

I thought i would wait until after the Brexit vote because all the experts were saying that the majority will vote Remain and the £ to ฿ was steadily increasing. 

 

And then 

[Johnniey]

Buy gold with it all. Save it for a few months then change to dollars, then wait another few months and buy baht.

 

Get a job here in the meantime.

[lungnorm]

I would wait as it cannot go down anymore.

[stephenterry]

In your fortunate position, I would transfer 3 months living expenses, with the emphasis on changing Sterling to Baht in Thailand, not the UK. You could then have 6 months leeway to see what happens. My take on it is that the £/baht rate could fall to 40 (currently TT rate 43 here) as the downside, but could recover to 46 in the short/medium term. 

 

There is little risk in waiting, I really can't forsee a scenario where £ falls much more against the US$ (Baht follows this trend).  

[freebyrd]

2 hours ago, lungnorm said:

I would wait as it cannot go down anymore.

 

Yet not so long ago they were saying it may go £1 = $1. It's in the lap of the gods.

[Hutch68]

I had a conversation on this subject in a bar the other night. The north American pundits were saying that the £ sterling had dropped as far as it was going to go whereas I was predicting that it would drop much further; eventually to parity against the Euro and maybe even parity against the US$. Maybe I should explain that the bulk of my pension is paid in Euros so they are more relevant to me than £s sterling however if the £ sterling drops against the Euro, it usually drops against the Thai Baht as well although the Baht tends to follow the US$ exchange rate more than the £ sterling or Euro, as you would expect.
 
The north Americans were wrong. When Theresa May announced her intention to invoke article 50, the £ sterling plummeted to new lows against the US$ and against the Euro, with the £ -v- Baht rate tagging along with the trend.
 
Trying to figure out what will happen next is fraught with difficulty right now. I have read, in a number of places, that the Thai Central Bank have been buying Baht to support the currency as they thought the King's death could cause a run on the Baht due to fears of instability in the country and the Baht therefore rose in value following the announcement of the death of the King. Assuming the rumours of Central bank support are true, presumably they will stop supporting it at some stage as continuing to do so for a protracted period can drain currency reserves pretty drastically and now that the succession has been formally announced, there is less of a risk of instability in the Thai economy.
 
The wild card in the immediate future is the US election. If Trump takes the White House, is the US$ going to soar or crash? My assumption is that it will crash if Trump is elected. If that is correct, then the £ Sterling (and the Euro) will probably rise significantly against the Thai Baht after the US election. 
Here is the £ -v- US$ chart
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=1Y
and here the £ -v- Baht
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=THB&view=1Y
 
As you can see they follow each other very closely. 
 
Me, myself, I would wait until after the US elections and make your decision after that but I could be wrong...

So we may need a trump victory. I'd vote for him he's got spunk and his wife's a bit of a looker.
Up Donnie Darko!


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[puipuitom]

Money is in paper condensed trust in the wisdom + strength (economic, Industrial, political) of a nation, combined with speculation of the entire world in favour or against such a currency.

As the mayor currencies can be compared with ice cubes / wood pieces) in a bucket of water, which might be shaken and stirred more-or-less ( goes the US$ up, the € down, the Yen ??? ) holders of these currencies might switch to other currencies, which then might be pushed up a lot.

 

Therefore, my professor in international curries end exchange rates told the audience: "for the value towards the Euro of the US$ you have to be at the Faculty of Psychologic, NOT at that of Economy !

 

What happens in Thailand the coming months / year  ? Nobody knows.

What happens in the UK... ? ? Everybody was warned for a Brexit. Boris even told a few days after the election: "see... nothing happened, Pound still has the same strength". And seen his judgement, he is now minister of Foreign Affairs.

What happens in the USA with one of the two most hated candidates ever as president, so... 30-40% of the electorate felt deeply swindled ? In a nation with over US$ 22.000 BILLION state dept.

In Euroland some important elections are scheduled for end of this year and 2017 ( Italy, France, Germany). Banks in Italy are in much worse shape as ever feared, a country with € 2100 BILLION state debt. Any idea, what happens, if Italy will end up in "Greek" situations... ? in a Euroland with over € 13.000 BILLION state debt.

Japan with over € 9700 Billion State debt.

And you ask, what the TRUST in all these computer lines ( as that is nowadays a State Debt, it is even not printed paper anymore...) will be...

 

End then... YOU ask, where all the ice-cubes, called €uro, US$, Pound, THB will be in a couple of weeks / months /year.....

[paulbj2]

My logic was this:

 

If Trump gets the job of POTUS, I believe the US$ will take a massive hit. If that is the case the GB£ will almost certainly rise against the Thai Baht.

 

If Hillary gets the job I don't think there will any great change so you won't be any worse off.

 

If you can delay longer then the Thai Central Bank may stop its "crisis" support for the Baht (assuming that the rumours of that support are true), in which case the value of the Baht may "readjust" to a slightly lower level.

[Briggsy]

40 minutes ago, paulbj2 said:

My logic was this:

 

If Trump gets the job of POTUS, I believe the US$ will take a massive hit. If that is the case the GB£ will almost certainly rise against the Thai Baht.

 

If Hillary gets the job I don't think there will any great change so you won't be any worse off.

 

If you can delay longer then the Thai Central Bank may stop its "crisis" support for the Baht (assuming that the rumours of that support are true), in which case the value of the Baht may "readjust" to a slightly lower level.

A reasoned argument. Good.

[zd1]

Personally I'm going to wait

[jacko45k]

The term for Carney was just extended which seemed to give a little boost to the £.

But who knows what the next gossip or scare will be to drive it back down.

 

Long term I would expect a recovery but not the term you are asking. Hedge your bets, send over 6 months worth and hope for some improvement by April/May.

[johnnybgood]

IMHO......... Wait for the Donald !

(from today's Telegraph.)

[Briggsy]

Even though I would like to see a stronger pound, I am prepared to suffer the weak pound if it keeps Trump out of power.

[daveAustin]

Ask any Thai lady and they will give you the best advice, with those 3 little words, 'up to you.'

Not any Thai lady, just most of the type you lot will ever meet might say that I-haven't-a-clue phrase. [emoji39]

Op, wait wait wait. Whatever happens, it'll correct eventually. Pound is currently undervalued and the baht is massively overvalued imo.

[berybert]

19 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Even though I would like to see a stronger pound, I am prepared to suffer the weak pound if it keeps Trump out of power.

You are a Brit living in Thailand ? Why would you worry about American Politics.

Maybe short sighted I know, but who ever gets in over there is going to be a war monger and make the world just a tad more unstable than it already is.

[dbrenn]

Anybody's guess. It's like asking whether it will rain on this day next year.

[paulbj2]

4 hours ago, berybert said:

You are a Brit living in Thailand ? Why would you worry about American Politics.

Maybe short sighted I know, but who ever gets in over there is going to be a war monger and make the world just a tad more unstable than it already is.

 

Errrr, well let's see - maybe because Trump has said he would renege on the NATO mutual defense treaty which would probably result in WWIII so, what's to worry about, as you say! 

[mki8]

On 05/11/2016 at 9:50 AM, Fairynuff said:

When I looked at opening a foreign currency account the charges were so high there seemed to be little benefit in having the account (Krungsi bank)

i have an FCD account with Krugsri

2.5% to deposit funds

not really high if the exchange rate changes by more than 10%

 

(you also pay 1% fee, if you want to withdraw GBP in cash, if you withdraw in Thai baht they also give you a slightly better rate than what is stated)

[mki8]

20 hours ago, Hutch68 said:

So we may need a trump victory. I'd vote for him he's got spunk and his wife's a bit of a looker.
Up Donnie Darko!


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mate remember i said this, and then if you decide not to do this

you can reflect on your actions in 3-4 months, and say why didnt i listen

 

Firstly right now, use your GBP to acquire Bitcoin (PM me if you need help)

second, apply for a Xapo card (xapo.com)

now depending what you think about future, you can order a USD or GBP xapo card

(personally if using in Thailand i would advise you get a USD card due to exchange rates)

if you have a family member back home, you could order 2 xapo cards 1 in USD and 1 in GBP

(your xapo card will need to be delivered to a UK address, you will also need a utility bill to verify to remove limits)

 

wait until March when you need the money

then use your xapo card to spend your bitcoin, which by then should have increased in value

(i would estimate at least 20% from todays value of  720USD/570GBP/25200THB)

the increase in bitcoin value will easily cover any fees or costs associated with this method

[berybert]

3 hours ago, paulbj2 said:

 

Errrr, well let's see - maybe because Trump has said he would renege on the NATO mutual defense treaty which would probably result in WWIII so, what's to worry about, as you say! 

I'm worrying about getting my loft conversion finished while you are worrying about ww3.

Is there anything you can do to stop ww3 ?

[BudRight]

On 11/3/2016 at 2:29 AM, Boycie said:

Ask any Thai lady and they will give you the best advice, with those 3 little words, 'up to you.'

 

An infuriating answer since it conflates request for counsel with an invitation to make the decision for you.

 

OP, if you change the money you'll wish you hadn't, if you don't you'll wish you had. There is no right answer here.

[SimonD]

9 hours ago, berybert said:

I'm worrying about getting my loft conversion finished while you are worrying about ww3.

Is there anything you can do to stop ww3 ?

 

I'm worried now...and never mind WW3...

 

Is there anything we can do to stop your loft conversion? 

Edited November 6, 2016 by SimonD

[Laughing Gravy]

For the last 15 years the Baht to the Pound has been anywhere from 75 to around 50, except for the last 2 months. If you are paid in baht then having it at 43ish has been great and sending money back to a UK account has been a treat. If it continues like this for a few more months, I will be ecstatic. But with everything good, it will surely come to an end. Many are saying if/when article 50 is triggered then the pound will fall another 10%. Who knows. After the court ruling last week it went up to nearly 46 then back to 43.My advice is enjoy it whilst you can, as with most currencies they end up rising to its natural level which over the last 5 years has been around 52-55.

 

All I know is that sending money back now is the best it has been for a long time, probably since the crash in 1997.

[Shiver]

Charts are showing a small pull back, but it's still a bear market.  That could change within a couple of months of course.

 

None of us know the future, but if I were you I'd be inclined to being a couple of month more money now, and watch how it evolves before committing to larger amounts.

[Hutch68]

I'm going to wait a while. Thanks.


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