Latest banking fees in Thailand

[Mysterion]

Hi all,

 

I went to open a Baht and Usd account at Bangkok Bank today.

 

They told me they will charge 699 baht for an ATM card.

 

In addition, they would charge 25bps on incoming USD wire transfers into a Bangkok Bank USD account.

 

Are the atm card charge and incoming usd wire charge normal/competitive in Thailand vs other Thailand banks? 

 

[Pib]

Whatever card they are offering for Bt699 is one that comes with some kind of insurance/special benefits..   Beware of getting a Union Pay logo card which Bangkok Bank branches seem to be pushing now because many merchants in Thailand still do not accept Union Pay logo cards.

 

Get the their regular "Visa" debit card whose annual fee is Bt200 until Jun 17 when it goes to Bt300/year.   No insurance comes with that card to bump up the annual fee.  And Visa is accepted almost everywhere.    

 

Thailand banks push a variety of debit (ATM) cards usually ranging from around Bt200 to close to Bt1000 annual fee.   A few banks provide a debit free of annual fee but it may come with a requirement  to take some other service for X baht per month/year...or you'll see their interest rate is lower than other banks.   Banks like to push the pricier cards that usually come with insurance/special benefits, but you just need to say, "No, I want the basic debit card" unless you want to pay extra for insurance and some other benefits you may never use.  

 

The branch may even try to the scam of saying we are out of the basic card now....tell them you still want it and magically you'll get the card the same day or be told to come back in a few days to a week to pickup the card.  Some branches just push the pricer cards too much....while the next branch (part of the same bank) makes little to no attempt to push certain cards as they just show the customer the choice of cards for them to pick from.   A lot depends on the branch manager.

 

0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) "receiving fee" for incoming international transfers in any currency (even baht) is pretty standard among Thai banks.  The worst you should get hit with is the Bt500 max even if sending over a million dollars (or more).  Just for example, FCD receiving fee for Bangkok Bank and K-Bank shown below.  Yeap, the 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) receiving fee is pretty standard (it varies just a little at some banks) across Thai banks for funds coming into a regular Thai baht account or foreign currency account.

 

Bangkok Bank

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBankThai/Documents/Site Documents/Interest Rates/FeesFCD_Table5_151116_En.pdf

 

 

Kaiskorn Bank

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/Personal/BankAccounts/FCD/Pages/ForResidentAccount.aspx

[jacko45k]

I pay 200 baht, annually.

They are obviously trying to hawk some premium card that perhaps gives the teller some commission.

Hard to find the charges at the Bangkok Bank as, despite them saying they welcome accounts from foreigners, the tables can mostly only be found in Thai language.

 

[AsiaCheese]

Also, on a side note regarding fees: some (odd) banks even charge an incoming fee for THB => THB transfers within Thailand! I sent a smallish amount from my Kasikorn account to one at BAAC (Bank for Agriculture and something, state linked). First of all, normal "instant" transfer with accompanying SMS to receiver doesn't work - BAAC don't do what most other banks do. The transfer on Kasikorn side only worked when I chose "next business day" - and I was promptly charged THB 120 for the "privilege". The transfer did arrive at BAAC the next business day, but after charging a fee of THB 110 there as well...   :-(

 

Side note on the side note: BAAC is the bank most rice farmers use / are made to use...

[GMajor]

13 hours ago, Pib said:

snip

Yeap, the 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) receiving fee is pretty standard (it varies just a little at some banks) across Thai banks for funds coming into a regular Thai baht account or foreign currency account.

 

I don't want to spoil your party but I paid 795 on a 156,183 THB on an international wire transfer to my SBC account two days ago.

It varies just a little... at twice the rate (0.5%) I wouldn't say so.

[ripstanley]

4 minutes ago, GMajor said:

I don't want to spoil your party but I paid 795 on a 156,183 THB on an international wire transfer to my SBC account two days ago.

It varies just a little... at twice the rate (0.5%) I wouldn't say so.

 

Go to your bank and ask for a print out of the transaction. When I did,  the printout was titled "Advice For Customer" Check to see that there is no other Thai bank involved. I transferred money from Australia to SCB. The money went through the Bangkok Bank first and they charged a fee 401.20 Baht  for this and then SCB charged me 200 baht as well. I only sent over 100,000 baht.

[GMajor]

9 minutes ago, ripstanley said:

 

Go to your bank and ask for a print out of the transaction. 

 

Thanks, good idea indeed.

Those fees are getting out of control now: my total cost on this operation adds up to 2.8% (even though I'm using a foreign exchange provider instead of a bank).

[Pib]

42 minutes ago, GMajor said:

I don't want to spoil your party but I paid 795 on a 156,183 THB on an international wire transfer to my SBC account two days ago.

It varies just a little... at twice the rate (0.5%) I wouldn't say so.

 

SCB's inward remittance fee for an international transfer is 0.25% (Bt300 min, Bt500 max).  See below snapshot from SCB website.

 

I don't know how you transferred the funds to SCB...home country bank to SCB, money transfer service to SCB, etc., but different ways can incur different possible fees (non-SCB fees) "before" it arrives SCB and then they apply their above mentioned receiving fee in it arrived coded as an international transfer.  If first rec'd by another Thai bank and then relay over to SCB then that should be coded as a domestic transfer and incurred no SCB charge....but the other Thai bank could have applied a charge.   But as mentioned, a lot depends on the method/financial organization you used to send the funds.   Anytime there are more hands involved in the transfer, the more possibly of fees exist....sometimes each hand wants a little to hand if off to the next hand.

 

[Grubster]

I know there has to be a better way to get my money here but I use the ATM at 30,000 baht per draw for 200 baht fee and $1 fee at my bank in US.  It is easy and I don't ever have to go que up at a Thai bank.  Just not having to find a parking spot at a Thai bank is worth it for me. I had to get a Thai bank draft to pay for my income affidavit from the US embassy outreach, Just getting that cost me an hour of missery at the Bangkok bank, it took six or eight of them to figure out how to make it for me.   No Thanks, the ATM is my friend.  I value my time a lot more than 235 baht per hour.

[eng911]

I've found it's not the small fees at Thai banks you need to worry about, it's the exchange rate your getting from your bank. I transferred $5000 from Canada to Thailand through TD bank and adding up all the numbers I probably paid about $100 more than I needed to. The rate the bank was using for exchange was horrible. Now I use a third party exchange service like xe.com. The rate is way better. 

[Pib]

13 minutes ago, eng911 said:

I've found it's not the small fees at Thai banks you need to worry about, it's the exchange rate your getting from your bank. I transferred $5000 from Canada to Thailand through TD bank and adding up all the numbers I probably paid about $100 more than I needed to. The rate the bank was using for exchange was horrible. Now I use a third party exchange service like xe.com. The rate is way better. 

 

Don't let your Sending bank convert the funds (such as TD Bank); let the receiving Thai bank accomplish the exchange.   Now of course your Sending bank will say they have competitive rates and use other warm, fuzzy, and vague words, but almost always the Sending bank rate will be significantly below the Thai bank TT Buying Rate used for incoming transfers.

[Scouse123]

I just helped a friend of mine who was on holiday but is a regular in Thailand open an account at Krung Thai bank and they did the same thing with the ATM card. He paid around 699 baht. He was happy as he got an account opened with minimum fuss on a tourist entry stamp. SCB, who I also bank with, want far more information at the bank where I live in the sticks and just will not open a bank account for a foreigner on a tourist stamp.

 

Also, I am sure I have paid more for incoming funds to Krung Thai bank than the above posters have to SCB and Bangkok bank. I will be checking this.

 

Cambodia always charges a lump of money to send funds depending entirely on the amount I am transferring but you have a choice to pay at their end or split the costs with the Thai end if that makes sense.I still haven't worked it out what the fee is for if anybody can help as I am actually a bit out of touch with money transfers and bank wise,who gets what and why.

[Pib]

KrungThai Bank receiving fee for international funds is 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max).   Anything higher than that was fees applied by your Sending bank, correspondent/intermediary bank, money transfer service, etc.,  before the funds arrived KrungThai Bank.

 

 

[chiang mai]

There's simply no cost benefit to having a foreign currency account here in Thailand but there's a significant cost benefit to receiving USD into your THB account here..

[MyFriend You]

Not to hijack, but I have a scheduled transfer ready to launch to SCB Savings from my US bank, but work got in the way and they extended my contract four more months  so I won't be there to accept it - question is do I need to be in Thailand to get the money credited to my account, or will SCB just credit my account and I update my book when I return.   There is time to turn it off, but if it is allowed, I'll just keep it active.  Every other transfer I have done - I was in-country when it arrived.   Almost forgot, I do have SCN On-Line and monitor my account regularly, been suspicious ever since I git the M/C debit card a year ago, but not one satang had been withdrawn, other that the annual fee

[chiang mai]

2 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

Not to hijack, but I have a scheduled transfer ready to launch to SCB Savings from my US bank, but work got in the way and they extended my contract four more months  so I won't be there to accept it - question is do I need to be in Thailand to get the money credited to my account, or will SCB just credit my account and I update my book when I return.   There is time to turn it off, but if it is allowed, I'll just keep it active.  Every other transfer I have done - I was in-country when it arrived.   Almost forgot, I do have SCN On-Line and monitor my account regularly, been suspicious ever since I git the M/C debit card a year ago, but not one satang had been withdrawn, other that the annual fee

 

It doesn't matter where you are when the money arrives, your account will be credited and you can update your book years later if you wish or even not at all. Your passbook is simply a mirror image of your account, a copy of it for your own records.

[AsiaCheese]

On 12/22/2016 at 10:47 AM, GMajor said:

 

Thanks, good idea indeed.

Those fees are getting out of control now: my total cost on this operation adds up to 2.8% (even though I'm using a foreign exchange provider instead of a bank).

 

I did exactly that when I couldn't figure out the amount I got @ Kasikorn (from a correspondent bank in Switzerland). Yes, the 2.5% commission was there (if I remember correctly it was over the THB 500 "limit"), then there were THB 160 for "upcountry transfer" (Kasikorn only have one SWIFT address, and that's in Bangkok, and my account is in Pattaya), and to round it off, there was a THB 20 charge for "leased line expenses" (flashback to the 80s and 90s). The exchange rate happened to be below what they (at different points during the day) show on their website, but they claim it's the day's average, which in itself is always lower than what you get for banknotes in the street, at non-bank exchangers.

 

That was the point when I decided to carry some notes with me every time when I'm back from Switzerland. I can walk over to Yenjit in Jomtien (or a bunch of similar exchange places) and get a good day's rate, no expenses, instantly... Works for me.

[Mysterion]

Thanks for feedback all.

 

Seems that the fees are not totAlly out of wack with other thailand  banks.

 

[GMajor]

On 2016-12-22 at 3:02 PM, eng911 said:

I've found it's not the small fees at Thai banks you need to worry about, it's the exchange rate your getting from your bank. I transferred $5000 from Canada to Thailand through TD bank and adding up all the numbers I probably paid about $100 more than I needed to. The rate the bank was using for exchange was horrible. Now I use a third party exchange service like xe.com. The rate is way better. 

 

It was actually XE.com who hit me with a 2.7% fee on a 6,000 CAD transfer!

Average mid market on Dec. 1st was 26.7595 THB/CAD and XE sold at 26.0306 (= 156,183.60)

SCB credited my account to the amount of 155,388.14 THB, a stunning 795 THB commission (0.5% twice their published Fee)

At this time I do not see intermediary bank(s) involved in the process. I sure will ask for a Trace on my next visit to the local SCB branch.

 

Wondering if sending CAD directly to SCB and letting them do the xe would have been a better option... ?

[eng911]

I was told you will never get that mid rate. As I understand it that is normal. I guess no matter what the banks always get paid.

 

I'm looking right now and today the difference between xe.com and SCB is very small actually. Currently better to go to Bangkok Bank.

 

xe.com = 25.8477 

SCB = 25.725 Buying Notes

Bangkok Bank= 26.02 Buying Notes

 

Looks like I'd be better of jut showing up and Bangkok Bank with my CDN currency. On a 5000.00 exchange I'd have about 1400B more and that doesn't account for the fee that the Thai bank would grab on the way in.

 

This stuff confuses the heck out of me. No matter what I always feel like I'm getting ripped off. 

[GMajor]

6 hours ago, eng911 said:

I was told you will never get that mid rate. As I understand it that is normal. I guess no matter what the banks always get paid.

 

Obviously no one  ever gets the mid rate (the so called dividing line between buy & sell) but 2.7% is almost twice what I paid before Xe swapped their brokering from Custom House/Western Union to HIFX earlier this Fall. I should have known better...

 

Anyway, now I can see XE.com got  poor ratings amongst its pairs (cf. moneytransfercomparison dot com)

It's a pity we lost our 1000 $ banknote, would have been easier to grab a bunch of them for my 800k THB deposit next Fall 

[AsiaCheese]

8 hours ago, eng911 said:

I was told you will never get that mid rate. As I understand it that is normal. I guess no matter what the banks always get paid.

 

I'm looking right now and today the difference between xe.com and SCB is very small actually. Currently better to go to Bangkok Bank.

 

xe.com = 25.8477 

SCB = 25.725 Buying Notes

Bangkok Bank= 26.02 Buying Notes

 

Looks like I'd be better of jut showing up and Bangkok Bank with my CDN currency. On a 5000.00 exchange I'd have about 1400B more and that doesn't account for the fee that the Thai bank would grab on the way in.

 

This stuff confuses the heck out of me. No matter what I always feel like I'm getting ripped off. 

 

"Buying notes" means buying CAD notes with THB - which you aren't! You need to look at "sell notes" for money exchange and "TT" for wire transfers. Showing up at Bangkok Bank with CAD notes in your hand is a pretty bad idea. Today, Yenjit Exchange in Pattaya offered 26.32 against CAD (afternoon - varies during the day), while Bangkok Bank was at 26.02...

 

The difference is 300 baht if you change CAD 1,000 - not exactly a fortune, but it'll buy a nice meal. For you, not for the bank!

[eng911]

10 hours ago, AsiaCheese said:

 

"Buying notes" means buying CAD notes with THB - which you aren't! You need to look at "sell notes" for money exchange and "TT" for wire transfers. Showing up at Bangkok Bank with CAD notes in your hand is a pretty bad idea. Today, Yenjit Exchange in Pattaya offered 26.32 against CAD (afternoon - varies during the day), while Bangkok Bank was at 26.02...

 

The difference is 300 baht if you change CAD 1,000 - not exactly a fortune, but it'll buy a nice meal. For you, not for the bank!

 

Now I'm more confused than ever. Are you sure about that?

 

26.02 is the buying rate and BB. The selling rate is 26.89

 

So let's say I have 5000 CAD and I have a Thai bank account. What is my best choice? Send it ahead via transfer or just bring cash. 

[AsiaCheese]

2 hours ago, eng911 said:

 

Now I'm more confused than ever. Are you sure about that?

 

26.02 is the buying rate and BB. The selling rate is 26.89

 

So let's say I have 5000 CAD and I have a Thai bank account. What is my best choice? Send it ahead via transfer or just bring cash. 

 

Sure I'm sure  ;-)

Think about it - they give you THB 26.02 for 1 CAD, but if you want to buy 1 CAD back, they'll charge you 26.89. It's called making a profit. "Buying" and "Selling" always refers to the foreign currency.

 

Don't send it ahead via transfer; whichever mechanism you use to do that, you'll be charged expenses (anywhere between reasonable and rip-off) at both ends, and the receiving bank will convert it to THB at the day's average TT rate, which is practically always worse than the note exchange rate you get in the street from a non-bank exchange booth! And don't even think about letting a Canadian (or other foreign) bank send it as THB; some banks suggest that, and those rates are even worse.

 

Bottom line: if you can stomach travelling with CAD 5,000 in your pocket (or undies, or wherever): do that, and keep track of what good exchange places offer on a daily basis & change some or all as you go along. To mention just two exchangers that I personally know: www.superrichthailand.com and www.yenjit.com give you rates and more online.

[Pib]

When at a Thai bank/money exchange the "Buying" rate is the rate given to buy your foreign currency whether physically done at the counter or you wire the money over.    Buying rates will vary for cash/notes, traveler cheques, sight bills, drafts, and wires---different rates for the various ways of presenting the foreign money to the bank/money exchanger.    Now of course most money exchangers only exchange money when you physically visit them with money in hand and can not do wire transfers.

 

The Buying rate for cash will be lower than the Buying rate for funds wired over, but of course you will pay some fees to wire the money over.  The bank will just call that rate the "Buying Rate" ....they'll have Buying somewhere in the name.   When wiring money look for the banks "TT Buying Rate"...the TT just means Telegraphic Transfer....some old wording meaning a wire/electronic transfer.   When looking for a Buying rate where you want to exchange foreign currency to Thai baht look for the "highest" rate which means for every 1 unit of your currency you will get more baht in exchange.   

 

The "Selling" rate means you want to sell baht you have an buy foreign currency....it the reverse of the buying rate.    People do this like when their trip is over, they are leaving Thailand and want to convert unused baht back to their home country currency.  Or when wiring funds back to their home country where Thai baht is converted to their home country currency..    For the Selling Rate you want the "lowest" rate which means for every 1 unit of the foreign currency you want to buy you will need to pay fewer baht.

  

Generally you will get a better cash/notes rate from a money exchange if you want to bring over a bunch of cash with you.

 

You can use below website to check various rates (i.e, Notes, TT wire, etc) at most Thai banks and a few of the better known/large money exchangers.

https://daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

 

 

 

[Pib]

And if thinking about using Travelers Cheques, don't!  Although the exchange rate for such cheques at banks is higher than their cash rate there is a Bt153 cashing fee for "each" cheque.  Plus it can take a while to do the exchange as the bank copies each cheque and will probably call-in to confirm the cheque numbers are valid/not reported stolen.

[Ace of Pop]

There's a funny thing,I'd forgotten about Travelers Cheques, they still do them then.?. Why I wonder , bit like Valve Radios now I got Plastic Card


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[LammyTS1]

I've been in Thailand for a long time & never once needed to do an international transfer or take cash over with me. I simply use my MasterCard.
Don't know about other countries but in the UK, you get a clarity MasterCard specifically for foreign transactions. They don't charge any fees for using the card anywhere in the world, including withdrawing cash from ATM's(apart from the 200 baht Thai ATM fee). They don't take a cut of the exchange rate either, they use the actual MasterCard rate which i always find to be much better than any bank, currency firm or exchange booth.
Example: I bought a new scooter last month & needed 105,000 baht. If I did an international transfer from my UK bank, they would charge me £9 & Bangkok bank would charge me 0.25%(£6) for receipt of the cash into my GBP account. Add to this the rate BB would give me to exchange to baht or the rate at an exchange booth which at best on the day, 44.40. Total cost would have been £2380.
Instead, I walked into my Bangkok Bank branch & used my MasterCard to withdraw 105,000 baht cash. No ATM fee as I got the cash from inside at the counter. I checked my MasterCard a/c online same day & found I got a rate of 45.1. I paid the balance instantly so as to avoid daily interest charges. Total cost £2328. I saved £52(2300 baht) compared to a wire transfer.
Daily, I can withdraw up to 240,000 baht from any Thai bank with my MasterCard.
I would seriously check online comparison sites back in your home country & check for credit cards offering this service.


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[Pib]

That's basically what I've been doing for years.   Using a couple of U.S. no foreign transaction fee debit cards which also reimburse ATM User Fees like the Bt200 Thai ATM fee for foreign cards.  Sometimes I use these debit cards in the ATM and sometimes as counter withdrawals (a.k.a., cash advance).  And I also have a couple of U.S. no foreign transaction fee debit cards but they don't reimburse any fee if using them in an ATM (which I never do) and do not charge any cash advance fee.....to avoid any interest charge I prepay the amount of cash I plan to get and go do a counter withdrawal which avoids the Bt200 fee.  Gosh, I haven't done any wire transfer from my home country banks to my Thai bank accounts for around 5 years as I use above mentioned method for all my day-to-day living money which requires cash.

 

And for purchases I use a couple of U.S. no foreign transaction fee credit cards which also pay 1.5% cash back.  By using this method for purchases like when buying stuff/groceries at Lotus, Big C, fuel for our vehicle, medical bills, just anything at any places that accept credit cards you can cut down greatly on the amount of money and frequency you may need to get cash from your home country banks.

 

By using these no fee debit and credit cards a person has little to no need to transfer or carry money to Thailand.    And to ensure I don't have all my eggs in one basket in case one of my cards is blocked/lost/just stops working, since I have several such cards I have backups.  

 

Works for me.  But I realize no foreign transaction fee/fee reimbursing cards are a small minority of all the cards out there and many folks may not be able to get such cards or just haven't shopped around for such cards especially for debit cards which requires opening a bank account to get the no fee debit card....some people just don't want to open another bank account and maybe they can't from their foreign address.    

[Pib]

Quote

And I also have a couple of U.S. no foreign transaction fee debit cards but they don't reimburse any fee if using them in an ATM (which I never do) and do not charge any cash advance fee.....to avoid any interest charge I prepay the amount of cash I plan to get and go do a counter withdrawal which avoids the Bt200 fee. 

 

Whoops too late to correct....meant to say "credit" card, not debit card in above sentence.