Any South Africans living in Thailand? + Banking Issues ...

[douglasspade]

Firstly I hope i am in the right forum here ...

 

Any people from SA living in Thailand, or even passing through more than a few times a year?

 

I feel like a dummy, but here it goes: Every time I come to Thailand I need to withdraw money from ATM's on a daily basis. ATM's only give me 10K Baht a shot, no matter my withdrawal limit at my personal bank. So I end up running like a chicken on a daily basis to get enough money to pay utilities, women, cats, beer, fines, sisters school fees, skitooters, KFC, grannies meds! ....   

I have been endlessly trying to get my bank to pay money via the SWIFT system directly into my girls Bankok bank account. It just does not want to go through. Is there any other way to move money across from an SA bank?

 

[brommers]

I suggest you check with your SA bank about its performance. The Thai ATM is ultimately controlled by your SA bank and can only dispense what it is instructed to do by your own bank. I am able to withdraw up to my SA daily limit at any Thai ATM that accepts, in my case, a Visa debit or credit card and that is way more than 10k baht. As for making electronic transfers using SWIFT I have had no problems in over a decade. 

[Rimmer]

Moved to banking forum

[Grubster]

Krungsri bank allows 30,000 baht. Call your home bank and ask them why. The ATM is the best way I have found to get my money here hassle free and only a small % more than any other method I have looked into. The hassle's of the other methods are substantial to me. I dread even going into a Thai bank after I waste ten minutes finding a place to park near one, then waiting another ten minutes or more just to see a teller that doesn't have a clue.

[KhunBENQ]

14 hours ago, douglasspade said:

no matter my withdrawal limit at my personal bank

What is the limit?

What type of card is it?

And your home bank does not have special security limitations for withdrawal abroad?

 

What I read is that some UK banks would not even allow withdrawal in Thailand without prior notice by the card holder.

 

What amounts have you tried?

Did you try entering arbitrary amount by typing amount instead of the preconfigured 10k, 20k buttons?

 

[KhunBENQ]

2 hours ago, Grubster said:

Call your home bank and ask them why.

I second that and have no explanation why the Thai bank would limit to 10k.

It's years ago that I last used ATM with German bank card.

Highest amount in the "good old AEON times" was 98k without Thai bank fee.

Long gone unfortunately,

30k is the limit nowadays at misc. banks (Krungsri one of them).

[rooinekrsa]

Go online and get yr bank to upgrade yr 24hr limit

[rooinekrsa]

Better still go online and transfer funds to yr or wife's account but remember if it is to you. Reason "investment" you may not gift yourself

[douglasspade]

2 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

What is the limit?

What type of card is it?

And your home bank does not have special security limitations for withdrawal abroad?

 

What I read is that some UK banks would not even allow withdrawal in Thailand without prior notice by the card holder.

 

What amounts have you tried?

Did you try entering arbitrary amount by typing amount instead of the preconfigured 10k, 20k buttons?

 

 I can withdraw 10K Zar = 26K Bht on my savings account (visa) and  40K Zar = 104K on my Credit account (master) - converted to today's currency rate that is.

The Bank is ABSA, it's a Barclays subsidiary Bank.

 

I have manually tried to punch values manually to no avail. Its 10K for the day that's it!

[douglasspade]

I think there is still an issue with my  bank. I am currently working as an expatriate for 7 years, and has withdrew cash in West and Central Africa without any problems. I will look into that, maybe some countries has been blocked by my bank, or maybe not supported.

 

Then also If any other SA farangs get SWIFT transactions through to Thai banks then there is definitely a problem at my bank. I am however able to do Western Union transfers but limited again to 10K Bht per transaction.

 

Lastly if all else fails maybe it's time to move to another bank in SA. I have heard that Investec Bank might be the way to go.

 

Thanks for all your replies, once my issue sorted I will post it up!

[Inepto Cracy]

Douglasspade. Be very careful of taking out your maximum available allowance every day. All banks in South Africa now have this limit of 10k per day.

It is the bank that has to now report these transactions to The Reserve Bank and the Reserve Bank will flag you at SARS under the FICA and RICA rules. How do I know this, I have had to clear up the same situation by being flagged by SARS. It has taken me three months of negotiations with SARS and the reserve bank. My bank is Standard, they are more strict than the other banks at present.

As south africa's status is about to be declared as "Junk country", yes lower than 3rd world, times will not get any better for us souties.

Best to go into the bank, any bank and you can draw up to your overdraft limit on your card in one go. Take your card and passport with you.

Take all precautions as you would in sa, when leaving the bank with large sums of paper in your bag.

[ubonjoe]

A off topic post suggesting illegal activity and replies to it has been removed.