SWIFT - As fast as it sounds !

[The Fat Controller]

Transfer processed by Nationwide UK Monday 13th March 2017, before the cut-off time of 1300 UTC.

 

My wife called Krung Thai to tell them it was coming and to hold it before converting the funds, they agreed to email us when it hit their system.

 

We also asked about negotiation on the rate, they said "possible"

 

Email sent to us at 0809 Tuesday 14th March advising the money had arrived.

 

Wife had to go to her branch to sign the Foreign Exchange Transaction Form, required for amounts over the equivalent of 50,000 USD and to call Head Office for the rate.

 

Closing TT Rate 13th = 42.806

 

Opening Rate 14th = 42.745

 

Negotiated Rate (Wife on her own) = 42.84, somewhat of a result as the rate has dropped twice today to 42.6025 and then 42.5163

 

Nationwide SWIFT fee £20,

 

KTB Fees 500 Baht commission plus 50 Baht transfer to Ubon branch.

 

Hopefully there will not be any intermediary fees passed back to Nationwide, we shall see.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by The Fat Controller

[newatthis]

That's pretty quick. Were funds available on Tuesday or was there a clearing time?

[elgordo38]

Glad to hear of your experience. Usually Swift tries to hang onto your money as long as possible as there are millions if not billions of dollars involved daily and every little bit helps. I am noticing this with so many companies today especially my health insurance company who when I file claims always has endless delaying questions. This is a deviation from their past procedures. 

[The Fat Controller]

The funds were available on the Tuesday, if we had needed to access them, shortly after my wife had signed the FET form at the branch in Ubon and Head Office in Bangkok had pressed the conversion and transfer buttons.

My previous SWIFT transfers, all from Nationwide to both Bangkok Bank and SCB have been processed in the same timescale, so any bank that delays funds is pulling your leg, SWIFT to Thailand really does work well.

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by The Fat Controller

[newatthis]

^^^^

Thanks mate. I have accounts at both those banks and am expecting a transfer from Oz at the end of the month.

[waza46]

33 minutes ago, newatthis said:

^^^^

Thanks mate. I have accounts at both those banks and am expecting a transfer from Oz at the end of the month.

look at OFX, better rate and takes 2 to 3 days. No fee at Australia end if A$10k transferred.

[hawker9000]

Made a SWIFT transfer earlier this week from the states.  Initiated it at about noon EDT and it was in my Thai account by about midnight EDT the same day.  Twelve hours (and most of that due to being on the back side of the clock in Thailand).  And that's been pretty typical for me unless there was a holiday or long weekend involved on either end.  No wire xfr fees, but a small fee on the receiving Thai bank's end.  (Xfr not in the USD50K range.)

Edited March 17, 2017 by hawker9000

[Oxx]

16 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Usually Swift tries to hang onto your money as long as possible as there are millions if not billions of dollars involved daily and every little bit helps.

 

Nonsense.  SWIFT never touches your money.  SWIFT is simply an electronic messaging service, and the messages are sent at the speed of light.

[rickudon]

I use Halifax for my Swift transfers. Usually takes 3 days, but can be a bit quicker or longer. Fee is only 9.50 GBP

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

Nonsense.  SWIFT never touches your money.  SWIFT is simply an electronic messaging service, and the messages are sent at the speed of light.

Not to argue but money does not lie dormant without making interest for someone. Just not kosher. 

[Oxx]

51 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Not to argue but money does not lie dormant without making interest for someone. Just not kosher. 

 

Yes there are delays.  Nothing to do with SWIFT (as I've said), but a lot to do with the checking that needs to be done before a payment is made, and timezone differences.

 

SWIFT payment instructions can't be recalled (at least not easily, and often not at all), so the checking is there to protect you.  Recently Bangladesh Bank lost US$81 million because of inadequate checks.

[elgordo38]

4 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

Yes there are delays.  Nothing to do with SWIFT (as I've said), but a lot to do with the checking that needs to be done before a payment is made, and timezone differences.

 

SWIFT payment instructions can't be recalled (at least not easily, and often not at all), so the checking is there to protect you.  Recently Bangladesh Bank lost US$81 million because of inadequate checks.

Yes I am aware of the Bangladesh loss. I guess I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder on this money transfer hijack. I wish I understood Bitcoin better I get lost at the mining process. Seems to be creating something out of thin air. Another beef last week was the courier services. My daughter in the west paid a good sum to send me something and it took 7 business days to get here. Ordinary mail would almost be faster. 

P.S. Thank you for your gentlemanly reply.

Edited March 18, 2017 by elgordo38

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, rickudon said:

I use Halifax for my Swift transfers. Usually takes 3 days, but can be a bit quicker or longer. Fee is only 9.50 GBP

I use HSBC and their fee is £4. It is a lot to do with timing. In December I did a transfer about 5pm on  a Tue afternoon and the funds were in my Thai account about 9am the following morning. In February I did the transfer on a Friday, hit a Thai bank holiday on the Monday so didn't get the funds till the Tuesday.

[CharlieH]

Wouldnt surprise me if the Thai banks sit on it 24hrs waiting for a preferable exchange rate.(dependin on amount).

[The Fat Controller]

Looking at all the experiences here, it would seem that SWIFT works as intended, you just have to be sure that your sending bank processes the transfer in a timely manner.

 

There may be different rules at the various Thai banks, depending on whether a FET form is required, but as long as you are prepared to contact them, the funds should be available in Thailand no later than a day after the transfer.

[hawker9000]

21 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Yes I am aware of the Bangladesh loss. I guess I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder on this money transfer hijack. I wish I understood Bitcoin better I get lost at the mining process. Seems to be creating something out of thin air. Another beef last week was the courier services. My daughter in the west paid a good sum to send me something and it took 7 business days to get here. Ordinary mail would almost be faster. 

P.S. Thank you for your gentlemanly reply.

Bitcoin does sort of make something out of thin air, but so does the process of printing paper money!  Why would you think one necessarily any less credible than the other?  I don't use bitcoin and really have no dog in the fight or investment - emotional or financial - but the "mining" concept that's giving you trouble has so far apparently pretty much guaranteed the non-counterfeitability of bitcoin as well as its noninflatability.  (And if that ever stops being true, bitcoin will sink to the bottom immediately.)  Bitcoins HAVE to originate with "mining" and can't just be "printed", by anyone, anywhere.  And this is so even though practically anyone can acquire the means of mining them (though the "means" get steadily more expensive and less effective as more bitcoins are mined).  Bitcoin's major problem has been that governments don't like them because they compete with their fiat currencies and undermine (no pun really intended...) currency controls.

 

Anyway - nothing much to do with SWIFT, since with bitcoin all you really need is internet access to buy & sell with them, even if the product in question exists on a brick & mortar basis (well, that's not true everywhere, but that's growing).   No banks or wire transfers or intrusive govt oversight (unless you need to exchange it for traditional currency, when things can get sticky...), though I think some govts are trying...   And there's no denying that purveyors of illicit goods and scumbuckets of all descriptions (users & sellers of drugs, weapons, child porn, human trafficking, ransomware, etc.) LOVE bitcoin.   Well, bitcoin and the dark web.

 

 

[elgordo38]

2 minutes ago, hawker9000 said:

Bitcoin does sort of make something out of thin air, but so does the process of printing paper money!  Why would you think one necessarily any less credible than the other?  I don't use bitcoin and really have no dog in the fight or investment - emotional or financial - but the "mining" concept that's giving you trouble has so far apparently pretty much guaranteed the non-counterfeitability of bitcoin as well as its noninflatability.  (And if that ever stops being true, bitcoin will sink to the bottom immediately.)  Bitcoins HAVE to originate with "mining" and can't just be "printed", by anyone, anywhere.  And this is so even though practically anyone can acquire the means of mining them (though the "means" get steadily more expensive and less effective as more bitcoins are mined).  Bitcoin's major problem has been that governments don't like them because they compete with their fiat currencies and undermine (no pun really intended...) currency controls.

 

Anyway - nothing much to do with SWIFT, since with bitcoin all you really need is internet access to buy & sell with them, even if the product in question exists on a brick & mortar basis (well, that's not true everywhere, but that's growing).   No banks or wire transfers or intrusive govt oversight (unless you need to exchange it for traditional currency, when things can get sticky...), though I think some govts are trying...   And there's no denying that purveyors of illicit goods and scumbuckets of all descriptions (users & sellers of drugs, weapons, child porn, human trafficking, ransomware, etc.) LOVE bitcoin.   Well, bitcoin and the dark web.

 

 

Thanks for the education never to late for an old dog to learn new tricks. 

[hawker9000]

1 minute ago, elgordo38 said:

Thanks for the education never to late for an old dog to learn new tricks. 

It's an interesting subject.  But it was MORE interesting back at the start when bitcoins were easier and quicker and cheaper to mine.  At this point in time, the computational load involved actually makes even just the electrical power consumption involved in running the processor(s) a consideration in mining them with any actual profit involved!  ("Mining" is computation-intensive process which, by design, grows in mathematical difficulty - and processing effort - with each successive bitcoin that gets mined.) There are companies which specialize in vending the "mining rigs", and last time I checked, there were order backlogs of indeterminate length.

[hawker9000]

10 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Thanks for the education never to late for an old dog to learn new tricks. 

It's an interesting subject.  But it was MORE interesting back at the start when bitcoins were easier and quicker and cheaper to mine.  At this point in time, the computational load involved actually makes even just the electrical power consumption involved in running the processor(s) a consideration in mining them with any actual profit involved!  ("Mining" is a computation-intensive process which, by design, grows in mathematical difficulty - and processing effort - with each successive bitcoin that gets mined.) There are companies which specialize in vending the "mining rigs", and last time I checked, there were order backlogs of indeterminate length.

[hawker9000]

11 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Thanks for the education never to late for an old dog to learn new tricks. 

It's an interesting subject.  But it was MORE interesting back at the start when bitcoins were easier and quicker and cheaper to mine.  At this point in time, the computational load involved actually makes even just the electrical power consumption involved in running the processor(s) a consideration in mining them with any actual profit involved!  ("Mining" is a computation-intensive process which, by design, grows in mathematical difficulty - and processing effort - with each successive bitcoin that gets mined.) There are companies which specialize in vending the "mining rigs", and last time I checked, there were order backlogs of indeterminate length.

[elgordo38]

1 minute ago, hawker9000 said:

It's an interesting subject.  But it was MORE interesting back at the start when bitcoins were easier and quicker and cheaper to mine.  At this point in time, the computational load involved actually makes even just the electrical power consumption involved in running the processor(s) a consideration in mining them with any actual profit involved!  ("Mining" is a computation-intensive process which, by design, grows in mathematical difficulty - and processing effort - with each successive bitcoin that gets mined.) There are companies which specialize in vending the "mining rigs", and last time I checked, there were order backlogs of indeterminate length.

Thanks for your reply sounds like something I want to stay away from. Sounds like something from the time of Merlin the Magician. Rather smells like there will be somebody holding the Bitcoin bag when the music stops playing. 

[hawker9000]

11 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Thanks for the education never to late for an old dog to learn new tricks. 

It's an interesting subject.  But it was MORE interesting back at the start when bitcoins were easier and quicker and cheaper to mine.  At this point in time, the computational load involved actually makes even just the electrical power consumption involved in running the processor(s) a consideration in mining them with any actual profit involved!  ("Mining" is a computation-intensive process which, by design, grows in mathematical difficulty - and processing effort - with each successive bitcoin that gets mined.) There are companies which specialize in vending the "mining rigs", and last time I checked, there were order backlogs of indeterminate length.

[redwinecheese]

21 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Wouldnt surprise me if the Thai banks sit on it 24hrs waiting for a preferable exchange rate.(dependin on amount).

SWIFT for me takes three days two for bank back home and one day at my local Thai bank.

[hawker9000]

1 minute ago, redwinecheese said:

SWIFT for me takes three days two for bank back home and one day at my local Thai bank.

And as I mentioned earlier, for me it happens overnight.  The only time I've ever had to wait any more than that involved a long weekend in the states during which the sending institution simply hadn't initiated the wire transfer.  And in that case, the money was in my account within one hour of the Thai bank's first opening bell following the opening of banking hours in the US.  I've never once experienced the Thai bank "sitting on it".

[The Fat Controller]

11 minutes ago, redwinecheese said:

SWIFT for me takes three days two for bank back home and one day at my local Thai bank.

Someone is pulling your pisser !

 

Time to have a word with your banks, no way should it take so long.

[ianc66]

I've been using Transferwise for 18 Months now, UK bank debit card 14:00 UTC to Transferwise who convert to Baht then to Bangkok Bank always arrives 14:00 Thai following day. Obviously not weekends or bank holidays. Rate very good and fee £1.50 + 0.9%.

[The Fat Controller]

@ianc66

 

Just had a look at Transferwise, but see the limit is 2 million Baht on a single transfer, so would not have worked for me this time.

 

The fee on that seemed to be 0.6% in total, but they do use the mid-market rate ( Found the answer 0.6% plus £1.50)

 

Is there a limit on how much you can pay by debit card ? ( Found it, £2000 only )

 

I looked into various UK companies last year, all OK for a couple of thousand Sterling, but some wanted BACS with a limit of £10,000, so I have stuck with SWIFT for now as there is no limit at all on how much you can send.

Edited March 19, 2017 by The Fat Controller
New Info

[The Fat Controller]

Duplicate, please ignore or mod delete, sorry...

 

Edited March 19, 2017 by The Fat Controller

[redwinecheese]

3 hours ago, The Fat Controller said:

but see the limit is 2 million Baht on a single transfer, so would not have worked for me this time

I'm really shocked, you say you are stuck with SWIFT which charges as much as 13 $ for each wire transfer no limit and you want quicker transfer service for less than 12 hours!

[The Fat Controller]

41 minutes ago, redwinecheese said:

I'm really shocked, you say you are stuck with SWIFT which charges as much as 13 $ for each wire transfer no limit and you want quicker transfer service for less than 12 hours!

The Transferwise fee would have been 0.6% of around £46000 = £276 + £1.50 on the maximum of 2 million baht, I needed to send over twice that amount, so my charges would have been nearly £600 !

 

The SWIFT fee was £20 plus 550 Baht at the Thai end.

 

Also, Transferwise may have asked for ID checks and provenance for the funds in way of bank statements, as they say on their website for transfers over a certain amount, impossible for me to do all that from here in Ubon, however simply logging on to my UK internet banking and filling in one form was pretty painless.

Edited March 19, 2017 by The Fat Controller