Money Transfer / America to Thailand

[Oohwan]

What is the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way to transfer money monthly from America to Thailand?

 

The amount will be 2000 USD per month.

 

I went to SCB bank, and they told me they will charge anywhere from 100-500 baht as a transaction fee depending on the amount.

 

Does anyone have a better recommendation?  

 

 

[Jingthing]

There are multiple factors in this.

If using SCB, you must send by SWIFT transfer. 

Usually that isn't free. I've seen fees on the U.S. side from 25 to 60 dollars for that.

If you do have free SWIFT from the U.S., not relevant.

If you want free or very low cost transfer fees on the U.S. side, you need to open a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand and then you can do domestic (ACH) transfers to your Thailand account by sending to Bangkok Bank New York.

The initial setup with the online U.S. bank account is a bit of a pain, but it's a one time thing. Check the Bangkok Bank (Thailand) website for details. With this scheme, you can never transfer BACK to the U.S. It's strictly one way. 

 

To add, some banks limit the size of transactions for this method. The U.S. bank I use for this does, coincidentally 2,000 per transaction and the fee is a few dollars for a slower transfer, and a bit more for a quick transfer. Also if you want most U.S. banks can probably send a set amount monthly on the same day automatically. How convenient is that? 

 

If nothing else, many U.S. expats could benefit from having a Bangkok Bank account and a U.S. bank setup for ACH transfers to Bangkok Bank New York as a BACKUP method, in case other banks or methods fail or policies change. 

 

You can never actually open a Bangkok Bank account in New York for this. In fact, you can't. But the ACH is still sent to New York as far as the U.S. banks are concerned. 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[Oohwan]

8 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

9 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

There are multiple factors in this.

If using SCB, you must send by SWIFT transfer. 

Usually that isn't free. I've seen fees on the U.S. side from 25 to 60 dollars for that.

If you do have free SWIFT from the U.S., not relevant.

If you want free or very low cost transfer fees on the U.S. side, you need to open a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand and then you can do domestic (ACH) transfers to your Thailand account by sending to Bangkok Bank New York.

The initial setup is a bit of a pain, but it's a one time thing. Check the Bangkok Bank (Thailand) website for details. With this scheme, you can never transfer BACK to the U.S. It's strictly one way. 

 

To add, some banks limit the size of transactions for this method. The U.S. bank I use for this does, coincidentally 2,000 per month and the fee is a few dollars for a slower transfer, and a bit more for a quick transfer. Also if you want most U.S. banks can probably send a set amount monthly on the same day automatically. How convenient is that? 

 

If nothing else, many U.S. expats could benefit from having a Bangkok Bank account and a U.S. bank setup for ACH transfers to Bangkok Bank New York as a BACKUP method, in case other banks or methods fail or policies change. 

 

Thanks for the reply Jingthing,

 

So to get this right if I have a free SWIFT from the U.S the only fee that I would pay is from SCB?  The free SWIFT would be from the sending bank correct?

 

I opened a Bangkok Bank account many years ago, but never used the account.  I need to check if it is still open.  If the bank account is still active, can I have a family member send the money on a monthly basis to Bangkok Bank New York, and then make the withdraw at my local branch here in Thailand?   

 

I do apologize if the questions seem repetitive. 

 

 

[Jingthing]

First of all, I corrected my post. My U.S. bank limits 2,000 per transaction, not 2,000 per month. You could do a transaction every day if you wanted.

 

On your question, I think your idea would DEFINITELY NOT not work.

 

The Bangkok Bank ACH "scheme" is setup up ONLINE on YOUR U.S. bank that allows ACH (domestic) transfers ONLINE between U.S. banks. The setup is done ONLINE, and the initiation for transfers is also done ONLINE. Pretty much all U.S. banks support ONLINE ACH transfers. If you don't have a U.S. bank allowing online access, forget about that method. 

 

The name on the accounts much be the same, so if it isn't you sending to BB New York, forget about it. 

 

If you have a way to send SWIFT from a U.S. bank (or brokerage) free or not, you'd have to inquire at that specific firm about any additional fees. ALWAYS send the funds in dollars to Thailand. You'll get raped if you order a conversion to baht on the U.S. side. 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[Oohwan]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

The Bangkok Bank ACH "scheme" is setup up ONLINE on a U.S. bank that allows ACH (domestic) transfers ONLINE between U.S. banks. The setup is done ONLINE, and the initiation for transfers is also done ONLINE. Pretty much all U.S. banks support ONLINE ACH transfers. If you don't have a U.S. bank allowing online access, forget about that method. 

Thanks Jingthing,

 

The ACH setup sounds really good. If I have a family member that does have a bank which allows ACH (domestic) transfers ONLINE between U.S. banks, could she not set this up herself, or does she need to have a bank in Thailand as well? 

 

The option of the bank sending a set amount monthly on the same day automatically is really cool as well.  This is done through SWIFT I assume? 

 

Someone also mentioned OFX, TRANSFERWISE, even PAYPAL as options.  What is your opinion on these type of services?  

 

[Jingthing]

Any person using the BB ACH scheme must have a U.S. bank account (not BB New York) with online access and also a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand. In the same name.

 

Otherwise this scheme is not for you.

 

 BTW are you set up to send by SWIFT from a U. S. financial institution?

 

If you're already in Thailand and don't have a way to use SWIFT and/or ACH to Bangkok Bank then you will probably want to look into opening an account at the State Department Credit Union which will support both and you can probably open from Thailand. Usually it's impossible these days to open new US accounts when already living in Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[elgordo38]

A bit off topic but can one transfer money out of Thailand and back to the west?? Do Bangkok Visa Money cards work in western banks?? Sorry to interject 

[RichCor]

2 hours ago, Oohwan said:

What is the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way to transfer money monthly from America to Thailand?

 

The amount will be 2000 USD per month.

 

Another alternative...

 

Schwab vs. TransferWise
Started by jakow, August 24, 2016 -- 15 posts in this topic

 

"I use Schwab bank which has no foreign transaction fees and refunds all foreign ATM fees."

[misterphil]

You cant have fastest and cheapest. 

 

Fast is expensive. 

Slow is not expensive. 

 

Transferwise.com

 

1% charge and 3 to 5 days transfer. 

 

[Dario]

Xendpay takes only 2 days*, first transfers are free, then it's 1% of the amount you transfer. I transfer every month from Germany to Thailand. 2 days if you know the rules. * 2 days only if the recipients account is a Bangkok Bank account.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Dario

[Dario]

16 minutes ago, misterphil said:

You cant have fastest and cheapest. 

 

Fast is expensive. 

Slow is not expensive. 

 

Transferwise.com

 

1% charge and 3 to 5 days transfer. 

 

Check that 1% again, it is more than 1%, depends from where you send. That's the reason why I stopped with Transferwise.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Dario

[chingching]

You could get a coinbase account in the u.s.a., and buy BTC or ETH by ACH.    I think the coinbase fee is 1.5%  
Or there would be multiple ways to buy btc or eth in the u.s.a.  Localbitcoins would be one.

You can then transfer those to an account in thailand.  bx.in.co,  is one,  or Localbitcoins

To transfer btc would cost about 1-2 dollars , time about 40 minutes,  

To transfer eth would cost about 6 cents and take about 15 minutes.

 

bx.in.co  charges 30 baht to transfer your baht to a thai bank,

 

Depending on mkt conditions you might even be able to sell your $2000   for more than $2000.
 

[Shibuya1]

Open a brokerage account at Schwab and get their ATM card. You can then go to any bank here and withdraw 15000 per transaction with no fees. They will reimburse you for the 250 Baht fee the bank charges you here.  No need to do a wire transfer

[RichCor]

49 minutes ago, Shibuya1 said:

Open a brokerage account at Schwab and get their ATM card.

already posted (see post 8),

[Searat7]

I still like having FX dollar account at Bangkok Bank....then I can convert to baht when I want online.

[robin33]

Use the revolut card, revolut.com


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[Pib]

2 hours ago, Shibuya1 said:

Open a brokerage account at Schwab and get their ATM card. You can then go to any bank here and withdraw 15000 per transaction with no fees. They will reimburse you for the 250 Baht fee the bank charges you here.  No need to do a wire transfer

I have a Schwab card....good for $1000/day...or around Bt35,000 per withdrawal whether an ATM or counter withdrawal.  Maybe you have the older basic debit card that was limited to $500/day which is around Bt15,000?

 

Since most Thai banks limit their ATM per transfers to the 20K to 30K range (Krungsri and TMB allow up to 30K per ATM withdrawal) to pull the Bt35,000 I do a counter withdrawal.  

 

Most Thai banks now charge Bt220 per ATM withdrawal which Schwab will reimburse.    Haven't heard of any charging Bt250 although I expect within a year or so the Thai banksters will once again raise their ATM fee since around the first of the year they raised it from Bt200 to Bt220.  

[Headgame]

Am I wrong? I understood that anyone with a US bank account and online banking with ACH transfer service could wire transfer money to my BBK Bank account through the NY branch of BKK Bank. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 minutes ago, Headgame said:

Am I wrong? I understood that anyone with a US bank account and online banking with ACH transfer service could wire transfer money to my BBK Bank account through the NY branch of BKK Bank. 

I'm not sure about this, but I think BKKB requires that the names on the sending and the receiving accounts be the same.

 

But I personally have never tried having someone else try to send money to me thru the BKKB New York route.

 

[Jingthing]

17 minutes ago, Headgame said:

Am I wrong? I understood that anyone with a US bank account and online banking with ACH transfer service could wire transfer money to my BBK Bank account through the NY branch of BKK Bank. 

You're wrong. Can't do. Same name needed. 

But if you have a U.S. account, they can send money to that account and then you can send it to Bangkok Bank (assuming you have gone through the initial link setup involving test deposits). 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[Luc Bureau]

Hi everybody.
It's all in the rate they give you
And the fees
Your currency varies daily in value
Check the value of your currency against the Thb
Then check what your institution gives you that day
By comparing you will tell hoe much the make as a margin/cut
My banks at home are really bad
Exchange rate is bad with fees

I'm Canadian and researched many years what's best for money transfers

Here is what I came to.

After years of transferring money to my wife and daughter near Nakhon Sawan I realized the rate from Canadian banks was bad , low
I then tried wires , with expensive fees,sending Canadian money to a wire that would also give a bad rate

My 3rd option which is the one I'm using now is the best

Go to Forex World
In Canada it's Canadian forex.

Open an account
I have it setup so it's debit/taken from my bank account directly
They are better rate then ANY bank
A couple days later it's in your/wife Thai account

I save thousands of BHT yearly

The BEST rates/beat any bank
Free of charge
Free account
At arrival in Thai bank account , the Thai bank keeps a fee
Still better /save thousands of TBH a year
Look it up

Good luck

Luc

Edited April 29, 2017 by Luc Bureau

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

OP, almost guaranteed, any of the private money transfer services, legal ones at least, that anyone tells you about are going to be more expensive than the BKKB New York to BKKB Thailand route.

 

You can send $2000 U.S. for a $5 handling fee by BKK Bank in New York, plus a bit more from the commission by BKKB on the receiving end. The exchange rate will be BKKB's normal TT foreign exchange rate for the time the money arrives here.

 

Here's their fee chart and website for more info:

 

 

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUSA/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUSA.aspx

 

One of the big advantages of the BKK Bank method is that it starts out with a (in many cases) free domestic ACH transfer from your home bank. By starting that way, you're avoiding what are typically very high U.S. bank fees for foreign wire transfers, which typically are $35 to $60 or so per transfer regardless of the amount being sent, depending on the bank, plus potentially added charges from so-called intermediary banks that take a cut of their own along the way.

 

By comparison, you could also do two Schwab debit card ATM withdrawals in Thailand and get 30K and 30K per withdrawal at Krungsri and/or TMB ATMs, not pay any commission, and have the Thai ATM fees reimbursed.  But as the Thai banks keep raising the price of their ATM fees to even more ridiculously high amounts, it's possible that could become a problem in the future. As folks here have said before here many times, you don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

Another approach, if you have the bank card for the account where the funds are on deposit, is to consider looking for a Thai bank branch here that will do a so-called counter withdrawal using your U.S. debit card. No fee by the Thai bank. Typically no transaction fee by the U.S. bank (and ideally no foreign currency conversion fee either). And no 30K limit as with the Thai ATMs. In fact, it's probably easier on the Thai end if you're trying to withdraw a larger amount than allowed by the Thai ATMs, since the bank staff sometimes like to try to push people to use the ATMs instead. You would need your passport and have to find a Thai bank that will do the counter withdrawal with a debit card.

 

And ideally, make sure the debit card you're using charges no foreign currency conversion fee like Schwab and a few others. You don't want to use a card from any of the major U.S. banks, most of which have FCC fees of 3% or so.

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

18 minutes ago, Luc Bureau said:

I save thousands of BHT yearly
Free of charge
Free account
 

Lots of people here post these kinds of recommendations, and usually they're wrong.

 

Think about it...  Free of charge?  Free account?  You're talking about a private business here. And there's only one way they stay in business and open, and that's by making money off you, the customer.  If they don't charge you an explicit fee for international fund transfers, then they're making money off you via a lower exchange rate than market rates.

 

I can't speak to Canadian banks per se. Perhaps they're very bad and expensive when it comes to doing international fund transfers, and the company you mention is the best option that exists for Canadians (though I kind of doubt that....).

 

But for Americans, who have access to several low-cost funds to Thailand options, a private foreign exchange company isn't going to be the best answer.  Same with Paypal, Western Union, Moneygram, etc... Just expensive wastes of time for sending funds to Thailand.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Luc Bureau]

Hi Tallguy

Do your research
Forex will give you a better exchange rate then any bank
Free account
Free charge
They make their money with the rate they give you

Way better then any bank

Forex is the biggest world trader for stocks

Look it up

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Post the details of an actual transaction with them. Date, total cost in Canadian funds, net amount received in Thailand, and we'll see....

 

Quote

They make their money with the rate they give you

 Yes, that's exactly what I said... except I added LOWER in front of rate.

 

But either way, as I said above, Americans have low-cost funds to Thailand options that Canadians don't have, such as the BKK Bank New York route and no foreign currency fee $1000 ATM withdrawals via Schwab, Fidelity, etc etc.. So either way, your suggestion isn't likely to be a good one for the OP.

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[RickFarang]

What Pib may not have mentioned is that a Schwab Bank ATM card has no fees. ATM charges (220 Baht lately) are refunded at the end of each month. It is worth opening a Schwab Bank account for that reason if no other.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just a quick check on the Canadian site suggested above:

 

at present, they're showing that 1 Canadian dollar buys 24.7265 Thai baht.

 

 

On the VISA card network site with no foreign currency conversion fee, for the latest 4/28 rate, they're showing 1 Canadian dollar buys 25.178 baht, which comes from an inverse rate of 0.039718.

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

For Americans such as the OP, the best, most economical methods for getting funds from the U.S. to Thailand are almost certainly going to be:

 

1. Thailand ATM withdrawals using no foreign currency fee, Thai bank ATM fee-reimbursing U.S. bank debit cards such as Schwab, Fidelity and others similar.

 

and/or

 

2. Sending money from a U.S. bank with free domestic ACH transfers to BKK Bank's New York branch, and having them send the funds onward to one's own BKK Bank account in Thailand, especially for larger amounts than are possible/sensible for ATM withdrawals.

 

In many years here, I've never seen anyone prove a generally available alternative that's going to produce any better (more cost efficient) results, especially on an ongoing basis where the person involved is staying/residing in Thailand.

 

I'm always interested and willing to be proven wrong... But nobody's been able to do that over a span of many years.

 

 

[Pib]

6 hours ago, Luc Bureau said:

Hi Tallguy

Do your research
Forex will give you a better exchange rate then any bank
Free account
Free charge
They make their money with the rate they give you

Way better then any bank

Forex is the biggest world trader for stocks

Look it up

Please provide us the specific weblink(s) which shows rates and fees?    Help us do our research please.  

 

Everybody provides free accounts.   When you say free charge I'm assuming you mean no "direct" transfer fees but as you said they make their money in the exchange rate they give...basically an indirect fee.   And please ensure your weblinks show the "customer" exchange rate given versus the FX rate....quite common for transfer companies to show the higher FX rate on their main pages but in the actual transfer a "customer" exchange rate is used which is lower (basically contains that indirect fee).     

 

Western banks give lower exchange rates for Thai baht as the baht is not a major currency and barely used outside of Thailand.    Do not allow a western bank to convert to baht when sending to Thailand; instead, send your foreign currency and let the Thai bank do the exchange using their TT Buying Rate which is about the best the common man can get.   Sure if you are a FX trader or bank during million dollar transfers you can probably get a FX rate with no direct/indirect fees but most of us are not banksters or millionaires in US dollar terms.

 

Now when it comes to transfers "from the U.S." and when exchange rate and all fees from start to finish are counted, using the ACH transfer method to a person's Bangkok Bank account has proven again and again in many posts over the years is the cheapest/best way to transfer funds to Thailand.  

 

Now, when transferring from countries other than the U.S. where the regulatory requirements and fee structures are different then "some" private transfer companies do provide good bang for the buck.  Not hard for a private company to beat a western bank transfer if allowing the western bank to accomplish the exchange due to the low exchange rate given....do not allow a western bank to accomplish the foreign currency exchange into baht....let the receiving Thai bank accomplish the exchange.

[lopburi3]

Using Bangkok Bank New York ACH to Thailand method for $2,000 -

$5 fee at Bangkok Bank NY so $1,995 transferred

$1,995 received and converted to baht at current TT rate (34.44 now)

B68,707.80

Fee at Bangkok Bank in Thailand of 1/4% in range 200-500 baht

B68,507.80 deposited into account.