USA Federal Benifits ... Depost Check or Transfer To Thailand

[stao]

For any of you having trouble with USA federal benefits checks or transfer to Thailand ... Bangkok Bank can get it done.

 

Opened a Thai Baht savings account there yesterday & deposited a US Treasury check ... No sweat.

 

Can also direct deposit USA federal benefits to Thailand.

 

See info from US Embassy Thailand: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/federal-benefits/ 

[lopburi3]

But if you direct deposit it can only be into a non-atm account and you will have to personally visit bank to access funds.  Believe for most people makes more sense to deposit into a USA bank and have access to foreign exchange/debit card when needed and set up transfer from that bank to BBL normal account.  No extra charge for ACH transfer at many banks and all can be done online.

[tonray]

32 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

But if you direct deposit it can only be into a non-atm account and you will have to personally visit bank to access funds.  Believe for most people makes more sense to deposit into a USA bank and have access to foreign exchange/debit card when needed and set up transfer from that bank to BBL normal account.  No extra charge for ACH transfer at many banks and all can be done online.

There will likely be some fees to transfer from USA to BBK I think. The fee may be worth it to avoid going into the bank to access funds, depends on where you live and convenience.

[lopburi3]

Believe the standard fee would also be charged for a direct deposit - at BBL New York $5 for 2k or below and $10 for most above.  On conversion to Baht in Thailand .25% fee in range of 200-500 baht.  You can find US banks that do not charge for ACH transfers (USAA being one of them).

[Pib]

Yea, unless you opened the special Bangkok Bank Direct Deposit savings account for U.S. govt payments, don't attempt to direct deposit your federal benefits to a regular Bangkok Bank savings account as Bangkok Bank will immediately (or within a few months) spot it's a reoccurring U.S. govt payment and will not post to the funds to your account.    Easy for Bangkok  Bank to spot a U.S. govt payment due to description and underlying coding.

 

Bangkok Bank will then send you a letter saying you must come in and open a Direct Deposit savings account within approx 2 weeks to take the hold off posting of the direct deposit funds.   If you don't come in the funds will be sent back/rejected.

 

Associated Bangkok Bank fees for either Direct Deposit from a U.S. govt agency such as Social Security, DFAS, etc., or an -adhoc transfer you initiate from your U.S. bank is a Bangkok Bank New York branch fee when using their ACH routing number and the in-Thaialnd Bangkok Bank international transfer receiving fee.  Fees shown below...and not to be confused with any fees your U.S. bank may also charge to send the funds.   And note the Note below which means the two Bangkok Bank fees will not be reflected anywhere on your passbook or ibanking as they are applied "before posting" to your account....this fools a lot of people into thinking Bangkok Bank applied no fees to their U.S. govt Direct Deposit, your personally-initiated transfer from your U.S. bank account, etc. The Bangkok Bank NY branch fee does not apply to SWIFT transfers, but the in-Thailand branch fee still does.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

OP, 

   Was the funds for the U.S. Treasury check immediately made available in your account for withdrawal or have an hold on them for actual withdrawal?   Also, what was the cashing fee?

 

   Additionally, personal checks can be deposited also at some branches but there will be a clearing time of X-weeks before the funds are made available to you.  

 

  There is also a check cashing fee of $10 USD per check (works out to about Bt340) and that fee may even be higher now plus based on quite a few posts on ThaiVisa over the last year or so where several Thai banks to include some Bangkok Bank branches have raised their check cashing fee way about $10 USD.  

 

Regarding checks, a partial quote from the Bangkok Bank website. 

Edited August 2, 2017 by Pib

[stao]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Yea, unless you opened the special Bangkok Bank Direct Deposit savings account for U.S. govt payments, don't attempt to direct deposit your federal benefits to a regular Bangkok Bank savings account as Bangkok Bank will immediately (or within a few months) spot it's a reoccurring U.S. govt payment and will not post to the funds to your account.    Easy for Bangkok  Bank to spot a U.S. govt payment due to description and underlying coding.

 

Bangkok Bank will then send you a letter saying you must come in and open a Direct Deposit savings account within approx 2 weeks to take the hold off posting of the direct deposit funds.   If you don't come in the funds will be sent back/rejected.

 

Associated Bangkok Bank fees for either Direct Deposit from a U.S. govt agency such as Social Security, DFAS, etc., or an -adhoc transfer you initiate from your U.S. bank is a Bangkok Bank New York branch fee when using their ACH routing number and the in-Thaialnd Bangkok Bank international transfer receiving fee.  Fees shown below...and not to be confused with any fees your U.S. bank may also charge to send the funds.   And note the Note below which means the two Bangkok Bank fees will not be reflected anywhere on your passbook or ibanking as they are applied "before posting" to your account....this fools a lot of people into thinking Bangkok Bank applied no fees to their U.S. govt Direct Deposit, your personally-initiated transfer from your U.S. bank account, etc. The Bangkok Bank NY branch fee does not apply to SWIFT transfers, but the in-Thailand branch fee still does.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks for the details y'all. When I opened the savings account (including a debt card, mBank, iBank) yesterday I filled out many papers including one set that stated I would be receiving VA, SSI & other retirement funds at some point in the future into the account.

[lopburi3]

It is protection for Bangkok Bank as they are liable for return of any funds deposited after your death to the US Government.  So there insurance is that you go to bank to release any such funds personally (proof of life).

 

Nothing stopping you from having another normal savings account that you then deposit the funds into for normal use.  I am very sure they will not actually be allowing deposit into account you just set up for more than once or twice unless they now have a method to put a hold on such funds (they can do but it has been a manual process).

Edited August 2, 2017 by lopburi3

[Pib]

3 hours ago, stao said:

Many thanks for the details y'all. When I opened the savings account (including a debt card, mBank, iBank) yesterday I filled out many papers including one set that stated I would be receiving VA, SSI & other retirement funds at some point in the future into the account.

Well, you opened a regular savings account so you will not be able to use it for Direct Deposit of U.S. govt payment.  While you can give the paying U.S. govt agency the account info they will indeed send the funds no problem.   Just because you signed some form talking about possibly receiving govt payments doesn't mean you can use the account to receive U.S. govt payments....and maybe the form was actually telling you that you "can not" receive U.S. govt funds into the regular account...instead you must open a Direct Deposit savings account.

 

As mentioned, the U.S. govt agencies will send the funds to the what Bangkok Bank account info you give the agency, however, it's on the Bangkok Bank end where your problem will be.   If you attempt direct deposit of U.S. govt payments such as VA, SSI, military retirement, etc., Bangkok Bank will spot that from the get-go or within a few months, place the incoming direct deposit on hold (i.e., not post to your account), send you a letter saying you must come in and open a Direct Deposit account within a few weeks or the funds will be returned to the paying agency.

 

Go to this Bangkok Bank webpage and then click on the sublink titled "Advice to Bangkok Bank customers receiving payments from the U.S. govt agencies...."   That sublink will give you full details to include the downsides of the special Direct Deposit account like no debit card, no transfer-outs via ibanking, must appear in person at any branch to withdrawal/transfer funds from the account.

[Gumballl]

7 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

But if you direct deposit it can only be into a non-atm account and you will have to personally visit bank to access funds.  Believe for most people makes more sense to deposit into a USA bank and have access to foreign exchange/debit card when needed and set up transfer from that bank to BBL normal account.  No extra charge for ACH transfer at many banks and all can be done online.

IIRC, Social Security recipient can have the money deposited into their Bangkok Bank account via the branch in NYC.  Just provide the bank account number and the ACH number.

 

Just read the other posts; I guess I am wrong.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Gumballl