Money Transfer

[StiofanDerry]

Within the next 3 weeks My house sale will have completed and i will be ready to move to Thailand. Can anyone advise what is the best way to get a large sum of money exchanged from £ to baht (ie the best rate, least questions asked). My auntie works in abank and she says that without me having an account set up over there the only way she can think of is with a sterling draft and then cash it to baht in a Thai bank. Anyone have any experience with this?

[LivinLOS]

Why bring it in here ??? Getting it out can be problematic..

I never bring in more than what I need to spend now.. The rest stays in countries where the banking systems are sophisticated and honour thier responsibilities.. Here is there is some fraud and they clean your account out then they just smile and say sorry, not thier problem..

I personally cleaned out my ex's bank account after her death, wasnt hard to arrange... I also note they never ask me for ID when I go to get money, they just hand me 100k out of my account if I present that passbook.. I have even tested how bad I can make a signature and signed that looked nothing like the one on file.. They dont seem to care and just hand the money over without checks, without ID, without any questions.

They gave my buddy nearly 4 million baht to much by accident once !!!

[StiofanDerry]

If I left it here how would I then use it to pay for the business? Just wire it into the broker's account by calling my bank? Would they allow me to wire that amount over the telephone?

[geespot]

Very true Sef, u can cash cheques made to a/c payee without ID, Ben sold, gold shop gave her a cheque, we went to bank cash it 80k baht, no id required, i was shocked, anybody could have cashed that cheque

U could drive a bus thru the thai banking system

Agree keep ur money off shore...........wouldnt even keep it in UK...........if u do a big transfer over 3k sterling from UK, money laundering legislation requirements kick in and there is alot of reporting to be done, a very recent change in requirements

I transferred recently about 10k sterling to Thailand, what a carry on, my family in Scotland got major stress doing it for me

G

[H3X]

G

Is that a 2006 requirement ? My bank said nothing about sterling transfers.

In December I transferred €30k in 2 parts (to keep under the Thai anti ML paperwork requirements >75k/B ?) . RBSI called me back and said thats ok but from 2006 they need a full IBAN ID of the recieving bank and documentary reason for the transfer. That was a new ECB rule for € tfr. For £ they said all is ok, so I can send upto £10k without hitting the redlight in Thailand just by signing Swift form.

BTW thats banking in IoM....a bit different than UK

For internet banking I still cannot get it activated on my BKKBank account as my visa is not the right one (yet) ... but i did get it on the GF a/c and I log in to check her account. As most banks do with electronic banking , any transfer OUT require the details of the recipient to be registered by real paperwork first.

Also in Loei I went to BKKBank with Lawyer and builder to take out 1st deposit ( DONT ASK!) ... they took copy of my passport and only after signing that copy and them checking did I get the cash. So I am happy with the security on my account.....

H3X

[jimholio]

Im not sure how the Irish banks works, but in Sweden we have something called internetbank, and with that we can do international bank transfers, pay bills, manage loans and all that, wouldnt that be a good option perhaps?
The International bank transfers takes 3days - 1week and cost about 12Euro each time tho.

[Tarzan]

Originally Posted by jimholio

Im not sure how the Irish banks works, but in Sweden we have something called internetbank, and with that we can do international bank transfers, pay bills, manage loans and all that, wouldnt that be a good option perhaps?
The International bank transfers takes 3days - 1week and cost about 12Euro each time tho.

So you suggest that he puts his money in a Swedish bank or...?

Are you reading posts before you answer to them?

[LivinLOS]

My bank is 45 GBP per transfer.. nearly 90 USD !!! Thats an offshore bank tho..

I would open a Thai account and only move the money in when needed..

Also the comment above about moving 2 amounts so as to avoid the Thai paperwork.. I assume you mean the tor tor 3 ?? You do realize that is you dont have a tor tor 3 on money sent inwards you cant send it back out again (in big lumps) once more when it comes into thailand they want it to stay here !!!

[dizbuster]

Originally Posted by jimholio

...The International bank transfers takes 3days - 1week and cost about 12Euro each time tho.

That is lower than I would expect to see. Some banks charge less for certain countries because of international branch networks/relationships etc and usually Thailand is not on the list of countries for cheap money transfer.

The usual course of action is to send a SWIFT payment, which (to my knowledge) is not possible to do over internet banking because SWIFT is an independent system used by banks to effect payments, using built in encryption between the two banks involved in the transaction - which is not mandatory and therefore means it is not possible to just simply pay money from your bank to anywhere in the world. The banks would need to have swapped electronic codes first, before being able to effect payments between each other.

It used to be so simple in the old days of Tested Telexes !! 55555

[LivinLOS]

I thought SWIFT was just a bank identifying code (LIKE IBAN now)... I know my Thai bank has SWIFT, most seem to these days..

Swift codes also seem pretty logical like barclays is BARCGBXX with XX being a number for the branch. My Kasikorn bank has just changed from TFBKTHXX or similar (cant be bothered to go look it up) for Thai Farmer etc to KASKTHXX with the renaming of the bank to Kasikorn..

[dizbuster]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

I thought SWIFT was just a bank identifying code (LIKE IBAN now)... I know my Thai bank has SWIFT, most seem to these days..

Swift codes also seem pretty logical like barclays is BARCGBXX with XX being a number for the branch. My Kasikorn bank has just changed from TFBKTHXX or similar (cant be bothered to go look it up) for Thai Farmer etc to KASKTHXX with the renaming of the bank to Kasikorn..

Yes you are right, but one bank will not pay money to another bank unless authentication keys (couldn't remember the term before) have been swapped by those two banks.

Barclays Bank London could not send money using SWIFT to Bangkok Bank in Bangkok unless they had swapped those keys. This is why there are what is known as "correspondents".

For example, a customer of Barclays Bank in London goes to his branch and asks them to wire 10k baht to his TG who holds her account at Bangkok Bank, Patong. Barclays are unlikely to have swapped authentication keys with Patong branch of Bangkok bank, by are very likely to have done so with the Bangkok office. Barclays send the SWIFT message to Bangkok and get them to make the payment on their behalf, i.e. to Patong. What Barclays cannot do is send the message directly to Bangkok Bank, Patong.

Another example would be if Barclays and Bangkok Bank had not swapped keys at all, then Barclays would no doubt have a correspondent in Bangkok who would then affect the payment. Let's say Thai Farmers Bank Bangkok is Barclays' correspondent, then Barclays send the SWIFT payment to Thai Farmers Bank, Bangkok who then in turn forward to money to Bangkok Bank, Bangkok and they in turn send the money on to their Patong office. At each stage, authentication keys would need to have been exchanged in order for the money to be moved from bank to bank, apart from the part which is branch to branch.

Strictly speaking this is not exactly how it works, but unless you have been inside banking and fully understand how SWIFT does work, then it is sufficient to explain things here.

Authentication keys are files that are swapped once and then hold by each bank for a pre-determined period of time. Each set are unique to that pair of banks and are encrypted in a way that makes it impossible (supposedly) for outsiders to crack, as the actual key code used would be different for every single transaction.

[gregor200]

i transferred bigger sums of money to thailand using my european bank and SWIFT to bangkok bank. since i am a good customer, i just phoned the lady of the bank, and she made a copy of the former SWIFT transfer and did it for me. Cost per transfer, about 20-30 Euro.

For smaller money i use moneybookers.com. it is easy to use after the first transaction, which has to be verified. Maximum amount which can be sent from one account to another within one year : about 30000 Euro. A transfer takes about 1 week and is done in two parts: part1: transfer from european bank to moneybookers (about 3 banking days), transfer from moneybookers to thai account (about 3 banking days). Cost : 50 cent + about 90 baht per transfer + internal fee of bangkok bank (about 200 baht per transfer).

cash money:
I use the sparcard of the german postbank as well. you can use it at any visa-atm, maximum 500 euro per transaction, 2000 euro per month. 4 transactions per year are free of charge. you can refill the sparcard on internet and check the amount left. So you can cash about 24000 euro per year with one sparcard. If you need more money, you can apply for another sparcard (with 4 free transactions as well).

[LivinLOS]

I just go online and fill in the bank details (part of which is the Patong banks SWIFT code)..

3 - 5 biz days..

[Crustasian]

What I did was set up an off shore high interest account in Isle of Man and make transfers and withdrawals using an ATM card.I agree with the others -don't bring your full wad into Thailand.
When you get here you can open a local bank account and then direct your off shore bank to make transfers as required.
You will get a better level of interest from off shore banks in IOM or Jersey etc.

[LivinLOS]

Nearly identical to what I do.. Though my OS banks dont get used in the ATM only once every 3 months I make a 1/4erly money movement and use the VISA cards for online and CC spends..

[StiofanDerry]

I just done a quick search and I see that Nationwide have an offshore set-up. I also registered for some Internaxx thing but it launched some program and to be honest I didn't have a baldies what was going on. I also seen Irish permanent have an IOM set up. What would you guys recommend?

[jimholio]

Originally Posted by Tarzan

So you suggest that he puts his money in a Swedish bank or...?

Are you reading posts before you answer to them?

Did i suggest that? No i didnt, how about you read the posts before you answer to them? But here you go, ill make a special explanation of it just for you. If they have an internetbank in Ireland which i assume they do, that might be an option for him if the transfer charges arent too expensive.

As for reading the post, if you are talking about the post that is right above mine which was posted 2 minutes before mine i was still typing while that was posted.

Happy?

[Rex7777]

I follow these types of threads so that when I move there next fall I'll know what's going on with the banking system there. Anyway, on another forum, I think, there was a thread from a guy that had figured out a cheap way to periodically transfer money to Thailand. He had an account with the Bangkok Bank in New York and the Bangkok Bank in Thailand. I think he also had a Bank of America bank account, where he kept his money. He could transfer over the internet from BofA to the Bangkok Bank, NY, and from there over the internet to the Bangkok Bank in Thailand. The entire transfer didn't cost much at all, compared to the cost of a wire transfer. Sounds like a lot of trouble, though.

Rex

Rex

[Lord_Farquard]

Originally Posted by Rex7777

The entire transfer didn't cost much at all, compared to the cost of a wire transfer. Sounds like a lot of trouble, though.
Rex

Rex

I just did a wire transfer and my bank soaded me $40. I don't think I will be making many more of them.

cheaper to pay the service charge and take out the max on your ATM or credit card.

[dizbuster]

Originally Posted by Rex7777

I follow these types of threads so that when I move there next fall I'll know what's going on with the banking system there. Anyway, on another forum, I think, there was a thread from a guy that had figured out a cheap way to periodically transfer money to Thailand. He had an account with the Bangkok Bank in New York and the Bangkok Bank in Thailand. I think he also had a Bank of America bank account, where he kept his money. He could transfer over the internet from BofA to the Bangkok Bank, NY, and from there over the internet to the Bangkok Bank in Thailand. The entire transfer didn't cost much at all, compared to the cost of a wire transfer. Sounds like a lot of trouble, though.

Rex

Rex

Mmmm.... I wonder why he didn't just transfer money from BofA New York to BofA Bangkok ?? Much simpler and I would have thought more preferable to the bank, as they hate losing customer's money to other banks. Perhaps what he meant was that he did what I just mentioned and to do that his bank moved the money using Bangkok Bank NY and BKK to do it ?

[Rex7777]

"Mmmm.... I wonder why he didn't just transfer money from BofA New York to BofA Bangkok ?? Much simpler and I would have thought more preferable to the bank, as they hate losing customer's money to other banks. Perhaps what he meant was that he did what I just mentioned and to do that his bank moved the money using Bangkok Bank NY and BKK to do it ?"

I think the reason it worked well is that Bof A would transfer the money free to the Bangkok Bank, NY, and once at that Bank the money could be transferred to the Bangkok Branch of the same bank for little or no cost.

Rex

[dizbuster]

Yes, I followed what you said. However, it would have been even easier still, to transfer the money within BofA, from New York branch to Bangkok branch, as this probably would not have involved any actual movement of funds because the likelihood is that both BofA branches use the same Thai correspondent - possibly Bangkok Bank, Bangkok.

Sorry to harbour the point, but I spent 20 years working the city of London in International Banking and this sort of thing is second nature to me.

[the bigboy]

it is much easier to transfer your money to my bank account.
i can use some money for my next expeditions to LOS. 555555555555