Transferwise New Fee Structure Effective 1 Mar 19

[Pib]

I see Transferwise will have a new fee structure 1 March 19....generally lower fees.  I say "generally" as it depends on how you "fund" your transfer.  Some funding methods went up in price; some down.  But for the way most people probably fund their transfer (i.e., letting Transferwise do a direct withdrawal from your bank account) the fees are down.  Pretty significant fee drop for USD-THB transfers using the ACH withdrawal/pull funding method (a.k.a., "Bank Debit ACH" not to be confused with Debit Card)...like approx an 18% reduction.

 

See their webpage: https://transferwise.com/price-change

 

Just for example, say you need to transfer Bt65,000 ($2,090 at exchange rate of the second) monthly from the USA to comply with the Thai immigration new income method for your annual extension of stay.  Before the Transferwise fees would have been approx $22.70; beginning 1 Mar 19 $18.65.  Remember, that's total fees....no additional "along-the-way" fees like intermediary bank or receiving bank fees occur.  And if transferring GBP from the UK, also a fee reduction.   See examples below for USD/GBP to THB transfers. 

 

And for those who don't have a Transferwise account yet, before you jump-up and shout the Transferwise Sending Fees are still higher than your home country bank be sure to first do a full cost analysis of "exchange rate plus all fees" because Transferwise's higher exchange rate offsets their fee direct fees.  For transferring typical month-to-month living amounts like say a few thousand USDs (or equivalent) Transferwise is probably going to be the best transfer deal....that is, the most baht put into your Thai bank account at the lowest home country money cost to you.   But if sending BIG amounts, then using SWIFT may be a better deal.

 

Plus the transfer posts to your Thai bank account within a business day or so....my last two USA to Thailand USD-THB transfers took less than 20 hours to post to my Thai bank account.  Initiated the transfers around 6:30pm Thailand time and the funds posted to my Thai bank account a few minutes after 2pm next business day.  Heck, I've seen posts of UK to Thailand GBP-THB transfers posting in around 8 hours or less.  Your results may vary.

 

USD to THB

 

 

GBP to THB

[crazygreg44]

is the transfer showing in your bankbook as money that came from abroad? I ask this because Transferwise is known as in many cases have sent the money using a local thai bank account

[KhunBENQ]

All options for Euro with price increase

But who cares with the terrible exchange rate.

No intention to use it at this time.

[Pattaya46]

55 minutes ago, Pib said:

But for the way most people probably fund their transfer (i.e., letting Transferwise do a direct withdrawal from your bank account) the fees are down. 

Very surprised to read that. I didn't even remember seeing this option ! 

I always paid by doing a transfer from my bank towards TW account,

and no way anyway I would have authorised TW to direct-withdraw on my account ! 

 

BTW, +2 EUR fees increase if I wanted to make my last transfer again. (+4%) 

 

[freedomnow]

I thought it has been cleared up that TW use the same method as the Muslim system of inter-country transfers, not international transfers.

It will be interesting to see if immi. will or has accepted TW and its associated routing stamp in BKK Bank books anyway.

Anyway they are streets ahead of paypal which I loathe for multiple reasons.

[Stocky]

A 17% INCREASE transferring from Singapore to Thailand. It says from 8th of March not the 1st.

[Pib]

2 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

is the transfer showing in your bankbook as money that came from abroad? I ask this because Transferwise is known as in many cases have sent the money using a local thai bank account

Between the wife and I (we both have TW accts) we have done approx eight TW  transfers to our Bangkok Bank accts....all eight showed-up as an International Transfer.  However, the one TW transfer I did to my Krungsri Bank acct showed up as a domestic transfer.

 

Whether your TW transfer shows up as an international or domestic transfer on your Thai bank acct greatly depends on which of the three Thai bank "partners" used by TW for the final leg of the transfer and how that partner bank handles/codes/describes that final leg transfer.  TW has three partner banks of Bangkok Bank, Thai Military Bank (TMB), and Kaiskorn Bank that they use for the final leg to whatever Thai bank your account is at.

 

It appears if a person is sending to their Bangkok Bank account then TW will "almost always" use its partner bank of Bangkok Bank to complete the final leg....and from TW's Bangkok Bank acct to the recipient's Bangkok Bank acct international coding/description is used.    However, if the partner bank used is TMB or K-bank then the transfer is likely to end-up being coded/described as any other domestic transfer. 

 

I remember one recent post where a ThaiVisa member said he had done 52 transfers to his Bangkok Bank account and all but two end-up with international coding.  This means in two cases TW probably used TMB or K-bank to accomplish the final leg of the transfer. 

 

Now when Bangkok Bank is used as the partner bank to do the final leg to a "non-Bangkok Bank account" I can't speak to how the transfer is coded.   Can't remember seeing any posts talking that.   Other folks with personal experience in such a situation will hopefully chime in....but to chime-in a person needs to know which partner bank was used.

 

A person can determine which partner bank was used for the transfer if they look on their TW PDF Receipt and look in the "Paid Out From" section of the receipt which will show the partner bank used.  Your receipt may not have this "Paid Out From" section if you originally setup the transfer info as "Add Your Own Acct" versus "Add a Recipient Acct."    You can re-designate an acct as your own creating it using the "Add a Recipient" method....then you still get the more through receipt. 

 

Below is a redacted quote of one of my transfers to my Bangkok Bank account.  Notice the partner bank was Bangkok Bank and although the TW receipt says local bank transfer which is correct the description posting to my Bangkok Bank passbook/ibanking statement is code FTT in the passbook meaning Foreign Telegraphic Transfer and/or on ibanking statement as International Transfer.   Yeap, which partner bank TW uses for the final leg of the transfer and how that partner bank describes the transfer will determine what coding/description appears on your Thai bank account passbook/statement.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

2 hours ago, Stocky said:

A 17% INCREASE transferring from Singapore to Thailand. It says from 8th of March not the 1st.

For me the notice I got with my US registered TW account it said 1 March.  Guess the kick-off date may depend on which country your acct was registered in and/or what currency-pair is being used.

[Sheryl]

3 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

is the transfer showing in your bankbook as money that came from abroad? I ask this because Transferwise is known as in many cases have sent the money using a local thai bank account

Long discussion on this here:

 

See post #184

Per @Monomial this information will be given in the "Credit Advice" which you can obtain from the bank (ask via HQ Call center, not your branch).  I cannot confirm how it looks as I am only now doing my first TW transaction.

 

It might also appear in the detailed statements supposedly available from bank HQ which, if you read the above thread, seems to be what TI wants. I'm not sure on this though as I have never seen HQ bank statements, only ones from my local branch which don't identify much of anything for transfers.

 

It will also of course be avalable in documentation from TW but TI wants to see Thai bank letter or statement.

 

[Sheryl]

Thanks for posting this, PiB.

 

I am in the process of doing my first TW transaction. A few bits of info for new users:

 

1. When you set it up, you will need to upload jpg (not pdf) file of the face page of your passport and also of a pix of a bank statement or utility bill or the like showing your address, can't be more than 3 months old.  So have these already on the device you are using to set up your account. I didn't and was caught by surprise when they required these and it delayed things. (Very annoying: what don't they tell people ahead of time what to have ready?). I don't know what they will accept for proof of address if you don't get bank statements or utility bills in your name to your Thai address as I do.  You only have to do this once, you get an email that they have verified your documents and then it is saved.

 

2.  There are limits to the amount that can be transferred via ACH debit from your account, at least there is for US banks. This too they do not tell you in advance, you find out only when you go to pay....the ACH option ios not activated and there is faint text below it saying what the limit is. And there is no way you can then go back and edit the amount to be below the limit. Apparently (from email exchange with them) these amount limits vary by state in the US. I have no idea how it works in UK or other countries. In any case, if transferring a large amount best to contact them first and ask re limit, when you do tell them the location (state/province and country) of the bank involved.  Probably won't be an issue for those transferring monthly income I was trying to do a USD 30k transfer (I use 800k method) and ended up having to cancel the transaction and do another one.

 

Also worth knowing is that the savings vs Swift transfer are largest for comparatively small amounts and much less if you are transferring large amount, this is because SWIFT is a flat fee regardless of amount and TW is a percentage of the amount.  I did still come out ahead with TW on my transfer but not by a big amount.

[Tanoshi]

5 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

is the transfer showing in your bankbook as money that came from abroad? I ask this because Transferwise is known as in many cases have sent the money using a local thai bank account

In every case they pay into your Thai account from a local account.

They don't send any money.

They have local accounts in Thailand with BKK, Kasikorn and TMB.

 

In my case I transfer funds from my UK account into TransferWise's UK account.

They send a wire transfer (FTT) to one of their local account branches in Thailand, to pay it into my local Thai account.

[elliss]

6 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

is the transfer showing in your bankbook as money that came from abroad? I ask this because Transferwise is known as in many cases have sent the money using a local thai bank account

    I use transferwise, no  problems  as to the source of the funds being from abroad . 

       Today  1gbp = 40.12 thb , the end is nigh , sob sob .

 

 

[sfokevin]

Not to hijack the thread but has anyone tried OFX.com to do transfers... They seem to be similar to TransferWise... I ask because with the demise of the BK Bank NY ACH ending I would like to have a secondary backup to TransferWise... 

 

 

[stud858]

If something were to go wrong with a transferwise transfer and your money somehow vanished, who guarantees it or at least pushes them to sort it out quickly?

 

Like Bitcoin, it's a greater risk by a small amount but as the unluckiest person on the planet, if one day something goes wrong, I'm guessing your money gone or a massive headache to get back.

 

I'll pay bank fees until I'm explained it's covered by something substantial.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, Pib said:

I see Transferwise will have a new fee structure 1 March 19..

 

Hey Pib, in all your posts on TFW, have you ever addressed / look at the issue of their customer / consumer protection status?

 

I've read some posts here lately with people complaining about their TFW transactions getting delayed and seemingly going missing for varying periods of time.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

10 minutes ago, stud858 said:

 

Like Bitcoin, it's a greater risk by a small amount but as the unluckiest person on the planet, if one day something goes wrong, I'm guessing your money gone or a massive headache to get back.

 

 

I was thinking more about the kind of example Pib referred to in his main post above:

 

Quote

I remember one recent post where a ThaiVisa member said he had done 52 transfers to his Bangkok Bank account and all but two end-up with international coding.

 

The problem with that, of course, is if the person is relying on TFW to handle their Immigration required 12 monthly foreign bank transfers into Thailand for retirement extension purposes, having one of your regular monthly xfers suddenly show up as domestic is really going to throw a wrench in the works.

 

If that were to happen, what could the person do? Have to send a 2nd xfer of 65,000 in the same month and hope that the second one doesn't get coded as domestic?  That would bust one's budget for the month. Or, take the TH received funds, send them back out to your home country account paying all the fees to accomplish that, and then resend those same funds a 2nd time thru TFW hoping for a better result...

 

[Moonlover]

42 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I was thinking more about the kind of example Pib referred to in his main post above:

 

 

The problem with that, of course, is if the person is relying on TFW to handle their Immigration required 12 monthly foreign bank transfers into Thailand for retirement extension purposes, having one of your regular monthly xfers suddenly show up as domestic is really going to throw a wrench in the works.

 

If that were to happen, what could the person do? Have to send a 2nd xfer of 65,000 in the same month and hope that the second one doesn't get coded as domestic?  That would bust one's budget for the month. Or, take the TH received funds, send them back out to your home country account paying all the fees to accomplish that, and then resend those same funds a 2nd time thru TFW hoping for a better result...

 

You make sure that you keep the T/W transaction slip that you can download from your activities page.

 

Irrefutable proof that the deposit has a foreign origin.

 

I am keeping all of mine, just in case.

[Pib]

49 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Hey Pib, in all your posts on TFW, have you ever addressed / look at the issue of their customer / consumer protection status?

 

I've read some posts here lately with people complaining about their TFW transactions getting delayed and seemingly going missing for varying periods of time.

Heck, you can find complaints on any service/product.  People like to complaint a lot about how PayPal froze or closed their account.   

 

Anyway, below is how Transferwise is licensed/regulated in the U.S.

 

https://transferwise.com/help/article/1840868/security/how-are-we-regulated-in-the-us

How are we regulated in the US?

Quote

TransferWise Inc. is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) with money service business registration number 31000065314305. It is licensed as a money transmitter in the states listed here and supervised by regulatory authorities in each of those states.

In other U.S. states and/or territories, money transmission services are offered by our partner financial institution Community Federal Savings Bank, which is supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.

In the United States, we bank with Community and Federal Savings Bank (CFSB), Cross River Bank (CRB) and Wells Fargo. All of these banks are insured under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). You can find more information about the FDIC here.

You can see more information about security and our communication with you on our dedicated page here.

 

And for the UK.

 

https://transferwise.com/help/article/2897714/borderless-account/is-my-money-covered-by-a-financial-protection-scheme

Is my money covered by a financial protection scheme?

TransferWise is an authorised Electronic Money Institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. 

We're required by law to protect your money by storing it in a low-risk financial institution (in Europe this is in our UK Barclays bank accounts). 

That means that, in the unlikely event that TransferWise became insolvent, your money would be unaffected and should be refunded to you in full. 

If our official Banking Institution (in Europe this would mean Barclays), became insolvent, your return of funds would not be guaranteed as the account is not guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

We take the safety and security of your money very seriously. We fulfil rigorous regulatory standards in UK, Europe, US, and every country we operate in. As such, millions of customers trust TransferWise with their money, we currently move over £1 billion around the world every single month.

 

 

[Pib]

8 hours ago, Stocky said:

A 17% INCREASE transferring from Singapore to Thailand. It says from 8th of March not the 1st.

You must be using a debit or credit card to fund the transfer as those funding methods increased.  Using a debit/credit card is generally a more expensive way for most currency pairs.   But funding via your bank the price has went down  a little over 4%

 

 

 

[Pib]

6 hours ago, Pib said:

For me the notice I got with my US registered TW account it said 1 March.  Guess the kick-off date may depend on which country your acct was registered in and/or what currency-pair is being used.

 

Then again from looking the image I included in my opening post the example shows 8 March.  Ah heck, sometime in "early" March.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

You make sure that you keep the T/W transaction slip that you can download from your activities page.

 

Irrefutable proof that the deposit has a foreign origin.

 

I am keeping all of mine, just in case.

 

Except, there's zero indication thus far that any Immigration officer/office is going to accept TFW paperwork as a valid proof of a foreign transfer, in the absence of a Thai bank book and/or statement confirming that fact (the latter two being what their latest version of rules calls for).

 

Maybe they might. Maybe they wouldn't. I don't think anyone really has any basis for knowing right now.

 

[luckyluke]

14 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Maybe they might.

Officers like simple things :

 

A letter from an Embassy/Consulate for proof of  income in homeland. 

 

A Letter from a Thai bank confirming 400 or 800000 on a Thai bankbook. 

 

Pretty sure they will only expect a letter from a Thai bank confirming the monthly funds coming from abroad.

 

 

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I was thinking more about the kind of example Pib referred to in his main post above:

 

 

The problem with that, of course, is if the person is relying on TFW to handle their Immigration required 12 monthly foreign bank transfers into Thailand for retirement extension purposes, having one of your regular monthly xfers suddenly show up as domestic is really going to throw a wrench in the works.

 

If that were to happen, what could the person do? Have to send a 2nd xfer of 65,000 in the same month and hope that the second one doesn't get coded as domestic?  That would bust one's budget for the month. Or, take the TH received funds, send them back out to your home country account paying all the fees to accomplish that, and then resend those same funds a 2nd time thru TFW hoping for a better result...

 

As per my prior post:

 

1. Get the credit advice from your bank for this transfer. It may already show the overseas origin in addition to the passage through the other Thai bank. If so you are all set. The credit advice alone should be acceptable but if you want double assurrance, show the credit advice  to your bank and ask them to include in the letter they give you the fact that you made 12 transfers from abroad that year.

 

2. It may also show this detail on the detailed bank statements apparently obtainable from bank HQ but this needs to be tested/verified for various banks.

 

If both of the above fail then if it were me I'd contact the bank which first received the money and try to get credit advice from them, But according to one poster, due to anti money laundering laws, the credit advice of your bank ought to show not only the domestic bank the money came from but its original origination abroad.

 

I am doing a TW trabsfer to Kasikorn bank this week, it will almost surely first go through a different Thai bank and then be domestically transferred to mine. I will get a copy of the credit advice from Kasikorn and let you all know what it shows.

[scubascuba3]

I want to hear that Immigration are accepting Transferwise payments before i start using them. Any reports yet? I haven't seen any

[HighPriority]

2 hours ago, stud858 said:

If something were to go wrong with a transferwise transfer and your money somehow vanished, who guarantees it or at least pushes them to sort it out quickly?

 

Like Bitcoin, it's a greater risk by a small amount but as the unluckiest person on the planet, if one day something goes wrong, I'm guessing your money gone or a massive headache to get back.

 

I'll pay bank fees until I'm explained it's covered by something substantial.

I used tw a couple of weeks ago to transfer 10,000 Baht to my wife, and while the rate was good (better than my bank by 200 Baht) I presume that they are a secondary financial institution and there’s probably no restitution if my money disappears in transit... at this point in time I guess I’ll take my chances.

 

i wasn’t aware of the tw option to deduct from my account ?

i too transferred into my borderless acc and then to my wife.

how do I set up this deduction option ? 

[Stocky]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

You must be using a debit or credit card to fund the transfer as those funding methods increased.  Using a debit/credit card is generally a more expensive way for most currency pairs.   But funding via your bank the price has went down  a little over 4%

 

 

 

Certainly not. That's a money transferring to their Singapore account. There was a 17% increase on the transfer of SGD10,000 to THB.

[Pib]

12 minutes ago, Stocky said:

Certainly not. That's a money transferring to their Singapore account. There was a 17% increase on the transfer of SGD10,000 to THB.

My above example was a SGD to THB transfer....but for only 1000 SGD which had a 4% fee decrease. 

 

However, when doing a SGD to THB transfer for 10,000 SGD there is a big fee jump like you said...see below. 

 

So, we were both right.  In a SGD to THB transfer situation, it also depends on the amount your are sending.   A fee decrease for smaller transfers....a fee increase for larger transfers

 

I went back and checked on a 10,000 USD to THB and 10,000 GBP to THB transfer and the healthy fee decreases still applied.

 

SGD to THB

 

 

[Stocky]

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

The above example was a SGD to THB transfer.

As maybe but you're not using Transferwise Singapore!

 

[Pib]

Ours posts are passing in the night.  We were both right.  A SGD to THB fee decrease for lower amounts and a SGD to THB fee increase for larger amounts.   Price out 1,000 and 10,000 SGD to THB transfers and you'll see.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

You make sure that you keep the T/W transaction slip that you can download from your activities page.

 

Irrefutable proof that the deposit has a foreign origin.

 

I am keeping all of mine, just in case.

 

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Except, there's zero indication thus far that any Immigration officer/office is going to accept TFW paperwork as a valid proof of a foreign transfer, in the absence of a Thai bank book and/or statement confirming that fact (the latter two being what their latest version of rules calls for).

 

Maybe they might. Maybe they wouldn't. I don't think anyone really has any basis for knowing right now.

 

But, that is not what you do with it. It's up to the bank to confirm that deposits come from abroad. So you stick it on the desk of your branch manager and say 'confirm'. (politely of course!)