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How does TransferWise work in Thailand?


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If I want to transfer money to Thailand from the UK using TransferWise I send £ to their UK bank from my UK bank & then they send Baht to my Thai bank from their Thai bank. All very logical.

However, TW don’t offer a similar service for people in Thailand who want to send money overseas. So, how do TW fund their Thai bank account? They must transfer huge amounts from overseas into Thailand, so where is their profit? I expect that they get preferential exchange rates due to the volume of business but still.

Their model makes sense when there’s money moving in both directions but in Thailand’s case I’m not so sure. Maybe they’re planning to offer transfers out of Thailand in the future?

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Thai banking regulations are what restricts outward international remittances to only those who qualify to do such. AFAIK, if your don't qualify to do it from a local bank, only Deemoney offers a reciprocal local service akin to transferwise.

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Good question.

 

As I see it

 

You pay TW £1000 from your UK bank to their UK Bank.

They knock £10 off for commission

TW then send £990 from their UK bank to your nominated bank in Thailand (at which point the conversion is done)

Your nominated bank then credits your Thai account.

 

I'm assuming TW don't have a Thai account per se

 

Could be wrong of course.

 

 

 

 

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If you Google a bit deeper on the TW website you will find that TW is all about 'matching' currencies. 

 

I have Baht in Thailand but want Sterling (or any currency), TW have a client in the UK who wants Baht. TW 'buy' my Baht which I transfer locally to your Thai bank.

 

I imagine it is achieved through a network of agents in Thailand.

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9 minutes ago, Chelseafan said:

Good question.

 

As I see it

 

You pay TW £1000 from your UK bank to their UK Bank.

They knock £10 off for commission

TW then send £990 from their UK bank to your nominated bank in Thailand (at which point the conversion is done)

Your nominated bank then credits your Thai account.

 

I'm assuming TW don't have a Thai account per se

 

Could be wrong of course.

 

 

 

 

 

You are wrong.

 

The money doesn't cross any borders.

 

You have completely failed to understand how the TW system works.

 

Read up about it.

 

PS I just checked how much it would cost for someone to receive £1000 worth of baht in Thailand:

 

I pay £1007 pounds, TW charge £6.85, recipient gets £1000.15 worth of baht @ 40.38 baht to the pound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

You are wrong.

 

The money doesn't cross any borders.

 

You have completely failed to understand how the TW system works.

 

Read up about it.

 

PS I just checked how much it would cost for someone to receive £1000 worth of baht in Thailand:

 

I pay £1007 pounds, TW charge £6.85, recipient gets £1000.15 worth of baht @ 40.38 baht to the pound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will reply in a more courteous manner to you than you did to me.

 

I didn't read up about it because I stated "As I see it" which infers very little knowledge.

The £10 was just an example to make it easier to lay out my calculations.

 

on "reading up about it", it appears TW do have an account in Thailand which begs the question that the OP asked.

 

 

 

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Chelseafan said:

I will reply in a more courteous manner to you than you did to me.

 

I didn't read up about it because I stated "As I see it" which infers very little knowledge.

The £10 was just an example to make it easier to lay out my calculations.

 

on "reading up about it", it appears TW do have an account in Thailand which begs the question that the OP asked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not sure that TW do have their own account in Thailand...... I may be wrong and all transfers are made from there. I think they use an agent/agents to make the payments locally in Baht.

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The money transferred to TW doesn't appear to leave the country, instead they try to match the transaction in the opposite direction

 

image.png.704049094cc5eda337ea92d27972e406.png

Still not sure about how this works in Thailand though

 

Anyone  any ideas?

 

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3 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

Still not sure about how this works in Thailand though

 

Anyone  any ideas?

 

Since the matching process clearly isn't being used in the case of Thailand (or, indeed, many other countries), I can only presume they are buying baht in the wholesale markets, lumping together customer orders to increase the FX transaction size to get a better rate.  Then it's a single SWIFT transfer to Thailand.

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4 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

The money transferred to TW doesn't appear to leave the country, instead they try to match the transaction in the opposite direction

Transferwise has 3 partner banks in Thailand, I would think they have money going out.

May be like this :

Annotation 2019-05-24 080812.jpg

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9 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Thai banking regulations are what restricts outward international remittances to only those who qualify to do such. AFAIK, if your don't qualify to do it from a local bank, only Deemoney offers a reciprocal local service akin to Transferwise.

You can transfer money out of Thailand with a Thai bank it's just that Deemoney is cheaper service but still has restrictions on amount.

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7 hours ago, Jip99 said:

I am not sure that TW do have their own account in Thailand...... I may be wrong and all transfers are made from there. I think they use an agent/agents to make the payments locally in Baht.

Four stores in Bangkok: Tesco Lotus Mahachai, Sukhumvit Soi 8 & Imperial World Samrong.

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