Is Western Union a good deal in Thailand?

[Hal65]

As you can see below they seem to charge $10 total, including forex, on a $1,000 transfer to the US. I was really surprised by that as I remember the service to be about convenience, with high fees:

 

 

Has anyone used Western Union in Thailand? Were they good or did they hit you or the receiver with extra fees somewhere unexpected?

[asiaexpat]

You got a great deal since the exchange rate has not been at

 $1=31 TB for for a long time. When was this transaction actually done?

[Pib]

13 minutes ago, asiaexpat said:

You got a great deal since the exchange rate has not been at

 $1=31 TB for for a long time. When was this transaction actually done?

in the case of sending money "out of Thailand" a higher exchange rate is bad as you must fork out more baht to buy each dollar to send out.  Say the rate had been even higher at 33 baht to the dollar...then that means you must fork out 33 baht to buy 1 USD to send out.

 

Now for receiving money into Thailand then a higher exchange rate is better....you get more baht for each dollar.

[KhunBENQ]

And the "direct debit" from a Thai bank account works easily, no formalities?

 

Have you noticed that highly advertised DeeMoney offers no more transfers to UK or USA, not to speak of Euro countries?

 

26 minutes ago, asiaexpat said:

When was this transaction actually done?

From the screenshot: yesterday, Aug 19, 2019.

And as written above: not a superb rate for this direction (THB->EUR).

[Hal65]

@KhunBENQ What would you say is a good rate? It matched the Google rate so I thought it was good.

 

I didn't finalize that transaction. Just testing the waters as Deemoney lost their ability to do USA transfers. So it's either Western Union or Bank Wires from what I can tell now.

[KhunBENQ]

24 minutes ago, Hal65 said:

@KhunBENQ What would you say is a good rate?

Yesterdays " Bill - DD - TT Selling Rates" at Bangkok Bank was 30.99 Baht/Dollar.

Or 1000 USD = 30990 THB.

WU overall wants 31271 THB for 1000 USD (incl. fees).

 

Well, I must admit not bad

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Other-Services/View-Rates/Foreign-Exchange-Rates

 

Question: did anyone actually do such a transfer with debit from Thai bank account?

 

[Pib]

Actually, if the WU exchange rate and fees are truly as being reflected on the Thailand public website then using WU would be a better deal than using SWIFT at Thai bank or using DeeMoney if they were still able to send USD.

 

For example, for those of you who have Krungsri ibanking you probably have SWIFT transfer authorization in your ibanking.  I know I do and I only have a retirement extension of stay....no work permit.  And I have used it once to send money to the US and it works.  Money posted to my US bank acct in around 6 hours. 

 

If I was to say send $1000 today from my Krungsri acct the exchange rate they use is the TT "Selling" Rate which is 31.08 baht/USD at this moment in time.   TT "Selling" Rate is what Thai banks use when sending money "out" of Thailand; money coming into Thailand gets the TT "Buying" Rate. There is a Krungsri Bt350 direct sending fee plus another "optional" fee of Bt800 if you want to Krungsri to cover any intermediary bank fees along the way.  Mentioned fees are pretty similar at other Thai banks. When I did my one transfer I did not select the optional Bt800 fee but there was an intermediary fee along way of exactly $20 USD which worked out to Bt650 at the time.   So, I incurred Bt1,000 in total direct/indirect fees.   So, using that Bt1,000 as my total fees to send $1,000 USD to someone in the U.S. using the current Krungsri TT Selling Rate I would need to expend Bt32,080

 

But if using WU their Thai website says I would expend Bt31,292 to send $1000 to some one's bank acct in the US.    While their exchange rate was around 0.32% worst their total fees would only be Bt115 compared to the Bt1,000 in fees if using SWIFT at Krungsri Bank.   Lower sending fees overcame the lower exchange rate given.

 

So, with WU I would save Bt788 over Krungsri Bank to send $1000 but this assumes there will be no other WU fees/intermediary fees along the way to the US bank acct....and the money would take 1 to 3 business days to post to the person bank acct versus 1 day or less for the Krungsri SWIFT transfer. 

 

IF, repeat, if the exchange rate and fees showing on the WU Thailand public website are what you would see after registering with WU then it seems it's a good deal in comparison to a Thai bank.  And since DeeMoney's transfer rate was plus or minus a hair of Thai bank TT Selling Rates but their sending fee being Bt150 plus 7% VAT which totals Bt160.5 then WU sending fees are even lower than DeeMoney's sending fees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tayaout]

Western Union is never a good deal. With that said I noticed the fees are lower to send from some country to other. For example Thailand to Laos, Philippines, etc. 

 

Fiat money is so 2011.

[Pib]

5 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

Western Union is never a good deal. With that said I noticed the fees are lower to send from some country to other. For example Thailand to Laos, Philippines, etc. 

 

Fiat money is so 2011.

Can you please price out/detail an example vs making the generic statement which may not be true.  I priced out an example from Thailand to the US which showed it was a good deal (this assumes the WU website was showing all costs).  Maybe you could price out another country?

 

By the way, since you are implying cryptocurrency is the way to go with transfers, could you price a transfer from Thailand to the USD (or some other western nation) to include the crytocurrency "exchange" costs on both ends where fiat money is used  to buy the crytocurrency and then withdraw it to the final destination bank. 

 

[WalkingOrders]

Not a good deal anywhere.

[Pib]

4 minutes ago, WalkingOrders said:

Not a good deal anywhere.

Can you price out an example from Thailand to the US/EU/UK to support that generic statement? 

 

From looking at the Thailand WU website your statement is not supported/appears invalid assuming the WU Thailand website is not leaving out any cost details along the way.

[KhunBENQ]

Even for sending from Europe/USA to Thailand WU is not that bad.

Coming only slightly after transferwise.

Surprised me too, but:

don't mix up fees for purely electronic transfers with that cash to cash handling where you can send cash money to the most remote parts of the world to people without a bank account.

[Hal65]

I had the same assumption as the 2 "never a good deal" posters which is why it took me so long to do the check myself.

 

But unless there's some hidden gotcha... it appears it is a good deal.

 

Maybe they just don't get any business from the Thais unless they outprice the banks? Or their costs are less along this path for some reason. Who knows.

[Sticky Wicket]

I do bank to bank with WU  (uk to thai bank) and there are no fees and the difference compared to the actual forex rate is about 0.1 baht ie 37.35 and they will give 37.25.

That's on a 2000 quid transaction

Only takes 2-3 business days too 

 

Been using it for 4/5 years now.

There used to be a fee until recently .............. if only the exchange rates were better life would be bliss!!

[asiaexpat]

3 hours ago, Pib said:

in the case of sending money "out of Thailand" a higher exchange rate is bad as you must fork out more baht to buy each dollar to send out.  Say the rate had been even higher at 33 baht to the dollar...then that means you must fork out 33 baht to buy 1 USD to send out.

 

Now for receiving money into Thailand then a higher exchange rate is better....you get more baht for each dollar.

Failed to read photo carefully. Thanks Pib.

[1FinickyOne]

Many years ago they were low fee and awful awful exchange rate... I think they have cleaned up their act somewhat.. that might account for the discrepancy in your answers. 

[Torso84]

I have used Transferwise to convert my Euro in France and RMB in China into THB in Thailand with very low fee. I also use it to pay my health insurance in USD. I remember having compared the different platforms fee few month ago, and Transferwise was always 1st for its low fee and good exchange rate (same as google).

 

I can't really tell if Western Union is better or not because I have never used it, but I would surely recommend you to have a look at Transferwise.

[Hal65]

1 hour ago, Torso84 said:

I have used Transferwise to convert my Euro in France and RMB in China into THB in Thailand with very low fee. I also use it to pay my health insurance in USD. I remember having compared the different platforms fee few month ago, and Transferwise was always 1st for its low fee and good exchange rate (same as google).

 

I can't really tell if Western Union is better or not because I have never used it, but I would surely recommend you to have a look at Transferwise.

 

Last I checked they did USA to Thailand transfers but not Thailand to USA. If that's changed though please let me know

[White Christmas13]

I often wonder why people use Western Union or Transfer wise I send money in to Thailand

some times and I pay just AUD $ 5.00 no matter what the amount is to Bangkok Bank

with no fee charged for the receiver and the latest exchange was $1 to 20.98 Baht

[Hans007]

Did any of you guys tried TRansferwise or Revolut??

 

From what I know WU is always more expensive then these 2.

 

I also have a N26 account...which I am very happy with.(free version) It comes with (free) Debit and Mastercard.

 

Hans

[timendres]

In my experience, WU is only a good deal when you have cash that you need to place in someone's hands in another country. Online, their are a terrible deal. And wait until you try to use your credit card to make a transaction from Thailand. Rudest experience of my entire life. I would personally walk 20 miles to stop someone from using WU.

[Tayaout]

16 hours ago, Pib said:

Can you please price out/detail an example vs making the generic statement which may not be true.  I priced out an example from Thailand to the US which showed it was a good deal (this assumes the WU website was showing all costs).  Maybe you could price out another country?

 

By the way, since you are implying cryptocurrency is the way to go with transfers, could you price a transfer from Thailand to the USD (or some other western nation) to include the crytocurrency "exchange" costs on both ends where fiat money is used  to buy the crytocurrency and then withdraw it to the final destination bank. 

 

I get paid in Bitcoin and pay everything I can with Bitcoin. That's the intended use of Bitcoin not some mechanism to continue using fiat. 

 

The fees on transfer depend on the speed you want the transfer to complete. $0.15-$1 is usually 30m but if not in a hurry I pay around $0.03 and it complete in 30m up to 24h (3 times I have seen 72h). The amount could be equivalent to $10 or 1 billion the fees stay the same. Keep in mind Bitcoin is the most expensive Cryptocurrency for transfer.

 

Now if I want to send fiat to my wife I use bx.in.th the fees to sell is 0.02% (a bit less since she used my affiliate link) +60 baht for bank transfer to SCB. She receive her money in about 15min.

 

If you have access to coinbasepro and you are a market maker the fee are 0% for USD to BTC. 

 

The problem (if you care only about fiat), is you can get caught in a volatile market but there is strategy to hedge that if needed by shorting Bitcoin but thats not exactly easy to understand for a begginer. 

 

There is also Cryptocurrency that are pegged to USD, Euro and pound so no volatility risk but I don't use them so cant really comment. I noticed there is GUSD on bx.in.th which is a "stablecoin" provided by Gemini an American exchange. However the thai market for GUSD seems shallow which defeat the purpose of the stablecoin by decoupling the price a little bit from the currency it is supposed to be pegged to. 

[ThaiRebound]

Moneygram vs. Western Union -- which is better? 

[farmerjo]

My Dad is having a bad run on all accounts so far.

Went into bank of Audya(yellow bank) to use western union and at that place they will only send to China and Philippines.

Found a Krungthai branch that would do it but could not send to a company name,only persons name.

They will let him know after 3 days if successful.

That was $250 to Aus and charge was 800 baht.

[ThaiBunny]

On 8/21/2019 at 2:53 AM, White Christmas13 said:

I often wonder why people use Western Union or Transfer wise I send money in to Thailand

some times and I pay just AUD $ 5.00 no matter what the amount is to Bangkok Bank

with no fee charged for the receiver and the latest exchange was $1 to 20.98 Baht

Are you going to let us into the secret of how you do it?

[ThaiBunny]

8 minutes ago, farmerjo said:

Found a Krungthai branch that would do it but could not send to a company name,only persons name.

AFAIK you can only send WU to send to a person, not a company, unless you are doing a deposit into the company's bank account. There seem to be WU in every Central department store, but you don't say where you are

[Pib]

On 8/20/2019 at 11:53 PM, White Christmas13 said:

I often wonder why people use Western Union or Transfer wise I send money in to Thailand

some times and I pay just AUD $ 5.00 no matter what the amount is to Bangkok Bank

with no fee charged for the receiver and the latest exchange was $1 to 20.98 Baht

Now I wondering what method you use?  Some more details such as who you use, do you let the sending end accomplish the exchange, due you send AUD to the Thai bank and let them do the exchange, etc., would be nice. 

 

And I'm a somewhat doubtful about the exchange rate your quote because based on XE.com showing the midmarket rate which is the best anyone would possibly get, the exchange rate has only been at 21.98 for very brief periods (hours) back on 16 and 19 Aug.

 

[ThaiBunny]

17 minutes ago, Pib said:

And I'm a somewhat doubtful about the exchange rate your quote because based on XE.com showing the midmarket rate which is the best anyone would possibly get, the exchange rate has only been at 21.98 for very brief periods (hours) back on 16 and 19 Aug.

He mentioned 20.98 and that's also what your chart shows. However I used TW twice in the last two weeks - on Aug 20 I got 20.9194, and on August 15 I got 20.9283. Certainly not 20.98 but not far off either

[Pib]

I have a Krungsri Bank acct.  On my Krungsri ibanking you can register for Western Union Service....send and receive via WU directly from and to your Krungsri ibanking.  I did register this week....very easy process...took two days to get approved.  But for Sending you can only send to a person for pickup; not directly to their bank account.   And just to repeat, I registered for WU service on my Krungsri Bank ibanking; I did not registered directly with WU.

 

Below are two WU transfers for $50 and $500 from my Krungsri Bank acct which I did "not" follow through with....just went up to the last step and then cancelled.  Wanted to see what the exchange rate and fee were.   

 

Notice the WU fee is pretty healthy when initiating from Krungsri bank...letting Krungsri be a middle man between you and WU....fee varies by amount being sent....and the fee is apparently significantly higher than if registering directly with WU like the screenshot Hal65 provided earlier showing  fee of only around Bt115 to send $1000.  And the exchange rate was 32.28 for 23 Aug 2019 or said another way you would need to fork-out 32.28 baht to buy each dollar you are sending.  This is an expensive rate as the Krungsri TT Selling Rate for outgoing SWIFT/wire transfers was 31.04 at the same time....much better than the 32.28 rate for the WU transfer.

 

So, the good news is I can now transfer via WU from my Krungsri Bank acct if I ever need to....ain't got no other choice.   The bad news is it would be an expensive transfer exchange rate and fee wise....easy, but expensive.

 

 

[Hal65]

@Pib Maybe the best option is to let Western Union initiate the transfer?

 

Or pay by debit card?

 

Just throwing out ideas. I'll be testing this with a live transaction next month myself