Exchange rate for transferring UK Pension to Thailand?

[MrMuddle]

I've now qualified for my UK Government pension. I can either get it paid into a UK Bank, or paid into a Bank here, BUT as I understand it, they transfer the money as Thai Baht, and get the exchange rate in the UK, before transferring the pension here. The last time (20 years ago) I exchanged Pounds for Baht in the UK, the exchange rate (compared to exchanging in Thailand), was abysmal. Anyone done this recently? What rate can I expect, compared to the Thai rate?

Thanks for any replies

[scubascuba3]

Unlikely the govt will rip you off with a bad exchange rate but personally i would pay to my UK bank account then make transfers to Thailand from there, consolidating payments as required. Using Transferwise or other. Useful for the 65k a month transfers

[Moonlover]

I ran two methods in parallel for a while. I had my military pension paid into my bank here and my state pension into my UK bank and then used TransferWise to move it out here.

 

There are 'hidden' costs when you have your pension paid directly to a Thai bank, which I only discovered when I obtained some FETs from the bank last year when doing my extension, but overall there actually seemed to be little difference in the exchange rate/charges between the the two methods.

 

DWP do not pay out in THB. They pay your pension to Citicorp in sterling and leave it to them to carry out the transaction, so we, the pensioners, benefit from Citicorp's 'buying power' when it comes to the exchange rate.

 

I now follow @scubascuba3 suggestion above of having all my pensions paid into my UK account, then consolidating them into one T/W transaction per month. I find this more convenient when it comes to proving my monthly income to Immigration.

 

Hope you find the above useful.

[Kwasaki]

 

4 hours ago, MrMuddle said:

What rate can I expect, compared to the Thai rate?

My experience at this time while the £ is quite steady at the present rate of exchange is I always get a good rate with my UK pension paid directly to my Thai bank, better than any other method of getting money over from UK.

[petermik]

No brainer...get your pension paid into your UK bank and transfer when needed..????

[scubascuba3]

35 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

 

My experience at this time while the £ is quite steady at the present rate of exchange is I always get a good rate with my UK pension paid directly to my Thai bank, better than any other method of getting money over from UK.

But what rate is it? if you don't know you can't compare with Transferwise\other. They should be able to comfirm the rate i.e. Interbank rate, not number

[baansgr]

They use Bank of New York as a clearing house, the rate you get today would be about 35.5 baht..compare that to TransferWise you are loosing 10% of your pension. Always have it transferred to Thailand in Sterling, so pay to UK bank and do yourself

[Kwasaki]

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

But what rate is it? if you don't know you can't compare with Transferwise\other. They should be able to comfirm the rate i.e. Interbank rate, not number

Quite easy really on the day your pension is paid into Thailand mine is Monday I look at the rate.

It is always less on that day if I go and get money from any other source with my uk debit card on line.

The best way is over Thai bank counter with debit card but always less rate than my pension rate.

I don't bother much checking now because the amounts of difference are small.

Neally 8 years now getting my pension paid direct to my Thai Bank with no bother I'm happy with this arrangement.

Why all the bother it's flinging frozen anyway tell OP that. ????

[timendres]

When I was given this choice by my employer years ago, I had the money deposited into my US account, then transferred what I needed to here. The primary reason being that I still needed US dollars for some things, and I did not want the exchange/fee hit a second time when moving money back from here.

[Moonlover]

20 hours ago, baansgr said:

They use Bank of New York as a clearing house, the rate you get today would be about 35.5 baht..compare that to TransferWise you are loosing 10% of your pension. Always have it transferred to Thailand in Sterling, so pay to UK bank and do yourself

What utter nonsense!

[colinneil]

20 hours ago, baansgr said:

They use Bank of New York as a clearing house, the rate you get today would be about 35.5 baht..compare that to TransferWise you are loosing 10% of your pension. Always have it transferred to Thailand in Sterling, so pay to UK bank and do yourself

You are not correct with what you have posted.

Easiest way with pension from UK, is paid directly into a Thai bank.

My pension is paid direct to Krung Thai, at a very good exchange rate, no hidden fees what so ever.

Last time i got my pension, the rate i got was 40 satang more than the exchange rate that day.

 

[kuzie57]

Why not just open a foreign currency account with your Thai bank? It comes over in pounds and you then have the choise when to convert it to baht. You will get bank TT rate.

[transam]

Get your pension paid into your Thai bank, there are no fees, plus they do state you get a better exchange rate, which you do.

If things are still the same, UK Gov. uses Citibank in Ireland, they transfer it to Citibank BKK who send it to your local bank. No fees, no worries.

If you choose to have it paid every 28 days it will be in your Thai bank, on the dot, every 28 days, unless a Buddha bank holiday, then the next day......Simple...

[stupidfarang]

If you can, have a UK address for all letters and communication. If you are seen living in Thailand you will not get the yearly increase on the pension. As for bank account I have it coming into my UK bank account and then transfer what I need if required. Also the exchange rates are not going to be good for sometime, now it is 38 baht to the £ and it may go lower if / when the recession starts in the UK. Do not count on the Thai baht to drop, for some reason the baht retains its high rate and we have been predicting it's fall for years and nothing has happen.

[crazykopite]

I’ve always had my pensions paid into my U.K. bank I use a company called TransferWise as they have the best exchange rates I get an update every day by email if you send £1,000 it costs £7 and I can tell you it is sitting in my SCB account within 10/20 minutes SCB charge me around 250 baht so the transfer charge for both banks is roughly £12-13 my Natwest used to charge me £23 plus I still had SCB charges and got a lessor exchange rate . I have a multi currency account  so it doesn’t matter where I go I just input the currency required that is the best way to go it doesn’t cost anything to register just your time . If your on a retirement visa  and need to show your bringing in x amount each month this might not be for you as it does not show that it was an international transfer

[OneeyedJohn]

Since I started using TW for transfers from UK, I have never seen any charges by SCB in my A/C.

 

TW take £7 per £1000, that's it, no other charges.

[crazykopite]

5 minutes ago, stupidfarang said:

If you can, have a UK address for all letters and communication. If you are seen living in Thailand you will not get the yearly increase on the pension. As for bank account I have it coming into my UK bank account and then transfer what I need if required. Also the exchange rates are not going to be good for sometime, now it is 38 baht to the £ and it may go lower if / when the recession starts in the UK. Do not count on the Thai baht to drop, for some reason the baht retains its high rate and we have been predicting it's fall for years and nothing has happen.

That is fraud by using a U.K. address when you do not live there for a minimum period, if you are out of the U.K. for more than 13 weeks you must by law inform DWP or you could face prosecution . I had a friend over here who was doing that got away with it for around 4 years he said trouble is even though he was in his late 60s his Thai wife got pregnant and he tried to claim child allowance and other family benefits that’s how they caught him as he was living in Thailand there wasn’t a lot they could do but the deducted £120 per month off his pension each month which put him in serious financial issues for a number of years and what happens when you got no money you got no honey it all went horribly wrong for him he now lives in a tin shed somewhere in the North of Thailand in a little village  

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

That is fraud by using a U.K. address when you do not live there for a minimum period, if you are out of the U.K. for more than 13 weeks you must by law inform DWP or you could face prosecution .

Yawn, no fraud in not reporting your address, DWP admit not having a current address for 40% of pensioners.

Child benefit is an odd one, if you claim legitimately while you and your child are in the UK there doesn't appear to be any system in place for stopping claiming if you move to a different country.

Edited May 21, 2020 by BritManToo

[Kwasaki]

4 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

That is fraud by using a U.K. address when you do not live there for a minimum period, if you are out of the U.K. for more than 13 weeks you must by law inform DWP or you could face prosecution .

You beat me to it.

People that do that think it's clever until there caught up with.

[crazykopite]

19 minutes ago, OneeyedJohn said:

Since I started using TW for transfers from UK, I have never seen any charges by SCB in my A/C.

 

TW take £7 per £1000, that's it, no other charges.

Sorry you are correct I was getting mixed up when I used to transfer directly from my nat west they would charge then scb would charge this lockdown has effected my way of thinking .

[crazykopite]

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Yawn, no fraud in not reporting your address, DWP admit not having a current address for 40% of pensioners.

Child benefit is an odd one, if you claim legitimately while you and your child are in the UK there doesn't appear to be any system in place for stopping claiming if you move to a different country.

Read the regulations on DWP You Gov

[OneeyedJohn]

13 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

Sorry you are correct I was getting mixed up when I used to transfer directly from my nat west they would charge then scb would charge this lockdown has effected my way of thinking .

I think back to the days when I had to fax an instruction to my bank, and they would then do a 'swift' transfer, charge me a small fortune, and then SCB would charge me 100's of baht for the privilege of receiving my money.

 

I hated it, which is why I like TW so much.

[scubascuba3]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

You are not correct with what you have posted.

Easiest way with pension from UK, is paid directly into a Thai bank.

My pension is paid direct to Krung Thai, at a very good exchange rate, no hidden fees what so ever.

Last time i got my pension, the rate i got was 40 satang more than the exchange rate that day.

 

but what exchange rate is it? interbank rate? no one seems to know

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, kuzie57 said:

Why not just open a foreign currency account with your Thai bank? It comes over in pounds and you then have the choise when to convert it to baht. You will get bank TT rate.

foreign currency accounts aren't great, higher charges and no protection if the bank goes under

[hargri]

51 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

I’ve always had my pensions paid into my U.K. bank I use a company called TransferWise as they have the best exchange rates I get an update every day by email if you send £1,000 it costs £7 and I can tell you it is sitting in my SCB account within 10/20 minutes SCB charge me around 250 baht so the transfer charge for both banks is roughly £12-13 my Natwest used to charge me £23 plus I still had SCB charges and got a lessor exchange rate . I have a multi currency account  so it doesn’t matter where I go I just input the currency required that is the best way to go it doesn’t cost anything to register just your time . If your on a retirement visa  and need to show your bringing in x amount each month this might not be for you as it does not show that it was an international transfer

I use TransferWise and stay here on a retirement extension using 65k income method. I contacted TransferWise about needing foreign transactions and they asked me to nominate a recipient for that purpose and they would ensure all transfers would show as such. Been going over 12 months now and all show as foreign.

[colinneil]

18 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

but what exchange rate is it? interbank rate? no one seems to know

When i check the exchange rate, i use Bank of Thailand daily rates.

What exchange rate DWP or Citi Bank use, i have no idea.

 

[Gilltom]

23 hours ago, baansgr said:

They use Bank of New York as a clearing house, the rate you get today would be about 35.5 baht..compare that to TransferWise you are loosing 10% of your pension. Always have it transferred to Thailand in Sterling, so pay to UK bank and do yourself

Or open foriegn currency account here.we have 1 no problem with it .we just transfer money from uk maybe twice a year.but i think your uk pension should be able to be paid into then u decide when u want to make withdrawal into baht

[shackleton]

I have my government  transferred monthly into a Thai bank account

And find it's at a reasonable rate

Plus when transferring from my UK bank account transfer  in pounds usually a better rate 

As if you transfer in Thai Baht the bank here charge 500 baht 

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

When i check the exchange rate, i use Bank of Thailand daily rates.

What exchange rate DWP or Citi Bank use, i have no idea.

 

I'm surprised no one has found out. I wouldn't use my credit card, bank card or TransferWise without knowing

[Pedrogaz]

I think depends upon the rules of the plan. I have my UK private pension transferred over here as pounds and changed here. I don't know what the rate is, but last time I check it compared very well t the spot rate.

I also have a 2 US dollar pensions....the private one will not send any money to a foreign bank I also get Social Security....they will transfer money to Thailand in dollars but only through Bangkok Bank. There is a law in the US called FACTA which attempts to ensure that no US citizen escapes taxes on foreign income and so they require all banks to report activity of US citizens or green card holders. Again the rates are very good indeed.