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Transferring Money Into Thailand


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I used to have a Krungthai bank account in Thailand and thought that the charges they were making for money coming from the UK had gone up considerably. Their web site quotes a charge of 0.25% with a min 200 and max 500 baht fee. But when i transferred @ 50,000 baht i was being charged about the full 500 baht, nearly 1%.

I queried in the bank but their answer was very vague suggesting that there was a charge when the money came into Bangkok and another charge when it went to my local branch.

Anyway i changed banks to Kasikorn and this month their charge for a similar transfer was again nearly 500 baht. Does anyone know what the actual fee structure is for incoming foreign exchange? is there a set scale? I suppose i could reduce these charges if i made larger transfers less frequently.

Edited by chris2004
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Your saying your transferred 50k baht (rather than foreign currency)? If foreign currency there should be that .25% fee on the amount after conversion to Baht and another amount removed prior to arrival in Thailand by the bank used for transfer and perhaps a fee at your home bank. Then there is the exchange rate used by bank which varies by the day (if not several times a day).

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Check if your overseas bank has a correspondent arrangement with your thai Bank. If it is straight bank to bank the charges will be as quoted at the Thailand end plus whatever your sending bank is charging.

If a third Bank has to be used because the overseas bank and the Thai Bank do not have correspondent arrangements there will be an additional charge.

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I just received a wire $US 13,000 to my Kasikorn Bank account today. The US bank was a fairly small bank in NJ. (It just wasn't convenient to pop into the city to use Chase or another similar one this time). I lost 4% in the transfer!

That's calculated by the exchange rate given on Kbank website at the time of the transfer. Kbank says they charged 1% handling fees, so the rest went to the US bank plus their exchange rate differential from the Kbank rate here.

The best way to move money from there to here is to use a check (I have done it with personal checks before). The 1% fee applies but the exchange rate is not a mystery. The only downside is the bank holds the money for 30 to 45 days.

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so the rest went to the US bank plus their exchange rate differential from the Kbank rate here.

You apparently forgot to check the box that says something to the effect: "Send dollars."

You'll always take a hit by converting to the thinly-traded baht within the US, rather than on the Thai side of the pond.

The best way to move money from there to here is to use a check

If you mean from the US to Thailand, there are several better ways than a check, in terms of cost and time lost. Search on "ACH" in this forum for one such way.

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I just received a wire $US 13,000 to my Kasikorn Bank account today. The US bank was a fairly small bank in NJ. (It just wasn't convenient to pop into the city to use Chase or another similar one this time). I lost 4% in the transfer!

The best way to move money from there to here is to use a check (I have done it with personal checks before). The 1% fee applies but the exchange rate is not a mystery. The only downside is the bank holds the money for 30 to 45 days.

4% of 13K USD is $520 so yes that is insane

Many here myself included use Bangkok Bank NY ACH system & the prices are very reasonable.

Many US banks charge zero to send money from your account to BKB NY because it is a Domestic Transfer

If your bank does not then the most it should be is $20-$25 for a domestic transfer

Then BKB NY will take $10 for up to 50k USD transfer

After that BKB Thailand will take a max of 500 THB at their end

So if you have the free initial trans from your bank to BKB NY your total costs would have been

$10 + 500 THB = Roughly $26

If your bank charges for domestic transfer then add $20-25 to the $26

Fees here

Info here

Edited by flying
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Firstly, I am sorry to have taken so long to reply to your post.

The bank I use in Thailand is Bangkok bank, and I know with certainty that he maximum charge is 500.00 baht. As I have lived here a long time, I maybe able to assist you to avoid unnecessary bank charges.

Please contact me should you wish to avail yourself of my help.

Cheers.

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