Bank Charges Uk To Thailand

[silsburyhill]

I've recently received a transfer of 250 GBP from a bank in the UK to Siam Commercial Bank here in Thailand.

The sender has told me that the amount in Thai Baht, given him by his UK bank, is 12,020. I received just over 11,000 THB.

I questioned this and he told me his bank in the UK charges him 25 GBP transfer charge, and that they'd told him 'there may be charges at the receiving bank in Thailand'. And so it seems that the sender gets charged 25GBP to send, and the Thai bank charges ANOTHER 900 THB to receive?! Making a total off around 43.70 GBP to send a measly 250! Almost a fifth of the amount sent, deducted. Is this correct? Does anyone else have this charge? Or is my Thai bank (SCB) bank attempting to pull a fast one. As if .... Thanks.

[chiang mai]

Others will advise on the charges but yes, there is a recieving charge here also although 900 baht sounds high. I suspect that high charge is a result of the Thai bank recieving baht and not foriegn currency, your friend in the UK should have sent Pounds with instructions to convert to Baht in Thailand, that way he/you would have got a much much better exchange rate plus the recieving charge would likely have been lower.

[Naam]

my advice is "refrain from transferring peanuts amounts." the fees expressed in percentage are too high.

[silsburyhill]

my advice is "refrain from transferring peanuts amounts." the fees expressed in percentage are too high.

Well, thanks for this. Sometimes 'peanuts amounts' are very welcome for monkeys like me.

[silsburyhill]

Others will advise on the charges but yes, there is a recieving charge here also although 900 baht sounds high. I suspect that high charge is a result of the Thai bank recieving baht and not foriegn currency, your friend in the UK should have sent Pounds with instructions to convert to Baht in Thailand, that way he/you would have got a much much better exchange rate plus the recieving charge would likely have been lower.

Thank you Chiang Mai. An intelligent and helpful response. I will pass the information on.

[Gone]

When I send money online from my Canadian account to my SCB account there is a fee of $13.00 CAD (about 390 THB) no matter what amount I transfer. Not bad at all really.

Maybe your friend can do the same for you next time? Takes 1 or 2 days however they say 3 - 5.

[Tafia]

I use Nationwide to Kasikorn 25GBP charge in england and a percentage charge here but have a max charge of 500 THB

[CharlieH]

For small amounts like that get them to send via Western Union, cost about 14.00 quid and that's it.

Go get it from any Post office in cash.

[Pib]

Since the sender knew the amount of Thai baht sent that indicates he must have allowed the Sending bank to convert to baht before sending....that is a sure way to get a 2-3% lower exchange rate than the rate you would receive if sending the money as your home country currency and allowing the Thai bank to do the conversion. 12,020 / 250 = a 48.08 exchange rate which is around 2% lower than the Thai bank current TT Buying Rate of around 49.14 according the ThaiVisa home page as of a few minutes ago. Never allow the Sending bank to convert and send in baht...you'll loose out on the exchange rate...it's like a hidden fee...send in home country currency and let the Thai bank convert to baht.

OK, does the Sending bank use an intermediary bank? Many do...if they do then that intermediary bank may take a cut as the money (baht or home country currency) flows through them.

Then when the money arrives the Thai bank they are going to charge a funds receipt/conversion fee in the ballpark of 0.25% (200 baht min, 500 baht max). This is charged whether the money arrives in home country currency or Thai baht. That's why they call it a funds "receipt and/or conversion" fee.

I expect the bulk of the charges/slices off the total amount sent occurred on the Sending and/or Intermediary bank ends and not the Thai bank end. So much depends on the choices of sending and payment of fees by the Sender.

[MJCM]

For all amounts I transfer from Europe my Bank charges me around 23 Euros. My Thai Bank doesn't charge me, as I send it via Swift in Euro's (not in Thai Baht) and costs set to OUR (Fees are payed by Sending Party). If you set costs to Shared, then the costs will be split by the Sender and the Receiver.

[Hornell]

Get in touch with Moneycorp; they charge a great deal less. I transfer a regular amount each month and the Thai Bank charges 100 Baht each time.

[sms747]

I was charged 25 quid by nationwide as expected last month. But I did not expect Tanachart here to take out another 25 pounds from my UK account as their fee, that's 1250 baht. The usual fee is 200-500 baht but as I checked take fees out of sending bank, thinking that was just for the NW fee, they somehow are entitled to more than double the fee for receiving the money. had it all looked into and argued with Tanachart but they still cannot explain why the fee was so high, only that they could charge it due to the way the online swift form was filled out. Money was sent in pounds of course. So I paid 50 quid to make a transfer, but is was a large amount. If sending a large amount you have to go into the bank here and sign for it before they will put it into your account, at least at Tanachart. I'm sure somebody will say no you don't though.

Edited August 17, 2012 by sms747

[SantiSuk]

Lloyds and Halifax used to charge £12 for a foreign transfer (havent checked lately). HSBC charges £17. So the transaction started off expensive. Sending baht compounded the cost. 900 baht is a very expensive receiving bank charge - I can see no earthly reason why receiving baht should be more expensive than receiving pounds. If the receiving bank is your bank you could ask for a breakdown (and then transfer to Bangkok or Kasikorn who would charge probably about 400 baht on a transaction of that size).

If you have an account in the UK and don't want to change your Thai bank then get senders to directly credit your UK bank and then withdraw the money at an ATM in Thailand. Transaction cost (assuming you make one withdrawal of the full amount) would be about 2.5% (ATM fee of 150 baht is 1.2% and the conversion rate used by banks for ATM transactions can be 1 - 1.5% worse than their TT rate).

Edited August 17, 2012 by SantiSuk

[chiang mai]

Lloyds and Halifax used to charge £12 for a foreign transfer (havent checked lately). HSBC charges £17. So the transaction started off expensive. Sending baht compounded the cost. 900 baht is a very expensive receiving bank charge - I can see no earthly reason why receiving baht should be more expensive than receiving pounds. If the receiving bank is your bank you could ask for a breakdown (and then transfer to Bangkok or Kasikorn who would charge probably about 400 baht on a transaction of that size).

If you have an account in the UK and don't want to change your Thai bank then get senders to directly credit your UK bank and then withdraw the money at an ATM in Thailand. Transaction cost (benchmarked against a typical bank TT transfer rate) if you make one withdrawal of the full amount would be about 2.5% (ATM fee of 150 baht is 1.2% and the conversion rate used by banks for ATM transactions can be 1 - 1.5% worse than their TT rate).

Banks here charge more to recieve Baht than they do to recieve foriegn currency because they lose out on the profit of the exchange rate and need to make that up somehow.

[marshbags]

my advice is "refrain from transferring peanuts amounts." the fees expressed in percentage are too high.

Well, thanks for this. Sometimes 'peanuts amounts' are very welcome for monkeys like me.

Advice offered from a fellow monkey, i,m a little surpised at the below the belt one liner, humerously intended or otherwise as it was insulting to say the least and derogatory in sbh,s case.

Show a bit of humility on those less fortunate and obviously less well off financially than you apparently are, NAAM

If you can possibly do so, try to save having it sent in one at a time transfers and again if at all possible wait until you have an accumilated several / a larger amount. requesting your transfers in pounds sterling is best for normal transactions and yes the Thai bank fees are not usually to high and far less than you mentioned.

marshbags

Edited August 17, 2012 by marshbags

[chiang mai]

Folks are being overly sensitive and too PC here, you'd have to have a long stretch of the imagination to see that term as being derogatory, it's usage is more to do with style and grammar than to cause offence, I'm certain.

[sms747]

Why do they even give the option of converting at home and sending in baht? Can this ever be to the customers advantage or needs? At least you have the option sending from home, as opposed to sending from Thailand when I believe they do not let you send in baht but convert here, thus making themselves another nice little earner at the customers expense. Banks are not charities of course, but not always fair and transparent either. If sending from here CM's advice of buying a cheque from Bangkok Bank seems the best plan.

Edited August 17, 2012 by sms747

[Pormax]

itransfer funds from UK about 4 times a year. I tend to wait until I have between 3 and 5k to transfer as I get the same charges from my Thai bank (Kasikorn) taken from my account. This is 850B. i do not send sterling from my UK bank but do my transfer through 'Sterling Exchange' in London. I transfer my money from my UK bank via internet banking to them giving my customer No. It is held there until I decide to change into Baht and transfered. Around the time I want to top up my account here i look daily on the exchange rates on Yahoo finance and if fortunate as in my last transaction on 10th. May get a good deal. On that date the rate (Yahoo high Street Bank rates) was quoted at 50.23. i called my contact in 'Sterling Exchange' and was quoted 50.00B per pound and I agreed the transfer. It arrived in Thailand on the 15th. by then the rate quoted on Yahoo was down to 49.89. meanwhile on Kasikorn bank the rate quoted on 10th May for transfer of GBP was 49.765 but on the 15th was up to 49.8925 still not as high as I got from the Uk. I had no charges as negotiated from the UK side. All in all I reckon that I got a good deal that time but of course the exchange rate was good. So i think the lesson here is try not to send small amounts if possible, don't leap in when you are thinking of transfering give yourself a few days to checkout the market rates. As of now the High Street rate on Yahoo is 49.52. on Kasikorn Bank transfer rate = 49.263 while the general Thai banking transfer rate is 49.078. quite a big difference. One will never avoid banking charges but if you have time and be careful you can limit the charges to an acceptable level.

[marshbags]

Folks are being overly sensitive and too PC here, you'd have to have a long stretch of the imagination to see that term as being derogatory, it's usage is more to do with style and grammar than to cause offence, I'm certain.

Hmmmm well that,s one way to excuse the inexcusable, the OP was asking for advice which in all fairness you kindly posted for him.

Naam is well know for his sometimes misplaced sarcasm, but you should also appreciate it can be offensive to those not familiar with this.

PC and overly sensitive Hmmmmm....not by a country mile IMHO but hey no problem apart from the fact I hate PC correctness big time.

marshbags

Edited August 17, 2012 by marshbags