About Money Transfers and Thailand

With over 32,000 ex-pats in Bangkok alone it is fitting that they have a variety of options for transferring money overseas. Many residents need to regularly send money back home to family, loved ones and so on. Here is an outline of the variety of the more convenient, fast and inexpensive ways to transfer money from Thailand.

The three main expenses when transferring money are due to:

1) The actual money transfer fee
2) The current exchange rate.
3) Additional fees that may need to be paid by the recipient of the money transfer. In Thailand this is often the case for bank wire transfers.

Of course most companies make there money from the money transfer fee. this fee is calculated dependent upon various factors such as the amount of baht being sent, how soon you wish the recipient to receive the money transfer and where you are sending money to. Be careful here for some companies will advertise no money transfer fee. this may be the case but if you take a look at the exchange rate they are offering to you it may well be the case that it is a very poor exchange rate and overall you may be losing money despite not paying a money transfer fee.

The exchange rate is of course very important. rates change daily and you can check them in Thailand in the daily Bangkok Post newspaper or of course online. Money transfer firms generally have slightly different exchange rates so double check with as many companies as you can.

As mentioned previously if you are looking to perform a bank wire transfer the recipient may actually incur a fee at their end which shouldn't be overlooked. Some of the major banks who are able to perform a wire transfer from Bangkok are: Kasikorn Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and the Bank of Audhya. They have many branches all over Bangkok and throughout Thailand.

Some firms such as iKobo use a system combining ATM cards to send money overseas. The fee for this may be more expensive for Thailand so check with the company offering the service.

Send money via a bank transfer in Thailand is a good idea for large amounts of money as it is very safe. They use a safe system with encrypted messages. To do this you would need a Thai bank account.

To acquire one of these you would need to provide several different documents such as: passport with a non-tourist visa, work permit and proof of earnings amongst other things. It may however be slightly easier to open a bank account outside of Bangkok as restrictions seem to vary dependent on location. However Thai banks are usually very helpful and efficient when processing wire transfers overseas. If you are sending to the UK you would need to provide a BIC number and an IBAN number so the bank knows exactly where to send the money to.

Western Union and MoneyGram also play a big role for transferring money overseas from Thailand. western Union has two very convenient branches in tourist areas on Khao Sah road a main backpacker ghetto and Sukhumvit road where many ex-pats frequent.

At time of writing the exchange rate for UK pound sterling and US dollars is:

Thai baht, 10,000 = 320 US Dollars
Thai baht, 10,000 = 161 UK Pound Sterling

As ever with money transfers it pays to take care of any reference numbers, receipts, carbon copies and so on just in case you run into any problems. This is generally not the case but better to be safe than sorry. with so many money transfer service agents available at the moment the key advice would be to shop around.

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