Exorbitant bank charges.

[Marble-eye]

Any helpful advice will be gratefully received.

Yesterday I checked my bank statement and noticed that 4 x £20 had been withdrawn from my account, I contacted the HSBC and they said they were for international transfers to my Bangkok bank.

My state pension gets automatically paid into the Bangkok Bank with no problem but I was unaware until yesterday that if I transfer any money from my UK bank acc I get charged £10 from the issuing bank and £20 from the receiving bank.

I usually transfer small transfers like £200 to tide me over until my next pension goes in, but to pay £10 + £20 for a paltry sum of £200 is highway robbery, but looking at that if I transferred, let's say £20, I would get charged £30 for the privilege.

The only way I can see is to transfer much larger sums but that is something I really don't want to do.

Anyone else had any similar experiences and is there a cheaper way to transfer monies.

Thanks.

 

[Pinetree]

Banks charge exorbitant fees for international transfers, that's why many of us use WISE. much cheaper, quicker  and reliable. My last transfer was today, 15,000 Baht from UK to my SCB account, it cost me less than 5 pounds 

[Marble-eye]

7 minutes ago, Pinetree said:

Banks charge exorbitant fees for international transfers, that's why many of us use WISE. much cheaper, quicker  and reliable. My last transfer was today, 15,000 Baht from UK to my SCB account, it cost me less than 5 pounds 

Thanks Pinetree, will check it out.

[Faz]

International bank to bank transfer fees, conversion fees and/or intermediary bank fees can vary.

Most foreigners have opened a 'Wise' account (formally Transferwise) for International transfers.
Low fees, very transparent, no fees incurred by either your UK or Thai bank.

Example of transferring £200.

You pay £200 to Wise from your UK bank to their UK account.
Their fee is 1.85GBP and their exchange fees are good.
They pay THB locally to your designated Thai bank, so no Thai bank charges or exchange fees.
8,074.69 is the amount you'll receive credited to your Thai bank account/

https://wise.com/us/blog/how-to-open-wise-account

[Marble-eye]

So doing by using WISE that  @Pinetree has mentioned it will not incur any receiving charges from the Bangkok Bank, I have a Kasikorn Bank acc also, does anyone know if there is a difference?

[Marble-eye]

3 minutes ago, Faz said:

International bank to bank transfer fees, conversion fees and/or intermediary bank fees can vary.

Most foreigners have opened a 'Wise' account (formally Transferwise) for International transfers.
Low fees, very transparent, no fees incurred by either your UK or Thai bank.

Example of transferring £200.

You pay £200 to Wise from your UK bank to their UK account.
Their fee is 1.85GBP and their exchange fees are good.
They pay THB locally to your designated Thai bank, so no Thai bank charges or exchange fees.
8,074.69 is the amount you'll receive credited to your Thai bank account/

https://wise.com/us/blog/how-to-open-wise-account

Thanks @Faz and that has also answered my last question. Have just registered with WISE. All good advice.

[Chaimai]

4 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

So doing by using WISE that  @Pinetree has mentioned it will not incur any receiving charges from the Bangkok Bank, I have a Kasikorn Bank acc also, does anyone know if there is a difference?

 

 

Confirmed.

 

Another vote for WISE from me. 

 

I can do free international transfers as a retired bank employee but WISE is way more cost effective. I probably do 10+ transfers per month.

[Faz]

24 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

So doing by using WISE that  @Pinetree has mentioned it will not incur any receiving charges from the Bangkok Bank, I have a Kasikorn Bank acc also, does anyone know if there is a difference?

No difference.

Wise will give you a personal account number and their banking details.
You set up a single payment to their account from your UK bank.
The UK banks use the 'faster payments' service, so Wise receives the funds in seconds.
Wise will notify of receiving the payment and the time your funds will be paid into your designated choice of Thai bank.

In the transfer step, you'll be requested to enter a 'reason' for the transfer. In your case, as you're not using these transfers for Immigration proof of income purposes, the reason is not important, choose any.

Once you've given details of your preferred Thai bank account details to Wise, these are displayed on further transactions. Same as your UK bank. You don't have to keep entering all the account details each time you make a transfer.

Plenty of topics on bank transfers here: https://talk.thethaiger.com/forum/96-foreign-exchange-transfers/

[Marble-eye]

Thank for all the helpful advice, just set up a WISE account and transferred some money, they told me they have received it already and is being "processed" and I'll receive it on Mon 13th.

[Marc26]

34 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

Thank for all the helpful advice, just set up a WISE account and transferred some money, they told me they have received it already and is being "processed" and I'll receive it on Mon 13th.

Maybe because your new

 

But usually a transfer happens instantly 

 

I just transferred about 30k baht and it took 7 seconds

 

I would say now 80% of my transfers are instantly deposited into Thailand 

[Marble-eye]

46 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

Maybe because your new

But usually a transfer happens instantly 

I just transferred about 30k baht and it took 7 seconds

I would say now 80% of my transfers are instantly deposited into Thailand 

Did you get one of these progress on where the money is reports when you first set up your account?

[Pinetree]

1 hour ago, Marble-eye said:

Thank for all the helpful advice, just set up a WISE account and transferred some money, they told me they have received it already and is being "processed" and I'll receive it on Mon 13th.

You can do better than that.  Register and pay with your UK Debit Card and funds will arrive in your Thailand bank, usually in seconds, not hours or days.  You can also exceed your DC limit.  My 15,000 transfer this morning took 5 seconds to arrive  

[Faz]

4 hours ago, Marble-eye said:

Did you get one of these progress on where the money is reports when you first set up your account?

You'll get notifications each time you transfer.

The speed of the transfer depends on the method used to send the funds, the banks involved and the amount being sent.
I started a transaction of £8,500 at 4pm Tuesday, which arrived in my Bangkok Bank account at 2pm Wednesday.

Further info here:
https://wise.com/help/articles/2524078/how-long-does-a-transfer-take
https://wise.com/help/articles/2977945/how-long-does-a-large-transfer-take?origin=related-article-2524078

[Marble-eye]

On 2/10/2023 at 3:06 PM, Marble-eye said:

Did you get one of these progress on where the money is reports when you first set up your account?

1930hrs now and my money is still being processed.

[Marc26]

2 hours ago, Marble-eye said:

1930hrs now and my money is still being processed.

It will always tell you a day that it should arrive

 

Email them, they respond quickly