150 baht fee to be charged to foreign ATM cardholders

[BaaBaa.]

The Thai Bankers Association has decided that cardholders of foreign banks will be charged 150 Baht for each withdrawal by debit or credit card, effective April 17th.

https://www.thanachartbank.co.th/CDS/TH ... /index.asp

[Spitfire]

Hmmm. I suppose some charge is inevitable, maybe flat-rate is better than percentage.

Just have to take out larger amounts less freqently. Take 15,000 bath out from the ATM and get charged 150 baht, that's 1%.

Depends how often you use it and how much you take out, just have to plan a bit. It will be OK for some but not for others. Still not as much as those lousy, cheating, theiving gits at the other end in the UK(Nationwide exempt).

NatWest etc is about 2.5% or there-abouts last time I looked.

[Wanderlust]

How can a charge at both ends be justified? In fact how can a charge at all be justified?

[buksida]

Bunch of complete bankers - when the goings good they screw you, when the goings bad they screw you more! Personally I'm glad to see a few of them going down the pan.

[Wanderlust]

The more you think about it the worse it becomes! You decide to put your money in XYZ Bank, the norm being a monthly salary. The bank is then able to loan this money to others at interest. They then charge you if you want to get your own money from an overseas bank even though they already make money from your money. Then the overseas bank says they should get some money out of this as well, I guess to pay for all the wear and tear on the machines and computers that are used to process the transaction,even though the machines are already there and paid for by the interest they earn on their own customers' money, but they don't go to the other bank to get the money (which is what they should do), they also take it from the poor sod who wants to get his own hard earned cash. And then of course both banks conspire to give you an exchange rate a couple of points down so they make a bit more money - it is completely immoral and wrong. 150 baht is an obscene amount of money to charge for a simple ATM withdrawal; I am now wondering if there will be any charge for going inside the bank and doing it manually? They will probably start charging when you buy something on the card next...

[lomuamart]

Maybe, just maybe, some of the problem might be that expats aren't necessarily bringing money into the country any more? Why put 400K or 800K in a Thai bank account when you can qualify for a marriage/retirement extension on income and leave your money at home? Just use the ATM.
That's what I've always done. I know I get crucified at the UK end, but Thailand's getting nothing, not even a lot of individual foreign investment.
Just a thought.

[Wanderlust]

Lomu,
Just an idle thought but do you really think Thailand will actually see any of the 150 baht per ATM transaction? It will be going straight into already wealthy bankers pockets and being spent elsewhere or not at all. Also the tourists coming here will all have that much less to spend in a time when there are less of them with less money. Smart move if this is meant to benefit Thailand (which I don't think it ever was - it is to benefit greedy bankers).

[sargeant]

coming on top of nationwide charging 1% from june the 1st it is crippling and mindbogglingly detrimental.
I am waiting as i type for an email and a link from my sister who told me today she read that british pension funds are to be instructed to cut taxes on pensions as of 1st april (Mags can you help on that)
but even if my sister is correct it is given and taken away

[lomuamart]

Probably didn't explain my post correctly, WL. Where the money goes in Thailand and by what division, I have no idea. But maybe the lack of foreign investment is starting to hurt - even if it amounts to 150 THB a time. I would reckon that the "sane" way round would be for Thailand to charge me and the UK not to. As you said, maybe 80 GBP of my 100 in a UK bank is lent out to others. Of that 80 GBP, 80% is lent someone else etc etc. (Was that minimum lending rate - MLR?). It's just a gravy train. New financial measures are about to be introduced for personal banking and the charges that UK banks can impose on their customers. I forget the details, but it will benefit the customer although the banks will probably try to make their "losses" back through "stealth charges".

[baron_wastelanduk]

whilst this is a bit off the topic it is nonetheless relevant
the appeals court have ruled that banks charges are unfair so in which case when it is all put to bed the banks will be looking at digging very deep into their pockets refunding peoples "unfair" charges http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclai ... nk-charges

they will have to recoup the money from somewhere and with a swave of new type charging current accounts being launched it looks like they have already started

[pookie]

Maybe, just maybe, some of the problem might be that expats aren't necessarily bringing money into the country any more? Why put 400K or 800K in a Thai bank account when you can qualify for a marriage/retirement extension on income and leave your money at home? Just use the ATM.
That's what I've always done. I know I get crucified at the UK end, but Thailand's getting nothing, not even a lot of individual foreign investment.
Just a thought.

I dont think a small ammount of Expats not bringing in their 800/400,000 into the Kingdom would trigger this measure. And that darker, more greedy forces are to hand

Pookie

[hhfarang]

Just another blow to income for people like me. Because of the rules of money transfer since 9/11, I can only get my pension from my U.S. bank by using an ATM here. Bank of America charges me 1% every time I do this and Visa charges me 1% also because my BofA debit card has the "Visa" symbol on it... now you're saying that the local bank whose ATM I use is going to take another 1% or so! This is truly getting ridiculous!

[STEVE G]

HH, is it now impossible to get a transfer from a US bank to a Thai one?
The UK is pretty strict on anti-moneylaundering laws and the suchlike, but I can still send a letter to my my bank in the UK and they will transfer to my Thai account.
As long as you transfer an amount above the level where the one-off charge is below the ATM percentage charge you are better off.

[m_right]

Just another blow to income for people like me. Because of the rules of money transfer since 9/11, I can only get my pension from my U.S. bank by using an ATM here. Bank of America charges me 1% every time I do this and Visa charges me 1% also because my BofA debit card has the "Visa" symbol on it... now you're saying that the local bank whose ATM I use is going to take another 1% or so! This is truly getting ridiculous!

Get away from BofA as step 1. Use a credit union. They aren't as greedy.

Step 2: On your next trip home get travelers checks. Tons of them if you can get them for no extra charge. You still get hit with a 30 THB fee for cashing them so get large denominations.

Step 3: Find a credit union or bank that will transfer to your Thai bank and move a few K at a time. I'm still working on this one myself so I am presuming this will help.

I am not wealthy so I have to stretch my money as far as I can. Every baht counts. 1%, 2%, 3% is a big deal to me.

Step 4. Bankers - off with their heads.

[robby hh]

I have an online call account in NZ that gives me a good? rate of interest and a trading account from which I can transfer $10,000 to any bank account in the world as long as I have the number.

I can do this on the computer any time, for amounts more than $10K I can email my "personal banker" and she will do it for me no problems.

There is a charge for overseas transactions but none for local in NZ. It makes it very easy to bring money here as I need it, I also pay any bills, accountant for instance, directly into the recipiants bank account.

If you live here you can ,should, have a local bank account and local debit card.