Money Transfer

[fach3003]

Hi all,

Me & the missus are moving over to live
early next year....

The thing that nearly keeps me
awake at night...is buy a property...

We will rent 3 to 6 months then we
buy....but im asking for advice
the best way to pay for your home
from the UK....Im with LLoyds

Obviously writing a cheque is out the question!!

Is house buying in thailand done through the thai banks etc
Any advice would be great....

Im sure you can understand my prob....and take onboard how naive i
am!!!

Best wishes to all

[chopsticks]

If it's a new development you will probably need to make a number of part payments, so it's easier to open a Thai bank account and do transfers from your Lloyds a/c into it as needed.
Each transfer costs upwards of £25 and the prevailing exchange rate makes a big difference. Ensure the conversion is done at offshore rates to maximise the conversion in your favour ie. transfer in sterling and let the receiving bank (Thai) do the conversion rather than LLoyds converting to Thai Baht then transferring.
You can also have an internet banking facility on your Thai a/c so can make payments without being there.
There are other companies who claim to give better forex rates than usual bank transfer rates but that's another topic.

[Sabai Jai]

You could also consider opening a Foreign Currency account with you UK Bank for Thai Baht and then you can transfer money quickly whenever you see a favourable rate (the rates a rather bad joke at the moment)

- providing there is no stipulation about paying in Foreigh currency for you property.


Sabai Jai

[sam]

We opened an account with Siam Commercial Bank (no problems) and we did transfers from HBOS (17.50), we got receipts stating for house purchase, then receipts from the developer so you can get the money out if needed.

SCB seem fine, we have sent money from the UK for various things and pay the gardener and electric from them with no hiccups, yet!

Good Luck.

[pitsch]

Each transfer costs upwards of £25 and the prevailing exchange rate makes a big difference.

This is really a lucrative deal for the bank. I pay CHF 2.- (£ 1.2) for any transfer from my Swiss Bank, even if it is 1 Mio Baht. I think the Thai Bank takes about 0.25% . For me it is cheaper to transfer the money than to pay the 150 Baht for ATM from Swiss account.

[georgy]

transfer fees in europe are quite high. thai banks also charge a certain percentage, however most (all?) banks limit the fee to max 500 Baht.
Each international transfer form has a field where you can mark where the costs shall occur. Choose BENficiary, then you will have costs in Thailand only and these are limited. SHAre mostly creates the highest fees as you will be charged from both ends.
Except Bank-of-China all banks accepted my choice.
Bytheway, TT exchange rate is much better then notes rate.

[Roel]

Let me allow to correct that. In general there are three options with regard to the costs: BEN, SHA and OUR.
Now the transmitting bank and the receiving bank both charge fees.
BEN (beneficiary) means both fees are paid by the receiver. In this case the transmitting bank will deduct their fee from the amount to be transferred.
SHA (shared) means sender pays the transmitting bank's fee in his country and receiver pays the receiving bank's fee in his country.
So if sender and receiver are the same person it should be the same. SHA does not create higher fees.

But stay away from OUR. The option whereby the sender pays both fees and the beneficiary in theory receives the full amount without any deductions. Because this only works when both banks involved have a mutual clearing agreement in place. In general this will not be the case between European and Thai banks.
If you transfer money to Thailand the European bank will not have a clue about the fee system of the receiving Thai bank. A decent bank will advise the customer not to use the OUR option in this case. A not-so-decent bank will charge you a standard amount of which nothing ends up with the receiving Thai bank so they will charge the receiver anyway. In that case you pay double.