Official Statement from BKK Bank in NY for US Fund Transfers

[RCer]

Got this in email. It is direct from BKK Bank in NY if you use them to transfer money from the US including government payments.

This is not speculation or rumor. It is an official statement from the bank.

Your transaction is considered a cross border transaction because the funds are ultimately being deposited into your account with Bangkok Bank in Thailand. In accordance with the rules for such international payments developed in the United States, the bank is required to obtain certain additional types of information from you for processing the payments to your account in Thailand. As for your transaction which transmitted to us as ACH transaction and process across the countries, the bank is required to comply with the rules and formats developed by The Electronic Payments Association (NACHA). The International ACH (IAT) is a special code (a Standard Entry Class or “SEC Code”) for ACH payments that enables financial institutions such as Bangkok Bank to identify and monitor international ACH payments and to perform screening in order to comply with OFAC requirements. The NACHA rules require Bangkok Bank’s New York Branch, which serves as intermediary, to ensure that payments that we receive and that are transmitted to account of beneficiary in other country are appropriately classified as IATs and contain information as described below.



1. Your name and physical address in Thailand;

2. Your bank account number and the name and address of your Bangkok Bank Branch in Thailand; and

3. The routing number of Bangkok Bank New York Branch (026008691) , which acts as intermediary in the transaction.



With this requirement, we have started to return all non-IAT trial deposits that we received for customers in Thailand to stop new ACH transfer in the improper format.



In order to continue processing your transaction which comes through ACH channel, please contact your bank whether they can facilitate International ACH for you, if they do, please provide them above information so they can include in the transaction.



Once Bangkok Bank’s New York Branch receives the payment with the appropriate IAT format, we will process your payment to our Bank in Thailand for further credit to your account, however, if your bank does not provide IAT, you have another two options to transfer funds to an account in Thailand, as follows:



1. Request your bank to wire transfer funds through our New York Branch Fed Routing no. 026008691 and provide below details:



· Beneficiary name



· Beneficiary address



· Beneficiary A/C number



· Intermediary Bank: Bangkok Bank Public Co., Ltd.

29 Broadway, 19th Floor

New York, NY 10006

Fed Routing no. 026008691



· Beneficiary Bank: Bangkok Bank Public Co., Ltd.

Branch address in Thailand



When fund passes through our New York Branch we will deduct our fees** before transferring the balance in U.S. dollar on the same day of receipt to our Bangkok office who will further credit the Beneficiary's account in Thai Baht on the following day at the exchange rate in Thailand. You may check their rate on our Bank website at www.bangkokbank.com (TT rate).



** Fee structure:-

Amount Fees

Less than $50 no deduction

$50.01 - $100 $3

$100.01 - $2,000 $5

$2,000.01- $50,000 $10

More than $50,000 $20



Best Regards

[hin]

If you have a Schwab brokerage acct, use their toll free telephone number from Thailandt to transfer money from your brokerafe acct to your Thai bank acct with zero fees except for your Thai bank's small incomming fee. Which you would pay anyway if using Bkk Bank New York.

[Abbynormal]

If you have a Fido brokerage account you can do the same - free phone call and free transfer.

[brianks]

AH yes another excuse to use Transferwise.com which I switched to a year ago from Bangkok Bank of NY route.
Transferwise is simpler and will net you less in fees with better exchange rate.

[RCer]

AH yes another excuse to use Transferwise.com which I switched to a year ago from Bangkok Bank of NY route.
Transferwise is simpler and will net you less in fees with better exchange rate.

Can you give some details on Transfer wise? Like will it work with Chase bank and what the fees are? Plus more info on exchange rate?

[Big Boy]

Transferwise is simple. Log on and try it - you can do that without giving up information, paying money etc. It's there, have a look, no obligation. That way you can decide for yourself - I personally love it.

[RCer]

Transferwise is simple. Log on and try it - you can do that without giving up information, paying money etc. It's there, have a look, no obligation. That way you can decide for yourself - I personally love it.

I signed up with them today. I'll use them next month.

[RCer]

I ran a test with Transferwise. Worked great. Thanks for the tip.

[RCer]

Turns out, Transferwise would not save me any money. In fact it costs more. My bank's fee is 40.00USD regardless of amount wired.

Transferwise was over 40.00USD for 5000.00USD transfer.

[Big Boy]

Maybe they penalise transfers from the US, but my £ transfers are very favourable. Check the exchange rate as well.

[RCer]

Maybe they penalise transfers from the US, but my £ transfers are very favourable. Check the exchange rate as well.

Exchange rate is decent but not enough to make it worth using them. They do seem to be UK centric.

[T.I.G.R.]

I'm not sure what's going on with this ACH stuff but here's my transaction:

Logged in to my Wells Fargo Internet Banking account.

moused my way in two click to transfer/pay clicked from U.S. checking a/c to Bangkok Bank checking a/c

took about 15 seconds to send money to Thailand, in this case only $2,000.....could send up to $15,000.

Got a receipt to print......total cost = zero

Waited a few days and the money showed up in my Bangkok Bank account.

Have been doing this for years without any problems and none of whatever this other stuff is you guys keep talking about......haven't asked Wells Fargo or Bangkok Bank if it's an ACH or something else.....no point in poking the bear.

Maybe you guys are using the wrong U.S. banks, or maybe it's a different type of transfer?

[moater]

Maybe they penalise transfers from the US, but my £ transfers are very favourable. Check the exchange rate as well.

TW doesn't penalize any currency. It's Thai banks that penalize GBP by taking a *huge* spread from the interbank exchange rate. The spread is so huge that even with the 1%+ fee, TW transfers win over any fixed-fee transfer.

Thai banks are much more forgiving when it comes to USD rates, so the spread is less than the TW fee, which means that a fixed-fee transfer will catch up to TW at around ~$4K and will become a better deal.

[RCer]

T.I.G.R.

The change takes effect 1 March. If you're using BKK Bank in NY, let us know how things go in April.

[moater]

Turns out, Transferwise would not save me any money. In fact it costs more. My bank's fee is 40.00USD regardless of amount wired.

Transferwise was over 40.00USD for 5000.00USD transfer.

For Americans the best way to bring in money is via ATM withdrawals with 0% FTF and ATM-fee rebates (such as Schwab). These use the card networks rate (Visa/MC), which is far better than the banks' TT rate and slightly under the interbank rate.

If a big chunk needs to be brought in then you can usually get free wire transfers from brokers (e.g. Interactive Brokers allows one free wire per month and Schwab allows 3 per quarter if your balance is $100K+).

Traditional banks don't offer *truly* free wires. Some of them will waive the wire fee if you let them do the foreign currency exchange (instead of letting the receiving bank do it), on which they will make *way more* than on the wire fee. Avoid.