Getting Cash into Thailand

[lockwood74]

The best way to get cash into Thailand, if you are concerned about the recent sanctions that are being imposed by Banks.

Bring in cash, exchange at a money changer, not a bank ! and there is no trace of the origin of the money. Plus at a money exchanger you will get a higher exchange rate that a bank.

Been doing it this way for a few years now
Regards

John Lockwood

[Jockey]

The best way to get cash into Thailand, if you are concerned about the recent sanctions that are being imposed by Banks.

Bring in cash, exchange at a money changer, not a bank ! and there is no trace of the origin of the money. Plus at a money exchanger you will get a higher exchange rate that a bank.

Been doing it this way for a few years now
Regards

John Lockwood

That's certainly true for a small amount of money John, but not recommended when dealing with 100's of thousands of baht (or even millions). I think there is a legal limit to what you are allowed to bring in using a brief case!

Bank transfer is the best and safest method and as I stated on a previous post, when transferring money to Thailand you will get a much better rate if you transfer the money in your home country’s currency. Your bank in Thailand will convert t to baht and will give you a much better rate than a bank outside Thailand.

[lockwood74]

I am not aware that there is a limit on the ammount of British pounds you can bring in, can you clarify this

John

[PeteC]

I think the emphasis is on the amount of money you are legally allowed to 'carry' out of your home country. In the US, over $10K in or out needs to be declared per the law. If they catch you with more coming or going, it can be seized if not declared. If you do declare it, I don't know what happens, perhaps just a smile that you were honest? Pete

[Jockey]

I am not aware that there is a limit on the ammount of British pounds you can bring in, can you clarify this

John

If customs found you were carrying mega money you could be suspected of drug smuggling or money laundering. I believe there is a limit to the amount of money you can carry in, but I'll leave that to another 'expert' to clarify.

Most people send a lot of money to buy property. If you are buying a condo in your name, you need to prove the money was sent from your country and if you sell up and want to transfer the money back out, you need to show to the bank you brought the money in from your country to buy property. For this reason a Ferang sending a lot of money always needs to keep a record of the money transfer. Stipulate to your bank the reason for the money transfer is to buy property. Get a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (formerly called a Thor Tor 3 form), at the Thailand bank. You will need this form if you decide to transfer the money back out of Thailand, so you need to keep it in a safe place!

Alternatively you could smuggle money in and out.

[JimboPSM]

One possible major problem with bringing in cash is if you wish to take it out again some time in the future.

According to a conversation (as far as I can recall) with an international lawyer in Bangkok a couple of years ago there are some fairly stringent laws about taking money out of Thailand.

There is apparently some requirement to prove you brought it in before the authorities will let you take it out again so they can extract what they feel is their fair share in capital gains and/or other taxes

[lockwood74]

This extract is taken from www.thailandguru.com website
There's no limit to the amount of money you can bring into Thailand. However, you can't leave with more than 50,000 baht per person unless you have special authorization. You can carry out any amount of foreign currency, but there are restrictions at banks on how much Thai baht you can convert into foreign currency at one time, and you will need to show your airplane ticket and passport. (These restrictions are mainly the result of currency speculation surrounding the 1997 currency crisis.)

Regards JOHN

[old wanderer]

With my bank in the USA they offer "free" AMEX Travlers checks for my type of account. While there is a 30 baht fee currently at BOT, this matter little if the checks are very large denominations, and the exchange rate is usually the highest.

Anybody ever use $500 or $1000 denomination traveler checks?

[Mack111]

JimboPSM

I don’t think there is any capital gains tax in Thailand that’s what started of the recent problems with the PM

[chelsea]

The easiest way to get money into another country is to put it on your credit card.
Just load cash into your credit card and then gradually take it out at regular intervals.
The only people that will have any records of it will be your own bank.

Here in Australia any money transaction over the value of $10,000 is reported to the tax office, so any deposit or withdrawall under that amount should not arouse suspicion.
If we leave or arrive back Australia with more than $10,000 cash it has to be declared, because if you get caught it gets confiscated.

[Burger]

So I'm told, the way to avoid the 30% deduction is to send the money from your own country in Thai Baht, then you are not 'trading' in Baht.
Only trouble is the rate won't be as good, so there's a downside.
If you send in your own currency, they can deduct 30% and then you have to go to bank with paperwork to show it's for house purchase/normal use etc.
This might only apply to over 20,000 USD !?

If you send over 20,000 USD you can go to your bank and ask for a something-or-other 'Certificate', so you can prove you bought it in.

All this stuff you hear about only being allowed to take out what you bought in is not enforced, unless you're talking about millions of dollars.

The Bank of Thailand authorises all the commercial banks to transfer amounts upto 20,000 USD per day without having to report it to the BoT, you just fill in a standard transaction form.

Burger