Sending money to Thailand

iwantfatty

But I couldn't really grasp the fees from their t&c's can anyone give an example of transferring from my paypal (UK) to a friends paypal (Thai) and then friend withdraws in Thailand. Can anyone estimate how much the fees would be in this case?

e.g. transfering £500 from my account, how much would end up in his hands?

Mark241

Hi fatty,
while looking for the best way to send money to Thailand remember to factor-in ATM charges. In Thailand these are Baht150 per withdrawal. That charge is made by the Thai bank that operates the ATM your friend will use. Your UK card issuer may additionally charge something, but even if your UK card gives free cash withdrawals in the Kingdom, your friend will still be charged Baht150 per withdrawal. Thats about three pounds sterling coming off your friends balance.
Hope this helps.
Mark

RetiredInThailand

iwantfatty wrote: »

e.g. transfering £500 from my account, how much would end up in his hands?

You need to make your mind up whether you want to send GBP50 or GBP500. The two are totally different when it comes to fees.

For GBP500 you could get your friend to open an account with Bangkok Bank and with that you can use the Bangkok Bank UK transfer service to send any amount for a charge of GBP20, or via the Halifax to most Thai banks for GBP10 (though this will incur an exchange weighting penalty).

For GBP50 you should be looking at small value transfer services like PayPal or Moneybookers, or the prepaid cards mentioned, or a MetroBank card which will surely be the cheapest.

iwantfatty

Thanks, your right, I am throwing random amounts around. Currently it appears to be around the £150 mark. However by the logic of your reply it appears that Paypal is the best option regardless? due to lower fees

RetiredInThailand

iwantfatty wrote: »

However by the logic of your reply it appears that Paypal is the best option regardless? due to lower fees

Not at all. PayPal is OK for very small sums as the charges are taken as a percentage. The larger the amount the less suitable it is.

You should find that for most slightly larger sums Moneybookers works out cheaper than PayPal, and for very large sums a proper bank transfer will be cheaper than either in percentage terms as you wont be paying the large exchange weighting that both of them charge.

But you need to be absolutely specific about the sum involved as the right answer for GBP50 probably wont be the same as the right answers for GBP150 or GBP500 or GBP5000.

And again, the out and out cheapest for most small-medium amounts would probably be a MetroBank card, even allowing for the ATM fee that some (not all) Thai banks will charge. Not so easy to put in place though.

BritRael

iwantfatty wrote: »

... transfering £500 from my account, how much would end up in his hands?

Wow, if you send him 500 quid, he wiw ruv you rong time!!

property.advert

You would probably be far better sending GBP than THB. If the recipient has a Thai bank account, why not send a SWIFT for £20 or so ?

Better FX rate, receiving bank pays perhaps £5/6.

On £1000, total costs are in the 2.5% range with TT FX rates. Nothing else comes close.