transfer money from Thai bank to UK

peter_the_piper

DD wants to transfer some money out from her Thai account to her Natwest account in UK. She did send some but the charges were horrendous. Is there any sneaky way to get around these charges? Maybe transfer to a uk branch of Thai bank?

jonesMUFCforever

No is the short answer.

What are the charges from the Thai end?

You could try a foreign exchange broker ......... I won't name any here as I have never used any.

peter_the_piper

£80ish to transfer 2000 from Thai bank to Natwest. seen HiFX which seems to do the transfer for about £30 but don't know if these are added to Thai charges or if that's the total.

eDicky

To avoid the bank charges and bad exchange rates use a broker. Some, such as TransferWise, use the mid-market rate and charge a small percentage fee - check if they serve Thailand. Others, such as FairFX, offer a decent rate, negotiable according to the amount, usually with no further charge. The money enters your UK account from the broker's UK account, so no bank charge for receiving a foreign remittance.

peter_the_piper

Can I just be a real newbie as I've never had to do this before.
You sign up to the transfer firm
You tell them the account number it comes from and what currency.
you tell them the bank account number it goes to and the currency
You tell them the amount.
They tell you how much it will cost and this comes out of the amount put into the receiving bank account.
Have I got it right?
Do the source bank charge to give the money to the transfer company?

eddddy

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Can I just be a real newbie as I've never had to do this before.
You sign up to the transfer firm
You tell them the account number it comes from and what currency.
you tell them the bank account number it goes to and the currency
You tell them the amount.
They tell you how much it will cost and this comes out of the amount put into the receiving bank account.
Have I got it right?
Do the source bank charge to give the money to the transfer company?

In overview, it works like this:

1. You transfer X Thai Baht to the broker's Thai Baht account
- You arrange this in advance with the broker. They tell you their bank account number etc, and a reference to use. (If your Thai bank charges a fee for transfers, you have to pay it.)


2. The broker transfers Y GBP from their GBP account to your UK bank account.
- You have told the broker in advance your UK bank account number etc. They should also tell you in advance what ex-rate you will get etc.


But things to be careful of...

1. You are transferring money to a company you may not have dealt with before. Make sure they are legitimate, regulated etc. (If they go bust - you may lose your money. If they are a bunch of fraudsters that have created a fake brokerage - you will definitely lose your money.)

2. The Broker's Thai Baht account may not be in Thailand. (It may be in the UK, the US or anywhere else.) So you may still have to pay a foreign transfer fee to your Thai bank - but they're not doing any currency conversion.

peter_the_piper

Thanks very much. I'll give her this info and let her decide.

Futuristic

Ask her to check out Transferwise as suggested, usually offers best rate. I've used them to send money over to other EU countries & US.

http://transferwise.com

eDicky

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Do the source bank charge to give the money to the transfer company?

No, that would negate the purpose, it should be a free local transfer to the broker's account in the source country. If they don't have one, they are not likely to be handling transfers to and from that country.