Bank charges for transferring pension to Thailand (readers' entry)
First of all, many thanks to everyone for the many responses to my question about transferring my pension with an extra cost of 15 euros each time. At the same time I also apologize for the (due to personal circumstances) very late response on my part.
There are some responses that match my situation, such as HenryM's who experienced the same problem 2 years ago. He writes that he has received the money back. What was the pension fund's excuse/argument? Hanso also wrote about refunds, but also about “Change routimg on request of receivers' correspondent Deutsche Bank.
Various people refer to a Wise account, but because I receive my pension and AOW from two other pension funds and the SVB respectively without these extra costs, I do not see the need for this myself.
I also contacted the head office of the Bangkok Bank but they don't know anything.
In the meantime I have been corresponding with the relevant pension fund from April to the present and I am also 75 euros poorer. If it is not resolved this month, I will go to the 90 euro loss. Based on a whole year, I lose three-quarters of 1 monthly pension payment.
On August 18, I received the latest reply from my pension fund as follows:
We receive different answers from the ING bank to our questions about costs. This has resulted in the answer you received from us. We have again asked ING bank questions about the transfers to Thailand with the request to provide a clear answer. As soon as we receive notification about this, we will communicate this to you.
I think we as pensioners are being treated very arrogantly! Every employee of a pension desk has instructions from above to brush us off as much and as quickly as possible in the event of complaints.
Meanwhile, the average funding ratios are rising considerably, but if you tell them to finally switch to indexation after thirteen years, they will withdraw their tail.
Every response by e-mail is neatly closed with the slogan "We are happy to help you"
Submitted by Hank
Dear Henk, I wouldn't count on your problems being resolved in this regard. For this reason, other interests predominate at the bank(s) and the pension fund. It is an interrelationship that sometimes becomes partly transparent, but usually takes place behind closed doors. The manner of treatment and handling by these types of organizations is at times very reprehensible. The program of the black swans from a while ago, in which the journalist is belittled, while he still asks decent questions, which the participant is entitled to know about the situation and the insight I have gained from information from, among others, the pension interest foundation , unequivocally proves my suspicions. Direct questions, which I put to the ABP pension fund, are answered with standard pre-made sentences and are not very meaningful. I have not yet received an answer to a simple question about how the pension amount for the individual participant is determined. Haven't for years. It must be assumed that this has been calculated correctly.
The pension funds should stand up much more for the interests of their participants, that is their primary task. For more than 20 years, the ABP has not indexed, just to name a few. That idiotic calculation module from the Dutch bank that has a very negative and unnecessary effect on the level of pensions. Look at the new pension system in the making, completely unnecessary and much more risky than the current one. The nonsense at its best. I hope that there are enough politicians who disapprove of this error and know how to limit the influence of the Dutch bank on the pension funds to a minimum. Fortunately, there are already many who have woken up and are on the right path, so there is hope and that brings life, with hopefully a positive outcome in the long term.
Henk, I think the solution is very simple if the bank and pension payers cannot come to an agreement. You rightly dread those 15 euros per month in Germany, but do something about it:
1. Save the pensions in a NL bank account and transfer it to your Thai bank every month, every 3 or 6 months. That only costs 15 euros once and possibly less if you do that with Wise. Do take into account the requirements of Immigration who may want to see an amount coming in per month.
2. Include your state pension if you choose to transfer it to Thailand as a 'mix'. Then you can calculate whether Wise is cheaper than ING.
3. If you don't have a bank account in NL, open one.
Annoying? Yes, but you moved to Thailand of your own free will.
Dear Henk,
I also have SVB and 2x pension and that is all 3 deposited into my ING account and I deposit from it to my wise account free of charge. From my Wise account at a high exchange rate and low cost I send it to my Kasikorn account. I would simply change the route if I were you.
Messages keep popping up like:
Own choice
I went to Thailand myself
Own will moves
But that choice or own will was not there when paying the pension!
Jos K, that has nothing to do with it. You know that the pension and state pension will come and then you have plenty of time to arrange a good system. Henk needs help with that and he got the tips here. It's up to him now.
That's what I mean.
The pension money was welcome, the door was open.
But for a simple question the door is suddenly closed and people are forced to ask questions on the internet.