Dear fellow bloggers, a lot has already been written about transferring money to Thailand. Usually it dealt with situations where Thai baht was received in Thailand. Therefore just a message about sending euros by a Dutch bank and receiving euros in Thailand. The latter, of course, in a euro account (FCD, foreign currency account) at a Thai bank. Just my experience over many years.
Let me take an example of transferring € 10.000 to my euro account at a Thai bank. Of course you have nothing to do with the exchange rate. Your Dutch bank mentions costs of € 6. Yes, that used to be roughly € 25. With this reduction in Dutch bank costs, ING to be precise, ING reported this as a major improvement.
However, what they did not mention was that they send it through an intermediary bank that also charges an amount for it. I didn't notice at all at first. It is not mentioned anywhere and the intermediary bank, no idea which one, does not report that either. But you only see it when you compare what you have sent and what you receive. Then it turns out that roughly € 20 less is received than what the Dutch bank says it has sent. So € 20 has disappeared between sending from the Netherlands and arriving in Thailand. The Thai bank usually also charges a fee and states this separately. I have not yet found a solution to circumvent the monthly payment of just under a hundred euros per year.
Now to transfer to a Thai baht account. Much has been written about this, but not once (I think?) where the same was compared to the same. To clarify this, I did an experiment. I transferred more than € 9.000 twice on the same day. Once through my ING bank and once through Wise (formerly Transferwise). The bank charged € 6, - costs and indicated at what rate they would send (38,52 Baht for a Euro) and how much I could expect. However, the amount I actually received in Thai baht was lower. I received about 900 Thai Baht less, so about € 23 less than the ING stated as sent. The total costs charged were € 6 plus € 23 is € 29
When sending via Wise, it is immediately indicated what the costs are and at what rate they convert the euro to Baht. Costs were € 50,-. And the exchange rate was 39,27 Baht for one Euro. Sending via bank therefore costs € 29. Sending via Wise costs € 50. But the comparison is not complete! The bank's rate was 38,52, Wise's rate was 39,27. So € 9.000 yields 353.430 baht at Wise and 346.680 baht at the bank. This is on a difference of THB 6.570 (about € 170) in favor of Wise.
summarizing
Sending by bank will cost you €6 to a Dutch bank and THB 900 (€23) somewhere between what the Dutch bank sends and what the Thai bank receives. Together € 29.- in costs. Sending via Wise will cost you € 50. But the exchange rate offered is the deciding factor in the comparison! Wise charged a rate of 39,27 and the bank charged a rate of 38,52. The difference when transferring is € 170 in favor of Wise.
Conclusion: Wise costs € 21 more than the bank, but yields € 170 more in Thai baht than the bank. So on balance, Wise is € 149 cheaper!
Submitted by John Koh Chang
Dear John,
that intermediate bank is/was Deutsche Bank. I even raised this with Kifid a long time ago because according to European rules all costs must be stated. Kifid and ING think there are no hidden costs, I still disagree, but being right or being right are 2 different things. Do not transfer anything via ING, but only use Wise.
That's right that was the Deutsche Bank. ING went 14 years without the intervention of another bank until 2 years ago. I went to the Bangkok bank with the thought that the Bangkok bank suddenly charged more costs. This was quickly resolved with a printout from the bank and there I saw the name Deutsche Bank.
Called ING and asked why there was suddenly another bank in between. The best man didn't know, yes maybe the server was busy!!! but the 15 euros were refunded. However, since that time I switched to Wise. Course is fine and so far always credited a day later at around 14.00 p.m.
This week I transferred a small amount of Euro 750 to Bangkok bank within 10 seconds. Insanely fast.
Thank you Henry for your message. I thought that sending euros to a euro account via Wise was not possible. Tried it again and yes. I have overlooked something BUT transferwise indicates that sending is not going through their channel but via swift or another bank and that it can take a few days and that possibly this intermediary bank also takes a fee! In any case, that is clearer than what the Dutch bank says when transferring. Namely nothing!! You only discover it when you compare the amount received with the amount sent.
I have just transferred euros to my euro account. Takes a few days to see what's coming.
As soon as it arrives at the Thai bank, I will add here whether and how much has been received, so also whether and how much the intermediary bank or swift has charged. Thanks for your addition. Hope you are right that nothing is charged by the intermediate bank
TNo, you are missing something. Namely that you just need a bank to send euros to a euro account. You can't do that with Wise!
This week I transferred Euros from ABNA via wise to my Euro account at BKKbank in Thailand. The Euro amount minus 3.96 Euro costs from Wise and minus 12.75 Euro costs from BKKbank was on the account within 1 hour.
Immediately afterwards a transaction of less euros to my THB account at the same BKKbank. The bats arrived there only 2 days later. Cause according to Wise: Authentication.
So Euros via Wise is indeed possible. Also other currencies to other accounts for favorable exchange rates.
Dear John,
I don't have a Euro account with my Thai bank so I can't compare. Only reported that ING uses the Deutsche Bank as an intermediary bank and that an extra 15 euros is charged as a result. Those 15 Euros are not mentioned anywhere and since the European rules are clear about cost transparency, I wrote to Kifid. Already mentioned the whole story in ThailandBlog some time ago. That was there info for other ING users.
Since then I only transfer via Wise and that is excellent in terms of speed of transfer plus higher exchange rate.
Do have a question for you. What rate does the Thai bank use if you want to convert the Euros to Thai Baht? In my opinion a lower price than what Wise uses. So where is the profit?
Incidentally, guarantees at Thai banks will be reduced to a maximum of 1 million Thai Baht per account holder. Now I really do not suspect that large Thai banks will collapse, but parking very large amounts at a Thai bank can become a risk. Then the Dutch guarantee is perhaps better.
ps Also reported on Thailandblog at the time.
John, please also make the sum when transferring 1.000 euros and 19.000 euros. I think that Wise is cheaper at the somewhat higher amounts because then the exchange rate difference is more pressing.
I only transfer with Wise because that is much faster than with commercial banks.
bunq also uses wise.
Rabobank also does it via a p2p banking party instead of old-fashioned bank to bank sepa
At the ing I got the 1 euros back 20x, and that was also the last time I used the ing.
Wise also claims that the receiving bank can charge costs, but I have not yet seen that in Thailand.
Maarten, as I just wrote below, I put it to the test. As soon as I receive it I can inform you about the result.
Eric, I did. Can you try without actually doing it. Wise recognizes a fixed percentage of the amount to be sent. If you send €9000 it's about €50 and for €1000 it's one ninth of that. You can see if you enter completely but don't exit. So you can calculate the difference with the bank.
interesting story, but what about lower amounts such as € 5000 and € 1000? which method of transfer is more advantageous? I think through the regular bank transfer. Wise is only cheaper for large amounts such as € 10000, as in this example.
Very clear, thanks
Have a WISE account and have both Euros and Thai Baht on it.
Transferring Euros to WISE from my bank is fairly quick and free of charge, so 2.000 transferred and 2.000 received.
My Euros are there until the exchange rate is favorable and then I convert the Euros to Thai Baht.
At 2.000 euros, the costs were 10,74 euros.
If I transfer 37.000 Thai Baht to an account at a Thai Bank, the costs are negligible (32,89 Thai Baht).
An additional advantage is that I can pay by debit card everywhere with my Wise Bank Card.
@ Rudolph,
Nice that bright green Wise card, but if you can, keep an address in NL for Wise.
My card expires at the end of this month and because I have transferred my Wise account to my Thai address, I cannot request a new card.
Strange but true…..
Transferring from NL to Thailand is still possible, but you can no longer use the card as a debit or ATM.
Look in the conditions.