Monthly U.S. $ pension to Baht

[Ray.Charles]

This may have been answered a few times; in that case, just pointer/s would do.
At present, my U.S. pension goes into my account in a local branch of Bank of America in the U.S. I need to transfer those $s every 3 months or so into an A/C in an Udon branch of a Thai bank. At present, I have an A/C with Kasikorn in Udon, but I am not married to either of the banks/branches. How do I get the best net rate without compromising service, accountability, safety, etc.?

[douglas]

Hi Ray,
I tried to transfer money from U.K. to over here three years ago to buy my house. Went to the bank and they said the max. i could transfer, on my debit card was 200,000B every 24 hours if i wanted the million B in one go I would have to contact my bank in the U.K. to clear this, they said it could take four or five days, I decided to make five trips to the bank over 5 days to save all the bother, also asked for the money to be sent out in sterling as the exchange rate out here was better. Also when transferring money out here, over 200,000B you have to let the bank know what the money is for.
I don't know what amount you are transferring as you did not state. I use the ATM ever week to draw my pension, small charge but no trouble so far.
Cheers Doug

[lepidoptra]

Doug
Last year went to Siam commercial. They gave me 1million baht on my debit card.( Nationwide). Bangkok bank only 200000
Bill

[PopsIcafe]

There is a Bangkok Bank branch in New York. I transfer funds every month from my Bank of America account to my account at Bangkok Bank in Udon Thani, going through the branch in New York. I have to maintain a stateside address to do transfers outside the Bank of America, also charged $3.00 (Bank America) and $10.00 (Bangkok Bank, New York branch) for the transfer, total of $13.00.

Pop's

[Ray.Charles]

It seems that I would have a trade-off: large transfers will save in the total of transfer fees, but will have a large amount to be screwed up in the transfer process. In the U.S. I do not have an ATM card, because I rarely need cash, and if needed, a drive-in branch is minutes away. Perhaps about B200,000 at a time would be a good compromise.
What about the exchange rate. How will it relate to a published rate somewhere?
Can you trigger a transfer from Thailand or does it need to be at a pre-set interval arranged in your presence with the sending bank in the U.S,?

[wfoster]

I have my US account at BofA and an account at Bangkok Bank in Chiang Mai. I have no problems going on line and transfering money over here. BoaA charge $3 or $5, i do not remember exact amount. Bangkok bank charge -0- . Exchange rates very close if not the same as published in the Bangkok Post. Money is taken from my BofA account and does not appear in Bangkok bank for about 3 days.

[papaguido]

Ray,

I receive a pension from the military and I have funds direct deposited to my local BKK bank branch here via NY BKK branch. I have the ability to set it up through the Dept of Defense pay website. I set it up to transfer 41000bt a month to satisfy the immigration income requirement based on marriage. The balance of my pension remains in a US bank and withdrawal it as I needed. I'm getting the onshore exchange rate on both my ATM and direct deposit transfers.

Prior to this I relied solely on ATM withdrawals from my US bank , but the above method proved to be more convenient at about the same cost.

[Ray.Charles]

I am a little confused now. PopsIcafe is paying $10/transfer fee to the Bangkok Bank (NYC branch), but wfoter is paying zilch for the same? Best of all, papaguido is not paying any transfer fee to anybody.
My inclination now is to leave the money with BofA, and move it through Bangkok bank in NYC to an A/C in an Udon branch as needed. The reason I specify the Udon branch of the Bangkok branch and not just any Bangkok bank branch is because Kasikorn was charging fees to withdraw from an Udon branch because I opened my account in Bangkok. I closed the A/C in Bangkok and transferred the balance to an Udon branch to avoid the fee.
Next, how do I open an account at the Bangkok bank in NYC. Anyone done it recently? Done it online? It is lot more difficult to open one these days

[wazza]

Thai banks do charge fees to withdrawl from another part of thailand, even if its the same bank.

If the account is opened with BKK bank in Bangkok, and u use their ATM / branches in Udon, u are charged fees. 0.01% of the withdrawl ie , take out 200,000 baht and u pay 200 baht fee.

Same applies with Kasikorn and Bank of Auydah

Not sure but i also think any ATM withdrawl / transfer has a minimum fee of 20 - 25 baht.

[Pakawala]

OK Ray, here's how to do it. First, you don't need to open an account with Bangkok Bank in NY. Living in Udon, the easy way for me was to open a Direct Deposit Account here at the Bangkok Bank. Staff on the 2nd floor of the bank had the necessary form for me to initiate my direct deposit via their NY Branch directly to my Udon account. I can withdraw at this end the day after the transfer (due to the time difference) and they charge me $5. I've done this for both my Social Security check and my Military Retirement check.

Now, there's one small problem... the Direct Deposit account CAN NOT be accessed via an ATM card - you must withdraw in cash directly and only from the bank where you open the account... Mon. thru Fri. with no access on weekends. This was not good so I opened up a regular Savings Account at the same bank here. This comes with an ATM card and for a while I would go to the bank and withdraw the funds from the Direct Deposit account and put them into the Savings account. This was still a bit of a hassle so I decided to contact the Military office and changed my direct deposit to the Savings Account number at the same bank (NY Branch). I then contacted Soc. Sec. and did the same with their deposit. I still have the Direct Deposit account at the Udon branch but it sits nearly empty for the past several months.

Good luck.

[papaguido]

I am a little confused now. PopsIcafe is paying $10/transfer fee to the Bangkok Bank (NYC branch), but wfoter is paying zilch for the same? Best of all, papaguido is not paying any transfer fee to anybody.
My inclination now is to leave the money with BofA, and move it through Bangkok bank in NYC to an A/C in an Udon branch as needed. The reason I specify the Udon branch of the Bangkok branch and not just any Bangkok bank branch is because Kasikorn was charging fees to withdraw from an Udon branch because I opened my account in Bangkok. I closed the A/C in Bangkok and transferred the balance to an Udon branch to avoid the fee.
Next, how do I open an account at the Bangkok bank in NYC. Anyone done it recently? Done it online? It is lot more difficult to open one these days

I never said I didn't pay a transfer fee. I have 2 separate deposits made, from disability and my retired pay, I see a total of $10 deducted and I'm assuming it's $5 for each transaction. It's also my understanding that the transfer fee is dependent on the amount of transfer. I don't have that information, but someone once posted this on the forum.

[WBU ALUM]

OK Ray, here's how to do it. First, you don't need to open an account with Bangkok Bank in NY. Living in Udon, the easy way for me was to open a Direct Deposit Account here at the Bangkok Bank. Staff on the 2nd floor of the bank had the necessary form for me to initiate my direct deposit via their NY Branch directly to my Udon account. I can withdraw at this end the day after the transfer (due to the time difference) and they charge me $5. I've done this for both my Social Security check and my Military Retirement check.

Now, there's one small problem... the Direct Deposit account CAN NOT be accessed via an ATM card - you must withdraw in cash directly and only from the bank where you open the account... Mon. thru Fri. with no access on weekends. This was not good so I opened up a regular Savings Account at the same bank here. This comes with an ATM card and for a while I would go to the bank and withdraw the funds from the Direct Deposit account and put them into the Savings account. This was still a bit of a hassle so I decided to contact the Military office and changed my direct deposit to the Savings Account number at the same bank (NY Branch). I then contacted Soc. Sec. and did the same with their deposit. I still have the Direct Deposit account at the Udon branch but it sits nearly empty for the past several months.

Good luck.

Pakawala, seems to me that it might be best to open the ATM account first and then set up the direct deposit later to go into that ATM account. I could skip a step that way, right?

[papaguido]

OK Ray, here's how to do it. First, you don't need to open an account with Bangkok Bank in NY. Living in Udon, the easy way for me was to open a Direct Deposit Account here at the Bangkok Bank. Staff on the 2nd floor of the bank had the necessary form for me to initiate my direct deposit via their NY Branch directly to my Udon account. I can withdraw at this end the day after the transfer (due to the time difference) and they charge me $5. I've done this for both my Social Security check and my Military Retirement check.

Now, there's one small problem... the Direct Deposit account CAN NOT be accessed via an ATM card - you must withdraw in cash directly and only from the bank where you open the account... Mon. thru Fri. with no access on weekends. This was not good so I opened up a regular Savings Account at the same bank here. This comes with an ATM card and for a while I would go to the bank and withdraw the funds from the Direct Deposit account and put them into the Savings account. This was still a bit of a hassle so I decided to contact the Military office and changed my direct deposit to the Savings Account number at the same bank (NY Branch). I then contacted Soc. Sec. and did the same with their deposit. I still have the Direct Deposit account at the Udon branch but it sits nearly empty for the past several months.

Good luck.

I took a slightly different approach in order to get an ATM card linked to my account. First I opened a BKK bank savings account here in Udon. Then since I have the ability to make changes to my direct deposit on-line, I entered the NY BKK bank branch routing number and the Udon branch savings account number, that was it.

[Pakawala]

You are both absolutely right. My problem was, I hadn't talked with anyone who had attempted this from this end previously so I just did what Bangkok Bank told me to do and opened up the Direct Deposit acct. Had I known at the time that I could do it on my won without the help of the bank, I would have.

[keg]

I go the same route as Papaguido after some valuable assistance from him in the past. I direct deposit enough from my US military pension to cover the Non O marriage requirements for the Immigration folks. I use the account number on my Thai Bangkok Bank savings account, routing via the New York Branch. According to the US embassy website, Bangkok Bank is the only bank in Thailand that allows for the direct deposit of US pensions. If you read about this on the Bangkok Bank website it does say that no direct deposit money from US pensions/Social Secuity can be accessed via ATM's in Thailand and only picked up in person at the bank. Evidently they do not adhere to this policy as I access my direct deposit pension money via my ATM card at Bangkok Bank here in Nong Khai.

Keg

[BKKSTAN]

I go the same route as Papaguido after some valuable assistance from him in the past. I direct deposit enough from my US military pension to cover the Non O marriage requirements for the Immigration folks. I use the account number on my Thai Bangkok Bank savings account, routing via the New York Branch. According to the US embassy website, Bangkok Bank is the only bank in Thailand that allows for the direct deposit of US pensions. If you read about this on the Bangkok Bank website it does say that no direct deposit money from US pensions/Social Secuity can be accessed via ATM's in Thailand and only picked up in person at the bank. Evidently they do not adhere to this policy as I access my direct deposit pension money via my ATM card at Bangkok Bank here in Nong Khai.

Keg

did you set your account up through the Nong Khai branch?

[UdonExpat]

Here's the Bangkok Bank transfer fees. http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok+Bank ... SA+Fee.htm

Your US bank may or may not have additional transfer fees.

My credit union provides a payment to myself for free through their online billpay service.

[keg]

I go the same route as Papaguido after some valuable assistance from him in the past. I direct deposit enough from my US military pension to cover the Non O marriage requirements for the Immigration folks. I use the account number on my Thai Bangkok Bank savings account, routing via the New York Branch. According to the US embassy website, Bangkok Bank is the only bank in Thailand that allows for the direct deposit of US pensions. If you read about this on the Bangkok Bank website it does say that no direct deposit money from US pensions/Social Secuity can be accessed via ATM's in Thailand and only picked up in person at the bank. Evidently they do not adhere to this policy as I access my direct deposit pension money via my ATM card at Bangkok Bank here in Nong Khai.

Keg

did you set your account up through the Nong Khai branch?

BKKSTAN,

Sorry for the delay in posting, been in the village in Loei the past week. Yes, I set up the account at the Bangkok Bank branch across the highway from Tesco in Nong Khai. After setting up the account, I used the MYPAY website to set up the alotment from my pension. I told them what I was doing and wanted to be able to access the account via an ATM card and they said no problem. I even used the ATM card to access the account while I was in the US in Oct/Nov. It took 1 month for the alotment to start and it takes a few extra days for the money to show up in the Thai account.

Keg

Keg

[papaguido]

Stan,

For your SS benefits you should check the SSA website on direct deposit, they also have a direct link for Go Direct (I mentioned this at the last monthly meet)

http://www.ssa.gov/pgm/receiving.htm

I've never used the above services, but I imagine it wouldn't be any different than military retirees using the MyPay (DOD) system. In MyPay all I did was enter my local BKK bank savings account number and the NY BKK branch ABA routing number.

[Ray.Charles]

The postings have been very helpful to me, and perhaps to many others reading this forum.
I think that I got it:
1. Open an account in a Bangkok Bank branch in Udon,
2. Have my monthly pension deposited into that account using Bangkok Bank's New York City branch's 9-digit routing number.
No catch? No fine prints? No games with the exchange rate for converting $ to Baht? What conversion rate will they use? Will it be the buying rate for $ or something better because thay are not handling cash?
No need for the Bangok Bank's SWIFT code, and not pay any wire-transfer fee, as I would have had to pay for transfer from my Bank of America A/C?
Lastly, any other bank such as Kasikorn have a 9-digit routing number?