Should I use Wise for transferring funds to Thailand or direct transfers from Schwab?

Schwab is great as they have 24-7 customer service if there is any problems plus you can set up a monthly transfer that will happen on any given day you choose ( excluding weekends ). When opening a Thai bank account they are all different on there exchange rates, I have found that Bangkok bank is the best and Kasikorn is the worse though I have not dealt with all the banks, I have dealt with most and one time or the other

With having an elite visa, why would you nit open a thai bank account?

Wise lets you convert USD to THB in same wise account, so you can do it when rates are favorable, then hold or send the THB to your Thai account. You can convert back to USD when rates go the other way…giving you the option to benefit from good FX rates.

You’ll get the best rate using WISE for monthly transfers

Skip the middle man do all withdrawals from atm and charles Schwab refunds the 220 baht charged by atms

I use my Schwab exclusively for atm cash withdraws as they refund all the fees. Not exactly your question but the amount of money on atm use fees isn’t trivial. 👍

I think Schwab charges $25 for wire transfers. I use my account for ATMs and paying bills online. I use my Holiday Inn for all credit charges overseas.

It's going to be dependent upon what Schwab charges for an international wire and what your receiving bank does with that money.

Generally Schwab is good for using ATMs overseas as they will refund the ATM fee. That's how I use my Schwab card when I'm traveling. Thailand ATMs charge 220b fee so if you withdraw the maximum you are basically getting a free transfer to Thailand because Schwab will reimburse the fee and the exchange rate (as long as you do not let the ATM do the exchange) will be good.

To figure out the cost of a wire transfer you need to know the fees from Schwab, the fees from your receiving bank, and what conversion rate they are using.

With Wise you will know the fees and conversion rate in the app before you ever click submit, so everything is upfront and known. It's also (usually) instant or very fast, but large transfer, weekends and holidays can cause delays.

Generally Wise is going to benefit you for anything under about 100,000 baht, but anything more than that you might get a better result from doing a wire transfer if the two institutions involved are low fee with a good exchange rate.