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What are some alternatives to Wise for transferring money from the USA to a Thai bank?
money transferWise alternativesexpat bankinginternational transfersThailand financeremittance servicesexpat services
Oct 5, 2022
4 years ago
เอ็ดเวิร์ด *******
ORIGINAL POSTERMy Wise account was deactivated. To appeal their decision I have to log on. If I could dot that (or reset my password) I wouldn't be needing to. Any recommendations on other reputable low-cost comapnies to transfer from USA to Thai Bank . TIA
TLDR : Answer Summary
The user is seeking recommendations for reputable, low-cost alternatives to Wise for transferring money from the USA to Thai banks after facing account deactivation issues. Several commenters suggest alternatives such as Revolut, XE, MoneyGram, Remitly, and Global66, along with advice on using Bangkok Bank for ACH transfers. Concerns about potential phishing and account security are also discussed, highlighting the importance of confirming email authenticity before attempting password resets.
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Terry ********
I use Remitly. It cost $5 CDN and your money is transfered in seconds.
Tara ********
Wise (Transferwise) Scam Victims you will get your answers in here. Seems to be a lot of deactivating accounts. People eventually get their money back after a while but it's good to just have somewhere to ask if you're having peoblems
Winston *******
Western Union is good.. competitive rates
Robert ******
Remitly charges no fee on first transfer up to maybe $2000. Not surevof the exact amount. Good exchange rate.
Martinello **********************
Remitly
Rob ********
My wise account was closed tryed to appeal with no success, email and phone calls but would not tell me why the account was closed
Erin ***************
Get a Schwab account in USA? Reimburses you for any fees
Tony *********
Sounds like you got a scam email. Check the sender's email address. This is typical of scams that ask you to log in and reset your password otherwise you will lose your account. They want to capture your password and access your account. It looks like an email from Wise but the sender's email address will give it away.
Greg ********
How about setting up an account with the bank of thailand’s new york branch? I’ve heard you can transfer directly into your local thai branch of bank of thailand bank using A regular bank transfer
John **********
@Greg *******
cannot go into that bank to set up an account per se, it’s not even a bank branch it’s offices on an upper floor. I only know this because I already tried to open an account with them 🙂.
This is their page about sending money to Thailand through them:
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Reply to
John **********
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Edna *******
I love Remitly I’ve not sent more than 2,000$ from US to Thailand, but service is .99 that’s cents. It’s almost instant, within five minutes. I use a debit, if use a charge fees higher. Just used it today for the second time this month. Wise was slow as a turtle.
With all the flooding going in my family needed the funds same day.
With all the flooding going in my family needed the funds same day.
Moon ******
Buy btc on coinbase pro or equivalent exchange, send the btc to satangpro and cash out for thai baht @ a 19 baht fee
อ้วน *********
@Moon *****
don't forget the fee to buy the btc on CB, between 1.5 - 0.5%Moon ******
@อ้วน ********
I think you're confusing coinbasePro with coinbase, hardly mentionable fees on coinbasePro unless you're transacting in the 10's of thousands and even then it's still cheaper then conventional methods. 0.4% - 0.0%อ้วน *********
@Moon *****
you are right it's low with pro. Many that are not familiar will miss that. Just did a apples to apples comparison with wise vs cbpro. $200 btc buy was $1.19 fee vs wise transfer fee of 31.70฿ to send the equivalent.Reply to
อ้วน *********
Reply
Eric **********
@Moon *****
Cheers bro!Reply to
Eric **********
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Srini ******
Wise is the worst..they will suddenly block your account and ask you to send all kinds of documentation and take days to respond..not reliable when you're in a time crunch. It's best to have another method as well.
Ron *******
@Srini *****
I love Wise, been using for years, only problem was when I stuffed up?Reply to
Ron *******
Reply
Andrew ********
try a VPN?
Gordon *******
Western Union, if you bank transfer there are no fees & usually a very competitive exchange rate !
Larry *******
@Gordon ******
Western Union rates are not competitive by any meansGordon *******
@La***
I’ve always noticed there there or there aboutsReply to
Gordon *******
Reply
Shane ********
USA to Thai bank is very easy, go to ATM pay 220 baht fee or go inside to avoid fee, then put cash in the Thai bank account, yotta and Coinbase debit card don't have any fees except the Thai 220 baht fee, and you get market exchange rate that beats wire
John **********
@Shane *******
rates at the ATM from usd were between 1 and 2 baht to the dollar below what I was getting from wise, depending which institutions I was dealing with, wise was consistently beating the rates at the atm and the money changer when I was there.Shane ********
@John *********
say no to conversion then you get wise ratesJohn **********
@Shane *******
good to know. Was able to get a Thai bank account set up this trip so it’s moot at this point, but I’ll pass that on to friends that still use other methods.Shane ********
@John *********
"How to avoid bad exchange rates at the ATMs and in shops?Let’s come back to the guy on the petrol station. If you travel to a foreign country with another currency the cash machine will to ask if you want to withdrawal with currency conversion or without currency conversion. Here you should always use the without conversion option.
Without conversion means, that your local bank will exchange the money. This will give you a good exchange rate. If you choose instead the with conversion option (= dynamic currency conversion), you will get a guaranteed exchange rate, but the ATM/bank can add an up to 10 percent service fee. This is where you loose money. But you can avoid this by using the without conversion option."
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This bank ATM allows 30k withdrawal
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So what I do is use Coinbase debit card, zero fees, take out 30k baht without conversion, get market rate like wise, and only pay 220 baht for that 30k..then I take that cash and deposit into my Bangkok bank
John **********
@Shane *******
just double checked, even with letting the home bank do the conversion, I was coming out a bit ahead transferring the money even with the fees refunded, but I will definitely double check the numbers when I’m changing within Thailand. Passing the info on to a friend arriving in the kingdom tomorrow as well.Shane ********
@John *********
oh okReply to
Shane ********
Reply
Halvor ***********
I got kicked off Wise for crypto trading. Now I'm using Revolut. It's basically the same idea, low fee international banking.
Shane ********
@Halvor **********
how did you trade crypto on wise?Halvor ***********
@Shane *******
P2P using LocalbitcoinsReply to
Halvor ***********
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Mike ******
You will find Wise is best at getting your money in Thailand. Have you tried just calling them. I think you will find that you didn't provide the necessary online verification documentation they require. You can also send it via email, with an additional photo verification to follow your initial access.
Jim ***********
Tried a Wise transfer at weekend. Said was limited to 25k baht I think.. transferred more last night. Its on other phone checked now money been sent but not showing up on Bkk account. Never had that before
Tony *********
@Jim **********
it's better to do wise transfers on weekdays when the banks are open. My transfers go through instantly within a few seconds.Jim ***********
@Tony ********
shows taken from UK account. Not showing up in my Thai account. Balance same as before transfer thai account. Just looked emails and Wise sent email saying transfer sent approx 36 hours ago....Eric *******
@Jim **********
When using Wise, don't do any transfer of money directly from your UK bank account to your Thai bank account . Doing that, you're wasting time and money (Shitty exchange rate + transfer fees from your UK bank). Instead, just open a £ wallet and a Thai Baht wallet on your Wise account (easy process that takes only seconds).
Then, transfer the money needed from your UK bank to your £ wallet on wise. Your transfer will be fast (minutes sometimes) and FREE (cause Wise uses his UK branch to do it, so it's a local transaction for them).
Then, on your Wise account and every time the exchange rate is at your advantage,, you convert money from your £ wallet to your Thai Baht wallet and store there as much Thai Baht as you want.
From now on and when you need to transfer some Thai Baht to your Thai bank account, you use your Wise Thai baht wallet to do so. The transfer will be fast (minutes) and at a flat rate (30,89 Thb) regardless of the amount sent.
By doing all that, you save on time, money, exchange fees and headaches.
Jim ***********
@Eric ******
that's what done when was in UK loaded up account just transfer when need toReply to
Jim ***********
Reply
Jim ***********
@Tony ********
just checked account. Still not showing transfer done. Head bkk bank soon ask what's happeningTony *********
@Jim **********
you will get an email from wise telling you how long they expect it to take. It can vary from seconds to hours.Jim ***********
@Tony ********
2nd day now. Never had this before always instantly shows upTony *********
@Jim **********
I don't understand what you mean by it not showing up. In the wise app it's got all the tracking information.Reply to
Tony *********
Reply
John **********
@Jim **********
I had the same thing happening for a few days it wouldn’t let me do more than ~500 usc equivalent, but this was just after i got back from Thailand and had done more transfers than usual. It went back to normal a day or two later.Luffy ******
@Jim **********
daily limit 50k for some banksJim ***********
Who's the fkn idiot laughing? Charity dogrescue
Jim ***********
@Luffy *****
bkk bank was 25k at weekend. I checked transfer done yesterday still not showing bkk bank. Have 2 phones check other phone tomorrowReply to
Jim ***********
Reply
Mark ***********
I had an entire wire disappear. I won't use wise.
Terry ********
Remitly. First transfer takes 1 day due to security. Second transfer 30 minutes. 3rd transfer instant. CDN $ 5.00.
Todd *********
@Terry *******
consistently more expensive but works fine alsoTerry ********
@Todd ********
as fast as I can send and refresh the money is in my account. $20 CDN for ATM. <$5 for Remitly. And great rates.Todd *********
@Terry *******
the problem is very consistently NOT great rates at all. The 'fee' is all but irrelevant, especially for larger transactions. All that matters is the exchange rate. I have thai account so no ATM charge as a Canadian. But Remitly takes as much as 3.5%, so always inferior to Wise. The day Remily is worth it, i'm in. That is not the case at present. But i prefer keeping my money for myself. It's worth keeping an eye on though, it's a cutthroat business and one can leap ahead of the other or offer preferred rates on high traffic....Reply to
Todd *********
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Maxim ***********
It's a typical phishing email. Did you click on any link from the email you received?
Steven ***************
@Maxim **********
. I agree. I got that email and I don't even have an account with them..Reply to
Steven ***************
Reply
Terary **********
I have never heard of people getting kicked off of Wise. Are you sure? I would be concerned about phishing emails. Someone sends you an email pretending to be wise, ask you to login, then they capture your password. The bigger effect is that many people use the same password for other services so the bad-agent now has your password to other services you use.
Srini ******
@Terary *********
it happens a lot more than you knowDimitri ********
@Terary *********
It happens a lot. Any connection with crypto, money transfers from the wrong banks and you are gone.Reply to
Dimitri ********
Reply
Paul *******
WesternUnion works for me
Anthony *********
I got mine stopped once for suspected money laundering but I just called them explained my circumstances and where the money is from and they said sorry for the mistake and got me active again, could be something like that
Karim ***************
Moneygram
Dave *********
Do u have a Bangkok Bank account or can u open one? U could do a ACH transfer using NY Branch of Bangkok Bank and can all b done online.
Follow this link and scroll down for the fees which seem reasonable.
And if possible can u open up a Charles Schwab account in USA? Maybe use your sister/brother address for online setup? They refund all foreign transaction fees and all ATM fees. And depending on the amount in your account u get 4 free Wires each quarter “fee free”.
Follow this link and scroll down for the fees which seem reasonable.
And if possible can u open up a Charles Schwab account in USA? Maybe use your sister/brother address for online setup? They refund all foreign transaction fees and all ATM fees. And depending on the amount in your account u get 4 free Wires each quarter “fee free”.
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George *************
@Dave ********
I think the once excellent Bangkok Bank NY branch route is no longer allowed by the US government. Unless you send by International ACH format and no US bank does that for regular retail customer accounts.Advice on Charles Schwab is spot on.
Geoff **********
@Dave ********
Do you know of any US banks that can actually send $ in the required International ACH method? Most dont have this capability (ive never found one that did)?Reply to
Geoff **********
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Steve *****
Money gram. You can also get yourself a Charles Schwab account to wire money in. Fees are a flat $15 for them. No ATM fees if you use their ATM card.
Bill *********
XE but you have to be in the US not Thailand. If you use a Thai IP address it won't work. If you have a VPN it might work in Thailand. Their net rate is better than Wise too.
Adam ********
Deemoney also but not sure if they offer cards etc
Brett **********
Revolut?
Adam ********
Curious as to why is was deactivated.
Peter *********
@Adam *******
profile thick ham shank 😆Peter *********
@Adam *******
exactly my thoughtsReply to
Peter *********
Reply
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