What are the best ways to transfer money from the US to Thailand and how can retirees open a bank account?

FYI to those recommending Wise. There are apparently some issues with Wise transfers and Immigration, so you might want to checkout this group ...

@Larry *********

no problem taking US Dollar in cash to Thailand. You just have to declare an amount over 15,000.- USD to Thai customs. If you intend to do a change of visa type on Immigration, or buy a condo, the customes declaration receipt is a proof that the money came from abroad

Bringing money in is no problem. You can only take out ฿50,000 per transaction. I hold both USD and Baht in my Wise account and set up auto conversions to execute trades at favorable rates. Wise uses the mid market rate, and fees are much lower using ACH as opposed to wire transfers.

You have to declare anything 10k and over

It's never been 20k

Ria is best cost. Wise is 2nd choice.

Use Western Union to your closest Western Union, $1.99 transfer. Banks here seem to be able to do whatever they want, fiduciary trust most likely doesn’t exist here. Cash is king!

Wise.

I use Trasferwise (Wise). I think they're one of the best exchange rates. Transfers happen quickly (within 24 hours). When using Wise you can transfer the money directly as spendable cash or you code it as an international transfer. It seems when coding as international it takes a bit longer. More accurately, when I was transferring as spendable cash I was getting my transfers within minutes.

If you need to show immigration anything financial, you will most likely need to show the origin is from a foreign source. This is also applicable for the local land office. Hence, if you intend to buy property or apply for retirement visa (or any other visa that has financial requirements) you will need to indicate in Wise the purpose of the transfer is "Longer term living in Thailand". Those transactions, it seems to me, take a about a day.

Another thing to note about Wise, they usually conclude transactions quickly. Rarely but sometimes, they can take a week or more. So you want to plan for that.

Bank accounts are funny here. If you have a long-term visa you should be able to walk into any bank and get a bank account, but you can't. You will likely need to go to a few branches and get told "no" a couple of times before you get a yes. The trick is to ask this group "I am in [your semi permanent location] and I need to open a bank account, does anybody have a recommendation".

You should be aware that opening account at one branch does not necessarily mean other branches can provide you the paperwork you may need. When doing immigration paperwork you may need to show account history. You will need to go to the branch where you opened the account to get that certified history. This means if you open an account in BKK but decide to live in Phuket you will need to travel to BKK or open a new account in Phuket. This is a problem if you need to show your account balances over time.

I've been using Remitly 1.95 usd with no problems. Transferred in seconds

I use Remity dot com. Takes maybe 12 seconds. 1. Cash is king. 2. Have a credit card with no transaction fees, like Barclay card.

Quickest way to get a bank account is through an agent though you pay for their services. I used Western Union and Wise to transfer from the US and found Wise has the best exchange rate and transfers are almost instantaneous.. Not sure of transfer limits though.

Wise

You can actually travel here with as much cash as you want. You just have to list anything at, or over US20k on your customs form. There is no limit.

I have always transferred directly from my bank using their online service. Good rate and super safe.

Wise really good exchange rates and fees are reasonable. Super quick transfers. About 4 seconds in my case.

Revolut

I use boa transfer fee is 45 using daily exchange rate.

Wise