What are the transfer fees and best methods for sending money to Thailand from the UK?

Auto convert within Wise - £10.94 on £2000

Spend THB with Wise card: free

Transfer Wise THB balance to Bangkok Bank: 31.70 Baht (79p) per trx, any amount

Convert and transfer: sum of above (eg £2000 => ie, 10.94 + 0.79)

So rarely any reason to just convert - you may as well set up an automated transaction a percent or two better than the current rate, depending on how much of a rush you're in, turn your phone off and forget about it, and Wise will snipe the better rate whenever a peak comes along.

Global Reach (a dedicated broker) just gave me a quote, £20k 6th Dec 5pm gmt+7, 42.59 no fees, so 851,800 (haven't clarified but assume 500 Baht receiving fee would also apply when they SWIFT THB to Bangkok Bank)

Interbank rate, at time 42.7467 (I miss this rate!)

Bangkok bank TT buy at time 42., net 845,950 Baht

Wise at time 42.7570, £110 fee (0.5%), net 850,430 Baht

Currency club 849,867

Currency fair 851,923 (assume receiving charge of 500 Baht to come off too)

Remitly is good if you're American.

Looked into a few others, including moneygram and XE, nothing comes close to these. monito.com gives you some quotes.

Alternative currency brokers much like Global Reach are Currencies Direct, TorFX and Moneycorp (but they refused to give me a spot rate without passing all the 'know your client' checks).

So Global Reach better than Wise but only by 900 Baht / 0.1%. They could probably push things though - this was just a spot rate reluctantly shared.

Currency Fair was better than Wise by 1,100 Baht / 0.13%. EDIT: Checked again a few weeks later, once amid a sinking market and once amid a strengthening rate, and on both occasions CurrencyFair was worse than Wise. I also tried CurrencyFair, and after conversion, had a week of paperwork proving source of funds before they'd release my converted funds, by which time I'd lost a fair bit on the rate and had to send money by another means. (My money was from savings, so I couldn't provide a wage slip.) They threatened to keep the money if I couldn't provide a wage slip, got it in the end by sending statements from 4 banks. Wise always easy.

On CurrencyFair and Wise, you can put a limit order, or automated transaction, that triggers if a rate reaches a given level. These need time and care, but are great for grabbing a rate that is only available briefly due to a momentary spike. With Wise, they leave a THB balance in Wise, which can be spent on the card absolutely free, or transferred to a Thai bank for 32 Baht (fixed charge, regardless of amount).

Santander Zero claims to be a zero fee card, but actually adds a 0.83% margin to the Mastercard rate, which already has a 1-2% margin on GBP.

Halifax is genuinely a zero fee card, gives you the Mastercard rate, but as mentioned that currently includes 1-2% for GBP.

The Visa rate is best, adds just 0.3% to the ECB interbank rate, which is what Wise gives. So spending on card too, Wise comes out a percent or two better than even fee free Mastercards. EDIT: MasterCard were adding a percent or two margin, just to GBP, probably due to the recent chaos in the UK. Visa and MasterCard are now competitive with each other, and it varies by day which edges ahead. So worth checking MasterCard and Visa rates on the day.

MasterCard rates:

Visa rates:

These are apparently the ATM limits:

Citi: THB 50,000, so THB 220 is 0.44% (plus MC 1%)

Krungsri: THB 30,000, so 220 is 0.73%

Bangkok Bank: THB 25,000, 0.88%

Krungthai: THB 25,000; (max 50,000 p/day)

SCB: THB 20,000, 1.1%

But if you're withdrawing money on a card, far better to go into the bank if you've time and do it over the counter. That way you are not subject to your card daily ATM limits, the Thai bank's transaction limits or the ridiculous 220 Baht fee.



If you use this to open your Wise account, you get fee free transfers for your first £500. If I get three people to transfer £200+ in one go, I get £50.

Wise is best

6 %.....and 600 BAHTS MAX. FEES HERE.. then you have also fees from your own Bank.

If you have all thai bank details and swift code ,do a international cash transfer, I get a sending fee from Santander no other middle man charge

When I brought over large sums of money I used Bangkok bank the charges were £15 per transaction which was ok considering I was sending a few million bahts worth at the time.

Wise has a limit on the amount you can transfer so not great for larger sums.

Always transfer from my Barclays to my SCB in Thailand. Never had a problem with fees

I used Wise transferred quite large amountals to buy the houses in Thailand the fees were cheaper than other companies ( I used the option transfer money from my UK bank to Wise as it was the cheapest fee ) 🙂

The cheapest and fastest is Wise, but you might have problems with really large amounts. You should also be aware that if the money you transfer is to purchase a condo, you will need a letter from the bank to prove that the money came from your own account. In this case you should only use Bangkok bank, and you should transfer the excact same amount as the contract says, it have to be from your own account, and in the comment when you transfer you should write «payment for» -and then the full adress. They will not let you registrate the deed in your name if not.

I use K-bank every day, and I use Wise to transfer normal amounts, but I also have an account in Bangkok bank just for this purpose. Bangkok bank don’t take any considerable amount, but your bank that you transfer from is likely to take around 4% higher exchange rate on top of the fee, probably around 20-30 euro. So the higher exchange rate is your real cost. Wise only takes around 1,5% and a smaller fee, too.

Use money exchange app

The best rate and fastest way least fees. You don't be disappointed

Wise isn't always the cheapest since it also depends on the amount.

This article has some good info about it.

Register with wise and transfer the money 💰 to my account 🙂

The fastest and easiest way is to transfer it into a cryptocurrency and, once you get into Thailand, cash it out into Thai baht.

Last time my client use Wise transfer to my Thai company bank account (Received immediately) mostly in Thailand bank if over 2 millions baht must show documents ( for buy land , villa etc.) if use Swift Code or GPI with big amount also need to show purpose of money document, thus WiSE is the best choices ( I do estate in Phuket, so often got this problem) 😅🤣

Download WISE app, sign up for an account, wise is used by a lot of expats in Thailand to send money from their home country into Thailand, suggest starting off with a couple of small transfers so you get used to it, majority of transfers are completed in mere seconds (less than 1 minute) however large transfers can take 1 or 2 days, some ppl can advise on their personal experience with large transfer amount they will usually take 1 or 2 days.

I usually transfer above $35,000 baht every 2 weeks with no issues, transfer is in seconds, If I transfer a large amount I usually do a few small transfers keeping them all under 50,000 baht.

For large sums I use OFX

Use "Wise" best thing since sliced cheese!

If you use wise etc you can only transfer more than 50,000 baht to Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank. Any other bank will send it back. Bank to bank for other banks, be careful

Do your due diligence first. I read recently that Wise transfers don’t count as money sent from abroad which is a problem if at some point you need to repatriate it.

BKK bank is a expensive way to send. Wise is u best way to go

I'm afraid you have to do the math.

Wise is undoubtedly better for smaller amounts while swift, bank to bank will have far cheaper fees for large amounts but you may lose a little on the rate.

Mist Thai bank accounts charge a landing fee, usually a max of 500bt. Also be aware that there is a limit on the amount you can transfer to some banks in Thailand in 1 transaction

Wise

Never had a problem with wise getting your money back to UK more difficult.

Send over pounds not baht.

Bangkok Bank charges a flat 500THB 'landing fee' if you send Thai Baht from your Bank overseas

Use wise because the rate you get with a bank is sh1t

Make sure you read this first ! 35/guide-to-thb-transfers

Register with WISE and then you can either transfer the money with the best available rates to pretty much any bank account worldwide or, also interesting, hold the money in different currencies in the so called: "borderless" or "multicurrency" account and then withdraw with their card in local currencies, wherever you travel. If you use my referral link, the first transfer up to 600 USD is free for you. Anyone else is also invited to use the link of course, for a free first transfer and cheap rates afterwards:

I'm from Australia and used bank to bank to transfer to Thailand then tried wise until they closed my account for no reason,it took some time to get my money out of them, then tried torfx but found at the end of the day bank to bank was the best way, there transfer rate is a little less but less charges at bbk end

For large sums of money do a SWIFT bank to bank transfer. For large sums it is cheaper than any other method.

Pam just gave you the best advice use Wise to transfer funds.

Use Wise

There's usually a % involved when received