British Pension Direct to Thai Bank

[lomuamart]

I missed this thread and as has been said, income does not need to be in a Thai bank.
The Embassy letter is the all important document and quite what the Embassy will want to see to issue the letter is up to them and varies according to nationality.
Having said that, Imm are always able to ask for proof of some funds here. HH aren't asking for that currently but I've heard that other provinces are. 10,000 THB in a Thai account is usually enough to satisfy them so it's not a large amount.
As an aside, if you are relying on ATM withdrawals using a foreign card, and my experience is only of Barclays in the UK, find out if the bank puts any time restrictions on it before blocking the card. Thailand is a hot bed of card fraud and many banks flag withdrawals over a period of time and automatically block any transactions. For instance, Barclays are only giving 90 days at the moment although after speaking to them last week I've discovered that I can update my status through internet banking. Just got to remember to do it as I assure you it's not fun having 200 THB in cash to your name and finding that the hole in the wall won't pay up. Calls back to England used up most of that even using my wife's mobile on cheap rate. It took me an hour to get through to anyone between 6-7am Thai time, midnight to 1am UK time, when the phones to the security centre are normally very quiet.
I'd advise opening a Thai bank account and keeping a few grand (THB) in there for emergencies. Just a suggestion and I never listen to my own advice!!
On another matter, I've worked out that it costs me around 600 GBP a year in bank charges, mainly through Barclays, but also every time I use the ATM - 150 THB to the Thai bank. I use the ATM four times a month. The last time I heard, it costs 20 GBP to make a regular money transfer from Barclays to a Thai bank. I do need to be back in England to set that up though - security reasons again. I will do that next time I'm back. The saving won't make me a millionaire but it will allow me even more Chang or the occasional extra game of golf!!

[caducus]

I was interested to see what rate of exchange the OP (Bernard) would have been getting having his UK state pension transferred direct to his Thai bank account - but I then learned that he has opted to have his pension paid into a UK bank account, I am about to apply for a UK state pension but, having lived away from the UK for many years, I do not have a bank account anywhere except here in Thailand. So does anyone have any idea on the exchange rate discrepancy between the actual UK pound/Thai baht rate as quoted day-to day by Thai commercial banks, and the rate that one would receive having one's pension transferred direct from the UK to a Thai account?

[Dannie Boy]

I was interested to see what rate of exchange the OP (Bernard) would have been getting having his UK state pension transferred direct to his Thai bank account - but I then learned that he has opted to have his pension paid into a UK bank account, I am about to apply for a UK state pension but, having lived away from the UK for many years, I do not have a bank account anywhere except here in Thailand. So does anyone have any idea on the exchange rate discrepancy between the actual UK pound/Thai baht rate as quoted day-to day by Thai commercial banks, and the rate that one would receive having one's pension transferred direct from the UK to a Thai account?

No idea about pension payments as I'm still a few years away from receiving mine, but if it is transferred in GBP and converted to THB upon arrival, I assume it will be the same rate as for a normal bank transfer. For me it tends to be about 0.3/0.4 baht less than the daily quoted rates.

[PET]

I was interested to see what rate of exchange the OP (Bernard) would have been getting having his UK state pension transferred direct to his Thai bank account - but I then learned that he has opted to have his pension paid into a UK bank account, I am about to apply for a UK state pension but, having lived away from the UK for many years, I do not have a bank account anywhere except here in Thailand. So does anyone have any idea on the exchange rate discrepancy between the actual UK pound/Thai baht rate as quoted day-to day by Thai commercial banks, and the rate that one would receive having one's pension transferred direct from the UK to a Thai account?

No idea about pension payments as I'm still a few years away from receiving mine, but if it is transferred in GBP and converted to THB upon arrival, I assume it will be the same rate as for a normal bank transfer. For me it tends to be about 0.3/0.4 baht less than the daily quoted rates.

I recall the OP saying that the British Govt Pensions Dept would get their UK transferring bank to convert into Baht and then transfer to a bank in Thailand. I can assure you that the FX rate that will be used will be worse than if the FX transaction had been made by the bank here. Look up on the internet the FX rates for TT transfers to Thailand on a particular day and then compare with the your bank's TT buying rate here that same day