Pre paid credit card

[spoon]

For transfer, mostly use money gram or banks to do transfer

[Jasper]

18 hours ago, hank75 said:

Has anyone bought a gold necklace for boy before and what is the price for one of decent quality? I am increasingly thinking it may be better to offer a “gift”. I do not want to give him cash outright as that may affect expectations of his regular tip.

Yes I have bought a gold jewellery for boy a few times.

Thai gold jewellery is 96.5 % pure, bought and sold by weight, 1 baht=15.16g unit.

For 1 baht chain, it costs about 20,000 baht cash.

Caution, the heavier the jewellery boy will gain “face” in the bar so even you prepared to pay for 1 baht, he may have other idea! lol

I recommend Hua Seng Heng gold shop in China Town.

Basically, gold shop accepts to buy back with a fee if you want exchange or sell outright if it’s their own products, each jewellery marked with their own stamp.

 

[hank75]

4 hours ago, Jasper said:

Yes I have bought a gold jewellery for boy a few times.

Thai gold jewellery is 96.5 % pure, bought and sold by weight, 1 baht=15.16g unit.

For 1 baht chain, it costs about 20,000 baht cash.

Caution, the heavier the jewellery boy will gain “face” in the bar so even you prepared to pay for 1 baht, he may have other idea! lol

I recommend Hua Seng Heng gold shop in China Town.

Basically, gold shop accepts to buy back with a fee if you want exchange or sell outright if it’s their own products, each jewellery marked with their own stamp.

 

Thank you Jasper. Fantastic advice. Very timely too as a different boy is expecting a baby with his girlfriend. They have money worries and he is working gogo behind his girlfriend’s back. Somehow I didn’t think a nappy cake would be an appreciated gift here so perhaps a small gold chain or medallion that they can easily turn to cash when truly desperate. 

 

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, hank75 said:

 perhaps a small gold chain or medallion that they can easily turn to cash when truly desperate. 

 

cash is even easier to turn into cash than gold on which he surely will get less than it cost you to buy

[hank75]

17 minutes ago, vinapu said:

cash is even easier to turn into cash than gold on which he surely will get less than it cost you to buy

Yes...but I do not want to get a reputation for handing out gobs of cash. It chafes at me that you get charged extra for labor but what can you do? I would like this presented as a proper “gift” especially since this particular boy with the baby is not an off, merely an occasional drinking companion (for which he does not get tip, only drinks - another story entirely why I am buying gift for a boy I do not off). He and his young girlfriend have some personal circumstances that I feel sorry for. And hopefully if gold, it will not be spent immediately the following day but held on to for real emergencies. 

 

[anddy]

23 hours ago, spoon said:

For transfer, mostly use money gram or banks to do transfer

money gram (just as Western Union) is a major rip-off. Not only do they charge rather high transfer fees, but also give very poor exchange rates, thus charging you twice with a hidden fee.

 

On 3/6/2019 at 4:03 PM, z909 said:

A money transfer incurrs fees at the time of the transfer only.   If I read this correctly, the pre-paid currency cards you refer to have a monthly fee.  Such recurring fees tend to add up & are to be avoided in my opinion.

And if you are moving onto money transfers, well Transferwise could be a good option.   This does depend on where you are, as last year I discovered whilst I can send money to Malaysia via Transferwise, they do not yet have an option to send money from Malaysia to the UK.   I believe people in Europe and the US can send money to a fairly long list of countries. 

Also, some currency transfer sites make you sign up for an account before they show you what the rates are, which tend to be a disappointment.  If you go to the Transferwise site, you can see what the transfer will cost you within a few seconds.

good point, if it is recurring fees they may be prohibitive over time.

As for Transferwise, I have now used them multiple times and they have markedly improved since about a year ago. A year ago, when transferring EUR to THB, they would NOT guarantee you the exchange rate, so you were still at risk of a market fluctuation by the time the money you send reaches them and they do the actual conversion. Of course, such market fluctuation will ALWAYS be against you, by virtue of Murphy's Law. I have done two simultaneous transfers a year ago using Transferwise with the apparently better fx-rate but higher stated up-front fee, as well as Transfermate with only EUR 15 flat fee (for ANY size amount) but additional cost embedded in the fx-rate spread. With Transfermate, the fx-rate is fixed as you do the transfer transaction on their website, so I knew exactly what I'd get (which is, or was, an advantage in and of itself). On Transferwise, the exchange rate was better than TM's at the time I did it, with a clearly stated fee, giving me a higher THB amount (forget by how much) than TM - BUT not guaranteed until actual conversion about a day later. Inevitably, exchange rate moved against me and in the end I got almost exactly the same THB amount on both. 

Now as I said TW has improved and guarantees the fx-rate I think for as long as 48 hours. With that they now beat TM every time I have compared them, so been using TW. 

I also like TW's  concept of stating a %age up-front fee, which looks rather high compared to other sites, BUT giving the (normally by definition untradable) mid-market rate. Very clear indeed. Many (most?) other sites advertise very low fees, but then make their money (and your cost) through the fx-rate spread. One such example is Revolut, which a friend of mine is using (he also has their debit card, ostensibly fee-free). They have I believe no conversion "fees" (also none on foreign use of the debit card), but I calculated a 2% spread to mid-market on an example debit card transaction my friend showed me. So much for free.....

[billyhouston]

My experiences with TransferWise have, so far at least, been entirely positive. I check the 'middle rate' before making a transfer and they follow it very closely. It's great to know, to the nearest satang, exactly how much should appear in the account the next day. Far better overall rate than my UK Bank, more efficient and less hassle. My UK Bank requires me to fill in all the details each and every time I make a transfer and, as you will realise, this requires great care and checking. With Transferwise, for a repeat transfer all the details are pre-filled, other than the amount.

[colmx]

Love TransferWise here too

I send Money from my Irish AIB account to BFs Kasikorn just after midnight... by the time I wake up its already after arriving to his account (and usually spent already!)

[hank75]

All your posts could not have been more timely. I just received an urgent SOS from a boy last night and though I’ve tried to make it a rule not to send money from overseas, I agreed to send him something to tide him over. So here comes my first, virgin transfer of money to a Thai boy. This, I hope, it’s a one-off but something tells me it probably won’t be! Signing up for my Transferwise account in a few hours. If there is anything else I should bear in mind, please do mention.

Out of curiousity, for those of you that send money to regulars, how much do you send?

[hank75]

Has anyone used a credit card on Transferwise? Are the fees higher with a card? I am wondering if I might get points or air miles.

edit: I read online that some card providers treat this as a cash advance (no points) rather than a transaction. Still searching on the internet for more information...

[traveller123]

37 minutes ago, hank75 said:

Has anyone used a credit card on Transferwise? Are the fees higher with a card? I am wondering if I might get points or air miles.

From the UK Transferwise charge on sending 1000 GBP to Thailand is 6.96 GBP paying them by bank transfer and 8.95 GBP if you pay by debit or credit card

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, hank75 said:

 my first, virgin transfer of money to a Thai boy. This, I hope, it’s a one-off but something tells me it probably won’t be!

word 'probably ' is completely unnecessary in your sentence

[traveller123]

2 hours ago, hank75 said:

.Out of curiousity, for those of you that send money to regulars, how much do you send?

I am going back 10 years but I used to send 10,000 baht every 2 months

5000 baht a month was to pay his rent and service fees in a decent condo.

He was very appreciative and he must have been happy as he became my UK Civil Partner and after 10 years we are still happily together

[hank75]

14 minutes ago, traveller123 said:

From the UK Transferwise charge on sending 1000 GBP to Thailand is 6.96 GBP paying them by bank transfer and 8.95 GBP if you pay by debit or credit card

Yes I was just able to get this information off the Transferwise site too. But thank you for giving the exact value for GBP. Very helpful.

 My question was actually if you would incur additional fees from your credit card provider for this sort of transfer or if would be treated like a regular purchase. And if points/mileage would accumulate- completely understand it varies between banks but interested to hear what others have experienced as my bank seems very non-transparent about this.

[anddy]

6 hours ago, hank75 said:

Out of curiousity, for those of you that send money to regulars, how much do you send?

My transfers are most usually 10k EUR, to my regular that is myself haha. Sometimes, I do more than 10k, or rather have to, but still do it  in 10k increments as larger amounts (not sure where the threshold is, may be 12500 or even 20k) incur additional scrutiny (money laundering and all that BS). The current fee for that is 53.76 EUR.  

Never used a credit card for TW, never even considered it or thought it was an option. Might look into it, though my amounts are too large for that anyway. 

[traveller123]

5 hours ago, hank75 said:

Yes I was just able to get this information off the Transferwise site too. But thank you for giving the exact value for GBP. Very helpful.

 My question was actually if you would incur additional fees from your credit card provider for this sort of transfer or if would be treated like a regular purchase. And if points/mileage would accumulate- completely understand it varies between banks but interested to hear what others have experienced as my bank seems very non-transparent about this.

Sorry I can't help here, I always pay Transferwise with a bank transfer

[hank75]

Well I just put through a payment on Transferwise on a credit card. Will update if any unexpected fees show up.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, hank75 said:

Well I just put through a payment on Transferwise on a credit card. Will update if any unexpected fees show up.

I still did not receive that money

[hank75]

31 minutes ago, vinapu said:

I still did not receive that money

You did not send me a photo of your dead buffalo.

[hank75]

Update: the transfer has been received and the amount posted to my credit card statement shows the exact conversion given by TransferWise. Similar to making an online purchase and does not seem to have incurred any hidden fees. Now all that remains to verify is whether I receive points off this transaction.

[NIrishGuy]

On 3/8/2019 at 7:21 AM, anddy said:

...... still do it  in 10k increments as larger amounts (not sure where the threshold is, may be 12500 or even 20k) incur additional scrutiny (money laundering and all that BS).

Actually in the UK at least I believe the threshold for additional scrutiny being required IS the £10k and over mark, so just take care that you're not quietly flagging up your own account for further attention else where if there's movements there you'd rather HRMC etc weren't looking at "too" closely ! I'm guessing it's fairly much little odds now as it seems HMRC etc have some super duper new joined up computer / software that is already pulling info about us from ALL sorts of places that we wouldn't immediately think if such as flight ticket purchases, ALL electronic money transfers, investment income and interest, property deeds held with rent due on them and an absolute ton of other stuff -

I actually watched a programme about it a while back, all very interesting / scary IF true.    Or a damned good well placed fake news story they've released to encourage people to play straight. I do know from conversations with HMRC staff that versions of the above DO actually exist so I'm guessing there is some truth to it all as well.   

 

Oh.....a quick google search confirms the existence of same it seems ....... https://www.companydebt.com/hmrc-tax-problems/hmrcs-connect-computer-system-used-tax-compliance/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/return/taxman-unleashes-snooper-computer-information-does-have/

[ceejay]

The problem with the UK is that they don't publish the criteria for investigation for money laundering. I have, however, heard of one instance of it happening because the individual was making transfers too frequently, regardless of their size.

If possible, I would suggest opening a Thai bank account, making occasional larger transfers into that, and then using the Thai bank's internet banking or banking app to make smaller, local, transfers inside Thailand. It also means you end up with a Thai bank account and ATM card which are very useful things to have if you come here at all often (even more so if you ever move here).