Compare ways to send and receive money in Thailand
There are multiple ways to easily send and receive money in Thailand but these will largely depend on the provider you decide to use.
There are multiple ways to easily send and receive money in Thailand but these will largely depend on the provider you decide to use. Below you will find everything you need to know about the best ways to send money to Thailand.
Ways to Send Money to Thailand
When sending money to Thailand, getting the right mode of transfer can save you hundreds of dollars in transfer fees and exchange rate differentials. You can decide to send money through the interbank transfer or online money transfer services. Your decision will depend on a number of factors, most of which will be discussed in the sections below.
International Wire Transfers
Many Thais in the diaspora have been using international wire transfers for sending large amounts of money. These transfers are safe and secure. Depending on the country you are transferring from, you may find a bank that has a subsidiary in Thailand such as Standard Chartered. In this case, your transfers will be much faster.
However, if you are transferring through banks that have no relationship with the recipient banks, you’ll have to go through correspondent banks. This lengthens the transfer process and makes it expensive.
On average, it takes about 4-5 business days for your transfer to be completed. If there is no urgency on the part of the recipient, you could choose this mode of transfer. For the best rates, send the money in foreign currency and let the receiving bank convert it for you instead of converting before you send. Banks such as the Bank of Bangkok (Bangkok Bank) has branches overseas you can use to transfer.
Money Transfer Service
Apart from international wire transfers, you can opt for online money transfers to Thailand. Money transfer providers such as Western Union, Ria, MoneyGram, Xoom, Wise and WorldRemit can help you send money to your family.
The advantage of using money transfer providers is that they offer affordable and faster transfers. For instance, if you are to send money using Xoom, Wise or WorldRemit, you’d have to first sign up for an account, this could take about 5 minutes and then pay for your transfer.
Based on your host country, you’ll have different ways of paying for your transfer. The main payment methods are a debit card, credit card and bank debit. If you are sending from Europe or North America, your money will get to the recipient in 2 to 3 days for transfers to bank accounts. Cash pickups are done instantly and within 2 to 3 hours, the recipient has collected the money.
There are three ways of sending money using online money transfer providers.
Bank Transfers: If the recipient has a bank account, you can transfer directly to them. Ensure you get the bank details right to avoid bounced payments. As the sender, you don’t need to have a bank account. Transfers can take 1 to 3 days.
Cash Pickup: This mode of transfer allows the recipient to collect the money in cash from their nearest payout location. In Thailand, WorldRemit has partnered with Government Savings Bank to use its branches as pickup locations. Cash pickup transfers are instant.
Airtime Top-up: You can also send airtime top-up to your family for free to allow them to text and make calls. The three major telecom operators who have partnered with money transfer services in Thailand are AIS, DTAC, and TrueMove H.
When sending money through Western Union or MoneyGram, you can either send online or visit a store in person and send from there.
PayPal
If both you and the recipient have PayPal accounts, you can transfer money from your account to the other. You can use this method for amounts less than $1,500. As the amount you are sending goes up, the sending fees also increase. This is because they are calculated in percentage terms.
What’s Needed to Send Money to Thailand
Whether you are sending money in person at a store or online, there is some information you’ll have to provide. This will help get the transfer to the right person and enable the recipient to access the money.
Your identity card or an equivalent document based on the country you are sending from
The name of the recipient. It should match the name appearing on their official documents
The recipient’s address and phone number
The amount you want to send
If you are sending directly to a bank account in Thailand, you’ll require the bank name and account number of the recipient
When signing up for an online money transfer account, some of this information will be captured in advance thus making it easier for you to make your transfer.
What Are the Ways of Receiving Money in Thailand?
Your family in Thailand can receive the money you are sending in a number of ways. The following are the two main channels Thais can use to receive remittances from abroad.
Bank Deposits
The recipient can choose to have the money deposited directly into their bank account. This is convenient if the recipient can access banking services from their location and are not in a hurry to receive the money.
Cash Collection
Money transfer providers have lots of payout locations spread throughout Thailand. For instance, MoneyGram has locations in each of the 145 cities in the country and Xoom has close to 2,400 locations. The recipient collects the money in cash.
When choosing the money transfer provider to use, the guiding factors should be proximity, reliability and affordability to both you and the recipient.
What is Required to Receive Money in Thailand?
Receiving money in Thailand is simple. If the money is deposited in the recipient’s account, there is nothing much they need to do apart from notifying the sender. On the other hand, when the money is sent through cash pickup, they will receive an SMS or email notification.
The following information will be required to receive money at any payout location. Just a quick note, Western Union will ask you to fill out a form in which you provide the information.
The recipient’s government-issued ID
Sender's name
The source of the money
The transaction reference number. For Western Union, their number is called Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN)
Some providers have test questions that you must answer to complete the verification process. Once the confirmation process is complete, you’ll be asked to sign the receipt and collect the money.
Common Reasons for Sending Money to Thailand
Thais in the diaspora have some sort of an unwritten social contract with their families back home. Whenever their conditions abroad become favourable and they start earning, they apportion part of earnings and send it home. The following are some of the reasons why Thais send money to their families.
Household Income Support
Remittances in Thailand households account for up to 40% or more of the overall household income. Some families in rural Thailand are totally dependent on remittances for basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter.
Education
Once the basic needs are covered, remittances may be allocated to education. With a literacy rate of 92.87%, Thais value quality education and won’t hesitate to send money home to fund their sibling’s tuition fees and other related expenses.
Health
Thailand has one of the best health care system in Asia. The Universal Care Scheme also known as 30 Baht Health Care scheme, gives Thais medical care at a cost of 30 bahts equivalent to USD 1. However, for specialized care, households may require financial support to access private facilities.
Savings and Investment
Hundreds of thousands of Thais send money home regularly for savings and investment. Despite the opportunities abroad, many of them still see their country as the ideal and safe place to build a nest egg. Some of the money is invested in financial products and real estate.
Social Contributions
Though living in the diaspora, Thais have strong linkages back home. They regularly call, visit and send money to their families for festivals such as Songkran Day, Wan Payawan, Wan Parg-bpee and many others. During these festivals remittances to Thailand record an upsurge.
Why Send Money with a Money Transfer Service?
Money transfer services are preferred because of their unique advantages. They complement and even substitute banks as the choice method for Thais abroad sending money to their families. The following are the reasons why you should consider money transfer providers in your next remittance to your family.
Geographical Coverage
Senders can easily find a MoneyGram or Western union store in their host countries or get online and use providers such as Xoom, Wise, Ria, WorldRemit and many others. The recipient in Thailand also doesn’t struggle to locate a payout location even in the rural and remote areas.
Higher Exchange Rates
Most providers use the mid-market rate to exchange your source currency to the Thai baht. This rate is midway between the Buy and Sell rates and gives you more baht per unit of your host currency. Even for providers like Xoom and WorldRemit who add a margin on this rate, the resulting rate is still higher than what banks offer.
Simple to Set Up
It takes anywhere between 2-5 minutes to signup for an account online to enable you to make your transfer to your family. Some providers like WorldRemit will ask you to verify your details by uploading a government-issued ID.
Transaction Cost
The fees money remittance providers charge is a fraction of what banks charge to send the same amount of money. The reason for this is that the providers do not use any correspondence banks and they charge low margins as part of their strategy to build a clientele base.
Transfer Speed
Whether you are sending money home for a medical emergency, debt repayment or tuition fees, speed is of the essence. Money transfer providers assure you of instant delivery for cash pickups and up to three days for bank transfers.
Multi-Currency Support
Banks have a problem dealing with exotic currencies. They will either charge you higher transaction fees or give you a raw deal on the exchange rate. On the contrary, money transfer service providers support more than 50 currencies on their platforms. Therefore, you can literally send from any country without giving away too much in currency exchange rate fees.
Things to Consider When Sending Money to Thailand
Now that you have almost all the information you need to send money to Thailand, you may want to quickly jump onto your phone or computer and initiate a transfer. Of course, nothing can stop you, but you may need to think through the following before you hit the ‘send’ button.
Exchange Control Regulations – Any person who receives foreign currency save for visitors who are in Thailand temporarily (not more than 3 months), must sell the currency to an authorized bank within 360 days of receipt.
Bank Deposits – Deposits of foreign currency notes are restricted to USD 10,000 per person per day. This is done purposely to limit proceeds of illegal trade and other dealings from infiltrating the Thailand financial system.
Reporting of Financial Transactions – Any person withdrawing more than USD 50,000 from a bank, must report the transaction in a format as directed by the Competent Officer.
There you go! Sending money to Thailand can be quick and affordable when you use money transfer service providers. Your family will receive cash payouts or bank deposits faster to help them sort out their needs.
The USD to THB exchange rate
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Sending money anywhere else in the world is as easy as sending money to Thailand. If you're looking to send money to another country, here is the list of the most popular destinations.
What’s The Overall Best Way To Send Money To Thailand?
The overall best way to transfer funds to Thailand is through Wise. They don’t excel at anything in particular (besides cost), but they offer the best all-around deal for Thailand.
With Wise, you can always expect speed, ease of use, and efficiency at a low cost when you send money to Thailand. Wise is also the cheapest option to send cash online to USA and is the best option to send money to Poland.
What’s The Easiest Way To Send Funds To Thailand?
The easiest way is through Wise. It only takes three easy steps to send money with Wise. You need to tap in the amount of money, the destination, then tap send. After that, all you do is pay Wise for the transaction. Your money should reach the Thai destination in one or two business days.
What’s The Cheapest Way To Send Money To Thailand?
The cheapest way to send money is through OFX if you are in the US or UK. Americans and Brits can send funds to Thailand for no upfront fee and ridiculously low hidden currency conversion costs.
For other countries of departure, Wise is the cheapest way to transfer cash online to Thailand. They charge an upfront fee, which will appear slightly high. However, Wise is the only option that uses real currency conversion rates. There are no hidden conversion fees with Wise, making them the cheapest money transfer option by far from most countries.
What’s The Fastest Way To Transfer Money To Thailand?
The fastest & most reasonable option to send cash online to Thailand is with Ria Money Transfer’s fast service. There are a few other fast options, but their speeds are all comparable to Ria Money Transfer while being far more expensive.
With Ria Money Transfer’s fast service, you can expect your transfer to reach its destination in Thailand in a matter of minutes. The costs are also not too high but could be described as average. There are many cheaper options, but they’re all significantly slower.
Current Exchange Rates For Thailand
The current exchange rate for the Thai Baht (THB) is 37.380972 THB per American Dollar (USD), as of the time this was written. The THB reached a high of 38.3097 THB per USD in the last 90 days, while the low was 35.2097 THB per USD. The average exchange rate over the last 90 days was 36.9820 THB per USD.
The average volatility of the THB against the USD was 0.29% over the last 90 days. The Thai Baht has also fluctuated significantly over the course of the last two years. These fluctuations haven’t been too severe, but they would make a noticeable difference in the case of regular, high-value transactions into Thailand. You can reasonably expect moderate fluctuations to continue going forward, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
How we compare?
What do we mean by the top provider?
The top provider is the money transfer service that we believe is the most suitable for the country you’re sending money to. In order to keep our service free we factor in the commercial agreements we have with partners into this ranking.
How do we choose providers to display?
We make sure that each table displays the most relevant brands to the country you are sending money to and from. We consider many factors when choosing the providers to display in the table. All of the providers we display are fully regulated to provide money transfer services in the jurisdiction you are searching, relevant regulatory authorities are the FCA, ASIC, Fincen, FINTRAC & AMF. Alongside being regulated the services are manually checked by our team for both quality of service and online trust from such platforms like Trustpilot and Google reviews. We base our rankings primarily on the quality of the service provided, the benefit to the consumer and to keep our service free – the commercial agreements we have.
How do we order our comparisons?
We are affiliated with some of the partners displayed in the tables. However, the order of the providers is based on the quality of the service for the particular country corridor followed by the commercial agreement in place. You don’t pay any extra and the deal you get isn’t affected by our commercial agreement with the money transfer provider. We may receive a commission when you click through to a listing or when you make a transaction. We aim to find the balance between the quality of the service, customer satisfaction and the commercial agreements we have, and continue comparing services in a transparent way. If you have any questions about our listings, please don’t hesitate to email us at contact@moneytransfers.com
Jonathan is the founder and editor of MoneyTransfers.com. Jonathan is highly experienced in the currency transfer market, having previously worked in the FX trading industry, alongside being an avid traveller. Using his knowledge he identified a need for transparency and further education to help people save money on their money transfers, leading to the creation of MoneyTransfers.com
Jonathan is the founder and editor of MoneyTransfers.com. Jonathan is highly experienced in the currency transfer market, having previously worked in the FX trading industry, alongside being an avid traveller. Using his knowledge he identified a need for transparency and further education to help people save money on their money transfers, leading to the creation of MoneyTransfers.com