Thai banks 'scamming' with wire transfers from USA

[New Petchburi Pete]

My attorney wired funds to me on June 29. Even this morning the rep. at Kasikorn Bank (Thai Farmers) told me that my funds had yet to arrive in Thailand from the States! I saw gummi (and JB) down here over the weekend ... even caught up with G at the Viking Beachcober bar yesterday for a decent sub sandwich!

 

After listening to what G had to say (thanks for the info!), I did a little more investigating at the bank (BKK) over the phone late this am ... my funds have been in Thailand since July 1! ...

I defaulted on a real estate transaction (more in family section once we move) and paid a 10,000. Bt penalty, which the seller now says he'll use against purchase price.

 

But, as many know, this illustrates a certain practice which banks employ (to make interest) ... however, here in LOS, one receives almost zero interest on simple accounts ... money is better off invested or 'left off shore,' unless it must be in a Thai bank for visa purposes, etc.

[Guest]

And that is why they want you to keep a certain amount in the bank, that they can rake off the interest all for themselves.

[JaiGuruDev]

Wire transfers are faster these days than they were 15 years ago, but they still take time.

 

If the transfer doesn't arrive after 3 or 4 business days, I start the sending bank working on a trace. A copy of the trace or the actual transaction number is often a big help when dealing with a slow bank.

 

In any event, if I needed money for an important transaction I wouldn't wait until the last moment to send a transfer. Sh1t does happen, and it's not uncommon for a wire transfer to take longer than expected.

[Nervous_Dog]

Yes it is true I met Gummi and Pete, Oh how we have fallen, the conversation topics where

 

Baby diapers and toilet training

 

Buying wives things

 

Thrilling to say the least I am as much at fault!

 

Sigh,

 

JB - Married with child, err devil spaun

PS, Dont eat at the Pizza place on soi 13/2 Pattaya, the Petelet has unplugged all the refridgerators and the food will be rotten!

 

JB

[think_too_mut]

JaiGuruDev said:

Wire transfers are faster these days than they were 15 years ago, but they still take time.

 

If the transfer doesn't arrive after 3 or 4 business days, I start the sending bank working on a trace.

 

What is "wire transfer"? Never used it.

 

Does it differ from when I transfer money from Oz via Internet to Bangkok Bank account? Must be the same mechanism, just done by myself without any paperwork.

 

I can monitor the account and it never took more than 3 business days (the third day the money was available).

 

Banks do their batch transactions like that once per day (early morning) and that's when exchange happens.

 

The receiving bank (BKK bank in my case) runs batch account updates at their time, which may be another night. If that run had finished before the exchange run happened it will take another night to process the file.

That's where the 3rd business day comes into the picture.

 

If the runs are consecutive, could be next day that the money has reached the destination account.

 

The worst case is holidays and long weekends. The transfers appear to be working weekdays only. Banks even say "5 business days to process a transaction".

[ThaiHome]

Have no idea what happened to you on this transfer. All I know is I have been transfering money to Bangkok Bank almost every month for going on 4 years now. Have done it from several branches of a bank in Malaysia, a Channel Island branch of a British Bank, and a major US bank. All transfers happened in less then 5 working days.

Should also note that the interest rate on my US checking account is not much more then my Bangkok Bank savings account, both around 1% (.75% for Thai, 1.06% for US). I think you would hard pressed to find any bank in the world currently paying much more then that for a liquid account such as checking, money market, or savings.

YMMV

TH

[samak]

i could also not claim any bad experience on that; doing that for years and always get money within 3-4 business days.

[Pom Michael]

I'll also jump on the positive side. I have money transfered regularly to Thai Farmers Bank (Kaisakorn), Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank. Almost every time that money is in the next day. Meaning, money sent on a Monday in the USA is in my bank account Tuesday morning Bangkok time.

 

I have heard all of these stories about delays in the past, but I have never experienced it myself. Could be that the sender or the senders bank isn't giving all the correct information??? How many times have I had USA business agents refuse to send money at first because I didn't provide them an ABN number. Duhh!! ABN is an American Bank Number ????? My bank isn't an American bank, so I don't have and don't NEED this number. Just send it by SWIFT!

 

The only problem I have is with Citibank! They have a nasty habit of taking out extra fees from their NY branch on transfers from certian countries.

 

Cheers!

[think_too_mut]

>Almost every time that money is in the next day. Meaning, money sent on a Monday in the USA is in my bank account Tuesday morning Bangkok time.

 

That is what I am saying. Due to time difference, the money comes the next (Thai) day from the US.

 

What could have happened to NPP is - there was a SWIFT code or something missing and the order bounced back for "manual" attention. All failed transfers are stored in something called "derogatory" file and there are many of them, for different reasons (i.e. lack of funds, punching errors..).

For a bigger bank, could be hundreds per day, it's not only transfers initiated by individuals, all transfers, including foreign pensions, companies paying each other...

 

Take that plus weekend and 4th of July and "analysts" working in reduced numbers over surrounding days and then you can get several days delay before your order is ready for another processing.

 

I don't think the banks use wired money for other purposes. They do that with checks, when the funds are available to the end user a day or two after "settling". That money would be used for day trading by the bank's investment and speculations arm.

Public was screaming about that, some may have ceased that practice.

[JaiGuruDev]

I found this explanation on a how-to Website:

 

S.W.I.F.T. (or SWIFT) stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is a non-profit organization comprised of member financial institutions. It was established in 1973 by European bankers who needed a more efficient and secure system for inter bank communications and transfer of funds and securities. Until then, all inter bank communications were by telephone, telex, courier, or mail.

 

Whereas a Fedwire contains no instructions past the basic funds transfer itself, SWIFT is a messaging service. Each type of message is a condition of wire transfer. One cannot refer to a SWIFT message as a "Conditional SWIFT" per se, since all SWIFT's carry conditions.

 

SWIFT messages are preset and referred to by category numbers called MT numbers. For instance, MT800's only deal with Traveler's Checks, MT300's only deal with Foreign Currency Exchanges.

 

Each type of message or condition in each category is preset as well. For instance, there are 89 different messages available under the category MT500. This does not include the occasional sub code.

 

Certain phrases are allowable; however, but these must be short and to the point, not exceeding a certain number of letters, and the phrases must be acceptable under SWIFT standards.

 

Each MT category has its own manual of standards. Depending on the size of the financial institution, each department may only be familiar with the MT manual that pertains to wire transfers made by that department.

 

What this means is that one cannot write SWIFT instructions that do not work with the preset messages and expect the sending bank to accept them, or the receiving bank to respond.

 

For instance, HIGH-YIELD INVESTMENT PROGRAM fraud often involves wiring funds to a foreign bank in exchange for a PRIME BANK GUARANTEE. Sorry folks, that doesn't work. One can wire funds in exchange for a specific financial instrument, provided the funds are consistent with the cost of the instrument, and provided all the correct arrangements have been made for the issuance of that instrument according to INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE rules.

 

I have no idea how the mechanics of an Internet transfer works, but I wouldn't be surprised if they use some form of wire transfer as the vehicle.

 

We have been using wire transfers for high dollar transactions since 1986, and I expect we'll continue to do so for a while.

 

On thing that comes to mind is a trace can be put on a wire transfer, but I have no idea what security is involved with Internet transfers.

 

Antman is one of our computer experts who like Internet transfers, and he says, "Internet transfers just always work." But I've been around long enough to know nothing "just always works", and I need my security.

 

Especially when we're talking about big money.