Hello,

Just wondering if banks still hold funds transferred here from overseas in an attempt to earn on the short term money market. I heard about this some time ago, I think it wasn't just a rumour, and would like to know if it's still the practise.

The customer, after being informed by the bank in his own country that the funds were sent, would be informed by the Thai bank that they hadn't yet arrived and this would go on for quite a while. Some reports said the money was kept up to 3-4 weeks. I don't know if all banks did it or just one or two.

Thanks in advance.


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Who do you bank with? Never had this occur with SCB for five years now.

Foreign remittances to my Thai bank accounts have always been credited on the same day or the day after my foreign account was debited.
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Maestro

I also bank with SCB. So that's good to hear. Maybe it was a rumour after all.

Thanks.

My experience with SCB in Khon Kaen has been different to Mestro and Jingthing. I've transferred money from back in the UK a few times and every time the money has taken about 4 to 6 days to enter my Thai account. I contacted my bank in the UK to make sure they'd sent it and they confirmed they money had been sent on the very day I'd instructed them to. Who knows?

Did you send sterling? If so, the transfer will go more or less directly, depending on the size of the sending bank. Can be one day, could be several. Six days is too long.

If you send baht for some reason (always a bad choice), then it will always go through one or more intermediaries and the acceptable range would be 2 to 6 days.

Moved to Banking Forum

I guess it's not a "local" bank, but when I opened my Thai HSBC account my funds were immediately available. Walked out of the bank and immediately used the ATM.

Guess it depend on what bank you are using never had this problem with Bangkok Bank or SCB. On the flip side/common sense side there is a delay in fund transfer if a Check is involve, i.e., check clearance.

4 years with SCB and never a delay of receiving funds.

Think this is a bit of an urban legend...

Had occassion to be involved with a transfer to Thailand where in fact the cash did go missing for 31 days, but this due to the Thai bank concerned being completely incompetant and the face saving started trying to blame the overseas bank.

Overview...transferred some cash from Singapore to a Thai company account via SWIFT where I was investing to some money, all transfer details where correct, branch account number etc etc. Confirmation of transfer received from my bank, sent to Thai company for reference....I disappeared back work offshore....

31 days later arriving home, General Manager of company phones me saying cash has turned up...Their bank has no record of receiving money, even though they where shown transfer confirmation and all details correct...!!....Their bank had stated the overseas bank is at fault and transfer never occured...

Phoned my bank manager in Singapore explained the situation, she checked very quickly and said money was transferred on the day requested per instructions given and no problem on the Swift side of things.

In the end,bless her heart, my bank manager phoned the Thai bank concerned and it appears that the money was somehow put in the wrong account, at the wrong branch, by the Thai end.....in my bank managers words not mine "this bunch are incompetent"......In the end all resolved and we insisted that interest be paid on the amount during the time it went "missing" and suprisingly enough they paid it...

FYI...this wasnt SCB or K-bank, but a "goverment" bank...

I call my bank in the US to initiate a wire transfer about 10 p.m. our time, and the money is in my account at Kasikorn by 9 a.m. next morning - a less than 12 hour turn-around time.

Mind you, that's about the only think I can say about K-Bank's branch in this town, and they don't actually get involved. Oh well...

same, same in 6 years.

transferred how? by SWIFT?

To be honest, on average each and every transfer (SWIFT, from one of the main Belgian banks, to Bkk Bank Thailand) has always taken between 2 and 4 working days.
Only lately Saturday has become a working day as well.

Longest ever was 6 working days. Fastest around 30 hours...

To me it was explained having to do with intermediary banks when your foreign bank does not deal directly with your Thai bank...

I doubt the delay is in Belgium, since a swift from Belgium to HSBC Jersey takes 1 hour if during office times...

There used to be a problem with bank holding money for favorable exchange rate - but this was most often done with checks where they had a large window to work with. In theory this ended after the 97 crash/scrutiny (evidently a lot of extra cash was lost).

Midnight Swift wire transfer for me is always noon in my Bangkok Bank account - so at the most they might hold to second rate of day rather than first but that only appears to have happened once and not sure if by design.