News Forum - UK Pensions in Thailand losing up to 20,160 baht a year

[Benroon]

8 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Bangkok Bank in Thailand. HSBC in the U.K.  

At the moment it’s not an issue for me as I’m not planning on retiring in Thailand just yet. I was first alerted to the problem by a friend of mine who had been doing the same thing and went to extend his visa on the basis of retirement in Rayong recently. He got the bank statements and all the other paperwork and went to immigration. Each monthly transaction was around 75,000-80,000 baht and hence he thought all ok. The immigration officer then spotted two monthly transactions showing “IB” coding. This is an Inter-Bank transfer and hence not seen as money transferred in to the country. He was refused the extension of his “retirement visa”. With only a short period left on his current visa he was left with little choice but to pay “under the table”. 

I'm wondering how recent - for sure this problem was a fairly regular comment on forums which is the reason they added the 'Funds for long term stay in Thailand' not too long ago (and fair play to them actually listening to the problem and attempting to resolve it) - since then I've never heard of anyone coming unstuck and the comments have massively reduced if not gone (until now).

One way to guarantee it's correct is to have it paid into Kasikorn Bank here I guess - but I've got a 100% record with Bangkok Bank .... so far.

[JamesR]

1 hour ago, Soidog said:

Bangkok Bank in Thailand. HSBC in the U.K.  

At the moment it’s not an issue for me as I’m not planning on retiring in Thailand just yet. I was first alerted to the problem by a friend of mine who had been doing the same thing and went to extend his visa on the basis of retirement in Rayong recently. He got the bank statements and all the other paperwork and went to immigration. Each monthly transaction was around 75,000-80,000 baht and hence he thought all ok. The immigration officer then spotted two monthly transactions showing “IB” coding. This is an Inter-Bank transfer and hence not seen as money transferred in to the country. He was refused the extension of his “retirement visa”. With only a short period left on his current visa he was left with little choice but to pay “under the table”. 

So really they are looking for small errors like that just in order to make a few quid, they knew it was all valid as they must see the same thing all the time but the error is in their favour it seems. 

[JamesR]

1 hour ago, Benroon said:

I'm wondering how recent - for sure this problem was a fairly regular comment on forums which is the reason they added the 'Funds for long term stay in Thailand' not too long ago (and fair play to them actually listening to the problem and attempting to resolve it) - since then I've never heard of anyone coming unstuck and the comments have massively reduced if not gone (until now).

One way to guarantee it's correct is to have it paid into Kasikorn Bank here I guess - but I've got a 100% record with Bangkok Bank .... so far.

I wonder how long ago @Soidog's friend had the problem and was refused the visa, maybe it was before the fix you mentioned above, perhaps he will kindly reply after reading this. 

[JamesR]

5 hours ago, Benroon said:

You need 12 months of statements in full ie every page and then you need a single statement (for the life of me I can't remember what it's called) again from the bank showing each deposit on one page. However it's not too important you know the name of it as if you tell them it's for immigration they will know exactly what to give you.

In the years I've done it, I've never hit a hitch apart from one year they complained it wasn't sent on the same day each month (roughly) ! (But still allowed it)

Thanks for the info. I will cut and past it and put it with my other immigration notes. 

[Soidog]

49 minutes ago, JamesR said:

I wonder how long ago @Soidog's friend had the problem and was refused the visa, maybe it was before the fix you mentioned above, perhaps he will kindly reply after reading this. 

Yes it was back in October last year when he was refused the extension. However, I have observed the same errors in coding appearing on my Bangkok Bank statements as recently as April this year.

 

A quick update to show this issue. Below is an extract of my Bangkok Bank statement in April this year. The two transactions sent within 90 minutes of each other via Wise and both sent by selecting “Funds for long term stay in Thailand”. As you can see, one shows and International Transfer (acceptable to immigration), while the other shows a transfer from account at another bank (unacceptable to immigration)

Edited May 20 by Soidog
Additional information

[Benroon]

9 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Yes it was back in October last year when he was refused the extension. However, I have observed the same errors in coding appearing on my Bangkok Bank statements as recently as April this year.

A quick update to show this issue. Below is an extract of my Bangkok Bank statement in April this year. The two transactions sent within 90 minutes of each other via Wise and both sent by selecting “Funds for long term stay in Thailand”. As you can see, one shows and International Transfer (acceptable to immigration), while the other shows a transfer from account at another bank (unacceptable to immigration)

Once I had a question for Wise and to be fair they called me back here - and tbh were very helpful (regarding a house purchase so stressful already) but they sorted everything out.

Did you contact them and ask what happened in that instance ? I've never seen that so would be interested to know. It's obviously to do with the way it is routed to its final destination so maybe it went via a third party ie another bank. That's the only thing I can think of - they do have more than one bank of their own in Thailand but can't remember the other ones name - if they for example sent it to Kasikorn but paid it from their balance at their other bank, I guess that would happen.

[Soidog]

21 minutes ago, Benroon said:

Once I had a question for Wise and to be fair they called me back here - and tbh were very helpful (regarding a house purchase so stressful already) but they sorted everything out.

Did you contact them and ask what happened in that instance ? I've never seen that so would be interested to know. It's obviously to do with the way it is routed to its final destination so maybe it went via a third party ie another bank. That's the only thing I can think of - they do have more than one bank of their own in Thailand but can't remember the other ones name - if they for example sent it to Kasikorn but paid it from their balance at their other bank, I guess that would happen.

Yes I’m in contact with them and initially they said they did not have control over how the intermediary bank (Kasikorn) coded all transactions. I explained that this needed to be 100% accurate. They are now looking in to the transaction, but some weeks on they claim to be waiting for a response from Kasikorn. 
 

A few years ago, transactions would take an hour or more, now they can take seconds. They achieve this by holding money in a local bank and your transaction is paid from the local Wise bank to your bank. This all seems automated given the speed of the transaction. The fact this never happens over a weekend suggests some manual intervention is required? 
 

Whatever the reasons, this flaw, albeit a small percentage, could severely screw up your visa extension if you rely on the 65,000+ Baht per month being sent to Thailand. You could land lucky and it not happen to you. If it does, then what…

[Benroon]

44 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Yes I’m in contact with them and initially they said they did not have control over how the intermediary bank (Kasikorn) coded all transactions. I explained that this needed to be 100% accurate. They are now looking in to the transaction, but some weeks on they claim to be waiting for a response from Kasikorn. 
 

A few years ago, transactions would take an hour or more, now they can take seconds. They achieve this by holding money in a local bank and your transaction is paid from the local Wise bank to your bank. This all seems automated given the speed of the transaction. The fact this never happens over a weekend suggests some manual intervention is required? 
 

Whatever the reasons, this flaw, albeit a small percentage, could severely screw up your visa extension if you rely on the 65,000+ Baht per month being sent to Thailand. You could land lucky and it not happen to you. If it does, then what…

Mine to Bangkok Bank are always next business day at 14:01 - never had a same day transfer. So anything sent Friday I don't get until Monday afternoon. Annoying.

I think the only ones in seconds are the ones sent to the banks Wise have an account with.

The Then what - I guess check each time and if it happens, and you have the cash do it again, do it again but contact them first I guess.

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, Benroon said:

Mine to Bangkok Bank are always next business day at 14:01 - never had a same day transfer. So anything sent Friday I don't get until Monday afternoon. Annoying.

I think the only ones in seconds are the ones sent to the banks Wise have an account with.

The Then what - I guess check each time and if it happens, and you have the cash do it again, do it again but contact them first I guess.

They seem to use Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank for transfers. It seems that when the coding does go wrong, it’s when it’s sent to my Bangkok Bank account via the Kasikorn Wise account. You can see which bank is used for each transaction by selecting the transaction on the Wise App, then selecting Details. Scroll down and select Get a PDF receipt. Page 2 of the PDF shows the bank used. As you can see below, both banks are used. 
 

As for the Then What. That’s really all you can do I send some more money within the month and hope it goes right this time. Not an option for everyone of course. I’ll update this thread as and when I hear anything further from Wise.