Can't send money to Thailand via Western Union Online

[Karee 4,190]

Yes if you do a wire transfer it still has that fee - you need to just add it as an account, usually you can add an account online... Or ask them to do an "ACH (Automated Clearing House) Transfer"

Damn. I had it setup wrong on the BoA side. I set it up right, and now the fee is $3 vs. $35. For the $3 fee it takes 3 days, but who cares. Kicking myself in the a$$. Ohh well, at least I know now.

Thanks alot for posting this. You saved me alot of future cash.

[Andy and Pui 16]

Do you set this up like a bill pay or something different?

[Karee 4,190]

Do you set this up like a bill pay or something different?

I went down that road first. But that wasn't it. It's not obvious on the BoA website, probably for a reason. I went to transfers and then To/From other banks vs. To/from other people. And then went from there. The to/from other people is where they ding you the $35. The to/from other banks is where it was only $3. I sent $100 Friday just to test if it works right or not. I'll come back tomorrow and post the results.

[Sam B 1]

Get a new bank IMO - most of them don't charge anything for that type of transfer in my experience. Credit unions are usually good, or USAA (anybody can use USAA for banking, you just don't get deposit@home last time I checked) - I think Chase is also free...

[Karee 4,190]

Update. I looked at my U.S. BoA account this morning, and the $100 was back in there. I called BoA and they said the Bangkok Bank office in NY rejected it. I called the person at NY Bangkok Bank that sends the money to Thailand, and she says that she never got it from the person there at the Bangkok Bank Branch in New York that that sends it to her. Peter (212)329-9240 is that person and he doesn't get in until after 10:00 am.

Just an FYI for everyone. I'll come back and let everyone know what Peter had to say about it.

[Karee 4,190]

So it appears the issue was somewhere between the chair and the keyboard on my end. I entered the recipient as "Bangkok Bank" and not my my wife's mother's name. Thankfully Bangkok Bank didn't say "Thanks for the donation" and keep it. They rejected it and sent it back. Of course BoA kept my $3. Not that I blame them. I'll make a second attempt at this tonight when I get home.

[Karee 4,190]

Ok I tried it again and actually entered the person's name instead of just "Bangkok Bank" Hopefully it goes better this time.

[Karee 4,190]

I figured I'd update this thread. I've sent money multiple times through the Bangkok Bank NYC branch with no issues. (It helps if you actually enter the person's name where it asks for it)

The problem I have is that is an ACH transfer which with most banks is free. Not with BoA. They want $25 for same day ACH, $10 for 2 days, and $3 for 3 days. That's B.S. in my book. So I'm in the process of trying another angle using Google Wallet. I have a google wallet account, and I setup another google wallet account using my wife's gmail. I set the bank account to be my niece's Account with the Bangkok Bank US routing number and the account number in Thailand on my wife's google wallet. Google sends a test deposit and you have to go back and tell them the amount to verify the account. I'm waiting to see if this shows up in my nieces account. If it does, then we are good to go. We can make free transfers to Bangkok Bank. My reasoning for messing with all this, is I'm going to be opening an account in Bangkok when I go there for Songkran in a couple weeks, and I'd like to be able to move money to that account for free from the U.S.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[slowlyman 118]

Good info

[TEX_715 6]

money gram is cheaper than western union

schwab bank accounts refund the 150 baht ATM fee

[Karee 4,190]

I was able to open a Bangkok Bank account yesterday with no problems at all. However, another VJ member was told no way at a different branch.

They're supposed to send me an email with the login info for Ibanking and they're sending the login PIN to my mother in law's address. Next I setup the Bangkok Bank NY routing number and account on my wife's gmail (google wallet) account. Waiting for the test ACH to go through. If/when this happens, I should be able to send money with no fees from my google wallet account to my Bangkok Bank account via ACH and not have to bend over and take it from BoA every time I want to do so.