Job Discussion Forums

[Nimah]

Hello,

Looking for a little sage advice here. I'm working at an international school in Myanmar and make visa runs to Bangkok every 10 weeks.

Due to the completely unreliable (and nonexistent) banking system here, what do you think is the best way for me to send my US dollar salary home to Canada? Yes, yes the exchange is awful. Don't worry I haven't been living under a rock, I know all about it.

Some have suggested getting money orders from banks. Is this best? I'm just looking for the quickest, easiest and preferably economical method for getting my money home. I do not have a work permit for Thailand as I don't actually work there.

Any assistance would be very greatly appreciated.

Nim

[PattyFlipper]

Thai banks are really not that much better than Myanmar (though I have no experience of the latter) when it comes to efficiency and customer service. They are incredibly parochial and also very racist in their policies.

I am not really sure what the actual rules are regarding sending money OUT of Thailand (like everything else there, I am sure they change every 10 minutes and depend on which official you are dealing with and what he or she had for breakfast), but the reality is that it is incredibly difficult. The Thai government and media periodically bombard the bovine, appallingly-educated masses with xenophobic propaganda about how the barbarian farang are plundering and looting Thailand and sending their ill-gotten gains out of the country.

Some time ago, I tried to send out a few hundred dollars to pay a credit card bill (foreigners have great difficulty getting Thai cards, whatever their immigration status). The two Thai banks with whom I had accounts flatly refused to allow me to do so - would not allow either electronic transfer or sell me a draft. I tried 2 Western Union branches, only to be told by the Thai minions working there that WU in Thailand was only for sending money INTO the country! (I later reported this to WU's Head Office in the USA and was informed it was abject nonsense). The banks also refused to sell me foreign currency cash. In the end, I had to get a Thai to go to the airport, exchange baht for foreign currency and then send it by EMS. A far from ideal solution - though it did eventually arrive. I would add that this was in Bangkok, not some place out in the sticks. Others I know have experienced similar problems, and the expat discussion boards sometimes have threads on this.

Of course, as I said above, the rules and how they are applied vary from minute-to-minute and from person-to-person. However, since you will only be in Thailand on a visitors/tourist visa, I will wager that you will find it very difficult, if not impossible. My suggestion would be to fly to Singapore, which actually has a banking system worthy of the name, absent the Thai xenophobia. A closer alternative would be Cambodia, which also has no currency control regulations. Cambodian bank staff are usually friendly and helpful and do not discriminate against foreigners. I have bank accounts in Phnom Penh and have made international electronic transfers in and out without mishap. There are also Western Union and/or Moneygram agencies all over the city.

Another point to consider is that in the extremely unlikely event that you do manage to find a Thai institution willing to assist you, they will almost certainly insist that you change your dollars into baht, and then back into dollars again before making the transfer or supplying a draft, (unless you send it in baht and allow your bank in Canada to do the reconversion). Either way, you are going to be stung for two lots of currency conversion charges, in addition to also losing out on the buy/sell exchange rate. In Cambodia you will not have this problem as the US dollar is a parallel currency in everyday circulation, and they will allow you to send dollars directly, with no conversion required.