Sending money to SEAsia

Sending money to SEAsia

When I go somewhere for holiday, I research in advance which way (exchange cash or withdraw money from ATM) has the least loss against exchange rate on xe.com. But for spending longer time, a bank account in that country is useful for general life and for transfer and storage of money.

Thailand
Ever since all banks started charging ATM fees around 2015, I have been sending money from my German bank account to my Thai bank account with Transferwise (now just: Wise) and have been happy with their service. Details here: https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2016/07/money-exchange.html

Update 1mar2022:
I tried Foreign Remittance as described in
https://digitaltourist.co/free-thai-baht-cash-atm-withdrawals-thailand/ and commented the following (didn't appear yet):

Comment 8jan2022: Withdrawal at counter works but was 5.7% more expensive than had I done the same transaction on Wise (I have a bank account in Thailand). SCB branch in Tuk-Com South Pattaya, comdirect visa credit card. I didn't have to put in my PIN. There is a "communication fee" of 180 THB added to the 20k THB that I withdrew. The printout of the transaction says "Cash Advance". My bank charged 16.47 EUR fee and the exchange rate was 36.75 vs. 37.63 that I would have gotten on Wise.

Cambodia
In preparation of my trip to Cambodia (Oct 2020 to present), I sent money to a friend’s bank account with Transferwise. There were unsually high fees that were not under Transferwise’s control, but still make sending money with transferwise uneconomical. I shared details here: https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?21466-How-to-send-money-to-Cambodia

Now I withdraw money from ATM (4 USD ATM fee, 700 USD withdrawal amount, that's an acceptable loss), details here: https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2021/05/cambodia-general-observations.html

Within Cambodia, I have used Wing once to send money to a boy to see how Wing works. For a transfer of 50 USD there was a fee of 0.75 USD. I had to to give my friend’s and my phone number to the clerk. I didn’t get an SMS, but I assume my friend did. The receipt had an 8-digit number, which I sent to my friend so he can retrieve the money.

Now that I once checked how it works, I can go back to “I can’t/don’t/won’t send money online, because I don’t know how to do it and it’s too late/dark/rainy/windy/far…”.

ATMs in Cambodia are often air-conditioned and alone in a booth or several in a booth:

Here the air-con was set too cold, leading to condensation all over the booth:

Similar in Thailand, every bank has their own ATM leading to (collective noun for ATMs?) of up to 8 ATM (the highest number I have seen). Whereas in Germany, banks work together to share their ATMs without fee for customer, AFAIK there are two such groups and you just have to find an ATM from your bank's group to withdraw without fee.

Myanmar
A friend in Myanmar recently asked me for financial support, and I consider him a deserving case, and was up for the challenge of sending money to Myanmar, so I made some inquiries. Transferwise does not offer money transfers to Myanmar. A White friend who used to work in Myanmar doesn’t have a bank account there and doesn’t know how to send money to Myanmar.

A Myanmar friend who works in Thailand cannot send money from his Myanmar bank account to another Myanmar bank account while he is in Thailand. I don’t understand why, but that’s what he said*. He recommended truemoney, but my friend in Myanmar does not have truemoney and was not able to set up an account on truemoney.

* I refrained from asking the same question in a different way because he is intelligent and I don't want to sound like my Thai friends, who, when I answer a question with a statement, reply "Really?" and I think "Yes, that’s what I just said!"

One of my banks in Germany comdirect does not have Myanmar in their list of countries for online banking (but I inquired: upon written request they can transfer money to Myanmar, with fees).

My other bank in Germany consors has Myanmar in their list of countries for online banking. All I had was a picture of the boy’s bank book with his Romanized name, bank account number, name of bank. With name of bank I got the BIC from internet and the following details (edited for brevity):

https://www.kbzbank.com/en/remittance/international-remittance/
Remittance Information
Fees and Charges
For Foreign Currency A/C – USD 11 (or) equivalent amount of USD 11 with SGD and EUR per transaction
Required Documents
Required documents depend on purpose of remittance (eg. agreement, contract, invoices, etc.)
*For any transfer amount of the purpose of Capital / Investment, Loan & Export / CMP Charges, documents must be provided.

Assuming there would be quite some fees, it’s not worth sending 50 EUR, but rather send 100 EUR, the highest I ever sent to a boy in one transaction. The transaction went through, with 100 EUR plus 19.95 EUR my bank’s fees plus 12.50 EUR receiver’s banks fees immediately deducted from my bank account.

7 days later, my friend received the money. I was worried if some documentation is necessary, see above. He received 165 kMMK, at 1 EUR = 1932 MMK that corresponds to 85.40 EUR, a loss of 14.60 EUR or 28,200 MMK on the 100 EUR I sent. That makes declared fees 19.95 EUR + 12.50 EUR + unspecified losses 14.60 EUR. I asked my friend for a screenshot or some other documentation, but he said he doesn't have any.

I spent 132.45 EUR, he received the equivalent of 85.40 EUR, which is a loss of 36 %. This is proof that you can send money from Germany to Myanmar, with unacceptable processing times and unacceptable fees. I wouldn’t do it again unless it’s a matter of life or death (mine, not the boy’s).

Western Union
It doesn't look bad on their website (fee 1.90 EUR, exchange rate 1 EUR = 1828 MMK, a loss of 6% against xe.com 1945) but only cash pick-up, which is an inconvenience on my friend's side. It sounds too good to be true, and it probably is. There must be further hidden fees. There are 6 foot notes which gives an idea of what's to come.

Paypal
About 15 years ago, using paypal was compulsory on ebay. Something I didn’t like, but had to submit to at that time. But since then, paypal is on my blacklist, and occasional news like this confirm my aversion to paypal. 

I ordered the ‘Persian rug’ pad from Etsy, and then had my account suspended
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/12/paypal-says-my-mouse-mat-violates-international-sanctions

source: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cdd8a43b7d296180e2703607b972f80ed09f609a/0_148_4450_2670/master/4450.jpg

And reports of people with the same family name, or living under the same address, or having the same birthday as someone else, having their accounts frozen. Kafkaesque! Not with me!

Monito
Recently I became aware of a website https://www.monito.com that compares all money sending services. But couldn't help with EUR to MMK: We couldn't find any provider for a 100 EUR - MMK transfer.

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