Citibank Thailand

[Barney]

I am after feedback or information regarding dealings with Citibank in Thailand specifically in the Khon Kaen or UT areas. Not sure of branches which I could go and have a chat about starting accounts. As life leads me closer to eventual retirement and my permanancy of residing in Thailand I am looking to continue dealings with Citibank. I have all my SGD savings, credit and AUD foreign currency accounts with them in Singapore and have no intention of moving all money matters to Thailand. Citibank has been very good for service in Singapore and their online banking and transfers are good. I currently enter Thailand on tourist visas, use my girls house address and have commenced personal SCB savings account and a SCB joint account in Khon Kaen with the better half for a small business venture we run in Khon Kaen.

Keen to know any Citi pros and cons in Thailand. Especially if once money is in a Thai bank account can you tranfer money out of Thailand on international tranfers. I will be back in KK and UT February to seek Citibank out.
Regards

[fdimike]

My understanding is that Citibank is a Commercial bank only with an office in Bangkok.

[mykthemin]

Correct only in Bangkok, a friend of mine has a savings account with them and calls them thieving bastards!! due to hidden fees when he transfers from his citibank in us, they say only 30 bucks then he always gets charged 45 bucks!! 15 bucks charged by intermediatry bank, which is also citibank!!

[Barney]

Thanks Fdimike, I was not aware of that. That would put a stopper personal banking.

Mikthemin yes their fees are high but not to much more than my aussie ANZ bank, at least in Singapore. $45 seems excesive though more than Singapore. I use their other services a lot including premier miles credit card which provides myself with quality free travel insurance and airport lounge access which helps me as i travel a lot.
I have only seen Citibank as a open type stand in Big C Khon Kaen and thought they were drumming up business, as I say i will be in Thailand in Feb and will see if they are still there. To get a fuller picture.

Thanks for the coments,
Perhaps you could advise if money can be transferred from thailand from any thai bank as i have SCB accounts and only transfer in at the moment.

[fdimike]

Barney
There may have been some changes since I last looked into Citibank. Here's their web site:

http://www.citibank.co.th/en/services/s ... branch.htm

It appears they are handling personal banking now as well.

[rick]

I'm not an expert. but Thailand's currency exchange regulations are fairly comprehensive and a bit vague (probably due to the legal wording). You can bring in money without limit. But money in a baht account is pretty hard to repatriate - you require evidence that the money was brought into the country (what evidence i don't know but in these days of electronic transfer you may not have much). But you can always take out 50,000 baht in cash - 500,000 to neighbouring countries. If you want to be able to shift your money easily you have to keep it in a Thai foreign currency account. You can buy foreign currency notes in Udon in theory but while they will take all the usual currencies trying to buy them back is another matter! Only a few banks keep any stock even though they have 'bureau de change' signs up!

[Barney]

Thanks fdimike.
Have checked the web site out and have sent an email query to them for more information on how they can help. I have previously approached citibank in Singapore but short story is they just say that Citibank Thailand is another entity and to visit them personally.
Rick,
Your comments are relevant to me regarding money transfers and my initial fears may be wrong that banking in Thailand are similar to Vietnam, where I have been entering for work and leasure for about 10 years now, where the communist thinking doesn't allow free movement of your money out for international transfer. They like Thailand love to have you bring in as much as you can carry or transfer, but , try taking it out. It appears that thailand is not so strict.

I have recently travelled with my Thai girlfriend to Japan and was advised by the travel agent to carry cash as the ATM's were scarce in the snow field, proved to be correct, we exchanged 60,000 thb into Jap Yen at a Kasikorn bank in KK with no prior notice and then had no problems changing Yen back to Thbt on return.
I am learning more and more reading forums and listening to others about banking in thailand, one thing i was told some time ago is that I could not start bank accounts on a tourist Visa. This was proven wrong as in KK i have started 1 personal and 1 joint account with SCB. I'll assume that having a household address helped?? I have had a Thai bank account before a few years ago in Thailand while employed on a work visa, but this was only for my company to deposit my Thai Baht living allowance.
Thanks to all and if i have some positive usefull info on my next visit I will feedback. Appologies if this is long winded but i have learnt that indo from fello westerners can avoid a lot of frustration when the translation with my girlfriend and customer service people heads off onto the inevitable Thai thought tangent. But thats another thread!!
Barney

[JimboPSM]

If the assets are substantial my inclination would be to keep them in Singapore, open an account at one of the major Thai commercial banks at the main branch in the area that you intend to live (check that Citibank has a good correspondent relationship with the Thai commercial bank) and then transfer funds from Singapore to Thailand as and when required.

To minimise transfer costs this should be possible using internet banking (but you would need to check with Citibank regarding what they can or cannot do with internet banking).

I have no idea how good or bad Citibank is at the operational level so It may help to investigate the possibility of transferring your business from Citibank to one of the other major banks operating in Singapore, if you were to do that it is something that should be done sooner rather than later as you need to become familiar with their operations and ideally get to know some of the banking staff before you relocate to Thailand.

One of the problems with opening new accounts anywhere these days are the anti money laundering and KYC rules which are in force at banks everywhere – banks frequently become uncomfortable with new customers that start transferring monies to other countries and unfortunately Thailand as a destination is one that is fairly high on that list so (at least theoretically) the longer that you have an account at a bank the fewer the problems you experience.

As Rick mentioned it is easy to transfer monies into Thailand but, because of the foreign exchange laws in Thailand which Thai banks interpret in differing ways, it can be much harder to transfer them back out – my inclination would be to limit the transfers in to the amounts of money needed to comply with visa regulations, living expenses and an emergency fund.

In my opinion Singapore is one of the best regulated countries in the world and the standard of business English is (IMHO) the best in SE Asia which makes it much easier to get things done correctly, there is also a culture of customer service in Singapore something which is still in its early stages of development in Thailand; overall I believe that your assets would be safer left in Singapore than brought to Thailand.

Experiences of what one can or cannot do in Thailand vary enormously, so advice on forums should be treated with caution, the advice may be well intentioned and based on personal experiences but it is not set in tablets of stone.

[Barney]

Thanks JimboPSM,
Some good food for thought comments there, it will assist in arming me with many queries of the banks, my personal thinking is very much aligned with you and i did only mentioned it briefly in the opening post that I have no intention of setting up all my affairs in Thailand because as you say Singapore is a very safe haven for banking and my AUD account is easily accessed online. My other reason for not setting up 100% in thai is my "once bitten twice shy attitude" after a divorce in Australia. I won't be left short again. One becomes somewhat more selfish with money after the pain subsides. In saying that I have a good hard working thai partner and we will live as comfortable as required. I will most likely just have a Thbt savings account to transfer into from Singapore and a credit card, their credit card has some good add ons for frequent travellers like myself.
Another reason for having a Citibank Thai account is that international money tranfers between one or more domestic or international citibank accounts is free using their global transfer setup. Their fees are high as mentioned in an earlier post, 45usd I think, and utilising Citibank Global transfer these fees are eliminated.
Yes I already have a Thai SCB savings account and pleased with their online internet banking so far.
Thanks to all for some good common sense comments. Has opened my mind up to putting more thought into how I set up finances to become a future retired Thai resident.
regards Barney

Kind regards Barney