Sending £1,000 or $1,000 to Thailand — How Many Baht Actually Arrive by Wise and by Bank Wire (Checked 24 September 2026)
On 24 September 2026, £1,000 sent by Wise landed as ฿43,930 in a Thai account; the same £1,000 by Santander SWIFT arrived as about ฿41,921, and by Lloyds ฿42,026. The US figures, the ฿200 the Thai bank takes on every wire, and when a wire is still the right choice.
On the night of 23–24 September 2026 we priced one transfer of £1,000 and one of $1,000 into a Thai bank account, by Wise and by the bank wires British and American banks sell. The gap between the best and the worst was ฿2,009 on the pound transfer and ฿1,565 on the dollar one.
£1,000 from a UK account
| Method | Sending fee | Rate used (฿ per £) | Thai bank fee | Baht in the Thai account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wise, paid by bank transfer | £7.77 | 44.2736 (mid-market) | none | 43,930 |
| Wise, paid by debit card | £10.89 | 44.2736 | none | 43,791 |
| Barclays, sent in pounds, Bangkok Bank converts | £0 in the app | 43.7925 (Bangkok Bank buying rate) | ฿200 | 43,593 * |
| HSBC UK, converted by HSBC | £5 (see below) | 43.6477 | ฿200 | 43,229 |
| NatWest, converted by NatWest | £0 | 43.2655 | ฿200 | 43,065 |
| Barclays, converted by Barclays | £0 in the app | 43.0805 | ฿200 | 42,881 |
| Nationwide | £15 | 43.3908 | ฿200 | 42,540 |
| Lloyds | £9.50 | 42.6310 | ฿200 | 42,026 |
| Santander UK | £25 | 43.2007 | ฿200 | 41,921 |
* Before any intermediary bank's deduction, which the sender cannot see in advance. The same applies to every wire row.
$1,000 from a US account
| Method | Sending fee | Rate used (฿ per $) | Thai bank fee | Baht in the Thai account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wise, paid by bank transfer | $14.05 | 33.4355 (mid-market) | none | 32,966 |
| Wise, paid by debit card | $20.16 | 33.4355 | none | 32,761 |
| Wells Fargo, converted by Wells Fargo | $0 | 32.3670 | ฿200 | 32,167 |
| Chase online wire in dollars, Bangkok Bank converts | $40 | 33.09 | ฿200 | 31,566 * |
| Bank of America wire in dollars, Bangkok Bank converts | $45 | 33.09 | ฿200 | 31,401 * |
Chase and Bank of America also offer to convert to baht themselves, but neither publishes the rate it uses; Chase's fee schedule (effective 14 June 2026) says only that the rate includes a spread. We could not price those two options.
Why the wires lose
Two costs stack up. The sending bank converts at a rate between 1.4% (HSBC) and 3.7% (Lloyds) worse than mid-market, according to the rates Wise collected from each bank on 22–24 September. Then the Thai bank takes 0.25% of every incoming SWIFT payment, with a minimum of ฿200 and a maximum of ฿500. On £1,000 or $1,000 the minimum applies. Kasikornbank, SCB, Krungthai, Krungsri, TTB, CIMB Thai and the Government Savings Bank all charge that 0.25% / ฿200 / ฿500, according to the Bank of Thailand's fee comparison on 24 September. HSBC's Thai branch charges nothing. Bangkok Bank's own schedule, effective 1 July 2026, charges the recipient the same 0.25%, charges nothing if the sender has paid the fee, and adds ฿150 if you collect the money as cash.
Wise avoids the ฿200 because it pays out through Thailand's domestic transfer system: the money arrives as a local transfer, not a SWIFT payment.
On the HSBC fee, two sources disagree. The rate data Wise collects lists HSBC UK's fee as £0. HSBC's own international-transfer page says £5 to a non-HSBC account. The table uses £5, taken from the £1,000; at £0 the transfer would deliver ฿43,448.
When the wire is still the right choice
Wise's local payout comes with two limits that matter for some people.
- Per-transfer caps into Thai banks. Wise's help page lists ฿2,000,000 per transfer into Bangkok Bank and Kasikornbank, ฿1,499,999 into SCB, and ฿500,000 into other banks. Transfers into Bangkok Bank can take 24 hours or more.
- No foreign-transfer paperwork. Wise states it cannot issue a "Confirmation Letter of International Fund Transfer". A condominium purchase needs the money to arrive from abroad in foreign currency, with the Thai bank's foreign exchange transaction form for the land office. That requires a SWIFT wire. If you might ever want to show that money came from abroad, wire it, send it in your own currency and let the Thai bank convert. Tell the bank the purpose before you send.
The retirement-extension deposit (฿800,000 held in a Thai bank) does not, in the immigration rules we read, require the money to come by SWIFT. Some officers ask anyway; see proof of funds for Thai visas.
How we got these numbers
- Wise: a quote from Wise's public API at 02:29 on 24 September (Thai time), for £1,000 and $1,000 sent to a THB bank account.
- Rates and fees of the other banks: Wise's public comparison API, which records each bank's rate and fee. Wise collected these entries at different times between 22 and 24 September. Wise gathered this data about its competitors, so it is a secondary source. Where a bank's own page exists we checked it (HSBC UK, Barclays, the Chase and Bank of America fee schedules).
- Bangkok Bank: its published rate for converting incoming transfers (TT buying rate), 14:50 on 23 September, and its fee schedule effective 1 July 2026.
- Thai receiving fees: the Bank of Thailand's fee comparison page, 24 September 2026.
Exchange rates move every minute, so price your own transfer on the day you send. The fees and each bank's margin change far less often than the rate does.