How I Send Money to Thailand in 2022; Wise to Thailand (formerly Transferwise)

I’ve lived in Thailand since 2007 when I was teaching English in Chiang Mai. I started my blog, started making a good travel blogger salary, and ended up making quite a chunk of change. But how do I send money to Thailand for my life here? Paypal? Western Union? No, and even bigger NO! I use Wise to Thailand. Every. Single Time.

TOP-TIP: If you use my link, the sign-up bonus for Wise (Transferwise) lets you send your first $500 completely for free. HERE IS THE LINK.

Send money to Thailand with Wise (formerly Transferwise)

This article is REALLY simple. If you want to send money from the UK, US, Australia, wherever, to Thailand then you just have to use Wise (Transferwise). People will tell you other options (I’ll go through those below) but JUST USE WISE. It’s the cheapest, fastest, best way. Honestly.

If you sign-up with my link, you get your first 500GBP transfer for free too.

Why I Use Wise to transfer money to Thailand?

If you spend time in other countries or travel a lot. You’ll know XE.com. It’s a website that shows the REAL exchange rates. From GBP to THB, from USD to THB. Whatever. But if you send money to Thailand using your bank, or even worse Paypal, Moneygram or Western Union, then you don’t get anything like the ‘XE rate’. You get an awful exchange created by the company, and they pocket the difference.

Wise don’t do this! If you wire money with Wise to Thailand using Wise you get the ACTUAL, REAL EXCHANGE rate. Minus a tiny fee. It’s honestly amazing.

Why Transfer wise is best:

• You get the REAL exchange rate
• The fees are the lowest BY A DISTANCE
• After you’ve set up your Thai account and transferred the first time, the second time you get the money almost instantly
• Over 10million customers ($6 billion sent every month!)
• Created by the guys who invented Skype
• FCA regulated
• NO HIDDEN FEES
• You can send money straight from your debit card, or from your bank account. You can choose which one you want to use each time.
• Free to register and set-up.
• You can also receive money in Euro, USD, or GBP too.
• You can keep your money in Wise if you want, and use the Wise Mastercard (or just use it as a middleman to send the money through).
• My link gives your first transfer FREE of fees when you Wise to Thailand.

Not only for Thailand

I use Wise 100% when I money transfer to Thailand. But it’s not only used for Thailand. I use it to send money any time Im sending money to friends, or businesses, in other countries. You can use it almost anywhere.

What About Paypal, Moneygram, Western Union, or Bank Transfer to Thailand?

Just no. No, no, no. Please don’t do this. I did it for years and lost a fortune. Why?

• All 4 of these have higher fees than Wise
• All 4 of these have worse exchange rates than Wise
• People use these because they’ve ‘heard of them’ or ‘used them before’. It’s an awful way to send money to Thailand. Use Wise and thank me later with a beer!

Sign-up Bonus with Wise

If you use my link, https://wise.com/invite/i/johnw4519, you get your first 500 quid Wise to Thailand (or to anywhere) free!

How Much Do You Save By Using Wise?

Here are 2 examples. Send $1000USD Wise to Thailand, or send £1000GBP to Thailand. If you use Wise you save $36 with the USD, or £21 with the GBP as opposed to sending with your bank. If you try that with Paypal, Moneygram or Western Union then you’d save even more with Wise.

Last year I saved over £10,000 pounds ($13,000USD) when I was sending money to Thailand using Wise to Thailand. That is wild.

How Does Wise work? Step by step

1) Sign up for free HERE.

That includes your email address, creating a password, and the country residence. You get an email to confirm registration. Click that and you’re in. If you use my link, your first transfer is free.

You can also choose to sign in via facebook (I did that), Apple or Google.

2) Enter the amount

Enter the amount of money (in the currency you want to send) you want to send, or the amount of money in any currency you want the receiver to receive.

3) Enter the recipients’ details

They don’t have to have Wise to receive money. It will go straight to their bank account. Add their name, their IBAN and his bank’s BIC/SWIFT code. If they DO have Wise, you can simply search for their email, that’s all you need. It’ll send instantly!

4) Choose How To Send Your Money

You then choose how to send your money. You can send directly from your debit card (for a slightly higher fee), or you can go into your online banking and send the money from your UK account to Wise’s UK account (or US to US, AUD to AUD, Wise have accounts everywhere). This is the cheapest way to do it.

For me, if I’m sending like $20 or whatever, I just use my card. If I’m sending like $50k, I do it via online banking, where I have Wise set-up as a Payee.

5) Done!

If you Wise to Thailand via your debit card, or it’s a small amount. Normally, the money sent to Thailand will appear almost instantly. If it’s the first time you’ve sent it to this person (or your own bank account in Thailand), or it’s a large amount, then the first time can take a couple of days.

Final thoughts on the best way to send money to Thailand; Wise to Thailand

I know you probably think this is just another blogger talking nonsense. It’s not. Every single person I know uses Transferwise to send money to Thailand. If you’re financially literate, transferwise to Thailand is THE way to do it. And even better, we both make even more savings by using my referral link here:

https://wise.com/invite/i/johnw4519

Transferwise is amazing for all types of reasons. I’ve written about why to use transferwise in another article. This one is just showing one little piece of why it’s great to send money to Thailand. But you can hold currency in it, use a transferwise card, withdraw money overseas for free. Loads of stuff. You can read about that in the other article about transferwise!

Other cool Thailand content on my blog:

• Your perfect 3 day Bangkok Itinerary
• 3 days in Chiang Mai Itinerary
• A perfect Bangkok Staycation
• Maeklong Railway market (the market where the train runs right through it!)
• Erawan Museum
• Damnoen Saduak Floating Market from Bangkok
• Day trip to Ayutthaya from Bangkok
• Wakeboarding in Bangkok
• My experience Teeth Whitening in Bangkok
• Getting Invisalign Bangkok (best decision I ever made!)
• Best clubs in Bangkok nightlife
• Studying Thai in Bangkok; My experience
• Best Pizza in Bangkok
• Khao San Road, Bangkok
• Kao Yao Noi island
• Khao Lak Itinerary
• Koh Larn day trip from Bangkok or Pattaya
• Koh Phayam Island
• Best Tailor in Bangkok
• White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), Chiang Rai
• Phu Chi Fah Thailand’s best sunrise spot on the Laos Border
• Things to do in Kanchanaburi
• Buying a Condo in Bangkok
• Airplane Graveyard Bangkok
• Things to see in Ranong
• How to invoice as a freelancer