Bank Are Terminating My Account - Can I Get A Bank Draft

[pumpjack]

banks written to tell me they are terminating my account from 11. 2. 20

dont know why this is, they had me in 2 week ago asking me where i got money to pay large sums into, i gave them an honest explanation ( money came from sale of home in thailand , thai bank would not let me repatriate my money so i took it out in cash and carried it home to uk with me. )

can i get a bank draft for approx 90K
put it into another bank either here in uk or eire .
dont want send back to thailand as i would lose too much on transfer rates but i may have no other choice.
if international transfer use transferwise ?
could take it out in cash and resort back to hiding it away but that is last resort.

money is legal before any smart remarks

[Peter Pedant]

oh damn I missed ubasses advice

thanks Danny for the internet ref where I read
"Officers will only seize cash if they have reasonable grounds to suspect it is the proceeds of, or is intended for use in, unlawful conduct."

a little later on, it tells you how to appeal - I can tell you D, I have been nearer this than you have

[pumpjack]

Mark as Best Answer
( We can only answer if we know the full story and I feel that you have been vague. You have only given information where it suits you.

1. To own houses in Thailand (as opposed to condos) you have to be a Thai citizen with one or two exceptions. One being that you are employed in certain sectors required by Thailand (teachers and so forth). You cannot prove your employment, so this is not the case. Therefore presumably the house was not in your name, and you had purchased in some one else's name - or it was a lease.
2. I have no trouble remitting funds to the UK but I can prove where my funds come from, and I have not had to send a large amount that goes above Thai export controls, but it is always gets checked where it comes from.
3. The Thai Bank were not satisfied and so you took it out in cash and "smuggled" it into the UK unbeknown to the Thai authorities.......
Can you please tell me why this is not money laundering? You say it is your money, but why did you have problems in Thailand, something does not make sense! )

jjj you sir are talking absolute rubbish, ive lived on/off thailand 20 years. had / owned 2 houses in that time. you are wrong !

if you are having difficulty then read the thread from start to finiosh, then youll see that i bought the condo ore plan and sold it pre plan then thai bank would not let me repatriate my money.

noone smuggled anything back to uk !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my money is legal read the post proper

[Ringlet]

It always surprises me how people think it is ok to ask for advice on here, then argue and insult those who offer that advice. Pumpjack if you have taken the same attitude with the bank that you have taken with some of the people on here who have tried to help you, I am not surprised the bank staff are kicking you into touch.

[douglas9401]

Is there any chance of there having been a misunderstanding at the counter plus a full and frank exchange of views with bank employees at any time to bring this on?

[douglas9401]

Snap! Kind of. :-)

[Peter Pedant]

as before - you have to ask the bank and not us

I note
//I have no trouble remitting funds to the UK but I can prove where my funds come from, //
//then thai bank would not let me repatriate my money.//

no wonder I dont understand what is going on

[Peter Pedant]

No - there has to be a paper trail if you are terminating an account which is in credit of £90k

(1990 - I had a cheque for £100k refused to pay in ! - and it turned out there was no manager - I met him later that month on his first day - and the staff as a consortium had just sort of done it, by democratic vote)

[scorpiojo]

DD, JJ109 lives in Thailand. Just saying.

[ummmm]

Jo - I don't think he lives in Thailand any longer.

[JJ109]

Pumpjack - you did not say condo, you referred to "home" which I interpreted as house. Condos can be legally bought in their own name by non-Thais provided ownership of the individual condos is 49% or less of the condos sold in that complex.

You cannot own land in your own right and must use a nominee, normally a "partner". The commonest (but not only) way is for the foreigner to "lend" the money to the partner and obtain a lease for the maximum of 30 years. The "rent" is normally set at the level of "interest" for the loan. Problems often occur though should the partners fall out and then it gets complicated.

Upon sale of property, tax is payable and it is very common for arrangements in Thailand to be made between buyer and seller to understate the value of the property so that less tax is paid. This of course means that there is no paper trail for the amount that the property is actually sold for.

[THECORBYLOON]

Although you are free to ask questions and folk are free to offer advice, the bank must be the ones to make the final decision as to what you can or cannot do.

Rather than getting frustrated with responses on here, why not ask the bank directly?

[Buenchico]

Did you legally bring the money into the EU (either the UK or Ireland), Pumpjack?

If you declared it when you brought it in (as you were required to do), the UK/Irish authorities must have been happy for you to bring the money in. (Otherwise they could have temporarily seized it and then applied for a court order to confiscate it if they suspected criminality). If that happened, were you given any paperwork to show that the authorities approved the importation? If so, that paperwork might be useful in helping you prove to another bank that there's nothing dodgy about the money.

(Of course, if you risked a £5k fine by not declaring the money, that's not going to help).