[soi 2]

I was toying with the idea of sending a girl some money for her birthday. I'm not looking for advice as to whether thats a good use of money. Just wondering what the cheapest way of sending cash to a Thai national is. Some of you guys might have more experience in these matters than me.

I had a look at Western Union, using 5000 baht as figure to see what costs were involved.

Send Amount (GBP):
109,38
Money Transfer Fees:
19,60
Total:
128,98

Just thinking in terms of Thai baht, its going to cost me nearly 1000 baht to send 5000 baht. Doesn't seem very good value. Is there a better way to send money ?

I had an idea, if I know someone from the UK who is in Thailand. If I paid into their UK account using my internet banking. Could they withdraw the money and go to any branch of the bank she uses. Say they know her name, account number and sort code and pay it in. That way the only charge would be a 150 baht withdrawl fee from the bank ATM they use. That sounds fairly straight forward to me. Am I missing something here or would that work ?