Laos Wire Transfers -- Telex #???

[cdnmatt]

Doubt this will provide any useful info, because nobody else knows either, not even my Canadian bank.

Don't have any bitcoin at the moment (apparently, I'm going legitimate), and need to send my husband some money. I figured a wire transfer was the best way, I have his account#, SWIFT code, his name and address, bank name and address.

What I don't have, and am sure I need, is some type of branch or routing number. Asked for it, so Leo went to his bank, and they printed out a page with all info needed. Instead of a branch / routing number, I got a "Telex No". It's two 4 digit numbers separated by a comma.

I have no clue what this is, and have never heard about a "Telex" number in my life. My father says it was technology used back when he was a teenager, and he's nearing 70 now. I called my bank, the guy had no idea, so he asked his supervisor, and he had no idea either. They basically just said, "give the wire transfer a try, and see what happens".

Does anyone know what the hell a Telex# is? I don't want to send Western Union, as the fees are outrageous.

I think I'll probably just buy some bitcoin, and fire it off to a Thailand bank account which acts as a payment service similar to Western Union for Laos folk. Works great, and cheap. Even with all the fees of buying bitcoin, sending it to a Thai bank account, and that payment service taking their fee, it's still going to be about half of what Western Union would charge.

How the fuck is Western Union still in business?

[paborn]

I'm surprised your bank does not know. The technology is nowhere near that old. A telex predates modern computer routing. It was still in wide use in the late 1980's and late 90's. It consisted of a typewriter routed to international cable systems/ You used the telex routing number and typed and the receiving typewriter typed out the message on the other end.
The travel industry made international hotel reservations for hotels not hosted in the airline booking systems by telex. Before the advent of E-tickets, when paper stock was a must, the tickets needed to be printed with an IATA ( in the US ARC number) so to distribute tickets widely remote satellite ticket printers were used which were a part of the system.

The telex was also used to move money in those days as well. A Laotian bank still using that is odd. But, possible. Have you checked with the home office of your bank, not all branches have international departments. If you ordered foreign currency from your bank the bank they order the currency from would have the definitive answer.
While the tech is old it is not nearly that old.

[paborn]

By the way, totally off topic but have you read Colin Cotterill - he has a series of terrific mysteries set in Laos - all on kindle.

[scottish-guy]

The SWIFT code contains the Bank and the Branch - all you need is the SWIFT, the Account Number and the Name.

I do it every month, it works.

[cdnmatt]

No, an 8 character SWIFT code only denotes the bank within the international system, not the branch, which I'm sure I need.

As you said in your PM, a BIC would be perfect because that includes both, the SWIFT code and branch number. However, I didn't get that. I got some Telex# instead, and according to the above post, that technology has been obsolete for a good 30 years. So I'm not really comfortable sending to a telex# out of worry the bank here will format the wire message incorrectly, and it'll be sent into the ether never to be seen again. We're only talking about $1500, so not a huge amount, but nonetheless, I'd prefer not to lose it.

I'll just buy some bitcoin, and fire it off to that Thai payment service. We've used it many times, and it works great.

Then I'll be back in Asia in a couple weeks, and this will never happen again. I already have a bank card sitting here for him, so if we're apart again like this, I can just instantly flip money onto the card for free. Then I'll be incorporating in Hong Kong this winter probably, so we can just grab a joint personal account from HSBC while there for our daily spend.

This is just a one time only transfer, so I'll just buy bitcoin and do the Thai payment service.

[Nirish guy]

You also should have / get an IBAN number from him / his bank as that tell's your bank exactly where to send the money.

If in doubt google it - it's a every day thing now and a basic requirement for international transfers, A Swift code tells the other where the money is coming from and a Iban code where it's to go ( basically).

[cdnmatt]

IBAN is a Europe thing mainly, but you are right, it's an excellent system. All you need is the one single number, and that's it. Probably the best wire transfer system in the world.

Well, except bitcoin of course.

[Moses]

You also should have / get an IBAN number from him / his bank as that tell's your bank exactly where to send the money.

If in doubt google it - it's a every day thing now and a basic requirement for international transfers, A Swift code tells the other where the money is coming from and a Iban code where it's to go ( basically).

IBAN exists mainly in EU + some other countries (69 of 200+ countries in World). Laos isn't country which adopted IBAN system.

[Nirish guy]

Apologies - never entered my head to think had Laos adopted that as it's just something we use here almost every day so it comes across as second nature to us and so I "assumed" ( silly me) that the rest of the world was on board too........am I not right in saying China also uses IBAN too though ?

[Moses]

am I not right in saying China also uses IBAN too though ?

Sorry...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...Account_Number