Laos Wire Transfers -- Telex #???

[Nirish guy]

got it......not China ( or Laos !) it seems ( I'm aware that our Chinese suppliers have asked for OUR Iban number numerous times so perhaps that's where I'm getting confused. But as SG says there getting his SWIFT number should do the trick.

[cdnmatt]

Neither Canada or the US are on IBAN either yet.

No, a 8 character SWIFT code only designates the bank, not the branch.

SG sends to a BIC, and that would work perfect, but I don't have that. I got some 30 year old telex# instead, and I'm not sending to that.

I'll do the bitcoin -> Thai payment service route.

[paborn]

I hesitated to post on one of Matt's endless voyages of discovery. I'm not trying to be unkind but I can't get past this:

Scotty wrote :"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."

Matt answers "no"

Sorry, but, while I've disagreed with Scotty on some topics - if he says he does it every damn month you have to accept that.

[cdnmatt]

SG sent me a PM, and no, he doesn't send to only a SWIFT code. He sends to a BIC.

Quite obviously, Vietnam has a more modern banking system than Laos does. There's only 7 million people in Laos, so it's not a huge surprise.

[scottish-guy]

If you say so Matt but the first four letters in any SWIFT code identifies the bank, the next two letters identifies the country, and the last two letters identifies the Branch. As I've said, all I need in addition to the SWIFT code therefore is the Account number and Name

I take the point you feel you need a BIC code as well - but just in case you're interested I found this list of SWIFT codes for Laos:

http://www.bankswiftcode.org/laos/

[frequent]

If you say so Matt but the first four letters in any SWIFT code identifies the bank, the next two letters identifies the country, and the last two letters identifies the Branch.

Yes and no. I found this Australian example rather good. But every time I use a SWIFT code for Thailand (ie. at least every month for a number of years) the last two letters are always XX (double the unknown quantity?) so clearly a specific branch is not mandatory

[cdnmatt]

I don't know, but I know all wire transfers to my Canadian bank use the same SWIFT code (TDOMCATTTOR) regardless of branch or location.

That, and Leo simply went into the bank, said he's getting a wire from Canada, and asked what information he needed to give the sender. They printed him a page of paper, which included a telex#, so I'm assuming the Laos bank is expecting that telex# to be included in the wire message. Maybe that telex# is optional, I have no idea, but I do know I'm not spending $1500 to find out.

That, and the call center of my bank has no idea what a telex# even is, so I have no idea if they'd send it through correctly or not, and again, not going to spend $1500 to find out.

Doesn't matter anyway. Already bought the bitcoin, now just have to wait until people in Bangkok wake up, so I can flip it into that Thai bank account. It's quicker this way anyway. With a wire he'd probably be waiting until Monday to get the money, whereas now he'll have it when he wakes up, or just afterwards.
Plus this way I don't have to bug my mother to take me down to the bank, and fumble around like a blind idiot trying to confirm it's the correct info, sign the paper, etc. I can just do this from home.

[cdnmatt]

And here's a good example of why bitcoin is good.

There's a reason I prefer being paid in bitcoin versus wire transfer. Don't have to deal with this shit.

[scottish-guy]

Well I had occasion recently to buy some bitcoin and the process for a newbie was extremely complicated

[frequent]

And here's a good example of why bitcoin is good. There's a reason I prefer being paid in bitcoin versus wire transfer. Don't have to deal with this shit.

Given the wild volatility of the price of bitcoin it certainly isn't a store of value (one of the two purposes of a currency). Given its inefficiency as a medium of exchange (Scotty's example can be found exemplified a thousandfold on the Internet) it's really only of use to the mafia, blackmailers, drug dealers and pimps - people who want to remain anonymous for some nefarious reason and believe Bitcoin gives them that (as has been proven several times already, it doesn't). Individuals who want to move money around in a relatively frictionless way use wallets like Transferwise Borderless