skatewash

It's 1.5% APR interest from 1 baht to 2 million baht. Over 2 million it is only 0.5% APR. https://www.scb.co.th/en/personal-banking/deposits/savings-account/easy-saving-account.html Interestingly as this is an E-Passbook account, counter withdrawals and transfers are not permitted. You can use ATM machines (once you receive your physical ATM/Debit card by mail, about one weed from opening account), you can use cardless withdrawal at SCB ATMs, you can transfer money using the SCB Easy app (on your phone) or the SCB Easy Net app (in your computer browser), and you can use the SCB Easy Scan facility to pay at shops with QR codes. See 2nd page at: https://www.scb.co.th/content/dam/scb/personal-banking/product-sales-sheet/deposits/ez-savings-account-en.pdf

Thanks for the very comprehensive explanation of the process of getting your documentation following a vaccination. One of the other pieces of information available through the Mor Prom app is "Certificate" which is an online copy of your Thailand National Certificate of Covid-19 Vaccination. In my opinion the Mor Prom app and the Thailand National Certificate of Covid-19 Vaccination are better documents for international travel as they are online, have a QR code, and are printed in English and Thai. The yellow vaccination passport booklet is not online, does not have a QR code, and is handwritten in English. If you have the Thailand National Certificate of Covid-19 Vaccination I think you should be OK for both domestic and international travel. The yellow vaccination passport booklet can be skipped, I think. I have one but would be more likely to use Mor Prom and/or the Thailand National Certificate of Vaccination for international travel purposes.

At your local Thai Revenue Department Office. If you pick the wrong one they should be able to send you to the right one. ???? Easiest way for someone who has earned interest on a savings account from a Thai bank and has had 15% of that interest withheld for taxes. Go to your Thai bank and ask for a Tax Withholding Certificate (many people do that in January at the start of the New Tax Year. If they don't understand what you want point to the entry in your passbook showing the tax withholding and ask for an "aek-ga-san pa-see" or tax document in Thai (more or less). Now visit your local Thai Revenue Department. Show your tax withholding document to someone and ask to apply for a Thai Tax ID Card (yes, you need the card, not just the number that comes on the card!). You will need passport and proof of residence (one of: yellow house registration book, residence certificate from immigration, rental agreement, letter with from electric company (PEA/MEA), letter from internet provider, back of Thai driver's license, etc.). Ask to get a Personal Income Tax Return PIT-90. The PIT-90 is all in Thai. Often they will take pity on you and actually fill in your PIT-90 for you while you wait. They can be very nice at the Revenue Department. Keep your copy of your PIT-90 return because you can duplicate it next year (changing the obviously different amounts withheld) and file it yourself the next year. Once you have your Thai Tax ID visit every Thai bank at which you have a savings account and get your Thai Tax ID registered with that account. The reason is if you do this they will not withhold 15% tax of the interest earned from your savings account from your first baht of interest, but only after you have earned 20,000 baht in interest (a threshold that not many will reach). Now, you won't even need to file a Thai Income Tax Return because the tax won't be withheld to begin with. Note: this trick doesn't work for fixed deposit accounts, you always have to file a tax return to get the tax withheld on that sort of account. Eventually, you will receive in the mail a letter that explains how to get your refund. You will have to take the letter to Krung Thai bank (only that bank) and when you show them the letter and your Thai Tax ID card you will be given a eMoney card (like an ATM card). They may ask you for money to add to the card to bring the value up to an even 100 baht. The reason is that you can go out to an Krung Thai ATM machine at that branch (or anywhere else) and completely withdraw the balance of the eMoney card which is equal to your refund (and any extra you added to the card). Keep the eMoney card as it can be re-used next year.

Really? I'm assuming he received two 5-year licenses, one for motorcycle and one for a car. Cost of 5-year motorcycle license: 55 baht Cost of 5-year car license: 605 baht Cost of printing licenses 50/each 100 baht Total: 760 baht Sounds normal to me. I believe that's what I paid. Don't know the reason Phuket LTO charges 50 baht/license for printing, but they do. Seems to agree with this article: https://thethaiger.com/other-services/drivers-license/guides/how-to-apply-for-a-thai-driving-license/#:~:text=The Cost of Obtaining a Thai Driving License,-The cost of&text=Driving license – The fee for,the upgrade is 55 Baht.

Yes, to participate in the Phuket Sandbox, Phuket must be the only airport at which you land in Thailand (specifically, you cannot land in Bangkok and participate in the Phuket Sandbox, that has never been possible). Just to be clear, this restriction applies to someone arriving into the Phuket Sandbox only, after you graduate from the sandbox you can land anywhere you want to in Thailand. You can leave Thailand from any airport you want to. So a single round-trip ticket that lands in Thailand only in Phuket and leaves from Bangkok would not violate any rules. Many people do this as Bangkok often has better prices and connections than Phuket.

I'm a customer of both: Bangkok Bank for 9 years, SCB for two weeks. I like SCB's EZ Savings Account, currently paying 1.5% APR interest. Don't think Bangkok Bank has a similar savings account. Caution: there is no passbook and so this account might not be a good choice for the account in which you keep your immigration required balance for your extensions of stay. Bangkok Bank can take a week or so to produce a 12-month bank statement as only 6 months worth of customer data is maintained at branches. The request for a 12-month bank statement must be made to Bangkok Bank headquarters and that takes a week to receive the results back. I don't know how SCB stacks up in this regard. I also like Krugnsri Bank's Mee Tae Dai savings account, currently paying 1.0% APR. I use this account for immigration purposes. Krungsri Bank is able to produce my bank letter and 12-month bank account statement the next day after I ask for it.

Only on my personal experience getting several retirement extensions at Phuket immigration over the years, and reading about the experience of others. It's not clear to me what you are objecting to. Obviously it is easier for an immigration officer to check that one never dipped below the minimum balance requirements if you use only one account, and there is very little activity in that account. In this sense a fixed deposit account that is untouched for the entire year is ideal. It doesn't get any easier for the immigration officer. I've had my retirement extension approved in 5 minutes in that case. Having 801,000 baht in an account is better than having 800,000. I hope that's not too controversial. Some accounts do incur fees, for example, for having an ATM card If you have one account with very little activity you can anticipate being asked what you are living on for your day to day expenses. In that case, producing another passbook that shows activity deftly answers that question. You may be asked to provide copies of relevant pages of that passbook.

I don't think so. If you maintain a balance of 40k or greater you come out ahead, as 40k * 0.5% = 200. Depends I guess on whether 40k is considered a lot of extra money. ????

Yes, I think so. I applied at the bank. They had me download the SCB Easy app and create an account on that. From that point you can apply for an ATM/Debit card using that app. You instantly get a virtual Debit card and they send a physical ATM/Debit card in the mail (haven't received that yet). The cost is 100 baht for applying for the card (one-time fee) and 200 baht yearly maintenance fee, so 300 baht charged up-front for the first year. You can then use the Virtual Debit card to sign up for online banking. You can use the SCB Easy app to scan QR codes to pay for things at shops. I imagine you could even use ATM cardless access to withdraw money from ATMs, though I haven't tried that yet. Of course, once the physical ATM/Debit card arrives you can certainly use that in ATM machines. Not entirely sure how you would withdraw money from an SCB branch, but pretty sure it must involve using the SCB Easy app on your smartphone. I've only had the account for a week or so.

Sure, don't see why not. Just remember that only 1 Million baht at each bank is protected by Thai Deposit Insurance scheme. You might be interested in SCB's EZ Savings Account which is currently earning 1.5% APR, but doesn't come with a passbook. The Krungsri Bank's Mee Tae Dai account is my immigration account with a 800K + balance, and I keep the rest of my money in the EZ Savings Account at SCB. I'm under 1 million baht balances at both banks.

2 hours is a reasonable expectation of how long it will take to get your two licenses at Phuket LTO.

Actually just provided the AXA link for the website where you can watch the video. ???? I think as your license has expired less than a year you will be OK. Not to mention that LTO is probably being generous due to the fact that they were closed down by covid for a period of that time. I didn't read the 90 days thing the same way you did. To me it sounded like the video could be watched if you were within 90 days of your license expiring. Before that it mentions that you are OK with an expired license of less than one year. The licenses at Phuket LTO are give out the day of your appointment. You go the first time to get the appointment. When you return on the appointment date the expectation is that you will walk out with your licenses.

You need an up-to-date address registration (TM-30) which should be done for you by your hotel, or you can do yourself if your landlord didn't do for you. A 90 days report being filed does not seem to be required for Phuket based on this: http://piv-phuket.com/others/residence-certificate/ By the way, here's information on how to watch the video online: https://www.axa.co.th/en/5-Steps-to-Prepare-for-Online-Driver-License-Renewal

If in the unlikely event you are actually talking about ASQ quarantine, which should not be confused with Phuket Sandbox, then yes you are confined to your hotel room for the entire quarantine period. It is unusual to do ASQ quarantine in Phuket and is rather expensive. If you cannot do the Phuket Sandbox (say, if you are not vaccinated) then ASQ quarantine in Bangkok is probably a better deal.

Sometimes if you apply for both licenses at the same time the LTO will accept one original and a copy for your two licenses. Depends on the person checking your documents. They can certainly insist on two originals, but sometimes they don't. The medical certificate is best gotten from a small clinic and will cost something around 100 - 150 baht. It's a pro-forma exercise looking for 5 dread diseases: 2nd stage syphilis, elephantiasis, etc. Can be done by visual inspection in most cases. The residence certificate can be obtained from Phuket Immigration Office. They will ask for 300 baht per certificate, if you don't pay you will still likely get it for free. You can really do yourself. Especially with a Thai girlfriend, shouldn't be a problem. The first time you go they will likely look through your documentation and if everything is good they will give you an appointment to come back to get your license (take physical tests like reaction time and color perception). You should watch the required video online and answer the easy three questions and you will electronically be given a receipt that shows you passed and satisfied the video requirement. They do the video this way as an anti-covid measure, rather than seeing the video in person at the LTO.

Yes. You may be asked to produce the second passbook and provide copies of pages from the last 12 months of activity, but shouldn't be any problem. Less likely that way of accidentally falling below the minimum balance requirements for the first account. As mentioned you want a little cushion above 800k to account for debit/ATM card fees and the like.

Actually, it's 1% APR up to 5 million baht and drops down after that threshold. It's on the second page of this document: https://www.krungsri.com/Krungsri2020/media/Banking-Rate/deposit-rates/en/deposit-rates-18102564-en.pdf

True, but for the no tax withholding you need to register your Thai Tax ID with the account. Easiest to do when opening the account but can be done afterward.

While there are certainly national laws that govern immigration in Thailand, that does not mean that individual immigration offices can't have differing policies on how that law should be implemented. For example, the national law may say that a foreigner must demonstrate that he has a balance of at least 800,000 baht in a Thai bank for two (2) months before he makes an application for an extension of stay for reason of retirement. One immigration office may want to see a passbook for that account and copies of the relevant pages of that passbook. Other immigration offices may want to see a bank statement issued, signed and/or stamped by the bank. Other immigration offices may want to see both. For example, in Phuket, one must show a bank letter (attesting to your ownership of the account and balance on date of letter), a bank statement signed and/or stamped by the bank, a bank passbook, and copies of relevant pages from that bank passbook. http://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/retirement/ I provide what Phuket Immigration requires and I always have gotten my retirement extension. That is my goal every year, get my retirement extension with the least possibility of any problems. I'm not Rosa Parks. I'm not trying to "fix" the immigration process or make it "better." It's possible for me to follow the current process, so I do, and I don't have any problem getting my yearly retirement extensions. I use and have used for several years Krungsri Bank's Mee Tae Dai savings account, which pays currently 1 % APR. I registered my Thai Tax ID when I opened that account so Krungsri Bank does not withhold taxes (at a rate of 15%) from the first baht of interest earned. They only withhold tax when the interest earned exceeds 20,000 baht, which it doesn't in my case. I have a passbook for the account. I would like to use my SCB EZ Savings account, which pays currently 1.5% APR interest, but it does not come with a passbook. So I don't use it. Because it would unnecessarily complicate my retirement extension. As much as I would like the extra 0.5% APR interest, I'm not willing to complicate my retirement extension in order to get it. If you use a different immigration office than Phuket, you may well find that not having a passbook is not a problem. Or you could decide to use an account that does have a passbook and avoid the potential problem altogether. Up to you. ????

The vast majority of visas are obtained from a Thai embassy or consulate outside of Thailand, but one can obtain a Non-O Visa at an immigration office in Thailand having entered the country on a visa-exempt entry or Tourist Visa. For example, at Phuket Immigration: http://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/non-o-visa/

Reply removed. Quoted the wrong poster.

I've no doubt an agent could fix it for the OP without him needing to leave the country. On the other hand for 2,000 baht (Non-O visa obtained from immigration) and 1,900 baht (1 year retirement extension) or 3,900 baht he can fix it for himself without needing to leave the country as UbonJoe explains. Somehow I think the agent is going to want more than 3,900 baht.

Regarding obtaining Permanent Residency: since you are married to a Thai you can apply for Thai citizenship after three (3) years. You must be working legally in Thailand and earning sufficient salary based on your nationality with a work permit and paying Thai taxes and social security for at least 3 years (something you can do on a marriage extension). Advise looking at Chris Larkin's website when convenient, lots of good information (something that cannot be said of some other sites on citizenship/permanent residency): https://www.thaicitizenship.com/

Not sure I know what a cash card is? The Mee Tae Dae account comes with an ATM/Debit card, am expecting to get the same for my new SCB EZ Savings account but hasn't arrived yet.

Good point, about SCB's EZ Savings. Personally, I wouldn't use it for immigration purposes for that reason, not having a passbook. The Krungsri Bank Mee Tae Dai account does have a passbook, so no potential problem with that one (have gotten retirement extension several times using that account),