wn78

This is a good approach, thanks! I assume this additional package will kick in when the main one expires, to prevent "baht leakage" I was talking about

555, putting scam in quotations not to sound too accusatory did not save me from the wrath of the Righteous Police here who consider it every citizen's sacred life duty to watch for their package expiration dates ???? The point is, with so many SMS notification capabilities and notifications in their mobile app they already have, it costs the providers nothing to add expiration alerts, or allow a setting to disable pay-per use... I bet they don't do it on purpose to fleece you off a few baht with expensive pay per use every time you don't renew in time. Call it a scam or whatever, it's annoying to be taken advantage of like that. Well, someone did provide a helpful suggestions, so this thread is not entirely in vain

I'm not aware of any way to set up an alert when your prepaid data package is soon to expire. I do get the text when it's already expired, but by the time I catch it, 10-20 baht of my balance already eaten by pay per use data.... Same story with True, AIS, and Dtac... I wonder how many billions of baht they rake up by not letting people set up advance expiration alerts...

Thanks for the tip on auto-renew, I don't intend to pay this extortion fee annually...one time is enough

I think it was some kind of accident insurance, don't remember for sure..... I had no need for it, but that was their deal. But if it relieves me from dealing with immigration certificates, I will take it.

I hear you. Basically they charge for letting you skip the immigration paperwork. They did not ask for any immigration papers when they offered me an account, just the passport, the insurance fee, and the card fee.

Thanks, maybe I will do that too. 3000b better than 5000b if the outcome is the same. Did the agent handle opening all by herself, or did you go to the branch together with her?

Ok, thanks. This makes me think about ways making outgoing international transfers in case if I ever want out, and not being in Thailand physically. Probably need a separate topic for that. Do I need to go to the bank in person to make an international wire transfer, meaning I cannot take the money out unless I am in Thailand?

Can you elaborate? Are restrictions related to the savings account, like the number of withdrawals per month? The bank account I was offered came with a debit card (at 500 b annual fee for that). So I assumed it would be a checking account not savings

Just recently I was in Thailand on tourist visa and I walked into a Bangkok bank branch and asked to open an account. They said OK, just a passport and pay 5000 b for some insurance. I passed at that time, but now thinking it was probably a good deal reading about others having to jump through hoops with letters from immigration etc.... Question: will it be a "normal" account with no strings attached? What I don't want is to have this account flagged as "temporary/tourist account" or something like that and then being harassed down the road for more documentation for additional verifications, or have my transactions being put on hold pending more verifications, and not being able to comply in time because not living in Thailand, and then get my account frozen. Mostly concerned about money being wired in/out internationally with no hiccups. I have not seen any reports of this, so I assume once my account is open, it will be managed for a tourist in the same way as for a retirement visa same as for a good Thai citizen.....right?....right?....