Expat2B

Has anyone had any dealings with the BKK branch of HSBC?

Appreciate any information.

Yes. I have looked. They only want large corperate accounts.

If you want a personal account you have to maintain THB 500,000 (yes 500K ) at all times in your account.

If you want a business account this soars to THB 3M.

I enquired with HSBC in the UK about the requirements for opening an account at their one branch in thailand (Silom Rd, BKK).  You do not need a minimum of 500K deposit this is the minimum to avoid bank charges (of approx 1k per month, to include ATM card).

They offer 2 different types of account, resident and non resident but you need a work permit to obtain the resident account.  All the paperwork can be completed in the UK.

I wanted to open an account with them since I am a HSBC Premier customer in the Uk and thought that I could get the same benefits there (one of the benefits is supposed to be currency transfers free of charge over the net).  However this seems to be far from straightforward, and the fees they are quoting for wire transfers make credit card ATM withdrawals look fairly attractive.

I will try and speak to the BKK Premier team when I am in BKK next week and see if I can get any more sense from them

I guess in some ways I am in a lucky situation, but this seems to give me lots of possible Visa choices for my planned long stay in LOS.

My situation is as follows: -

I fully own and operate a UK Ltd Company which provides general management consulting services.  My main contract will expire at some point in the next 2-6 months and at this time I want to relocate to Bangkok, to spend time with my GF to see how things develop and explore work and business opportunities.

My plan is to study Thai for 6-12 months in BKK, then re-assess the situation, in the meantime looking out for work or investment opportunities.

As I see it I can:

Apply for a multiple entry tourist visa (requiring visa runs)

Apply for an Ed Visa (not requiring visa runs)

Apply for a non imm B (whilst I investigate work/investment opportunites)

Establish a ROH for my UK company and obtain work permit etc.

Establish a 2M Bht Thai company to get work permit etc

Establish a 10M Bht Thai Company to get BOI approval, work permit etc.

The last option is possible, but would take out almost all of my available funding and I assume that I would then be taxed on the salary I paid myself from the monies I originally invested.

I would prefer things to be as straightforward and "above board" as possible, but do not want to spend large amounts unnecessarily, especially since the cash I have available is going to need to support me until I am in a position to be earning again.  I would also like to be able to ship items from home without paying import duty and as I understand it a work permit is required to do this (and many other things in Thailand it seems).

Faced with these choices what would you recommend, assuming that I haven't misunderstood the options available to me?  Any help or advice would be appreciated.