Everyman

You would think if they were going to send out the brute squad to snatch foreign retirees off their plastic chairs drinking beer in a banana patch in Isaan and lock ‘em up for not filing a form saying they owe no taxes, they would at least put the form in English.

Reading things like that, scares me. The secret is out regarding the Schwab accounts and there must be millions of people with checking accounts with or without sizable investments with Schwab. They must be paying out millions of dollars every month in ATM fee refunds. I don’t see how it’s sustainable. Therefore, I endeavor to limit my use of this “feature” as much as I can. I don’t want them to change it or take it away. I rely on it extensively when traveling outside Thailand. Within the kingdom, I use my Thai bank account.

Yes, the spirit of your post remains valid. I don’t want to argue tax issues. There are enough threads about that. It’s only I can’t work out which customers this will benefit. I think it is nobody. I never saw the point of the Wise card anyway, I have something like 5 US based checking accounts with better debit cards.

Please don’t use AI for things like this. People put way too much stock in the things it says. I catch people doing this all the time. A total misuse of the tool.

So….I can still transfer money from my US checking account to my account at Bangkok Bank? I have never held currency with Wise nor I have ever had a “Wise Card.”

This is precisely why foreign currency accounts in Thailand are not very useful.

some people love getting ripped off.

If the app is slow you probably have a crappy phone. The cardless withdrawal feature alone makes the app useful. I’ve probably saved thousands of baht on ATM fees since I discovered it, especially since I am rarely in Bangkok anymore (where my account is) so I am dodging the interprovincial ATM fee. Now that most ATMs can be used with a variety of accounts I almost never use my debit card. If I use a card I use one of my excellent foreign credit cards that have no fees, but do have reward kick backs. Scan pay helps me to avoid tipping, since I am a cheap charlie and also hate the principle that I have to pay the staff salaries. It’s also annoying in a bar since they often don’t have change, “forget” to give you change, or try to charge you multiple times if you look drunk. Scan pay defeats all that. The Bangkok Bank app could be better optimized and faster, but it’s not terrible if you have a decent phone. Regarding contactless payments, I have more than a dozen cards loaded on Apple Pay, so I just use my phone. Android has a similar system. Plastic cards are obsolete technology and prone to fraud. I signed up for my last credit card from Thailand. I loaded it up using the banking app onto Apple Pay minutes after approval. I’ve been using it since November and I’ve never had the plastic card. It’s sitting on an envelope somewhere at a family members house in my passport country.

No, just once a year. After 180 days I could get an extension, which I would qualify for since it involves showing foreign accounts not Thai ones. I haven’t had to do that yet though since I travel a lot and haven’t been in Thailand longer than 6 months since i got the visa. I’ve heard of immigration scrutinizing travelers with my visa since a lot of sleazy agents helped people get DTVs when they weren’t otherwise eligible. But of course, they won’t crack down on the agents. Only their customers.

yes, i got a 5 year DTV so no need to update for another 4 years.

Makes me glad I completely stopped updating my book years ago.

When someone relates a common experience in Thailand there’s always someone who jumps in and says “i’ve been here 15 years and never been scammed by a tuk-tuk driver,” or “i opened bank accounts on tourist visas all the time,” or…what you said. But let me give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are talking about established business relationships. That’s not what we are talking about. We’re talking about contacting businesses with which we have no prior affiliation to pose a query or apply for a job.

Who trusts AI generated rubbish? Also, are those numbers inflation adjusted? Because if they aren’t then spending actually went down.

In my experience, business in Thailand do not respond to emails. The one time I got a response, it was hostile and dismissive. They also used a fake name with a fake title “Dr. Johnny Walker.” Not very imaginative.

Thai people do not follow the written laws of Thailand. You don’t either, because there are so many silly and unenforced laws that nobody cares about that you break them without realizing it. Thai proper aren’t going to give a gold medal or think you are a “good guest” because you become a legal scholar and tip-toe around trying to follow every weird rule. They’ll just think you are foolish and maladapted to the culture you are in.