aublumberg

Same here

Have you considered HSBC Expat? Found them good to work with. https://www.expat.hsbc.com/international-banking/products/bank-account Interest rates offered: https://expatexplorer.hsbc.com/interest-rates

For many the 800,000 would be in a fixed deposit account, so ATM card won't work in that case

Thanks for sharing the latest stats. I would have thought the tax exemption for remittances under LTR-T, LTR-WP and LTR-W would become a bigger draw, but perhaps that is yet to come. So it looks like we're on target ;-) "Thailand on Thursday (1 Sep 2022) started accepting applicants for its new Long Term Resident (LTR) visa scheme which hopes to attract 1 million wealthy or highly-skilled foreigners over the next 5 years and generate some 800 billion baht (S$30.5 billion) in new investments in the country."

Foreign currency brought into Thailand exceeding USD15,000 or equivalent has to be declared. Exchange Control Regulation (bot.or.th) ศูนย์บริการศุลกากร - Customs Care Center

It's not closed at all but if you don't meet the criteria (see photo above) for Fast Track then you are being directed to the other immigration queue. Agree the 'Priority lane' to the far right of the normal immigration queue could be better sign posted.

Thailand Privilege = Elite

I think the photo above is dated, here is what it looked like in April. As you can see they dropped First / Business class and changed ‘Long stay’ to LTR. Since a couple months they usually have an immigration officer there that by default tries to keep people out. Even with my LTR and separate APEC card at one time I was refused, probably IO ignorance. 9/10 it works just fine. No queues, and multiple booths. Mind you, over on the departure side it still has ‘Long stay’ as well as F and J class. 🤷

PromptPay has been integrated with equivalent mechanisms like FPS (Hong Kong) and Paynow (Singapore), there may be other countries as well, not sure. You can use your respective banking app from HK, SG and scan the QR code in Thailand to pay. I think this generally hits your debit card or savings account, not aware whether it works with foreign credit card. But certainly helpful to avoid carrying baht in cash. Joint Press Release Launch of PromptPay x FPS Link between Thailand and Hong Kong (bot.or.th) Microsoft Word - Media Release - PayNow - PromptPay v7.0 - clean (abs.org.sg)

Got mine from Immigration Department at Chamchuri Square, that's where BOI issues your LTR visa, used at DLT for same reason.

Many different Visa card options ... Bangkok Bank Credit Cards

ltr [at] boi.go.th

FYI ... it's an advertorial but some useful content and further clarity here Mazars in Thailand to Advise Thai Taxpayers on New Taxation Rules for Foreign Income (bangkokpost.com)

Lol ... yes of course it does because you're setting up the app for the first time