FriscoKid

Oh, I didn't know that. What does it show then for a foreigner when he gets added to a blue book? My yellow book shows my name as some (semi-accurate) Thai translation.

Thank you. Yes, I think you are right. I probably should have just put "house registration book" in my OP. I don't think it matters if it is a blue or yellow book, as long as the foreigner's name appears properly in the book.

Just posting this in case it’s helpful for anyone looking to open a bank account in Thailand right now. I’ve have gathered what seems to be required these days, given the tightening of KYC guidelines, the increased requirements in general and the fact that each bank may ask for slightly different things from new customers. This isn’t a definitive guide since requirements can vary from bank to bank, but it should be a good starting point and cover the most common account opening situations. I’ve also tried to note when certain items might not always be required. If you notice anything important I’ve missed, please feel free to add it in. 1 Passport 2 Long stay visa, residence permit, or valid non‑immigrant visa (work, retirement, marriage, study, etc) 3 Work permit or either marriage visa or retirement visa if no work permit 4 Thai residence address proof (lease agreement, house registration yellow book, or immigration certificate of residence) 5 Home country address proof (bank statement, utility bill, foreign driving license or government ID) 6 Documentation showing Thai SIM card registered in your own name which matches your current passport details 7 Face scan to be done at the bank branch 8 Thai Tax Identification Number (TIN) if requested 9 Letter of reference (from employer, embassy, or educational institution, if requested) 10 Proof of funds source (if requested by the bank)

If you don't use your debit card for online purchases very often, then just disable the function in the banking app. And if you do want to make an online purchase, you can enable it temporarily. This one simple setting will preclude all of this kind of fraud from ever happening.

I think up to a gram per day is pretty common for regular users. The medical cannabis clinics in Thailand prescribe a gram per day for medical use. Half a gram per day seems pretty moderate.

With over 18,000 legally registered cannabis-related businesses in 2025, including a mix of growers, extractors, and shops, the Thai government earns substantial revenue annually now through various licensing fees: Cultivation and Extraction Licenses: THB 50,000 for 3 years Retail Licenses: THB 3,200 for 3 years Sales Licenses: THB 5,000 for 3 years Even conservatively, licensing alone generates at least THB 1 billion per year for the government, not including additional company registration fees or other related taxes. The large number of retail shops and growers together make this industry highly profitable both as a new agricultural industry for Thailand, but also for the government. Cutting off this added revenue now would be unwise, especially given the government’s ongoing struggles to raise funds. A clear example is their recent, rather desperate attempt to tax incoming overseas income for anyone residing in Thailand over 180 days, which has not gone smoothly. On top of that, having to cut import duties on American-made goods recently only worsens their fiscal position. So it seems cutting off this new revenue stream would be a really bad move for the government.

Read it about 30 years ago. It wasn't a great read IMHO. She gets thrown off course and waylaid in her efforts by a local love interest.

Are you sure about that? I just saw this article today in the Bangkok post mention his name, so it seems like he's still there: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3098372/somsak-eyes-health-boost-for-myanmar-refugees

There is this article too: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/government-describes-the-latest-rules-to-rein-in-green-rush-cannabis-516730

Ben appears to have an opinion on it too:

I went out last night and I saw nothing but signs like this one everywhere.

You are still not making any substantive points. Everything you have said is anecdotal. You have not identified any locations at all where this is genuinely a problem in Thailand, and if you did, they would almost certainly be the usual tourist beaches and nightlife areas. Your personal dislike or your Thai friends’ dislike does not make it a plague as you called it. In reality, less than one percent of places in Thailand are affected by foreigners smoking weed in public. In those same areas you will also find people drinking, being loud, acting unruly, and sometimes fighting, all related to alcohol consumption. These are places that most people in the country simply avoid, as I do. If you want to keep moaning about it, go ahead, but you are in a very small minority, unlikely to find any sympathy, and you have not proven that this is a real issue beyond your own sensitivities. If it bothers you that much, the solution is simple: travel somewhere else where beaches and nightlife are guaranteed to stay within your comfort zone, which is more than 99% of the country, and spare everyone else your exaggerated complaints.

It clearly isn’t a problem. You are applying circular logic to continue to try and build momentum for something that is almost a total non-issue. The only reason this keeps coming up is because you keep insisting on turning your personal dislike into a public display of crisis on this forum. That doesn’t make it real. For those of us living here full time, it is obvious this is not the widespread issue you claim. Families, locals, and the majority of tourists go about their lives without being affected. I live here full time and have no problem avoiding it in public, so why should you? In fact, if I actually wanted to find it in public, I’d have to go out of my way into a few specific nightlife areas that I normally don’t visit. That’s the reality, and anything beyond that is just noise. End of story.

Let’s be honest. You keep exaggerating this issue and posting about it, but the reality on the ground does not match your complaints. I live in Bangkok in a busy middle class Thai neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars. I almost never see or smell cannabis being smoked in public. The only time I notice it is in a handful of nightlife districts that mainly tourists and expats frequent, and those spots represent only a tiny fraction of the city. Outside of those places, most of Bangkok and almost all of Thailand is free from the smell you keep talking about. And many people who use cannabis, like myself, do not even smoke it, they consume it in other forms that create no smell at all. If we measured the percentage of land in Thailand where foreigners might be openly smoking and creating the troublesome smell you speak of, it would not even come close to one percent of the country's total area. Yes, technically smoking in public is not permitted, but that is an issue of enforcement, not evidence of any plague as you call it. The reality is that you are making a big drama out of something very minor. Your complaints also ring hollow because you are not living here full time and don't really know what's it like throughout the country. For those of us who do, it is clear this is not the problem you are trying to paint it as. If you want to avoid the smell, the solution is simple: stay away from the few heavily touristed islands, costal beach areas and nightlife zones when you come and you will hardly ever encounter it, if at all. And if the real concern is about chemical substances causing problems in Thailand, cannabis should be the last thing on the list. Alcohol is heavily responsible for violence, domestic abuse, road accidents, and countless deaths in Thailand. Meth and other hard drugs also destroy lives every day. Cannabis does not even register on the same scale. So let’s call this what it is: a personal dislike that you keep trying to blow up into a public crisis. The rest of us who actually live here know it is not one. At some point, repeating the same complaint over and over when the reality does not support it just becomes noise. Cannabis use is not going to disappear because a handful of people keep crying about it. If you want to talk about real problems in Thailand, there are many worth discussing, but the smell of cannabis in a few tourist districts is not one of them. Time to accept that and move on.

There is no need to ever save your card details on your phone. If you have the Wise mobile app installed, simply tap the card tab at the bottom of the screen, select any of your Wise cards, and then go to card details. This will give you the card number, expiration date, and CVV whenever you need them. It is also a good idea to disable online purchases in your card settings under "card controls" within the Wise app. You can temporarily enable this function again whenever you need to make an online purchase and then disable it again afterward. This helps prevent anyone from making unauthorized online purchases with your card if they gain access to your card information.

True. They have a 200 Baht minimum. Some years ago they had a 100 Baht minimum. Then they changed to having no minimum for a while and then eventually they changed it to 200 Baht. Up and down. With the Thai economy struggling the way it is now, it might be a good idea for them to go back to having no minimum.

I have one of my Wise digital cards stored in Apple Wallet on my Apple Watch so that I can use it in stores for contactless payments. I never need the physical card anymore in Thailand. The watch method with Wise works for payment at various stores including 7-Eleven, Villa Market, Big C, Tops, Foodland, Starbucks, Texaco, Turtle mini marts in the BTS, KFC, nearly every department store, and most restaurants that accept credit cards. I honestly can’t think of anywhere I've tried it where it doesn’t work. A year or two ago there were a few occasions when the digital card failed on older contactless card scanners and I had to use the physical card, but that hasn’t happened recently. But the main reason for this post is to mention that the Wise digital card also works on Lazada for online purchases, which makes it very convenient for shopping online in Thailand for just about everything I need, without needing to transfer the money into the country first. Now here is the bad news. It used to work with Tops Online for grocery delivery too, but I believe they’ve started blocking overseas credit cards. When I try to pay there with the Wise digital card it transfers me to the Wise app for approval, which is normal for online use, but then the Tops site says payment failed. Payments used to go through there without any issues, so something in their system must have changed. I’ve also tried using it on Shopee, but I haven’t been able to get it to work there either. It doesn’t seem to allow me to add the card as a payment method in my Shopee account profile. So overall, my experience with Wise cards for online purchases in Thailand has been inconsistent, and definitely less reliable compared to using them in stores. If anyone has had success using either the Wise digital card or the physical Wise card online in Thailand, I’d be very interested to hear your experiences.

It depends. If you exchange a large amount of GBP to THB in your Wise account when the GBP is weak, it may not work out in your favor. For example, I exchanged a lot into Baht when the Baht was very weak last year, and now I am spending from that Baht balance in my Wise account. This has worked out well because the Baht is much stronger again now, so I am effectively spending at a more favorable past exchange rate. The outcome really depends on the timing of when you make the exchange. If you do not exchange in advance, you may instead average out the rate over time. In that case, the current exchange rate applies whenever you spend, which can also work in your favor when the Baht is consistently stronger. On the other hand, if you make a large exchange when the Baht is strong, it can work against you later if the Baht weakens again. So it all comes down to timing.

Agreed. I have used my Wise digital card all over Europe and Asia, never an issue anywhere, unless the contactless card scanner that the merchant is using is a piece of outdated equipment, which rarely happens anymore as I mentioned.

I have my Wise digital card stored in Apple Wallet on my Apple Watch, and I use my watch daily for contactless payments. I never need the physical card. The watch works at 7-Eleven, Villa Market, Big-C, TOPS, Foodland, Starbucks, Texaco, Turtle mini marts in the BTS, KFC, every department store, and many restaurants that accept credit cards. I can’t think of anywhere it doesn’t work. A year or two ago, there were a few occasions when the digital card failed on older card scanners and I had to use the physical card, but that hasn’t happened recently.

I don’t think this is new. I had my current Wise White card sent to me in Thailand by Wise at least a few years ago. When you order a new card in the app it asks what address you want it sent to, and I entered a Thai address without any issue. My Green card was also replaced once when it expired, and that replacement was shipped to Thailand too. This does not change the address on your account, it is only used for card delivery. Do you already have both the Green and White cards? If not, you could try ordering the White card as a test and see if it can be delivered to Thailand.

If you open an account with Fidelity Investments you can name your wife as the sole beneficiary on the account in the event of death without making her a joint account holder. Avoids the tax withholding and ensures she gets everything. You can invest in ETFs and stocks through Fidelity too.

Thank you for that information. This is continuing off-topic, but I am curious about UK state pensions, so I am just looking for some clarification for my own personal knowledge. It was my understanding that if you are a UK citizen receiving a UK state pension, the payments would only be deposited into a UK bank account by the UK government. Then, if you are living in Thailand, it is your responsibility to transfer the money yourself. That is why many people living in Thailand on a UK pension use services like Wise to save on bank wire fees when sending money from a UK bank to a Thai bank account. From what you are saying, though, it seems that it is not necessary to do that and the UK will transfer a state pension directly to an account in Thailand. Is that correct? Also, from what I have been reading on this topic, the main reason people transfer the pension first to a UK account is not because the UK government requires it, but because doing so ensures that you continue to receive pension increases over time. If you transfer the state pension directly from the UK government to a Thai bank account, you may lose the opportunity for your UK state pension to increase over time. Is that correct or incorrect?

What is illegal? You can have a Schwab account with an overseas address. They allow it, but it places you in a different category as an international client. There may be certain products you cannot invest in as an international client, but there is nothing wrong or illegal with that setup.

It’s because if your wife is on the account and she is not a US citizen, then the entire account is treated as if it is owned by a non US citizen and the withholding tax applies to all the earnings. If you leave your wife’s name off the account, then there will be no withholding tax because you are an American citizen. With your wife’s name on the account at Schwab and when using an overseas address, you also will not be able to invest in any of their mutual funds or any of their brokered CDs. That is because you are considered an international client when using an overseas address and the account is treated as a foreign account holder account, so there are certain products you cannot invest in. However, you will still be able to invest in ETFs and stocks.