Moves to seize money in idle bank accounts "for the benefit of the public"

[Si Thea01]

2 hours ago, wvavin said:

A legalized thief, only happens in Thailand.

No, happens in Australia also.

[wakeupplease]

If they cannot rob you one way they will make up a new law and rob you the other, but I think I knew this with the Yingluck case.

 

Sounds like they are short of the (green) brown stuff as given out to much vocally and in purchases from their favourite arms suppliers. Back pockets must be a bit lite after 3.7 years.

[Ceruhe]

Has anyone experienced that happening to them yet?

 

Considering the goverment will want to get their filthy rotten hands on private money, I imagine (re)claiming your own money will be such a miraculous pain in the ass to deal with beyond all fun.

[Chris Lawrence]

They need it more than us.

[Jip99]

Just a comment.....

 

 

Who would actually be dumb enough to leave their money dormant for 5 years.

[Dumbastheycome]

Not  an  unreasonable  action  if  applied  to  dormant accounts  that are either  forgotten /unknown .

A  very  long way  from the  mandatory  acquisition of  savings  as  has  happened  in  another  country !

But  most  small  accounts usually  are eventually eliminated  by  annual fees anyway so the  focus  is  probably  on  higher level balances. What  is   more the question  is  how  or  who  makes  the information  about  such  residual  accounts available  to the  Government? Or  why? 

Is  the  percentage  of   kickbacks   worth  more to  Banks than  such  funds being  a permanent (?) reserved  asset fund?

[Jonah Tenner]

4 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Even better than you thought Bantex.... the guarantee was increased to £85,000 some time ago. ?

As long as they are in the EU it is 80,000 Euros

[salavan]

13 hours ago, robblok said:

Just imagine all the 400.000 or 800.000 (married / retired) funds that are never touched of farangs... hmmmmm 

I was thinking the same I have had 800;000 for 16 years I guess after December it will be seized

[Jip99]

10 minutes ago, Jonah Tenner said:

As long as they are in the EU it is 80,000 Euros

 

 

UK is £85,000 .

 

https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/products/banks-building-societies/

[Jonmarleesco]

'He claimed it was not to line state coffers but to bring money into the public domain for the benefit of all.' 

 

How philanthropic of the government. And pockets will be stitched up?

[dave_boo]

27 minutes ago, salavan said:

I was thinking the same I have had 800;000 for 16 years I guess after December it will be seized

Make a 100 baht deposit and there's activity.

[ChouDoufu]

13 hours ago, robblok said:

Just imagine all the 400.000 or 800.000 (married / retired) funds that are never touched of farangs... hmmmmm 

getting annual bank letters and updating passbooks would

be considered activity.

[Ulic]

Why not. Either the government gets it or the banks. Maybe the banks will do a better job

of finding heirs. That way they have a chance of keeping the money in their banks. Any

accounts with large amounts that have gone dormant for 10 years has probably been

collected nefariously.

 

[observer90210]

Another reason to push farangs and expats to never open a bank account in Thailand....

 

...what will you say if suddenly they decide to freeze your money if you are away for say 6 months or a year ?

 

......and entering into a legal battle with a Thai bank as a farang would yield approximately the same results say as trying to locate extra terrestal activity with your bird binoculars !

[pumpjack]

robin hood wore a mask  ....

 

greedy basterds !!

how about the banks contacting the deceased family and children or contacting the account holders themselves .....

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by pumpjack

[stephen tracy]

1 hour ago, pumpjack said:

robin hood wore a mask  ....

 

greedy basterds !!

how about the banks contacting the deceased family and children or contacting the account holders themselves .....

 

I think that was Dick Turpin

[hawker9000]

19 hours ago, YetAnother said:

uh huh; simple grab; the excuses are always the most fun part

Just what exactly is the difference between "state coffers" and "the public domain" anyway?   'Sounds like precisely the same thing to me, and an inexperienced bureaucratic apprentice's weak attempt to obfuscate one thing by trying to phrase it differently.   Maybe it's just an obfuscation that, unfortunately for the obfuscator, gets totally lost in translation.

 

That said, 10 years is an awfully long time to leave cash lying around in a Thai bank, by almost any standard.  'The proverbial red cape in front of a bull...

 

 

[gk10002000]

About 15 years ago, here in Florida in the USA when I moved here, I opened a checking and savings account with one bank that later was bought up by Etrade and they only had branches inside of stores such as Publix.  And then I opened a savings account in another brick and mortar bank Colonial as I recall and I deposited 600 USD to help establish my presence in Florida.  My plan was to occasionally add to that savings account every year.  It was a savings account and I had no reason to withdraw money from it.  Surprise to me when at the end of the year when almost one year had passed, I looked at my statement and they had deducted like 60 USD for a "dorman" fee.  I got them on the phone and sure enough that is their policy.  If you don't touch the account they take money out!  As if my inaction costs them money!  I reminded them of what the Nazis and some other factions did and how they established dormant fee laws and drained accounts.  I got my money back then promptly took my funds out, and closed that account sending a letter to a few of the managers and contact people.  But 10 years for a totally dormant account is not unheard of in the world. 

[gk10002000]

3 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Another reason to push farangs and expats to never open a bank account in Thailand....

 

...what will you say if suddenly they decide to freeze your money if you are away for say 6 months or a year ?

 

......and entering into a legal battle with a Thai bank as a farang would yield approximately the same results say as trying to locate extra terrestal activity with your bird binoculars !

Oh I agree with you 100%.  You are at the mercy of their "accounting errors" or whatever. Some phony trumped up lawsuit, or charge from the ex GF, or whatever.  Sure keep some funds in a local account for convenience, immigration cash reasons if you have to go that way.  But beyond that, I would never keep anything substantial or that I needed in a Thai bank.  Foreigners have few rights and legal recourses by any western standardg

[pearciderman]

16 hours ago, Media1 said:

Failed governments that spend the tax payers money on billion dollar tanks subs railway dreams at the point of desperation. Turn to the most extreme ways of extracting cash. This is just the start. We need a quick election. Remove them lift the burden bye bye.

 

Are you Thai?

[hdkane]

i had two bank account seized by kasikorn bank...they told me it was because the accounts were idle for 12 months...is this common practice?

 

[impulse]

Back home the state (Texas) keeps a list of all money that's been "seized" by the state in dormant accounts, unclaimed tax refunds, and other reasons like legal settlements where the owner of the funds couldn't be found.   Anyone can pull up the list online and see if their name is on it, and my relatives have found my name on some trifling amounts that I had forgotten about.  It was very easy for them to claim the money with a POA from me since I'm overseas.

 

Seems reasonable that they'd sweep inactive accounts after 10 years, putting a major portion of the funds to use for the public benefit, while keeping a small reserve to reimburse anyone who later claims their money.  As long as there's somewhere to look to see if there's any money that belongs to a family member.  Hopefully, such a ledger is part of the plan.

 

[mike324]

23 hours ago, toybits said:

I wonder why take such drastic action. Has the national treasury been exhausted already? Last time I heard, there was an 85% drop in the Thai Treasury Reserve from 420 Billion Bt to around 75 billion Baht in February 2017 (From a Source that cannot be named).

 

 

This was public news from back in February. Wonder who your source is? 

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2017/02/06/thai-treasury-loses-85-since-coup/

[chainarong]

Sounds like the clowns running circus Thailand have been studying the parasites that run OZ , they introduced this about a decade back , took all the kids small bank accounts that grandma had opened up for them at birth, ( all that sort of stuff ),  that had accumulated ( Forgotten about ) over the years.................................. 

[The Deerhunter]

On 31/10/2017 at 9:40 AM, cooked said:

After accusations that Switzerland was holding money in their banks that belonged to long dead Jews, the banks did a clean out. 

"In the mid-1990s, the controversy over unclaimed Jewish assets in Swiss banks arose, forcing the banks to pay out $1.25bn in settlement. The Swiss Bankers Association subsequently issued guidelines, requiring its members to report any account that had remained dormant for 10 years to a research bureau in Zurich. It also provided for potential heirs to file claims with the banks' ombudsman, the only official certified to consult the unclaimed asset database."

There is probably a lot more unclaimed money laying around, and I really can't see the harm in this kind of action.

My wife is claiming that if your bank account remains unused for more than ONE year, this will happen, she just listened to the news. TEN years is ok.

 

That 800,000 sitting around for an annual extension of stay will have to be moved around a bit.

[ratcatcher]

16 hours ago, wvavin said:

A legalized thief, only happens in Thailand.

Are you serious?

By comparison to the wbankers in London and New York, the Thai banks are mere amateurs at that game.

[ratcatcher]

5 hours ago, stephen tracy said:

I think that was Dick Turpin

Quite so, Robin Hood wore tights.

[The Deerhunter]

4 hours ago, hdkane said:

i had two bank account seized by kasikorn bank...they told me it was because the accounts were idle for 12 months...is this common practice?

 

OOps.  Nothing new under the sun, eh?  Now we know where Big Brother got the idea from.

[Media1]

5 hours ago, pearciderman said:

 

Are you Thai?

Lol 

[Media1]

Just now, Media1 said:

Lol 

And what a stupid question on a farang forum. And if I was in wouldn't vote for these muppets