We are thinking about opening an HSBC account in Thailand and transferring our 800,000 baht from our Krung Thai account. Is an HSBC account in Thailand still regarded as a Thai Bank for visa purposes. We understand the interest rates are better from HSBC.

Many thanks.

I am not sure the interest rates on the same type of account are any different but yes it should be accepted as a Thai bank for retirement.

1. You might wish to look at the topic which I started today about HSBC under banking etc. There has been some useful comment from members - generally positive.

2. You mention 800,000 and "our account". It is my understanding that if you have a joint account, you have to show 2 x 800,000 in it for visa purposes. I got this from another thread in December started by Samtam. Maybe you didn't actually mean an account in two names - but please let me know if you do have a true joint account and they accepted it with just 800,000.

I have used HSBC Thailand as a basis for applying for a retirement visa for the last 2 years; no problems. Good bank too!

1. You might wish to look at the topic which I started today about HSBC under banking etc. There has been some useful comment from members - generally positive.

2. You mention 800,000 and "our account". It is my understanding that if you have a joint account, you have to show 2 x 800,000 in it for visa purposes. I got this from another thread in December started by Samtam. Maybe you didn't actually mean an account in two names - but please let me know if you do have a true joint account and they accepted it with just 800,000.

The account is in joint names and sunbelt assured us that it would be OK, they helped with the visas and the joint account was not a problem. However, the lady from sunbelt said that she had checked out the officials and two said it was ok and one said it wasn't and therefore he was avoiced on the day. We shall be changing our account to one name only to avoid problems on renewal.

When we applied here in Chiangmai, we had a joint bank account set up, immigration had us go back to the bank and set up a new account with only my husbands name on it. No really big deal just inconvenient.