Best way to start Thai Bank account

[Bchef82]

I'll be coming to Thailand in two weeks on a tourist visa, i'll be getting married in Thailand to a Thai national and will then begin the process of switching my visa status to Non Imm O and then getting the year long extension based on marriage. I was looking for advice as to how i should 1.) Best bring over 20 thousand USD to Thailand for the use as Sin Sod a week after arrival.   2.) Find a bank in Bangkok that will allow me to open an account whilst i'm still on a tourist visa ( in the process of getting a Non Imm O).  I know in order to have my tourist visa switched to a non imm O you must show proof of over 400k in a Thai bank account, however, it seems that most banks will not allow you to open an account unless you have a work permit or at least the Non Imm O visa.  Please help.

[Cyclone88]

Did I read that correct?        US$20,000  Sin Sot?

[Bchef82]

8 minutes ago, Cyclone88 said:

Did I read that correct?        US$20,000  Sin Sot?

Sin sod is purely for display purposes only during reception, her family has no interest in taking our money. Do you have any advice in regard to the issue above? Any insight would be appreciated.

[thainet]

"""her family has no interest in taking our money"""

I wondered where my laugh for the week was going to come from!!

 

You are going to lay out 650,000+ baht for show....guy you seriously need some treatment.

Having been here for a very long time, my advice is to rethink this, otherwise it is a disaster waiting to happen.

[HooHaa]

9 minutes ago, thainet said:

"""her family has no interest in taking our money"""

I wondered where my laugh for the week was going to come from!!

 

You are going to lay out 650,000+ baht for show....guy you seriously need some treatment.

Having been here for a very long time, my advice is to rethink this, otherwise it is a disaster waiting to happen.

how the hell would you know anything about the man, his wife to be or her family?

[thainet]

1 minute ago, HooHaa said:

how the hell would you know anything about the man, his wife to be or her family?

Ok Mr Hoohaa...I bow to your superior intelligence.

Now I have 2 laughs for the day.

[HooHaa]

19 minutes ago, thainet said:

Ok Mr Hoohaa...I bow to your superior intelligence.

Now I have 2 laughs for the day.

well thainet, i'm glad i gave you a chuckle, though i find it rather sad that "Having been here for a very long time" you seem to not get out very much and need turn to thaivisa for your weekly source of amusement.

it does beg the question what exactly is a very long time in your parlance and what kind of woman have you been spending time with? 

 

One also wonders that while tears of mirth were rolling down your wizened cheeks, if you happened to notice that he would be needing to open an account to season cash for his marriage visa.

I realize it is hard to read and understand, but 250k in living expenses, plus 400k in cash for marriage visa application in addition to wedding expenses are not alot of cash. 

to the OP, you shouldnt have much trouble at all opening an account with 20k cash on hand. try head offices, dont frequent smaller branches.



 

Edited March 14, 2018 by HooHaa

[HLover]

OP, there is a poster named Ubon Joe and he is a very good source of real information.

[jackdd]

From what was written in the last threads, it seems that you can open a bank account at the Bangkok bank head office in Silom if you get a confirmation of your passport from your embassy, if you are an US resident that would allow you to transfer money through their New York branch to the Bank account in Thailand which is cheaper than a SWIFT or whatever transfer. But Bangkok bank will only give you a Union Pay debit card, not a Visa debit card, which limits the places where you can use it.

Other than that you can try different branches of Krungsri, Kasikorn or UOB and bring something like a rental contract in your name with you. You can do a SWIFT transfer or you can transfer money with for example Transferwise.

 

2 hours ago, HooHaa said:

well thainet, i'm glad i gave you a chuckle, though i find it rather sad that "Having been here for a very long time" you seem to not get out very much and need turn to thaivisa for your weekly source of amusement.

it does beg the question what exactly is a very long time in your parlance and what kind of woman have you been spending time with? 

When thainet married his ex bargirl GF with 2 children the topic sin sod maybe didn't come up

Edited March 14, 2018 by jackdd

[thainet]

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

When thainet married his ex bargirl GF with 2 children the topic sin sod maybe didn't come up

Dear Jack,

I realise you are just reiterating your real life experience, and by posting here you are letting out your frustrations, but please be aware you are very close to libel and famacide (as you have mentioned a person by name in your derogatory comments). As soon as you read this, I suspect you will be googling rapidly as you are obviously not up with Thai Laws.

Defamation and libel cases are prevalent in the Thai Court system (just for your future reference).

 

[metisdead]

 

 

Quote

 

I'll be coming to Thailand in two weeks on a tourist visa, i'll be getting married in Thailand to a Thai national and will then begin the process of switching my visa status to Non Imm O and then getting the year long extension based on marriage.

 

 

 

And 

 

Quote

I know in order to have my tourist visa switched to a non imm O you must show proof of over 400k in a Thai bank account,

 

As this seems to be related to Visas, moving to the Visas forum for knowledgeable advice. 

 

 

[dfdgfdfdgs]

7 hours ago, Bchef82 said:

Best bring over 20 thousand USD to Thailand for the use as Sin Sod a week after arrival.

 

you muppet

[grego49]

6 hours ago, thainet said:

"""her family has no interest in taking our money"""

I wondered where my laugh for the week was going to come from!!

 

You are going to lay out 650,000+ baht for show....guy you seriously need some treatment.

Having been here for a very long time, my advice is to rethink this, otherwise it is a disaster waiting to happen.

Copy,,,,,,

[johnmell]

Good grief. I thought the 25,000 baht sin sod I paid was a bit much, and I didn't get a ny back. Still happily married here after 7 years though.

[anon789561]

this has been gone through many times. what you want is an account correct. being a yank then you'd probably be best with bangkok bank. you can open one on a tourist visa at the branch on the ground floor of the abdulrahim building not too far from your embassy. when i asked the manager guy there last week he said all you need is verification of your passport from the embassy but since you'll have to go to your embassy might as well get verification of you living in thailand. you can ask your wife to call the branch to double check before you waste time and money

[anon789561]

16 hours ago, Bchef82 said:

Sin sod is purely for display purposes only during reception, her family has no interest in taking our money. Do you have any advice in regard to the issue above? Any insight would be appreciated.

no problems doing that. we did the same when we got married 18 years ago. in fact her father put his cash and gold on display. just for show. completely normal to have your cash returned. anyway, the cash you make from your wedding envelopes should see you in money. we gave alot of that to her father who paid for the wedding food, drinks and entertainment and kept the rest. we had about 5,000 pounds UK left over. fear not, they're not all broke bar girls

[HampiK]

For the banks it's not easy to open on Tourist visa according to some reports here. But my personal guess is, that it is still possible to open.
It all depends on which person you ask. Mostly it will become easier in locations where they have a lot of stuff which can speak good English. But I also opened 1 bank account (1 year ago) at the location where the English of the stuff members were not that good at all. But it worked. OK I already had an account with this bank in another branch so this maybe helped as well :)

 

[buick]

20 hours ago, Bchef82 said:

I was looking for advice as to how i should 1.) Best bring over 20 thousand USD to Thailand for the use as Sin Sod a week after arrival.   2.) Find a bank in Bangkok that will allow me to open an account whilst i'm still on a tourist visa ( in the process of getting a Non Imm O).

1)  i think you are going to have to carry the cash with you or send it in advance to your future wife's bank account.  doubt you will be able to open a bank acount and get the money wired over to the new account within a week of arrival (in time for the Sin Sod).  it is not impossible but everything needs to go right and you don't want to come up empty on the SIn Sod day !!  part of the issue is you'll likely need to visit your embassy which likely requires an appointment (might not have one avaiable for a few days).

 

2) there have been recent reports (last 3 months) of people opening bank accounts on tourist visas at bangkok bank and UOB.  for bangkok bank, i think silom branch is the best chance.  siam paragon and emporium branches have been mentioned also.  a member was recently at the UOB branch in the silom complex (next to sala daeng BTS), i don't know much about UOB.  not sure where they have other branches in bangkok (i haven't seen the UOB branch at silom complex but assume it exists). 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by buick