Dormant Thai Bank Account - how to reactivate?

[Leom216]

Hi All,

 

I have a bank account with TMBThanachart Bank which was active last year, but unfortunately due to COVID I'm back in my home country and the account went dormant.

1. May I know if there is any unforeseen issue if the bank account is not reactivated soon?

2. What's the typical procedure to reactive a dormant account, how much time it takes to reactivate?

 

Thanks in advance for any inputs!

 

Cheers,

Leom

[bbko]

Uh, contact the bank's customer services and get specific info about your account?

[Ohyesuare]

Is there any money in the account or was there nothing in there to cover the fees? With Kasikorn, I let mine go dormant with very little money in it and when I inquired about reopening it, they said it was basically the same process as opening a brand new account,

[BritTim]

As stated above, if the account has a couple of thousand baht in it, it will stay open, although inactive, for a long time. If the balance is zero (or close to zero) it will soon be closed, and there is no such thing as reactivating. You will be opening a new account from scratch.

 

If you are confident the account is still open at the current time, but low on funds, I suggest you make a small transfer into the account to ensure it does not get closed.

[ehs818]

I'm pretty sure that under Thai law any bank account that has no activity for one year is subject to closure and confiscation by the bank. I know this because 3 years ago a friend of mine from Chiang Mai went home to the US for a vacation and died of a heart attack while there. A year later, since his account had no activity for a full year, the bank sent a letter to the address on file indicating as much. I gave that info to his daughter and her attorney in the US to follow up on as there was slightly over 1,000,000 baht in the account. I sent them a scan of the letter.  I cautioned them that time was short and they should move quickly and recommended a CM based lawyer to help them with the Probate issues here. It then occurred to me that if I simply deposited 100 baht into the account it would show as 'activity' and therefore bought them another year to deal with it. I've no clue as to what they ever did about it. But that letter from the bank was clear and direct, written in English!  My suggestion to this subject poster is to contact your bank AT ONCE!

[wombat]

15 hours ago, BritTim said:

, if the account has a couple of thousand baht in it, it will stay open, 

You could be wrong.

Accounts that have been inactive for 12 months are closed and the money goes to the bank last time I looked.

The banks realized how many dormant accounts there were belonging to deceased people and had this ruling brought in

[Ralf001]

Just now, wombat said:

You could be wrong.

Accounts that have been inactive for 12 months are closed and the money goes to the bank last time I looked.

The banks realized how many dormant accounts there were belonging to deceased people and had this ruling brought in

Yep, I had a forgotten UOB account with 10k in it.

Randomly found the bank book one day so dropped into the branch...... account closed and money goooooooone.

[rwill]

I had an SCB account I had not used for a couple of years with zero balance.  I went in and asked them if I could reopen it.  They said no problem just deposit some money into it.  I did not have to open a new account.

[newnative]

3 hours ago, ehs818 said:

I'm pretty sure that under Thai law any bank account that has no activity for one year is subject to closure and confiscation by the bank. I know this because 3 years ago a friend of mine from Chiang Mai went home to the US for a vacation and died of a heart attack while there. A year later, since his account had no activity for a full year, the bank sent a letter to the address on file indicating as much. I gave that info to his daughter and her attorney in the US to follow up on as there was slightly over 1,000,000 baht in the account. I sent them a scan of the letter.  I cautioned them that time was short and they should move quickly and recommended a CM based lawyer to help them with the Probate issues here. It then occurred to me that if I simply deposited 100 baht into the account it would show as 'activity' and therefore bought them another year to deal with it. I've no clue as to what they ever did about it. But that letter from the bank was clear and direct, written in English!  My suggestion to this subject poster is to contact your bank AT ONCE!

      I don't think this is true for all banks.  I have several bank accounts that I opened a few years ago for the purpose of spreading my money around.  I did not have any activity on them for over a year or more--both accounts have money in them to cover any bank expenses related to the accounts.  Recently I sold a house and, once again, I needed to spread the money around.  I checked and both of the accounts were still open and the bank had not closed them and confiscated the money in them.   The same goes for my account with 800,000 for my retirement.  I never do any activity with the account except get the letter every year for my extension.  No activity for a year but the bank doesn't close the account.

[kidneyw]

Have you tried to access it online? Surely that would show activity.

[flexomike]

44 minutes ago, newnative said:

      I don't think this is true for all banks.  I have several bank accounts that I opened a few years ago for the purpose of spreading my money around.  I did not have any activity on them for over a year or more--both accounts have money in them to cover any bank expenses related to the accounts.  Recently I sold a house and, once again, I needed to spread the money around.  I checked and both of the accounts were still open and the bank had not closed them and confiscated the money in them.   The same goes for my account with 800,000 for my retirement.  I never do any activity with the account except get the letter every year for my extension.  No activity for a year but the bank doesn't close the account.

I think that any interest payment into an account would qualify as activity

[blackshadow]

and probably have to pay something ?????!!!!!!!!!

[boonchu]

Three of my bank accounts were inactive for 18 months but still remain open.

[thwo]

4 hours ago, ehs818 said:

I'm pretty sure that under Thai law any bank account that has no activity for one year is subject to closure and confiscation by the bank. I know this because 3 years ago a friend of mine from Chiang Mai went home to the US for a vacation and died of a heart attack while there. A year later, since his account had no activity for a full year, the bank sent a letter to the address on file indicating as much. I gave that info to his daughter and her attorney in the US to follow up on as there was slightly over 1,000,000 baht in the account. I sent them a scan of the letter.  I cautioned them that time was short and they should move quickly and recommended a CM based lawyer to help them with the Probate issues here. It then occurred to me that if I simply deposited 100 baht into the account it would show as 'activity' and therefore bought them another year to deal with it. I've no clue as to what they ever did about it. But that letter from the bank was clear and direct, written in English!  My suggestion to this subject poster is to contact your bank AT ONCE!

 

no confiscation OF COURSE. Kasikorn even sends a letter saying that the money is safe with them until you come back.

Ridiculous to think that any bank will steal here.

 

 

[JWNZ]

1 hour ago, kidneyw said:

Have you tried to access it online? Surely that would show activity.

Yes you can log in online and whilst the balance may not show as normal, you can still check it by viewing statements. Logging in, or monthly interest earned, doesn't represent activity.

 

[JWNZ]

1 hour ago, flexomike said:

I think that any interest payment into an account would qualify as activity

No it doesn't unfortunately, the activity or transaction must come from the account holder.

[JWNZ]

If your account has sufficient funds, usually over 2,000 THB, fees will not erode and subsequently close the account. The money will be there when you reactivate the account but the only way to do so, is to turn up to the bank in person, with your passport, they get you to sign a form, then its reactivated.
Whilst you can probably still log on to your account, the balance may not show as usual but to check it, you can still access a statement, where it will show.

As for attempting to transfer funds to reactivate the account, this will not work, also interest paid to the account doesn't represent activity, the activity must come from the account holder by way of deposit or withdrawal.

[BigStar]

1 hour ago, JWNZ said:

If your account has sufficient funds, usually over 2,000 THB, fees will not erode and subsequently close the account. The money will be there when you reactivate the account but the only way to do so, is to turn up to the bank in person, with your passport, they get you to sign a form, then its reactivated.
Whilst you can probably still log on to your account, the balance may not show as usual but to check it, you can still access a statement, where it will show.

As for attempting to transfer funds to reactivate the account, this will not work, also interest paid to the account doesn't represent activity, the activity must come from the account holder by way of deposit or withdrawal.

This.

[Caldera]

3 hours ago, flexomike said:

I think that any interest payment into an account would qualify as activity

I seem to remember that they state explicitly that transactions such as fees they deduct and interest they credit do not count as "activity". Otherwise, hardly any account would qualify as dormant. 

[Liverpool Lou]

7 hours ago, ehs818 said:

I'm pretty sure that under Thai law any bank account that has no activity for one year is subject to closure and confiscation by the bank.

Total nonsense about confiscating the balance.    Banks cannot "confiscate", i.e. take it and never return, account balances.   

 

If an account is declared dormant but has a balance, that balance is always retrievable, the BoT has detailed the process. 

[Liverpool Lou]

6 hours ago, wombat said:

You could be wrong.

Accounts that have been inactive for 12 months are closed and the money goes to the bank last time I looked.

You are wrong.  Dormant account balances do not "go to the bank", they are transferred in to a system run by the BoT and all amounts can be reclaimed at any time.

[Liverpool Lou]

6 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Yep, I had a forgotten UOB account with 10k in it.

Randomly found the bank book one day so dropped into the branch...... account closed and money goooooooone.

"Thailand’s Finance Minister said a planned Thai law to transfer money from bank accounts left inactive for more than 10 years to the Treasury will be 'in the public interest'”. To quote further, (I am going to skip a little bit)  to quote further from this article, “I can confirm it’s not seizing people’s money as reported he said, adding account owners or their heirs would be able to reclaim the money at any time”.

 

https://www.legal.co.th/resources/thailand-real-estate-property-law/title/issues-associated-dormant-thai-bank-accounts/

Edited April 5, 2022 by Liverpool Lou