Best Thai bank account when outside Thailand

[xebozone]

My wife has an account with Kasikorn and is living with me outside Thailand with no access to her Thai phone number (we changed phones and lost the old sim, but still had access to the original phone that mobile banking was set up on, so it still allowed access).

 

We set up mobile banking and it worked fine for years, but one day, the app required an update to be installed or it would not let us login. After that update was installed it required us to set up mobile banking again. The only way to do this is at an ATM.

 

We called Kasikorn and they said they couldn't help us, nor reset her internet banking password, as we need to go to a branch or have access to the same phone number and get an SMS, so now we have no access to any money. Because of the COVID pandemic, we couldn't travel back to Thailand, so we have lost access to this money for the past 2 years. You would think that calling and providing all sorts of personal verification details to the support person over the phone would allow some access, but this isn't the case. They can't do anything without coming into a branch!

 

Also, last time we were in Thailand, we went to a Kasikorn branch and requested that we be given access to internet banking and they didn't know how to do this for us. We spent hours there with the staff making several phone calls to other branch managers and got nowhere.

 

All of the above has soured our experience with Kasikorn.

 

We will be going back to Thailand soon with the borders finally opening up and would like to open an account with a bank that has good mobile and internet banking that we will be able to properly manage overseas without having access to a phone number (or a decent support system that will allow us to change this number to an international number over the phone if any SMS verification was needed).

 

The requirement to go to a branch and have access to a phone number in Thailand to access internet banking is unreliable if living outside Thailand as anything can happen to a phone or sim.

 

What bank do you recommend that will allow reliable overseas access, preferably with the ability to change the verification to an overseas number (after providing enough verification details)?

Edited July 17, 2022 by xebozone

[soi3eddie]

I only have experience with Kasikorn Bank and have been using their online banking since 2004. Important thing is always to keep same Thai number and ensure that roaming is activated on the sim to enable receipt of the SMS codes to allow transactions. Can't imagine that they would allow anything other than a Thai number to be used. I've been outside Thailand more than there and have relied upon Kbank online banking to pay bills for my Thai condo since 2009. The app is not essential and doing online banking on a laptop or PC is much more straitforward. On the rare occassions I have called Kbank contact centre English language line they have been very helpful (change address and update passport details followed up by email). Hopefully others here might give you their experiences in using other banks online banking whilst overseas.

 

[bkk6060]

 

You want to just call and change the access nunber for the account while out of the country on the phone?

Your wants and requests are not and should not be available outside the country as it would be easy for scammers and fraud.  

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, xebozone said:

What bank do you recommend that will allow reliable overseas access, preferably with the ability to change the verification to an overseas number

Best to try the Doesn't Exist Bank, sorry.

[xebozone]

21 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Best to try the Doesn't Exist Bank, sorry.

Lol. Thanks for your responses.

In contrast, the bank in my country is much more lenient for overseas users, and when I stayed in Thailand allowed me to set my SMS number to an overseas number (after calling and proving my identity through various checks).

 

I suppose now we need to find a SIM card that will allow roaming and top-up online if that's the only way.

 

Thanks again.