SCB EZ savings - using for Immigration funds

[gamb00ler]

In 2022 I opened an SCB EZ savings account (1.5%) planning to use it to hold the funds for my retirement extensions.  I brought the balance up to 400K ฿.  A couple of weeks later I closed out my fixed deposit account (only .65%) and moved those funds to the EZ account.  I like the ease with which I can adjust the EZ balance to match Immigration's requirements and of course the higher interest I receive.

 

There is no passbook for this account so you will need to do a few transactions to ensure your statements contain what Immigration is looking for.

 

Yesterday I went to my SCB branch to get the account verification letter and a statement covering the period that the EZ account held the funds required for my extension.  SCB charged me 200฿ for each document but at least they were available in 20 minutes.

 

Since the EZ account has no passbook, I ensure that there is a transaction on the account every month.  The monthly statements I can download from SCB will be essentially blank if there are no transactions for that month.  That statement doesn't even show the balance unless there's a transaction.  Another issue for the EZ account is that you need to do a transaction the day before you request a statement from the branch.  The statement produced at the SCB branch will only include transactions completed the day before you make the request.

 

I will be going for my extension this week.  I see others have been successful with this account so I think I should be as well.

 

[DFPhuket]

The SCB fixed deposit is now paying 1.15% interest so on 800,000 that’s 9,200 baht per year.  The EZ SCB Savings Account with no passbook, pays 1.5% or 12,000 baht per year.

 

Like you, I’d switch and pocket the 2,800 difference if I knew it wouldn’t cause headaches at immigration (I’m in Phuket). Please report back on how it went. 

[gamb00ler]

I'll give the good news first.... I got my extension using a BKK bank fixed account balance for the first 3 months following my last extension.  Being careful to have a period of overlap, I switched to using the SCB EZ savings for the 9 months preceding my current extension.

 

If you're going to do this be careful with the timing and make sure there isn't any window where you can't prove the required balance.

 

CM Immigration was very busy when I arrived there at about 11:30AM.  My minor tasks I had to take care of before Imm took longer than I had hoped.  I needed a couple of copies before I passed the document check so didn't get a queue number until after the lunch break.  It went downhill after that.  At 5:15 I was nearly the last customer out of there.

 

A new (to me) requirement caused another delay.  Now they want a copy of ALL previous extension stamps rather than just the most recent.

[The Theory]

1 hour ago, gamb00ler said:

Now they want a copy of ALL previous extension stamps rather than just the most recent.

Perhaps only your type of extension, not all. 

[gamb00ler]

8 hours ago, The Theory said:

Perhaps only your type of extension, not all. 

After being told by the Immigration officer that I needed a copy of each extension stamp, I went back outside to check the list of copies required.  The same requirement was listed under both retirement and marriage extensions.  I would interpret that to mean that if you have had extensions using both types, you would still need a copy of every extension stamp.

[The Theory]

6 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

After being told by the Immigration officer that I needed a copy of each extension stamp, I went back outside to check the list of copies required.  The same requirement was listed under both retirement and marriage extensions.  I would interpret that to mean that if you have had extensions using both types, you would still need a copy of every extension stamp.

Soon I need to renew my retirement extension. I will make copy of previous ones as well in case if they need those, but I won't hand them over till they ask for it. In fact I got an account statement as well as well, even though they never ask for it before. I could get bkk bank statement same day, I was surprised.