Opening A Bank Account

[Totoche]

My Thaï wife and I are moving next year to Chiangmai. I have 2 questions about bank account:

1) If the bank account is at her name, is it possible for me as farang to have a credit card?

2) Is it possible for me to open a bank account at my name and also obtain a credit card?

Thank you in advance.

Totoche

[george]

Credit card is possible ONLY if you have a work permit and a monthly salary of 50-60K per month.

[KevinN]

Yes you can open an acct.[savings passbook acct] in your name and with that you will get an ATM?Debit card if you wish. But from what I have heard only business's get a checking acct. You can use your country of origin credit cards I know,at least I do. and also I use my US bank ATM/check card for money transfers from my US acct to my Thai acct. that shows immigration that I have money coming in to Thailand for my visa extensions.

[Maejo Man]

Credit card is possible ONLY if you have a work permit and a monthly salary of 50-60K per month.

Not quite correct George. You can ontain a credit card providing you are willing to lodge a guarantee with the issuing bank. I was asked to lodge a passbook on one of my accounts with the bank, before I could be issued with a gold visa card. I won't mention the name of the bank here, but I will happily supply details to anybody that wishes, via PM

[KevinN]

Then that is about the same as a secured credit card and a debit card is close enough for me then,altho my wife does have a Visa credit card from Krung Bank and I have told her to forget it and not to use it for anything or any reason.

[Roger13]

A Credit Card accesses a completely Separate Account

on which the account holder is given Credit (i.e. Borrows money)

A Debit Card on the other hand is connected to your

Checking / Current Account or Savings Account

allowing you access to funds that you already have in your account.

But there is no difference in the way they are used

and both can be used as an ATM card.

So Totoche did you really mean Credit Card?

If you qualify for one - it would be a NEW account

in your name or possibly joint names.

Roger

[Maejo Man]

Then that is about the same as a secured credit card and a debit card is close enough for me then,altho my wife does have a Visa credit card from Krung Bank and I have told her to forget it and not to use it for anything or any reason.

Just in the way of a p.s. on that post KevinN, the guarantee is waived after twelve months of responsible usage.

It's always a problem for an alien in any country to establish a credit rating, but once established, the rest is plain sailing.