I have been drawing down my staggered time deposit accounts with Bangkok Bank over the course of this year, and with the last of the deposits being withdrawn, the accounts have been closed. The manager of the branch has given me a vibe he could care less and may actually be glad to see me leave. But I can tell you one thing: the tellers knew that losing my 3MM baht in deposits isn't a good omen for their job security. This whole KYC drive aimed at foreigners by banks is total BS. Whether you're talking about the requirement that foreigners get a yellow book, a pink ID, or a verification letter from your embassy that your passport is genuine, all of those additional layers of verification all go back to one issue: is your passport valid? That should be the job of Thai immigration to make that determination, not a bank's job, at least not unless they have a compelling reason to question the authenticity of the document. Why is a bank taking it upon itself to verify whether a passport is valid??? What's the point of having a passport, if you have to verify that it's valid, every time you turn around? What's next? You need a letter to verify your passport when you check into a hotel? Go to a hospital? Buy an airline ticket? And what happens when your passport is renewed and the number changes? Are you gonna have to re-verify that your passport is authentic? It's just ridiculous.
Create an account or sign in to comment