Leaving money in Thai bank accounts while not living in Thailand

[Kalasin Jo]

12 hours ago, john donson said:

what if, no more non-o visa and coming back after a few years visa exempt ?

 

my life is always more complicated then it should... all my money is in thailand but thinking of leaving after divorce and now kids ghosting me after their uni was paid...

 

Kasikorn is pretending their systems can only check for 10 years max... I swift-ed millions to thailand 15 years ago to my kasikorn FCD account, but converted to THB 13 years ago...

 

cannot even buy a condo now that I need to move thanks to it, so considering leaving and as they cannot/will not give me credit advice , or how you call that.... cannot send money back either, except convert thb to euro and fly with the max allowed in... 

My sympathies for your situation.

I thought like you do but last year discovered you can send money out of Thailand and do it all online. If you have a Bangkok Bank account and online banking with them you can by registering with their International Transfers. There is also Dee Money which seems to be the Thai version of Wise. I've used both to send to UK bank account, admittedly for relatively small amounts per transfer, 10s and 100s of thousands not millions.

[Hanuman2547]

I left Thailand in 2001 expecting to return in a year.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen and I didn't use the account again until 2005.  Updated my passbook in 2005 and noticed I had around 1,500 baht in it which was more than I thought would be in it.  Old ATM debit card had expired but I got a new one.  Everything went very smoothly.  This was years ago so maybe some of the banking rules have changed.  

[Liverpool Lou]

On 2/13/2024 at 9:45 PM, scorecard said:

some Thai banks automatically charge an 'account maintenance fee' if there's no transactions.

They all do but only on small balances, usually under B2000, with no transactions for 12 consecutive months.

[Liverpool Lou]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:52 AM, Jumbo1968 said:

My Krungsri Bank Account was locked as I hadn’t made any transactions in 12 months, there was ฿5000 in it. They told me if there was no transactions in 2 years the account would be closed and the money would be passed onto the Thai government. 

Dormant balances are transferred to the BoT but can always be recovered with suitable ID, passbook, etc., they are not necessarily lost.

Edited February 21 by Liverpool Lou

[Liverpool Lou]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:52 AM, Jumbo1968 said:

My Krungsri Bank Account was locked as I hadn’t made any transactions in 12 months, there was ฿5000 in it.

Krungsri saving accounts do not get closed or attract maintenance fees until the balance falls below B2,000 and there are no transactions for 12 months.  Then their monthly maintenance fee applies until the balance falls to nil at which stage the account is closed.

[Liverpool Lou]

On 2/19/2024 at 6:02 PM, Chivas said:

No idea where this suggested leaving 2000 Baht in account to avoid issues

 That applies when there are no transactions for twelve consecutive months.

[Chivas]

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

 That applies when there are no transactions for twelve consecutive months.

 

Not with SCB I assure you

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, Chivas said:

4 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

 That applies when there are no transactions for twelve consecutive months.

 

Not with SCB I assure you

What are you "assuring" me of?   SCB has a fee of "50 baht/month upon no account movement for 12 consecutive months and account balance ≤ 2,000 baht".

https://www.scb.co.th/en/personal-banking/faq/deposit-faq.html#:~:text=How much are account maintenance,account balance ≤ 2%2C000 baht

Edited February 21 by Liverpool Lou

[Alidiver]

Not a problem.

Make sure your phone number is transferred to your home number for OTP and do small transactions every six months, just to keep it alive. 

The rule is it shouldn't be dormant for over one year.

[bravo19]

On 2/19/2024 at 5:09 PM, Kalasin Jo said:

If you have a Bangkok Bank account and online banking with them you can by registering with their International Transfers

What kind of documents did you need for registering with their online International Transfer?

[Mike Lister]

2 hours ago, bravo19 said:

What kind of documents did you need for registering with their online International Transfer?

FYI You cannot transfer to an account in your own name.