Finance Foreign Nationals Face Account Bans in Bangkok Bank Crackdown

[nightfox]

27 minutes ago, Naus71 said:

One of the requirements mentioned is to be married to a Thai citizen, I believe however that one must still be resident in Thailand, or for married people do they also open the account with a tourist visa?

The bank wants to see that you have a Non O visa or extension of stay based on marriage to a Thai in your passport which is not a tourist visa even if your married. I'm on an extension of stay plus Bangkok bank made me get a certificate of residence from my embassy before they opened my account. 

[Naus71]

46 minutes ago, nightfox said:

The bank wants to see that you have a Non O visa or extension of stay based on marriage to a Thai in your passport which is not a tourist visa even if your married. I'm on an extension of stay plus Bangkok bank made me get a certificate of residence from my embassy before they opened my account. 

Thank you, because that point wasn't clear.

[BenCrew]

50 minutes ago, nightfox said:

The bank wants to see that you have a Non O visa or extension of stay based on marriage to a Thai in your passport which is not a tourist visa even if your married. I'm on an extension of stay plus Bangkok bank made me get a certificate of residence from my embassy before they opened my account. 

I know the British and US embassy no longer deal with certs of residency, so what embassy would that be as a matter of interest?

[sandyf]

3 hours ago, BenCrew said:

I know the British and US embassy no longer deal with certs of residency, so what embassy would that be as a matter of interest?

Certificate of residency is a fairly common document and normally obtained from immigration.

I don't think they have ever been available from the British Embassy, it was income certification they discontinued.

[Lorry]

11 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

 

2 year visa and a WP means he can open a bank account at any bank he wants. If it's blocked, it's either for doing something shady with his account or just needs to go in and do a facial scan, passport update etc.. The block on his account has nothing to do with why people on tourist visas are having their accounts blocked.

2 year visa and a WP meant that Bangkok Bank blocked the account "because the owner of the phone number was not the owner of the account". So my friend fixed that problem. 

Bangkok Bank then required to wait 3 days (because of the holidays it was a week) and then travel again to the branch that opened the account.

So my friend did just that and traveled to the branch today.

Today they closed the account for good.

 

 

 

 

 

[vukovar77]

On 6/2/2025 at 9:01 AM, KhunBENQ said:

How/by what means did you get the info?

I open the app at least once daily and assume I would notice if something is blocked. 

Hope to NOT hear from them.

I just tried to withdraw some money from my account at the Naklua Branch, and they told me that it's not possible before I verify the account at the Jomtien branch, where the account was opened.

[soi3eddie]

7 hours ago, sandyf said:

Certificate of residency is a fairly common document and normally obtained from immigration.

I don't think they have ever been available from the British Embassy, it was income certification they discontinued.

 

Certificate of residency "Affadavit", was available from British Consulate in Bangkok until December 2023 when they stopped this service. I used that to obtain and renew Thai drivers licence over many years, thankfully, I now have yellow book which is accepted by some offices of DLT. 

 

[Bday Prang]

16 hours ago, Cabradelmar said:

Get a O-A in your home country. Not sure why you can't understand that. Why should Thailand make your life easier. Get use to it. 

why an "OA"     why not an O

[BenCrew]

14 hours ago, sandyf said:

Certificate of residency is a fairly common document and normally obtained from immigration.

I don't think they have ever been available from the British Embassy, it was income certification they discontinued.

Until 3 or 4 years ago, you were able to obtain a certificate of residency or affirmation of residence from the British embassy for fifty pounds.

Used the service twice myself.

[ryandb]

On 5/29/2025 at 1:54 PM, alw22 said:

 

It took me a while to realize why there's so much bitterness and resentment on this forum. My theory is that tourists and expats enjoy visiting foreign countries because of the reasons it differs from their home countries, so they'd prefer that as few as possible other tourists and expats come to their country of choice because then it will become more like their home country and lose its appeal to them.  They also enjoy the special treatment of being a "rich foreigner" in a poorer country, but will lose that unique status the more foreigners that come here.

 

It's pretty silly to have that attitude on a forum meant to help other foreigners though.

 

Personally I think it's because the option to come earlier in life was not available to them, every older chap I've met who built successful businesses over here like there's more expats who still earn a western wage (to sell their services to I imagine) and these are the guys who generally came over in their 30s and 40s. I think it's the ones who came once the pension hit are a little resentful seeing the younger men arrive competing for the same apartments/villas and women.

[Cabradelmar]

6 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

why an "OA"     why not an O

You can't get an O when you are outside of Thailand, only an O-A. 

[Upnotover]

2 minutes ago, Cabradelmar said:

You can't get an O when you are outside of Thailand, only an O-A. 

You most certainly can, I have, and so have many others.

[sandyf]

9 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

 

Certificate of residency "Affadavit", was available from British Consulate in Bangkok until December 2023 when they stopped this service. I used that to obtain and renew Thai drivers licence over many years, thankfully, I now have yellow book which is accepted by some offices of DLT. 

 

As they say you learn something new everyday. I would have thought it would be much easier for most to go to immigration rather than the embassy.

i got my yellow book in 2010 and that was ok at the DLT up until 2 years ago when they sent me to immigration for a CoR, think some staff had been transferred from Pattaya.

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, BenCrew said:

Until 3 or 4 years ago, you were able to obtain a certificate of residency or affirmation of residence from the British embassy for fifty pounds.

Used the service twice myself.

As I said to someone else not something I had heard of.

Not surprising really when it is much easier to go to immigration.

 

[Suetape]

On 5/28/2025 at 12:16 PM, webfact said:

This move is part of a broader effort by Thai authorities to crack down on financial fraud and the misuse of "mule" accounts.

 

Then the Embassies should return to issuing income letters!  

[stevenl]

7 hours ago, Suetape said:

Then the Embassies should return to issuing income letters!  

All they have to do is confirm the income has been verified. When they state that, the letters are being accepted.

[VBF]

8 hours ago, stevenl said:

All they have to do is confirm the income has been verified. When they state that, the letters are being accepted.

My understanding is that the British Embassy said that as it couldn't actually confirm / verify the income independently, they were unable to issue the letters. I think other embassies said similar.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, VBF said:

My understanding is that the British Embassy said that as it couldn't actually confirm / verify the income independently, they were unable to issue the letters. I think other embassies said similar.

Correct, that's the issue.

[sandyf]

On 6/5/2025 at 1:38 AM, Suetape said:

Then the Embassies should return to issuing income letters!  

Never going to happen.

Nobody will ever know how the conversation went but my suspicion is the Thais were looking for an indication of net income rather than gross.

At the end of the day, a tax liability cannot be construed as income.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Never going to happen.

Nobody will ever know how the conversation went but my suspicion is the Thais were looking for an indication of net income rather than gross.

At the end of the day, a tax liability cannot be construed as income.

Some embassies are still issuing income letters. The issue is the embassy has to be able to verify the stated information.

[sandyf]

22 hours ago, stevenl said:

Some embassies are still issuing income letters. The issue is the embassy has to be able to verify the stated information.

I am well aware of that. What is not clear is what each embassy asks people to provide, or what each embassy was asked to verify.

I know what the UK government accepted for income and I can see that from the Thai point of view as being inadequate. If embassies insisted, and some may well do, on a document like the UK P60 then I don't see there would be a problem providing the letter.

 

 

[mikebike]

On 6/4/2025 at 6:49 AM, BenCrew said:

Until 3 or 4 years ago, you were able to obtain a certificate of residency or affirmation of residence from the British embassy for fifty pounds.

Used the service twice myself.

50£?? It's free at immigration 🤔🤷

[mikebike]

12 minutes ago, sandyf said:

I am well aware of that. What is not clear is what each embassy asks people to provide, or what each embassy was asked to verify.

I know what the UK government accepted for income and I can see that from the Thai point of view as being inadequate. If embassies insisted, and some may well do, on a document like the UK P60 then I don't see there would be a problem providing the letter.

 

 

Not sure why consulates (not embassies it is a consul's job) would do that. And if they did, how would it be easier, or better, than just showing your 65k/m or 800k in the bank?

[Upnotover]

57 minutes ago, mikebike said:

Not sure why consulates (not embassies it is a consul's job) would do that. And if they did, how would it be easier, or better, than just showing your 65k/m or 800k in the bank?

It would be "easier or better" for some because many people using embassy letters don't transfer 65k/month or maintain 800k in Thailand.

[BenCrew]

1 hour ago, mikebike said:

50£?? It's free at immigration 🤔🤷

Yes, I know. Circumstances.

[stevenl]

On 6/1/2025 at 11:12 PM, shdmn said:

I would be ok with this if Thailand offered viable alternatives.  It's even harder to open a bank account in the Philippines.  However, they have viable alternatives such as GCash and Maya Pay.  Nothing like that in Thailand where I can transfer money directly into them from Wise and take out cash from an ATM, bypassing more middlemen and more fees.  The only way to do that in Thailand is with a brick and mortar bank account.

I just heard about tagthai. Could be what you're looking for.

[shdmn]

On 6/8/2025 at 6:15 AM, stevenl said:

I just heard about tagthai. Could be what you're looking for.

This is not the same as GCash or Maya Pay in the Philippines. Those give you an actual bank account number that you can transfer money directly into with Wise. 

 

These are not like bank accounts.  They require you to add the credit through cash or foreign credit card, so you are forced to pay their exchange rates in addition to whatever transaction fees you were already paying before.  In other words, it's just one more middleman.  Less than useless.  Other Thai banks are doing something similar.

[SongSomSoda]

On 5/30/2025 at 4:38 PM, Lemsta69 said:

 

*BBL

sorry , what do you mean with BBL. 

[it is what it is]

On 5/28/2025 at 5:29 PM, CHdiver said:

So at the moment it is just Bangkok Bank. That was the favorite Bank for all Agents to open Accounts. Looks like they have a lot of dodgy accounts. My account is with SCB, opened many years ago with a WP. Now just a tourist. However no funny numbers of money going in or out. So I guess I may be safe there. Passport up to date with the bank and my phone number is registerd with bank and phone company. So lets see if they widen the restriction to other Banks or not.

 

why do you need an agent to open a bank account? it's hardly rocket science.

[SongSomSoda]

On 5/29/2025 at 1:37 PM, DonniePeverley said:

Bloke in my condo was telling me his app been locked. Turns out his account is set to be closed. He used the DTV had an agent open his account. Now has to fill in reports to try and get his money out. 

 

I've always said do not put in large volumes into a bank account here if you are doing through 'illegal routes

if he has done nothing illegal he most likely needs to set up Face ID , update book , Tax ID and maybe verify the ownership of the mobile number he uses for online banking.