22 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

It's BBL Making their own ridiculous rules.

Nothing he can do for this extension.

Once he has extension and the "freeze" Is finished he could consider changing banks.

I would on principle alone

@Epidemiologist Dave Your pal should defintely not bother wasting his time with Kbank, though, as they've recently introduced their own blatantly anti-foreigner rule requiring all foreigners intending to open accounts with them to produce a current form of home country ID, which, in practice, is a complete impossibility for most who've lived in Thailand for a number of years.

And Krungsri might also be best avoided on the grounds that everyone aged 70+ is barred from using their banking app.

So those intending to close their BBL accounts in protest against their ridiculous rules are, I think, limited to just KTB and SCB as possible replacement banks.

OP doesn't say whether BKK plans to enforce the seasoning requirements once any letter is signed.

What's weird is, suppose someone renewed their visa, and decided to unexpectedly leave Thailand. They go to the bank to close their account, and, what, BKK is going to tell them they can't close the account because the seasoning requirement hasn't been met yet? So the foreigner has to run back and forth between immigration and the bank to get permission to close their account when they're planning to leave Thailand? What a nightmare.

I can't understand why BKK would be getting involved with enforcement of immigration rules to this extent anyway. The only thing I can think of is that they're financially wobbly and have a keen interest in keeping these immigration deposits as "frozen" as possible to help maintain their financial solvency.

I am in the process of moving all my accounts from BKK to SCB bank. It's being done over the course of this year because the BKK term deposits have staggered maturities throughout this year. The SCB account when it was initially opened had deposits totaling under 400,000 so I figured I couldn't use the SCB account for my upcoming retirement visa renewal in Sept. Instead I planned to use a BKK term deposit of 1 MM baht which matures in November. I planned to use this account for verification of funds when my visa renews in September, but turn around and transfer these funds to SCB in November when the deposit matured. You understand, right, there aren't any games being played here; at no time will I be in non compliance with immigration requirements. All this is happening just because I'm changing banks.

Bangkok Bank seems to have forgotten two things: trust between the bank and the customer is a two way street, and the money on deposit belongs to the customer at all times, and the bank has no business preventing the customer from accessing his money at any time.

6 hours ago, OJAS said:

So those intending to close their BBL accounts in protest against their ridiculous rules are, I think, limited to just KTB and SCB as possible replacement banks.

Disagree. Most folk would have some proof of adress home country eg DL or rates notice etc.

Completely unrelated to BBL nonsense

3 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

I can't understand why BKK would be getting involved with enforcement of immigration rules to this extent anyway. The only thing I can think of is that they're financially wobbly and have a keen interest in keeping these immigration deposits as "frozen" as possible to help maintain their financial solvency.

You are concerned over wrong reason. BBL being exposed to issues in Pattaya for agent assisted extensions.

"Financially wobbly" Is nonsense.

5 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

I can't understand why BKK would be getting involved with enforcement of immigration rules to this extent anyway. The only thing I can think of is that they're financially wobbly and have a keen interest in keeping these immigration deposits as "frozen" as possible to help maintain their financial solvency.

It's supposed to prevent agent assisted extensions, where the agents put the money in for 5 minutes, get the bank letter, then remove the money.

It's all a big show though, as it doesn't actually accomplish anything except make things difficult for people doing it on their own. Because the bank letter is not produced by any Bangkok Bank system, it's just a form letter typed up by bank staff, agents still have absolutely no issue getting these letters after their backhand payment to the branch. Things are business as usual (outside of Pattaya) for agents and Bangkok Bank, but they wanted to look "tough" because they got caught doing bad things.

14 hours ago, OJAS said:

recently introduced their own blatantly anti-foreigner rule requiring all foreigners intending to open accounts with them to produce a current form of home country ID, which, in practice, is a complete impossibility for most who've lived in Thailand for a number of years.

Wouldn't their home country Passport be sufficient in that question?

53 minutes ago, mania said:

Wouldn't their home country Passport be sufficient in that question?

No. They require a 2nd form of identification from the home country.

8 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Disagree. Most folk would have some proof of adress home country eg DL or rates notice etc.

Once you give up residency in a US state, you can't renew your DL, and since I've been here three years mine has expired. I also don't pay for a residence in the US since I live here full-time, plus doing so can have tax implications depending on the state. But no residence blocks obtaining ID.

Surely this isn't uncommon.

23 minutes ago, davb said:

Once you give up residency in a US state, you can't renew your DL, and since I've been here three years mine has expired. I also don't pay for a residence in the US since I live here full-time, plus doing so can have tax implications depending on the state. But no residence blocks obtaining ID.

Guess you won't be opening a Kasikorn account. In Oz we have no silly rules that you outline for USA.

I maintain a bank account in California, file taxes in California every year, and I have maintained my California driver's license for twenty-six years while living here.

You can renew the license online, but you do have to have a California address, I used my older sister's.

I am not a resident of Thailand, I am visiting my family.

52 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I maintain a bank account in California, file taxes in California every year, and I have maintained my California driver's license for twenty-six years while living here.

You can renew the license online, but you do have to have a California address, I used my older sister's

Thought that would be the common example.

I'm only 15yr here and every year do taxes in Oz.

Have properties and maintain things such as Oz DL etc.

After all most of us expats have temporary permission of stay in Thailand.