Can The Bank Steal Your Money?

[loong]

After reading a posting in the Visa section I came across this statement

By the way someone mentioned mickey mouse currency of thai bhat which was then defended as being a strong currency to invest in I dont remember if it was on this thread but the problem is not the currency its the bank.If you put your money in a thai bank and then forget to check up on it for 6 months they can and will confiscate all your money.

A mate of mine had this happen to him, but he had a relatively small amount in the account and hadn,t accessed it for a long, long time.

Is that right? After only six months?

Has anyone had an account closed and funds confiscated because it has been dormant for some time.

Can this happen after only six months?

How can you make sure that this does not happen if you are out of the country for 6 months?

[Butterfly]

Yes it happens for accounts with less than 1,000 baht

If you have more than 100,000 baht, they won't do it

[loong]

Thanks for the reply

Just like to clarify

You say if balance is below 1000 Bht they will do it

Above 100,000 they wont

What if you have more than 1000, but less than 100,000?

[Sumitr Man]

One sure way to avoid any problem arising with a dormant account is to leave your passbook with someone who you trust and ask them to go to the automoated machine and update it every month. This way, the account will stay "live", even if there are no entries to update.

Having said that, I had an account with KBANK (previously TFB) which I had not used for two years; nor had I updated the passbook. When I next tried to use the account the woman behind the counter told me the account had been frozen as dormant - but that I could reactive the account if I went to the branch where I had opened the account and showed them my passport. This I did. 5 minutes later the account was "live" again and I've never had any problems using it since.

I'm afraid I cannot speak for any other banks, but I understand Bank of Asia does now charge for accounts which have balances under a certain amount. If you don't use the account for awhile, and the amount is under the limited amount, after some time the balance will be eaten by the fees and the account will close. I can only assume your friend was faced with a similar situation. To the best of my knowledge, and certainly in my case, KBANK do not operate this practice.

SM

[falong]

Yes it happens for accounts with less than 1,000 baht

If you have more than 100,000 baht, they won't do it

I find it hard to believe that if you have for example 76888 baht in an accunt inactive for 7 months that a bank will confiscate that money. Yes under 1000 baht for 2 years then I could understand.

[loong]

Strange as things can seem, I have learnt that anything can happen in Thailand. It doesn't have to make sense to us

[Darlek]

yes it happened to me some years back.#

i had an account with Bangkok Bank , i was away for some 6 months and they helped themselves to around 5000 + baht and closed it down.

i complained and asked them to reopen it and reimburse the money but they refused .

[Heng]

Citibank. Why even open an account in a Thai bank if you're just going to whine about it?

[devaram]

Someone told me that his friend lost 8000bh after 6 months dormant.I spoke with Siam bank about their policy this is what I gathered :If your account is dormant for 6 months you cannot access it anymore from inside the bank but only with your atm card.Dont have an atm card? Guess youre out of luck.If you have an atm card you can continue to access for 6 more months but if the account stays dormant for one year then you loose everything.I asked her"you mean you steal the money?"Yes, was her reply the bank will steal your money. Reason given"because we have many many accounts and its too much trouble to keep track of many many accounts!"

[shemmy]

boy this is troubling,,, I have 25,000bt in bangkok bank,, left thailand 3 months ago

[Butterfly]

Someone told me that his friend lost 8000bh after 6 months dormant.I spoke with Siam bank about their policy this is what I gathered :If your account is dormant for 6 months you cannot access it anymore from inside the bank but only with your atm card.Dont have an atm card? Guess youre out of luck.If you have an atm card you can continue to access for 6 more months but if the account stays dormant for one year then you loose everything.I asked her"you mean you steal the money?"Yes, was her reply the bank will steal your money. Reason given"because we have many many accounts and its too much trouble to keep track of many many accounts!"

yep, that's the main reason they give.

Too many "money laundering accounts" or "bad foreigner accounts" as they like to put it. Basically don't open a bank account in Thailand unless you need to.

[Butterfly]

boy this is troubling,,, I have 25,000bt in bangkok bank,, left thailand 3 months ago

Well if you are returning in less than 6 months, nothing is lost. The 6 month rules doesn't apply to all banks. It could be as long as 2 years

[loong]

QUOTE (shemmy @ Fri 2004-09-24, 15:21:32)

boy this is troubling,,, I have 25,000bt in bangkok bank,, left thailand 3 months ago 

Shemmy

If you're not going back to Thailand soon, maybe you should consider transferring a small amount of money into the account from your home country account just bsfore the 6 month period is up. Your account would then not be dormant and you will have at least another 6 months.

That's the theory anyway.

[george]

Dormant accounts at Bangkok Bank PCL with a balance over 1,000 Baht will not be closed, as I understand it. This is clearly mentioned in the agrrement with the bank upon opening the acoount. Normally this is also stamped at the first page as well.

Kasikorn Bank (TFB) state this on the last page of the Savings deposit passbook:

An account that has not incurred any transactions and maintained a minimum balance as specified by the bank will be closed and/or subject to a maintenance fee at the rate and in the manner prescribed by the bank.

Hmmm.... shady ...

[sriracha john]

An account that has not incurred any transactions and maintained a minimum balance as specified by the bank will be closed and/or subject to a maintenance fee at the rate and in the manner prescribed by the bank.

The maintenance fee rate may be up to, but not exceeding, B1,000/hour.

[withnail]

so which banks are safest to use then?