I am on a retirement visa with the 800000 in the bank.Recently i decided to get a better interest rate from Bangkok Bank but this was only available if i had my wifes name on the passbook to get the higher rate.Will this have any effect when i go in December to get an extension to my visa?.

I suspect you will need 1,600k in the account to obtain a retirement extension of stay as only half can be considered as belonging to you. They might cut you a break being married but I would not count on it.

The last time I renewed my retirement visa in Chiang Mai, they would not accept the joint bank account, with my wife. Had to change it and go back again. Does not seem right when you have been married a long time, but there you go.

Not clear whether both you and your wife are applying for the extension of stay, (Ret Visa). I have renewed my extension of stay with a joint account with my partner, (we were both applying) and we had THB800k each (THB1.6m) in joint names. We both had a bank letter each specifying that each of us had THB800k, and it worked. The letter was the key issue. We use HSBC, who are obviously au fait with the procedure, and understand the need to be specific about how to express which sums are for whom etc.

You didn't mention if your wife is Thai?

I hold a joint account with my wife (Thai) and have easily extended my retirement visa for the last three years with the required 800,000 baht in the account. Each time, the officer has asked to see my wife's ID card, and a photocopy of it.

This year, just to confound things, I was asked to prove the relationship with the shared account holder - "I need see marriage paper".

As I had never been asked for this evidence before, (same office, Kanchanaburi), we did not take it along for this years extension. I complained to that fact to the genial officer. Reason prevailed, and I was granted the extension with 800k in joint names.

I was asked: "Why you have account with Thai wife?"

My reply: "25 years married, so what's mine is equally my wife's, and, should I die first, my wife can still get money from the bank to live off!"

"Oh. Dee maak! Ben khon dee, nah?"

Like most Thai banks, Bangkok Bank makes a distinction between resident and non-resident account holders when it comes to paying interest on savings accounts. Bangkok Bank pays no interest to non-residents, 0.75% to residents:

www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok+Bank/Web+Services/Rates/Deposit+Rates.htm

Some bank clerks misinterpret “non-resident” to mean “foreigner”. Get a resident certificate, obtainable from the immigration office if you are on extensions of stay and have done at least one 90-day address report, then ask to talk to a manager at the Bank. If Bangkok Bank does not relent and give you a resident account it is their way of telling you that they don’t want you as a customer, in which case bring your business to another bank.

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Maestro