Night of the Iguana: Old Fogies with young Thai Nubiles. Do they mix?

[Khun Bob]

Over the past 2 weeks I have been to many Thai banks and they have uite a few different varieties of fixed deposits and have some special offers as it was Chinese New Year.

Does anyone know of a service or something that allows the various fixed deposit account from the many Thai banks to be compared ? Just a list of the bank, terms and rates would be fine. The special offers would be icing on the cake.

TIA

Also if anyone can share their experience of opening, running and closing down their fixed deposit accounts, I would be, and probably many other people, interested to hear what you have to say.

[ding]

Bangkok Bank has many fixed deposit accounts for individuals. Compare rates here;

Bangkok Bank fixed accounts

I don't know of a good bank-bank rate comparison link aside from the BOT link below, but would like other ones too.

BOT

previous THREAD

Edited February 26, 2010 by ding

[chiangmaibruce]

Bob

I was going to tell you about a good previous thread but Ding beat me to it. The important point here is that some banks differentiate between residents and non-residents in setting the applicable interest rate - and some of those that do define the term differently. So you do need to check the specific interest rate page within each banks web site and then confirm this with the staff at the branch you are using ... to avoid unwanted surprises.

See also www.burning-bison.com for further relevant info

- CB

[Khun Bob]

Thanks for the good info and links.

I'm going to try and open a 6 month fixed deposit today with KBank which has a special offer on for the Chinese new year. Today is the last day and I have a brochure on it. Just have to be careful about the resident/non-resident situation. I only have a rental agreement for a room and a non-imm visa.

Kbank rates are not the best and presently only marginally higher than the 0.50% offered by a savings account there.

I tried to find out from the KBank contact centre on friday how the fixed deposit runs - ie where the interest is placed, when it is placed, if the interest rates increase how this is passed on to a renewal of the fixed deposit term and other questions and got nothing at all from them. Also the branch I visited seemed to provide different info to that of the KBank website. I'd just hate to invest in a fixed deposit where I lose control by not being in Thailand and get a lower interest rate than a savings account for being classed as non-resident (although in a thread previously referred to, it states that KBank do not distinguish between resident and non-resident).

Will try and see, and if things don't work out apparently I can close the fixed deposit down before the end of the term and still receive the same interest as a savings account on the amount invested.

[Khun Bob]

Thanks for mentioning the resident / non-resident rates. I mentioned this when I was opening the account and I dont think it was understood or an issue to KBank. All the time deposits I have with KBank have the initial interest rate printed into the passbook. But not having had a time deposit with KBank before I dont really know what will happen till I get the passbook updated again after the first term has run.

SCB have an interesting offering at the moment. I cant remember the exact details but it is a 2 year term and in the last 6 months the interest increases to over 4%. It seems to be down to the discretion of the manager / senior person in the bank whether they will allow you to open this or state it is Thai people only.

I was tempted to go for a money market fund with K-Asset, but decided against it in the end. However the following may be of interest to people looking at funds :

http://www.finansa-asset.com/fund_result.a...mp;Fund_Type=MF