Joint Bank Account For Retirement Purposes

[oswald]

Is it possible to have a joint bank account for retirement extension purposes? I understand

that I can have my US Government pension forwarded to a Bangkok Bank account via the Bangkok

Bank in New Yorki. I have also heard that Thai immigration will not allow a joint account

established for retirement purposes. Is this true? My worry is that if something happens

to me, my wife would have no access to the funds. We are both in our 70s and my wife has

dual Thai/US citizenship.

[lopburi3]

Have your pension sent to a US bank and transfer ACH online to a normal Bangkok Bank account with ATM access. You should keep an account open in US in any case for tax or international purchase reasons and sending into a normal account would not require physical presence to withdraw funds at Thai end.

[Lite Beer]

Reports I have seen of a joint account being used have said that a balance of 1,600,000 Baht is needed as half of the money is your Wife's.

[pontious]

Can only speak for Jomtien - they allow joint accounts for extensions based on Bht 65000 or more per month. They require a copy of Thai marriage certificate. Dont know about the 800000 in bank route though.

[Pib]

To prove the income requirement for retirement extension of stay purposes, you could also go the route of getting the yearly income affidavit from the US Embassy which currently costs $50. That's what I do.

[lopburi3]

What you do not want, if concerned about access for wife, is to use the direct deposit of federal funds into Bangkok Bank as that is a non atm account that only depositor can access in person. It is not that hard to SWIFT or ACH money from a US account to your normal ATM account in Thailand so highly recommend that approach. You can also use a joint account in the USA. As said above there is no need for any such account if you have 65k per month pension.

[alantheembalmer]

My wife and I, (we are both British), got our first two retirement extensions using a joint account. However, we were told by immigration at Bangkok, that in future we would need seperate accounts.

We too were concerned about having our funds "locked" in the event of the death of one of us, and the other party not being able to access the money. We went to Bangkok Bank in Silom, and told them of our concerns, and we were told that we could give each other a power of attorney to access each others account. The bank has a standard form you can complete, and this can be done at the bank, for a cost of, I believe, 30 baht.

I hope this is of help to you.

Alan

By the way, we use the 800,000 baht method for the extension.

Edited February 18, 2011 by alantheembalmer

[lopburi3]

The direct deposit for US transfers does not allow any such access as the money must be returned to US on demand in the event of death (checks cashed after death). For a normal ATM card account that could be done and would recommend doing so.

[jfchandler]

Re one of the OP's original questions, I don't believe Thai immigration particularly cares whether retirement extension applicants use joint bank accounts or not, particularly when it's involving a husband and wife...

However, if a person is using a joint account as the means to establish their 800,000 baht deposit on hand required for retirement extensions, I believe Immigration would in that case only give the applicant credit for half of the amount (400,000 out of 800,000) since the account would be a joint one vs. solo.

So, if a person is going to qualify for retirement extension based on bank deposits, that provides a pretty strong incentive to place those funds into a solo account in the applicant's name.

[alantheembalmer]

Re one of the OP's original questions, I don't believe Thai immigration particularly cares whether retirement extension applicants use joint bank accounts or not, particularly when it's involving a husband and wife...

However, if a person is using a joint account as the means to establish their 800,000 baht deposit on hand required for retirement extensions, I believe Immigration would in that case only give the applicant credit for half of the amount (400,000 out of 800,000) since the account would be a joint one vs. solo.

So, if a person is going to qualify for retirement extension based on bank deposits, that provides a pretty strong incentive to place those funds into a solo account in the applicant's name.

Unfortunately it now seems that immigration require sole accounts as opposed to joint accounts for retirement extensions. My wife and I had well over the equivalent of 1,600,000 baht in our joint account, but immigration still told us that next time we must have sole accounts, and I had to sign a statement saying that we agreed to this condition.

Alan

[jfchandler]

Alan, which Immi office was that?

[alantheembalmer]

Alan, which Immi office was that?

Bangkok

Alan