Assistance For Bangkok Bank Customers

[ianguygil]

As you may have noticed there are 2 members of the Bangkok Bank staff who participate in this forum who are available to ThaiVisa members to resolve issues you may have. This assistance is available to our existing customers or to potential customers.

I am an exec with main focus in IT and a background in international banking. So I will be involved from time to time. But Daveroc, who has revealed his true identity on this forum, is a consultant who assists us with Expat Relations. So I would view him as your "Tier 1 Support" and me as more of a Tier 2 or 3 should things get particularly complicated.

Dave has a huge experience in retail banking and he has the contacts in the operational side to escalate things and contact local branch managers should that be necessary. Dave has already posted his email address as [email protected], so please contact him either via PM or via his direct email should you have any need for assistance.

I will not hand out my direct email as I have a very large staff and manage the development of many of the products you all use directly. So, again, please use Dave as your Tier 1.

I hope this in no way breaks the rules of the forum as Dave had already revealed his true identity (no, not Bruce Wayne). We are not trolling for business but rather extending a helping hand.

I will still get involved when needed to address specific issues and to be generally annoying :jap: but Dave has the bandwidth to help you as part of his core role.

Ian

[darrendsd]

Cheers Ian,

I have never had any problems with the BB but it's nice to know that help is there from an English speaker should a problem arise.

[CWMcMurray]

I also have not ever had any problems with BB in the 7 years that I have been using them, but it is reassuring to know that if I ever did you and Dave are hear to help.

[flying]

I have often said we are very fortunate to have Ian here.....Thanks Ian

Also thanks to Dave & great to have him although I have not had to request help from Dave...But back when we did need help Ian was of great help to my wife & I while we were in the US & not able to fix a problem of our own creation with our BKB account.

Nice to see a bank go the extra mile for its customers.

Edited October 17, 2011 by flying

[BeardedDragon]

Good that the Bangkok Bank has english speakers with them...

[dddave]

As a US citizen residing in Bangkok most of the time, I'd like to see a plain language explanation of what advantages I would get if I opened an account at the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. I currently have a local Bangkok Bank account here in Thailand.

Would I be able to have my Social Security directly deposited into the New York branch and draw on it here? Currently, I have the SSI deposited directly into a US bank and I withdraw it by ATM but that is becoming an increasingly expensive option. Would I be able to set up regular transfers to the local Bangkok Bank account from the NY branch for less cost than I am paying ATM's.

I did read the Bangkok Bank website about the New York branch but is was quite unclear on many questions.

Thanks

[Daveroc]

As a US citizen residing in Bangkok most of the time, I'd like to see a plain language explanation of what advantages I would get if I opened an account at the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. I currently have a local Bangkok Bank account here in Thailand.

Would I be able to have my Social Security directly deposited into the New York branch and draw on it here? Currently, I have the SSI deposited directly into a US bank and I withdraw it by ATM but that is becoming an increasingly expensive option. Would I be able to set up regular transfers to the local Bangkok Bank account from the NY branch for less cost than I am paying ATM's.

I did read the Bangkok Bank website about the New York branch but is was quite unclear on many questions.

Thanks

Bangkok Bank New York is not in a position to open personal accounts. They are the vehicle that is used to transfer the funds from the USA to Thailand. It is possible to have your pension transferred directly to your Thailand account through the New York office using the US Automated Clearing House system (US ARCH). Attached is a link to the website detailing this procedure from which you could make a comparison on fees currently being experienced compared with this approach.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok%20Bank/Personal%20Banking/Transfering%20Funds/Transferring%20into%20Thailand/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20USA/Pages/Receiving%20Funds%20from%20USA.aspx

[darrendsd]

Hi Dave and Ian. i'm not sure if this is your field but just to make you aware that the BB website seems to be experiencing some problems

I tried to set up a transfer over weekend to a 3rd party account but the site says that service is currently unavailable, also tried to transfer some money today to a 3rd party account that I send money to on a regular basis via the website but again got the same message.

[tpiety2]

As a US citizen residing in Bangkok most of the time, I'd like to see a plain language explanation of what advantages I would get if I opened an account at the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. I currently have a local Bangkok Bank account here in Thailand.

Would I be able to have my Social Security directly deposited into the New York branch and draw on it here? Currently, I have the SSI deposited directly into a US bank and I withdraw it by ATM but that is becoming an increasingly expensive option. Would I be able to set up regular transfers to the local Bangkok Bank account from the NY branch for less cost than I am paying ATM's.

I did read the Bangkok Bank website about the New York branch but is was quite unclear on many questions.

Thanks

I transfer my pension from Wells Fargo to BB NY and it is automatically transfered to my BB acct. in Thailand at the TT rate, It works great for me.

[nycboy57]

Yes I agree that it is nice to know that there is someone to help, Just my experience on the BB in NY direct deposit of Social Security. I just started doing it after being here six years and also using Citibank in the past.

Now I got my first check here in BB.

They charged me Five USD upto two thousand dollars, that is for the NY BB side. Then the rest from what they said was 0.25 Satang per one hundred baht. So you can figure it out from there to see if it is worth it for you. The account in BKK BB is a special account that cannot have a ATM card for it. The money for me comes on the 3rd of the month. I have to go myself with that Book Bank and my passport, make out a withdrawl slip for the full amount and use my regular account here to deposit in. I can see what I got online but cannot do anything with it online. They told me this special account is setup with with Cooperation of USA, so that if I pass away, the money will go back to the USA government and no one else can get it.

It is convenient but I have to figure if the cost is worth it. Since my Citibank account in USA was not charging me a fee to ATM card withdraw based on my account there, the only thing was the amount of money that the Baht is worth to the dollar at the time of withdrawl.

If any of this info helps you or anyone else, great, if I made any mistakes in sharing this info I apologize in advance. Just want to help as allot of people have helped me sharing info on this website is very important to me and I hope to others.

Good luck with your decision.

As a US citizen residing in Bangkok most of the time, I'd like to see a plain language explanation of what advantages I would get if I opened an account at the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. I currently have a local Bangkok Bank account here in Thailand.

Would I be able to have my Social Security directly deposited into the New York branch and draw on it here? Currently, I have the SSI deposited directly into a US bank and I withdraw it by ATM but that is becoming an increasingly expensive option. Would I be able to set up regular transfers to the local Bangkok Bank account from the NY branch for less cost than I am paying ATM's.

I did read the Bangkok Bank website about the New York branch but is was quite unclear on many questions.

Thanks

Bangkok Bank New York is not in a position to open personal accounts. They are the vehicle that is used to transfer the funds from the USA to Thailand. It is possible to have your pension transferred directly to your Thailand account through the New York office using the US Automated Clearing House system (US ARCH). Attached is a link to the website detailing this procedure from which you could make a comparison on fees currently being experienced compared with this approach.

http://www.bangkokba...from%20USA.aspx

[ianguygil]

Hi Dave and Ian. i'm not sure if this is your field but just to make you aware that the BB website seems to be experiencing some problems

I tried to set up a transfer over weekend to a 3rd party account but the site says that service is currently unavailable, also tried to transfer some money today to a 3rd party account that I send money to on a regular basis via the website but again got the same message.

Hi, there should not have been any problems over this weekend. None that we know of. There is about a 10 minute period every late night around 11 pm when the back end (Host on the Mainframe) has to do some housekeeping and while you can logon to iBanking successfully you can not move funds. Was that the case? This is not a technology limitation on the Mainframe but a constraint of the application on the back end. We plan to address this next year.

What message did you get? I assume you mean iBanking not the Public Website (www.bangkokbank.com). We do need to know when there are problems. If you are in Thailand please always call 1333 to report any issues. Obviously at times the problem is with your ISP as we cannot control end to end delivery on the Internet. But we do monitor the apps and servers. Please give some specifics and I can get somebody to look into it.

[darrendsd]

Hi Ian yes I am using Ibanking from within Thailand.

It seems to be a problem in Chrome which is still persisting, I am filling in all the details and on the next page this is the message I am receiving

We are sorry. The service is currently unavailable. Please try your request again later. If this problem persists, please contact our Bualuang Phone Customer Service Representatives at (66) 0-2645-5555 for further assistance. (UI-102

However I have just used IE7 and the transfer went through fine.

If you need any more details then please drop me a message.

Thanks for your reply.

[aurelius]

are you transferring to a SCIB account by any chance - some transfers to their accounts have been stopped by reason of their merger with t bank...

[Orangutan]

I have recently asked for some help explaining a home loan from Bangkok Bank that my wife and I received. I initially contacted Ian through TV, and was escorted to Dave's office by way of his direct email address. I was impressed with the personal service I received, and the subsequent follow up to all of my questions. Both of these gentlemen are professionals, and I am happier knowing that they are taking care of us.

Also a my deepest thanks to Karen who works with Dave.

-O

[JusMe]

On two separate occasions, I've had problems working with my Bangkok Bank account from overseas. On both those occasions, I contacted ian who has been incredibly helpful. His colleagues there at the bank have resolved my difficulties, sometimes caused by me, and I am very impressed and happy with the help I've received from them.

Bangkok Bank - highly recommended by me

[JimGant]

Just my experience on the BB in NY direct deposit of Social Security. I just started doing it after being here six years and also using Citibank in the past.

Now I got my first check here in BB.

The direct deposit feature for US Government checks into special BB accounts is a nice feature -- except for the fact that this money has to be retrieved in-person.

I would think having those checks deposited in a US bank account, then going on-line and doing the ACH transfer yourself -- would be superior. You'd control the timing and amounts; the front-end and back-end fees with BB would be the same; and you wouldn't have to retrieve the money in person (this last proviso could really be problematic, if in the hospital, traveling, or otherwise indisposed).

Many US banks don't charge for ACH transfers (and for those who do, it's minimal). And some, like USAA, have no problem with expats, with no US address, opening a checking or savings account. (USAA, by the way, is no longer just for military officers. Nowdays, any military connection seemingly will do.)

So, unless you're unable to open or maintain a US bank account, I'm not sure why anyone would opt for direct deposit.....?

[captnhoy]

As a new account holder with BB I'm pleased to see a support network here.

I closed my acct of 5 years with another bank when they refused to complete my money exchange transaction because 1 of the bills had a single digit written on it. When I produced my passbook to identify myself as a customer they directed me to BB right across the soi. In BB I was treated like a customer from start to finish and exchanged my currency with no problem whatsoever. I then went back across the soi to "my" bank, closed the account and opened one with BB. So, "my bank" was indeed correct - I was in the wrong bank!

While in BB they were promoting an 11 month cd and I decided to participate. I transferred enough money from my "home" bank to do so then was rejected on that transaction "because I do not own a home" The fact that I hold a Thai title to a 5 million baht boat (which is my home) did not change their minds. Sigh. So many quirky rules. Since the bank would be holding my money I have a hard time understanding the risk they see. I did manage to side step this though and opened the cd in my Thai wife's name. It does raise issues for me though about the bigger picture and where I should bank as I'm about to remove a good chunk of money from US banking. Perhaps "offshore" (HSBC Premier) is the answer?

[4evermaat]

is there any plans to allow "," commas and other special characters in the online banking contact form? It's hard to write corrrect sentences without the ability to use "special characters."

[FarangBuddha]

Maybe you can answer this question for me: Why the h#ll are Bangkok Bank's ATM machines always either off-line or otherwise malfunctioning? Over the years, I have always found your bank's ATM network to be the least reliable. If there is a bank of 5-10 ATM machines in an office building or shopping center, if one is broken/off-line, it is invariably the Bangkok Bank ATM!

In fact, it has been such an annoyance to me over the years, I have opened new accounts with BAY and Kasikorn bank and am much happier with their now

[Daveroc]

As a new account holder with BB I'm pleased to see a support network here.

I closed my acct of 5 years with another bank when they refused to complete my money exchange transaction because 1 of the bills had a single digit written on it. When I produced my passbook to identify myself as a customer they directed me to BB right across the soi. In BB I was treated like a customer from start to finish and exchanged my currency with no problem whatsoever. I then went back across the soi to "my" bank, closed the account and opened one with BB. So, "my bank" was indeed correct - I was in the wrong bank!

While in BB they were promoting an 11 month cd and I decided to participate. I transferred enough money from my "home" bank to do so then was rejected on that transaction "because I do not own a home" The fact that I hold a Thai title to a 5 million baht boat (which is my home) did not change their minds. Sigh. So many quirky rules. Since the bank would be holding my money I have a hard time understanding the risk they see. I did manage to side step this though and opened the cd in my Thai wife's name. It does raise issues for me though about the bigger picture and where I should bank as I'm about to remove a good chunk of money from US banking. Perhaps "offshore" (HSBC Premier) is the answer?

Some good and bad news for Bangkok Bank. There is no requirement for you to have a home in order to particiapte in the Fixed Account offerrings. We do require a local address to open an account and I can only assume some misinterpretation on our staffs part. I will PM you for further details of the Branch and will address it with them

Dave

[captnhoy]

Some good and bad news for Bangkok Bank. There is no requirement for you to have a home in order to particiapte in the Fixed Account offerrings. We do require a local address to open an account and I can only assume some misinterpretation on our staffs part. I will PM you for further details of the Branch and will address it with them

Dave

Well it could well have been my misunderstanding of the reason. That was all I could get out of it since i provided my local address to open the account only about 10 days earlier.

[Daveroc]

Maybe you can answer this question for me: Why the h#ll are Bangkok Bank's ATM machines always either off-line or otherwise malfunctioning? Over the years, I have always found your bank's ATM network to be the least reliable. If there is a bank of 5-10 ATM machines in an office building or shopping center, if one is broken/off-line, it is invariably the Bangkok Bank ATM!

In fact, it has been such an annoyance to me over the years, I have opened new accounts with BAY and Kasikorn bank and am much happier with their now

I appreciate your frustration. The short answer is that they should be operating. We make significant investment in placing the machines and loading them with cash. If they are not working then we lose customers, such as yourself, through frustration and income through not having them open and customers finding competitor machines to use. We have service teams and Service level agreements in place to maintain as high an uptime as we can get .

Some four years ago we undertook an extensive placement programme to increase the availability of machines and we now have around 7000 throughout the Nation. Obviously with this many there will be stoppages but we do endeavor, for a number of reasons, to get them back on line promptly

Dave

[darrendsd]

Hi Dave and Ian. i'm not sure if this is your field but just to make you aware that the BB website seems to be experiencing some problems

I tried to set up a transfer over weekend to a 3rd party account but the site says that service is currently unavailable, also tried to transfer some money today to a 3rd party account that I send money to on a regular basis via the website but again got the same message.

Just a follow up to say that Ian and his staff dealt with this problem quickly and with no fuss, thanks for that.

Only a small problem but I must say I was very impressed with the way it was dealt with and would advise any TV members to contact Ian should you need to.

[mark5335]

Glad to notice that BBL Biz iBanking is now available for Mac users, saving me the minor hassle of switching from my Mac to a PC for my online business banking transactions.

By the way, it would be great if the TV Mods would pin this thread for easy reference in the future.

Edited October 22, 2011 by mark5335

[kokesaat]

This is not a big deal....but the fewer times I have to walk into a bank (any bank) the easier my life is.

Life would be much better if: I could get a new passbook at any Bangkok Branch, instead of the one where I opened my account.

barring that:

Life would be much better if: my new passbook had a gazillion (okay, more than 16) pages so I wouldn't have to ever get a new one.

Getting a new passbook isn't as easy as it may seem. At least in Udon, you're in a queue with everyone who's opening a new account, replacing/getting ATM cards, etc. There's usually 1-2 employees working the queue, and because of the paperwork involved, the line moves very slowly.

It just seems to me there's got to be a more modern way of doing business.....but at least if my renewed passbook had more pages, I wouldn't have to worry about getting it renewed ever again.

[ianguygil]

is there any plans to allow "," commas and other special characters in the online banking contact form? It's hard to write corrrect sentences without the ability to use "special characters."

Sorry, I am in Europe on business this week so I did not see this until Dave gave a heads-up.

We and pretty much all transactional sites, block such "special characters" from most fields as a security measure. This is an established best practice and it helps to prevent many types of attacks like SQL Injections. However, if there is a specific field where you would like to enter these to make a sentence more meaningful, please PM me with the exact field (which page) and I will have my people who do the real work so we can take a look.

But for now it will stay blocked and secure :jap:

Best regards

Ian

[captnhoy]

As a new account holder with BB I'm pleased to see a support network here.

I closed my acct of 5 years with another bank when they refused to complete my money exchange transaction because 1 of the bills had a single digit written on it. When I produced my passbook to identify myself as a customer they directed me to BB right across the soi. In BB I was treated like a customer from start to finish and exchanged my currency with no problem whatsoever. I then went back across the soi to "my" bank, closed the account and opened one with BB. So, "my bank" was indeed correct - I was in the wrong bank!

While in BB they were promoting an 11 month cd and I decided to participate. I transferred enough money from my "home" bank to do so then was rejected on that transaction "because I do not own a home" The fact that I hold a Thai title to a 5 million baht boat (which is my home) did not change their minds. Sigh. So many quirky rules. Since the bank would be holding my money I have a hard time understanding the risk they see. I did manage to side step this though and opened the cd in my Thai wife's name. It does raise issues for me though about the bigger picture and where I should bank as I'm about to remove a good chunk of money from US banking. Perhaps "offshore" (HSBC Premier) is the answer?

For those of you wondering where to bank in Thailand I have to tell you it's hard to emphasize the value that Ian and Dave bring to the table as your advocate with Bangkok Bank. In my five years in country I've never seen smooth results like this. I experienced a couple of little hurdles with my new account and Dave had them sorted for me straight away. I could never have gotten this done without his support.

[ianguygil]

Given the current situation with the floods this is not being advertised yet, but I decided it was worth giving TV members a headsup. This product from PREVX is a state of the art malware detector and effectively reduces the risk from Phishing. It is free for all Bangkok Bank customers to download and is configured to protect them when using iBanking.

PREVX is one of the new generation Cloud-based solutions. It will also give you the option to scan your machine for free. But if you want to clean it you will need to either buy their full product or use another product.

However, this is more than a normal AV solution and when online it really does provide an additional layer of protection. You can run SafeOnline with your existing AV solution turned on.

Please just follow this link and please give it a try. MAC version coming soon. Thanks

Ian

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Online%20Banking/For%20Personal/iBanking/Services/Pages/Prevx.aspx

[engrin]

I just booked an airline ticket with Nokair and they sent me a text message with instructions on how to pay via and ATM machine. I'd like to know if it is possible to send them the cash via online transfer? They did not give their bank account number or bank account name, only a code.

[Soutpeel]

I just booked an airline ticket with Nokair and they sent me a text message with instructions on how to pay via and ATM machine. I'd like to know if it is possible to send them the cash via online transfer? They did not give their bank account number or bank account name, only a code.

Would think you would need to ask Nok air that question..