Has anyone any information/expereince regarding foreign currency accounts in Thailand?

Can they be a problem in any way?

Reason I ask is that Pension can involve an initial 'lump sum' payment over which I have no control except to ask for it.

I have been intending to use part of the 'lump sum' as my Thai deposit for aging.

The 'lump sum' represents more than the 800k required and I have no wish to convert anything above the 800k into Thai Baht right now.

So my Thai Bank would be holding 800K Thai Baht (for aging) plus another amount in the foreign currency in which the 'lump' arrived.

The Bank indicated they could fix me up with a foreign currency account but seemed to go out of their way to ask me to read their statutory information leaflet on the subject - which gave me pause for thought because of their insistence.

Would I be courting possible trouble/problems in doing this?

Any advice gratefully received.

Rgds.

FS

Edited February 13, 201214 yr by factseeker

You can use a foreign currency account at a Thai bank to meet the 800,000 baht immigration requirement without converting the money to Thai baht.

With regards to any problems or trouble with a foreign currency account at a Thai bank you must consider what you want to do with it and what their policies are. There are usually costs associated with withdrawing in the foreign currency and some kind of requirements to verify the original source of the funds in the event that you want to transfer them out of Thailand in the future so you would need to keep documentation about the initial deposit for that purpose.

And of course your bank or Thailand could change their rules about all that at any time just like could occur with any bank in any country.

All that said, there are many of us that use and have used foreign currency accounts without problems.

You can use a foreign currency account at a Thai bank to meet the 800,000 baht immigration requirement without converting the money to Thai baht.

With regards to any problems or trouble with a foreign currency account at a Thai bank you must consider what you want to do with it and what their policies are. There are usually costs associated with withdrawing in the foreign currency and some kind of requirements to verify the original source of the funds in the event that you want to transfer them out of Thailand in the future so you would need to keep documentation about the initial deposit for that purpose.

And of course your bank or Thailand could change their rules about all that at any time just like could occur with any bank in any country.

All that said, there are many of us that use and have used foreign currency accounts without problems.

I'm not exactly sure of the costs involved of opening and maintaining an account in foreign currency. But I am sure once you find out the costs involved and the charges for any transactions, you will not want to do it. You can go to a Bangkok Bank branch and they should have a brochure (in English) that spells everything out. As I said, not sure, but I think they initially charge a 1% fee for the initial deposit and they a "maintenance fee" which I forget what it is, and also I think charges for any deposits/withdrawals. Not sure of any other named banks costs.