Bank Savings Interest Rates

[joik]

I where to SCB and I get 2,7 per cent for one year fixed deposit in found

[topt]

I where to SCB and I get 2,7 per cent for one year fixed deposit in found

Apparently you can get 2.8% if you are a Baht Billionaire........

http://thailand.deposits.org/accounts/scb-1-year-fixed-deposit.html

Details*

The interest rate for Siam Commercial Bank below is for a fixed 12 month / 1 year Interest rate for 1000 million Baht and Over

The rate of 2.80% is 1.02% higher than the average 1.78%. Also it isthe highest rate for this term period.Updated Feb, 2016

[MadMac]

Just made a new deposit after the CIMB one matured today with Islamic Bank, 2 years, 2.60%. That's the highest anyone offers. For 1 year 2.30%. This is valid till 31 March after which the interest rate will drop by 0.3% as they told me.

[falang07]

2.60% sounds very good, I will check this one tomorrow and might move from CIMB, too. Thanks for the info.

[jm49er1]

anybody got current rates on fixed deposits from bangkok bank - need to renew in a week or so - thanks

[chiang mai]

anybody got current rates on fixed deposits from bangkok bank - need to renew in a week or so - thanks

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/FixedDeposits/Pages/SpecialFixedDeposits.aspx

[denby45]

anybody got current rates on fixed deposits from bangkok bank - need to renew in a week or so - thanks

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/FixedDeposits/Pages/SpecialFixedDeposits.aspx

Doesn't seem to be a good rate at 1.5%. I don't qualify anyway

• "The 5-Month, 7-Month and 10-Month Fixed Deposit Accounts are available only for Thai individuals, corporates, government agencies, insurance companies, and non-profit juristic persons."

The Sinmathaya Subthawee Account looks interesting but I can't read Thai so I am not sure what interest they are paying for that one. Maybe someone can help.

Den

[chiang mai]

anybody got current rates on fixed deposits from bangkok bank - need to renew in a week or so - thanks

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/FixedDeposits/Pages/SpecialFixedDeposits.aspx

Doesn't seem to be a good rate at 1.5%. I don't qualify anyway

• "The 5-Month, 7-Month and 10-Month Fixed Deposit Accounts are available only for Thai individuals, corporates, government agencies, insurance companies, and non-profit juristic persons."

The Sinmathaya Subthawee Account looks interesting but I can't read Thai so I am not sure what interest they are paying for that one. Maybe someone can help.

Den

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

[orientalist]

Having already opened a fixed deposit account with Krung Thai the previous year, I went in to ask about a new promotion. They told me the details and I came back the next day with a cashier's cheque for 1 million baht. "Oh, sorry, this one is for Thai citizens only..."

[meatboy]

Having already opened a fixed deposit account with Krung Thai the previous year, I went in to ask about a new promotion. They told me the details and I came back the next day with a cashier's cheque for 1 million baht. "Oh, sorry, this one is for Thai citizens only..."

phone head office and ask them to confirm what you were told.

[mark5335]

anybody got current rates on fixed deposits from bangkok bank - need to renew in a week or so - thanks

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/FixedDeposits/Pages/SpecialFixedDeposits.aspx

Doesn't seem to be a good rate at 1.5%. I don't qualify anyway

• "The 5-Month, 7-Month and 10-Month Fixed Deposit Accounts are available only for Thai individuals, corporates, government agencies, insurance companies, and non-profit juristic persons."

The Sinmathaya Subthawee Account looks interesting but I can't read Thai so I am not sure what interest they are paying for that one. Maybe someone can help."

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I opened a BBL 5 month FD at 1.5% p.a. yesterday (in readiness for my next annual extension of stay). I opened the account at Emquartier Branch with a yellow tabien baan (and passport).

[55Jay]

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

Are these Thai Only offers are mandated by the Central Bank in some way, or the individual banks themselves? I've often wondered why some are restricted and some aren't.

[orientalist]

Having already opened a fixed deposit account with Krung Thai the previous year, I went in to ask about a new promotion. They told me the details and I came back the next day with a cashier's cheque for 1 million baht. "Oh, sorry, this one is for Thai citizens only..."

phone head office and ask them to confirm what you were told.

They showed me the T&C of the promotion, but promised to call me when the next one was available (that I was eligible for), which they did a few weeks later. They did me a favour, really, because I then discovered Thanachart's tax-free Ultra-Savings account, which is where I deposited the cheque.

[chiang mai]

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

Are these Thai Only offers are mandated by the Central Bank in some way, or the individual banks themselves? I've often wondered why some are restricted and some aren't.

I don't know, it seems like it's down to individual bank head offices but I can't be certain, it seems an odd thing for a central bank to mandate unless there's a Thai tax implication. It's a bit like the True Vision mystery, now, Thai is the default language on all UBC channels, even the film on 222 is set to Thai as a default, why would True do that I wonder unless nationalism is setting in.

[Tywais]

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

Are these Thai Only offers are mandated by the Central Bank in some way, or the individual banks themselves? I've often wondered why some are restricted and some aren't.

Actually it is not Thai/non-Thai but resident/non-resident that is the factor involved.

[orientalist]

Some banks have accounts that are only for "Thais or residents." Thanachart seems to define residents as someone on a tabien baan.

[chiang mai]

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

Are these Thai Only offers are mandated by the Central Bank in some way, or the individual banks themselves? I've often wondered why some are restricted and some aren't.

Actually it is not Thai/non-Thai but resident/non-resident that is the factor involved.

In the case of CIMB I'm very clear that it is for Thai's only, they even advertise as such. I'm "preferred" at CIMB and we've fought over this topic, the best they are prepared to do is to allow me access to those accounts as long as I can produce a tabien bahn.

[55Jay]

I've noticed a trend over the past year where banks in Thailand offer better rates for Thai citizens than to foreigners, I have fallen out with my various banks over this this but there's nothing to be done.

Also, with many central banks going negative on rates, decent fixed rate deposits are very rare, again, nothing to be done other than accept or diversify.

Are these Thai Only offers are mandated by the Central Bank in some way, or the individual banks themselves? I've often wondered why some are restricted and some aren't.

I don't know, it seems like it's down to individual bank head offices but I can't be certain, it seems an odd thing for a central bank to mandate unless there's a Thai tax implication. It's a bit like the True Vision mystery, now, Thai is the default language on all UBC channels, even the film on 222 is set to Thai as a default, why would True do that I wonder unless nationalism is setting in.

Yes, perhaps a tax/structure issue. Maybe Fletch will weigh in if he hasn't already here or in another thread.

Reminds me, several years ago, when the US Government began turning the international banking screws (tax, terrorism, et al), I received an investment advert from the Standard Chartered branch in the Middle East country I lived/worked in at the time. Clearly stated on the flyer, American PP holders need not apply. No other nationalities were restricted. It was a protest action, lots of knickers in a twist at the time, but sure, they just didn't want to deal with the nonsense and I didn't hold it against them.

Anyway, don't want to derail the thread. Thanks for response. Cheers, J.

[chiang mai]

It's worthwhile trying to bottom the issue so I'm OK if we derail for a while, as a long as everyone else is.

I was going to add to my previous post that CIMB will not accept a chanotte with an usufruct on the reverse as a means of showing residency, they insist it must be a tabien bahn - CIMB is of course a Malaysian bank so perhaps follows BOT rules more closely than Thai banks (HSBC Thailand used to follow them to the letter and was constantly in fear of breaking BOT regs). Similarly, my other bank, UOB is a Singaporean bank and they also mirror the CIMB position on this. I'm afraid I don'thave a Thai bank account any longer so I can't compare, perhaps others can describe? I agree with 55J that there seems to be a connection with this and FATCA et al.

[55Jay]

It's worthwhile trying to bottom the issue so I'm OK if we derail for a while, as a long as everyone else is.

I was going to add to my previous post that CIMB will not accept a chanotte with an usufruct on the reverse as a means of showing residency, they insist it must be a tabien bahn - CIMB is of course a Malaysian bank so perhaps follows BOT rules more closely than Thai banks (HSBC Thailand used to follow them to the letter and was constantly in fear of breaking BOT regs). Similarly, my other bank, UOB is a Singaporean bank and they also mirror the CIMB position on this. I'm afraid I don'thave a Thai bank account any longer so I can't compare, perhaps others can describe? I agree with 55J that there seems to be a connection with this and FATCA et al.

I wasn't suggesting a connection to FATCA. The issue here is a qualifying category, which, end of the day, achieves a fairly broad exclusion without them having to actually come out and say it. Clever, eh?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

They showed me the T&C of the promotion, but promised to call me when the next one was available (that I was eligible for), which they did a few weeks later. They did me a favour, really, because I then discovered Thanachart's tax-free Ultra-Savings account, which is where I deposited the cheque.

So that's this one, 1.65% tax free for deposits between 1 and 10 million?

The T&C seem roughly similar to Krungsri's Mee Tae Dai accounts, in terms of monthly interest and two permitted withdrawals per month. The MTD at present is 1.6% for amounts 100,000 to 10 million.

[chiang mai]

It's worthwhile trying to bottom the issue so I'm OK if we derail for a while, as a long as everyone else is.

I was going to add to my previous post that CIMB will not accept a chanotte with an usufruct on the reverse as a means of showing residency, they insist it must be a tabien bahn - CIMB is of course a Malaysian bank so perhaps follows BOT rules more closely than Thai banks (HSBC Thailand used to follow them to the letter and was constantly in fear of breaking BOT regs). Similarly, my other bank, UOB is a Singaporean bank and they also mirror the CIMB position on this. I'm afraid I don'thave a Thai bank account any longer so I can't compare, perhaps others can describe? I agree with 55J that there seems to be a connection with this and FATCA et al.

I wasn't suggesting a connection to FATCA. The issue here is a qualifying category, which, end of the day, achieves a fairly broad exclusion without them having to actually come out and say it. Clever, eh?

Yes agreed, we're both saying the same thing I think. It sounds like it's belt and braces on the part of the banks. Clever? I call it very lazy and also everyone living in fear of the US government is kinda sad.

[fletchsmile]

There's no single answer that fits every occasion as to why some accounts are apparently open to foreigners and some not. There are different factors at play and sometimes more than one. They include:

- BOT regulations. There are different rules sometimes in what Thais can do compared to foreigners. Can't think of any off hand related to deposits, but an example would be foreign currency - Thais have limits on foreign currencies. Foreigners don't.

- Interpretation of the regulations. Sometimes there are grey areas and some banks interpret more conservatively than others. Regulations are also changing all the time and some implement quicker than others.

- resident and non-resident. Because of BOT regulations some products can only be offered to either resident or non-resident. That's why often a non-resident foreigner may struggle to open a joint bank account with a resident Thai. It mixes two sets of requirements together, which are often different, and has to be either or.

- some of the government related banks are not purely commercial so often they are the agents in implementing government policies aim at supporting particular elements of Thai society. The products are only offered to Thais.

- often there are logistical issues behind the scene. These may be system related or may be process related, or just simple not worth the extra time and effort to deal with foreigners separately. These can also overlap with the other points. Catering to foreigners requires different requirements, which may not be worth the investment

Some examples:

e.g. >Sometimes it's just easier to exclude foreigners as a group rather than bother segregating foreigners into different sub-groups. If a product can only be offered to residents it may be time consuming to split resident and non-resident foreigners.

e.g. > ME by TMB is a good example of systems related constraints. It's an excellent product with a high interest rate. It can almost be opened online from scratch. It just requires you to go in at the end to show yourself in person. My wife did this. She input her Thai ID, it pulls info from some central ID registry data base in the country, with all her details able to be confirmed online. Quite advanced in what it does.

All Thai IDs have 13 digits and are in the database it taps into. Whereas 1) foreigners don't always have ID cards 2) passports vary in length of digits and this would affect the IT programming 3) foreigners aren't in that database anyway, so can't take advantage of the streamlined process anyway

- FATCA, KYC and anti-money laundering regulations haven't helped. They create extra work. For FATCA a simple answer. Don't take new US customers, and save yourself work. Some banks have grandfathered existing customers, showing loyalty to existing customers but not taking new ones. Some asset management companies have taken it further and simply closed even existing customers. Again given US are a subset of foreigners, sometimes easier to just cut foreigners.

> Business factors: Thais make up 99% of the customer base and can be 99% standardised as to required documents. processes and documents differ when you deal with foreigners. Thais have a 13 digit ID card, which is same as the tax ID, tabian bahn, etc. Foreigners can't be standardised as easily, and are often more complicated to process, requiring different documents and processes and requirements. Why bother developing extra procedures and costs for 1% of the market? Other industries wouldn't either.

Worth also bearing in mind here that the best rates on deposits are often promotional or special products. These in themselves have additional costs or non-standard processing. To compound this with additional non-standard processing for foreigners can be a step too far.

> Human factors: play a part too - poorly trained staff who just don't know or those not speaking English well or even someone having a bad hair day finds it easier to just say no, and has an easy excuse to not do something. Easy to reject you as a foreigner as an obvious reason. A Thai person may also get rejected using another excuse by those staff members, just they have to think harder as to why. Not dissimilar to going into a department store asking for something and being told it's out of stock, when they can't be bothered or don't know where to look. Happens the world over.

> Racism and nationalism does play a part sometimes too. Although much less than some would have you believe. In the same way in the US or UK a person has a grudge against a particular skin colour or religion or whatever, there are prejudiced people in Thailand that let their own beliefs get in the way of what should happen. Laws and policies say one thing, but people don't always follow them

I've seen all the above factors affect decisions on foreigners. To muddy the waters further, for every policy there's often an override or exception possible. So if you've a very good relationship or existing customer you might get things other foreigners don't.

So no simple easy one size fits all answer, but hopefully the above gives a flavour of some of the reasons.

One of the things to try and pin down is whether it is 1) Regulatory (BOT) requirement or 2) internal policy. The person you're asking may not always know the answer either, and sometimes it's just easier to move on

[orientalist]

They showed me the T&C of the promotion, but promised to call me when the next one was available (that I was eligible for), which they did a few weeks later. They did me a favour, really, because I then discovered Thanachart's tax-free Ultra-Savings account, which is where I deposited the cheque.

So that's this one, 1.65% tax free for deposits between 1 and 10 million?

PS0138.jpg

The T&C seem roughly similar to Krungsri's Mee Tae Dai accounts, in terms of monthly interest and two permitted withdrawals per month. The MTD at present is 1.6% for amounts 100,000 to 10 million.

Yes, though it was 1.85 when I signed up and 1.75 when I looked just a couple of weeks ago.

I believe TMB has a similar account but interest is only paid twice a year.

[akentryan]

If you are concerned about security for your deposits I would avoid any bank that arose as a result of the parent finance company going belly-up in the 1998 melt down. Two come to mind immediately and one of them is headed by the man who was head of the failed finance company.The two I know of were among the top five financial instututions before the crash. Be a wary and take a little less interest.

[jpinx]

If you are concerned about security for your deposits I would avoid any bank that arose as a result of the parent finance company going belly-up in the 1998 melt down. Two come to mind immediately and one of them is headed by the man who was head of the failed finance company.The two I know of were among the top five financial instututions before the crash. Be a wary and take a little less interest.

An international credit rating would be nice

[falang07]

If you are concerned about security for your deposits I would avoid any bank that arose as a result of the parent finance company going belly-up in the 1998 melt down. Two come to mind immediately and one of them is headed by the man who was head of the failed finance company.The two I know of were among the top five financial instututions before the crash. Be a wary and take a little less interest.

If you keep the amount under the deposit protection scheme limit, there is no reason to worry and just take the best offer that is on the market (CIMB and Islam Bank still offer over 2%).

[falang07]

If you are concerned about security for your deposits I would avoid any bank that arose as a result of the parent finance company going belly-up in the 1998 melt down. Two come to mind immediately and one of them is headed by the man who was head of the failed finance company.The two I know of were among the top five financial instututions before the crash. Be a wary and take a little less interest.

An international credit rating would be nice

you mean the international credit rating agencies that were behind the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_crisis? well, yes, you can indeed trust their ratings (in your dreams)...

[jpinx]

If you are concerned about security for your deposits I would avoid any bank that arose as a result of the parent finance company going belly-up in the 1998 melt down. Two come to mind immediately and one of them is headed by the man who was head of the failed finance company.The two I know of were among the top five financial instututions before the crash. Be a wary and take a little less interest.

If you keep the amount under the deposit protection scheme limit, there is no reason to worry and just take the best offer that is on the market (CIMB and Islam Bank still offer over 2%).

You really think the Deposit Protection Scheme would pay out in the event of a banking melt-down?

[MadMac]

You really think the Deposit Protection Scheme would pay out in the event of a banking melt-down?

CIMB is one of the biggest Banks in Asia, and Islamic Bank is a Thai government institution. So I'd rather bet on them than any Citibank of the world.