Has anyone here who is not a thai actually opened a thai bank account as a falang and got a decent rate of interest on their investment?? And by decent I mean something more than .5 - 1.0 %

Additionally are there any thai banks which do not levy 'commission charges' whenever a deposit is made into an account? A thirty baht charge a time may not seem much but when you are doing this several times a week the money just disappears!

i looked into this a couple of years ago, The answer then was no and I'm sure I'd have read about it on thaivisa.

sorry to bring bad tidings. Welcome to the wild west

i looked into this a couple of years ago, The answer then was no and I'm sure I'd have read about it on thaivisa.

sorry to bring bad tidings. Welcome to the wild west

I've been here 5 Months already but thanks for the belated welcome and intel, I guess the only way round it is to use an offshore bank...

Thats what I do and then just transfer the money here when I need it, but it has to be in quite big chunks otherwise bank charges for making transfers eat up your money very quickly.

It is common for banks to offer .5-1% interest on savings accounts here. Some offer as little as .25%

I believe standard chartered has a 4%+ rate for time deposits here in Thailand. cheers!

Just to be clear, I don't think there is any different interest rate structure for account holders who are farang compared to Thai.

The interest rates are simply terrible for everyone with savings accounts, Thais, farang and other foreigners alike. You can do better on term deposit, or better still in equities or risk bearing activities, but for now interest on savings accounts remains dismal.

I suppose the alternative is to buy SCIB, BBL, BAY, SCB, KBANK stocks, and then you enjoy the fruits of their gains :-)

For a decent amount, private banking might also be another way.

Althought deposit rates have generally remained at .75% for some time, banks have been increasing fixed deposit rates. For example Bangkok Bank now pays 3.25% for a 6 month fixed term for deposits of more than 1 million baht. Fixed rate accounts at the other banks pay similar rates.

To my knowledge no Thai banks charge commission for deposits. However, they do make a small charge if you make a deposit in the branch if a different province to the one in which the account is held. Unless you travel around a lot, this can be solved by just making sure you open an account in your local area

Althought deposit rates have generally remained at .75% for some time, banks have been increasing fixed deposit rates. For example Bangkok Bank now pays 3.25% for a 6 month fixed term for deposits of more than 1 million baht. Fixed rate accounts at the other banks pay similar rates.

To my knowledge no Thai banks charge commission for deposits. However, they do make a small charge if you make a deposit in the branch if a different province to the one in which the account is held. Unless you travel around a lot, this can be solved by just making sure you open an account in your local area

Fixed term it is then.

Unfortunately yes they have charged me commission on deposits at my local branch!