Thank you again. Years ago, I also had a USD account at UOB in the past, but I closed it too because I could only make withdrawals and convert to Thai baht at the head office branch. At the time, there were only two UOB branches that could even open an FCD account. I would not mind having an FCD account at UOB, but I don't think anything has changed on how their FCD accounts operate and it was so restrictive that I would not do it again. It was just too much work. Yes, I read about the $5,000 minimum balance at K Bank, but that appears to apply to non residents. I am wondering whether people with a long term visa, a pink Thai ID card, and a house registration book might instead fall into the category with the lower minimum balance requirement for residents. But if K Bank does not allow online transfers and currency conversions, then it becomes just as useless as an FCD account at SCB. So I won't consider K Bank for a USD account at this point if you can't do transactions with the account through the mobile app. In the end, it does sound like BBL makes the most sense, despite the risks of banking with BBL. I would not be using it for anything related to a visa. Really, the only purpose is that I can transfer up to 210,000 baht per year into Thailand tax free under the current tax laws. At the moment, though, I do not want to exchange more dollars into baht because the current exchange rate is pretty unfavorable, with the baht being so strong against the dollar. So I was thinking of a way to transfer dollars into Thailand in order to take advantage of my annual tax free allowance, but without exposing myself to current unfavorable exchange rates. So it seems like a good idea to open a USD account, transfer in that tax free equivalent amount each year, and choose to do exchanges later when the rate is more favorable. I still have a savings account at Bangkok Bank that I have not really used in some time, but I have kept it open because it has become so difficult to open new accounts in Thailand. So if I can open a US dollar account easily at Bangkok Bank, link it to my THB savings account via online banking, and do the exchanges online as you mentioned, I might just go ahead and do that sometime later this year. So, just to confirm, Bangkok Bank only requires a minimum monthly balance of US $250 to avoid service charges, and that is about it? One last question. When you said that not all bank branches will open USD accounts, but that they will have a list of the branches that do, were you referring to K Bank, Bangkok Bank, or both?
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