Phuket German Expat Loses Bt600K To Skimmers

[Thaiaddict01]

hmmmm I was thinking about leave a large amount the next time I am over, maybe up to 1M baht or more. So what do you guys say don't do it? I will leave it there and come back 5,6 months later. When you are a foreigner and you ain't even in the country, money gone missing it's gonna be a big headache I bet. Is there any happy ending to similar incidents before?

Is it possible to like freeze the account when you leave TH, and un-freeze it when you come back? that way it will be totally safe.

So from this thread and few others threads I guess you won't get the money back? kasikorn doesn't do anything and the same for police? Do they also treat thai the same way or it's only for foreigners? Is it possible that the bank people took out the money?!?!!?

For the address we used hotel address when we opened the account, so hotel staff might get our personal info when bank mail us something. Without passbook they can't take out money at all right? I only have passbook and no ATM. also they don't guarantee 1 million baht for foreigners for money in the bank right? but actually I am talking about USD account and not THB account

Edited August 21, 2013 by Thaiaddict01

[LivinginKata]

^

If you have no ATM then you will be fine. Money can only be withdrawn with passbook and your passport. Unlikley that the bank will send any letters to you sign-up address. Only to say that there is no enough money left in the account to remain open. I think the Thai gov only guarantee 500,000 baht in a bank account (Thai or foreign) if the bank goes bankrupt. Mind you I would not bank on getting anything back

[Thaiaddict01]

Banks do they go bankrupt anymore? usually gets combined with other banks right?

How is Kasikorn it should be safe and it's pretty large bank in TH right? what are some other bigger banks in TH thanks

[hawker9000]

IVO the problem, Thai banks - maybe all banks - should provide consumers with a way to "lock" their accounts online, with no way to unlock it from an ATM machine, even with the card and correct PIN - only online or a visit to a branch office. If you use your ATM card infrequently, you keep your account normally locked, go online to unlock it before a planned ATM use or use window, and then lock it again afterward to secure it. The ATM card would be useless, at least as far as getting cash (or maybe even for viewing your balance, etc. - cardholder option), whenever the account is locked. 'Could be inconvenient in emergencies, I guess. But lots of possible options with it, including an "autolock" whenever specified criteria are met (attempted withdrawals above a certain amount; whenever the card is used with a bad PIN; attempted use at certain times of day or outside specified areas; etc.).

Edited September 6, 2013 by hawker9000

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

^

If you have no ATM then you will be fine. Money can only be withdrawn with passbook and your passport. Unlikley that the bank will send any letters to you sign-up address. Only to say that there is no enough money left in the account to remain open. I think the Thai gov only guarantee 500,000 baht in a bank account (Thai or foreign) if the bank goes bankrupt. Mind you I would not bank on getting anything back

The Thai Government's Deposit Protection Agency supposedly guarantees individual accounts per customer per bank company up to 50 million baht, at least thru August 2015, which the amount is due to drop to 25 million baht for the next year and then 1 million baht from Aug. 2016 onward.

http://www.dpa.or.th/main.php?filename=index___EN#language

The protected amount had been set to fall to 1 million baht this year originally, but then that was postponed by the government, without any explanation that I've ever seen.

Even so, there are a couple of potential problems here:

1. DPA is a relatively new agency formed in the wake of the Asian financial meltdown of the late 1990s, so it doesn't have any big track record of performance, especially as to how they would treat farang accountholders. And even under DPA's own stated procedures, it could take accountholders several months to receive their funds back in the event of a bank failure.

2. The DPA coverage only pertains to situations where the bank holding your deposit fails or is taken over by the government. The DPA coverage does NOT protect against theft or fraud by bank employees or others that could result in the loss of your funds.

Not having an ATM card linked to one's Thai bank account is certainly one measure that can help protect the security of the account. But that's really from external fraud. It doesn't do much to protect the account from internal fraud/theft by bank employees, which certainly has been known to happen here.

That's not to say insider bank fraud/theft doesn't happen elsewhere -- it certainly does. But my impression is, it's more common here perhaps than some other places. And second, if it does happen here, you'd be left relying on the Thai bank, Thai police and Thai courts to restore your funds -- and none of them are entities in which I place much faith or trust.