Retirement extension problem in Bangkok

[alantheembalmer]

I went to renew my retirement extension at CW this week. This will be my 5th extension, and I took with me all relevant documentation, plus a bank letter confirming I have the equivalent of 1.7 million baht in my account. I hold my funds in a foreign currency account in GBP, and my bank issued me a certificate on opening the account, (this type of account does not have a passbook), which is the problem. On the certificate it says that the account matured in November 2011, (in other words that was the anniversary of me opening the account), but the funds are then rolled over into the next year, and so on. As long as I have the account certificate, then the bank maintains my account on the original terms and conditions. I can only get the funds out of this account by returning the certificate.

The lady I saw told me that the certificate was out of date, even though the bank letter had the same details on it as the certificate, and that I should get a new certificate. I explained to her that the only way my bank will issue me with a new certificate was for me to close my existing account, and opening a new account with a new certificate. I then said that this would mean that when I brought the new certificate to immigration at CW, that the officer I saw would tell me that the money had not been in the account for 3 months, so I would be denied an extension. The officer then told me that there would be no problem, but to be quite frank, I can see a big problem coming my way if I adopt the suggested course of action.

Despite me explaining how my account worked, and why the date on the certificate was not relevant to granting me an extension, she seemed fixed on telling me that my account was out of date.

Has anybody got any suggestion how I can get over this impasse?

[Suradit69]

Sounds like you'll be facing a similar problem to the person in this thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/667090-extension-of-stay-k-bank-refuses-to-update-passbook-on-fixed-deposit-acct/

with a fixed deposit account update issue.

[boonchu]

I had a similar problem so had to open a new account, when I went to renew my retirement extension I took a bank letter showing what day I closed the old account and what day I started the new account (same date). The immigration officer

Looked at the closing date and starting date and said no problem and gave me my new extension.

[Pib]

I had a fixed saving account I rolled over into another fixed account one month before I was to apply for my annual retirement extension at CW not realizing at that time this would close my old fixed saving account and open a new fixed saving account. I thought the account number would stay the same during the rollover but it didn't. Of course this put me in the situation of making it look like the money has not been seasoned long enough when applying for my extension. At the time the Bangkok Bank rep at the CW branch said it shouldn't make a difference...just attach copies of both the new and old account to the bank letter they said. At the time I thought to myself, "Sure, like you would really know or care." As it turns out they did know and care...expect they had experienced the situation/question many times with all the expats that get bank letters from the CW Bangkok Bank branch downstairs from immigration.

When the dust settled, when applying for my extension it did indeed all work out with no drama. I got the bank letter for the new account on the day of the extension application, attached copies of the passbook as required and also attached copies of the old/closed passbook even through the bank letter only addressed the new/current/active account. The CW immigration officer immediately spotted the money in the new account/passbook was not seasoned long enough but then I pointed out/explained how and why the funds from the old matured account/passbook had been rolled over to the new account/passbook to the exact stang within minutes of each other this made the officer happy with no argument at all. Well, there was some drama "in my mind" for those 10 seconds while I pointed out/explained the rollover...she then said OK...wasn't no concern/drama in her mind...it was only in mine...extension approved.

However, in the future and realizing how the next immigration officer might see life differently I won't roll my money into a new fixed account during that pre-extension application seasoning period...I'll just let the money automatically rollover into the 3 month term which pays around 1.6% right now since this automatic rollover does not change the account number/close the account. But I shouldn't run into this issue too often with a little bit of planning and thinking ahead to ensure the account maturity date and seasoning periods times do not conflict.

[alantheembalmer]

Thank you all very much for your replies. The points raised certainly give me some hope that the immigration officer will see that I have always had the money in my accounts. However, what I still can't understand is that she didn't seem to grasp that the account automatically rolled over, which is common to many accounts, and if I see her again I can imagine that she won't understand it in the future. Anyway, I am off to CW this week armed with a mountain of paperwork, including my monthly statements and another letter from my bank, on which I shall attempt to get them to write that the account rolls over to a new year after the maturity date.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Why not just put the money in a regular savings account like 99% of retirement extension bank account users use and be done with? Make life easy for yourself when living in a foreign country.

[mahjongguy]

I always thought that Foreign Currency accounts were not eligible (because the principal can vary).

[Pib]

Why not just put the money in a regular savings account like 99% of retirement extension bank account users use and be done with? Make life easy for yourself when living in a foreign country.

Using a regular savings account is definitely the safest considering how some immigrations offices apparently don't accept "fixed savings accounts" or other types of accounts, but if a person's office does accept other types of accounts like fixed savings account....like the Bangkok Immigration Office does and I think most offices...and a person can afford to keep X-amount in a fixed account they sure earn a lot more interest than in a regular savings account...like 3 to 4 times more. And you can still access your money immediately it just you may lose some of the interest....but a person can greatly negate a lot of that interest impact by just opening the account with multiple deposits...that way if needing some of the money for an urgent need then just withdraw it from that one deposit on the fixed account and the other deposit is not impacted interest-wise. Heck, even if a person don't want to bother in applying for refund of the 15% tax withholding on interest earned (easy process to get the refund) you are still earning around 3 times as much interest than a regular savings account.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Pib