Opening a bank account, this just gets more bizarre.

[balo]

I use the Kasikorn Visa virtual card all the time , when I book flight tickets online or buy some ebay stuff , as long as you have money in your account the visa card is accepted everywhere online .

And yes I agree Kasikorn is the bank for foreigners, no need to go anywhere else. I have opened 3 accounts with them, both in Bangkok and Pattaya, all they asked for was my passport and an address.

Edited January 25, 2014 by balo

[Ohio]

Or maybe the bank branches in Tesco just wanted to see a "Maltese-Cross"

I reckon this bloke is having fun with you. Would that make him a Malteser? Sorry, I'll go now.

Trying to make a Malt Shake ??

Sorry ...couldn't resist

[giddyup]

Or maybe the bank branches in Tesco just wanted to see a "Maltese-Cross"

I reckon this bloke is having fun with you. Would that make him a Malteser? Sorry, I'll go now.

Trying to make a Malt Shake ??

Sorry ...couldn't resist

Hilarious

[atyclb]

The erratic behavior/incompetence experienced at banks is consistent with the behavior of society in general.

I took a friend with a new retirement visa to a BKK bank mall branch where the higher level staff told him he needs a work permit to open an account. we informed them work permits are not allowed on a retirement visa. I wonder if they made up that story to get out of doing the work to start a new acct? as my friend was new he wanted to continue using logic and reason with bank staff, but I knew better.

the main branch in bkk did it no problem and the employee there expressed amazement in the mall branch inability to do so. the main branch of bkk bank IMO has some very competent staff (some members)

[KittenKong]

No problems opening a/c at Bangkok Bank Lotus Pattaya South, but surprised that they charged Baht800 to open a Deposit a/c.

You got hosed...must have sold you some optional and unneeded insurance product with your account! The most it should cost is 200-300 baht depending in which ATM/debit card you select for the account.

You dont need to take either an ATM card or any insurance products when opening an account. You can open one for free. Of course this wont stop them trying to sell you them, but you can just say "no thanks".

I have various free accounts with CIMB, Krungsi, Kbank and Standard Chartered. And I have an account with TMB for which I pay 500B/3years for the ATM card, which is also a Visa debit card that can be used in shops. I specifically wanted to avoid having ATM cards with my other accounts as if you have no ATM card you can have no ATM fraud (hopefully!). The TMB account with the card rarely has more than a few 10s of thousands in it, which limits my potential loss to ATM fraud. A friend of mine here lost well over a million Baht to ATM fraud and I have learned from his expensive lesson.

I agree that in Pattaya Kbank is probably the easiest bank for farangs to open a deposit account with. Most other banks generally want to see some sort of long visa, which isnt very helpful if you are in the process of moving here or buying a condo for holiday use for example. I know several people who work offshore and own a condo here as their main residence, and yet only ever arrive on visa waiver entry and never stay more than a few weeks and so never need any sort of visa, even a short one.

[sean in udon]

Opened an account with Kasikorn in Pattaya. No problems, just passport and address.

They offered me an ATM card but I politely refused, which surprised them. I paid about 150baht to receive SMS alerts for any transactions that occur on the account - that's for 1 year.

I have emailed them with questions, in English, on 3 occasions. Response received in almost perfect English, answering my questions fully, within 48 hours on all 3 occasions.

Kasikorn were recommended to me by a farang. I'm glad I listened to him.

[uptheos]

"bank tells him that he has to get a "letter of guarantee" from his embassy (he has a Maltese passport) stating that he's not a terrorist!"

Bit like Monty Python......

"are you a terrorist?".......

"erm.....no, don't think so"......

"good chap, here's your letter then"

[OMGImInPattaya]

I use the Kasikorn Visa virtual card all the time , when I book flight tickets online or buy some ebay stuff , as long as you have money in your account the visa card is accepted everywhere online .

And yes I agree Kasikorn is the bank for foreigners, no need to go anywhere else. I have opened 3 accounts with them, both in Bangkok and Pattaya, all they asked for was my passport and an address.

Yep...probably the best thing about my Kasikorn account. I've even used it to subscribe to ladyboy video sites so accepted like any other credit card payment system. I also get a message (email) from the bank whenever a purchase authorization is made by a merchant notifying me of the purchase and giving me about a week to cancel it if it's a fraudulent transaction.

[OMGImInPattaya]

No problems opening a/c at Bangkok Bank Lotus Pattaya South, but surprised that they charged Baht800 to open a Deposit a/c.

You got hosed...must have sold you some optional and unneeded insurance product with your account! The most it should cost is 200-300 baht depending in which ATM/debit card you select for the account.

You dont need to take either an ATM card or any insurance products when opening an account. You can open one for free. Of course this wont stop them trying to sell you them, but you can just say "no thanks".

I have various free accounts with CIMB, Krungsi, Kbank and Standard Chartered. And I have an account with TMB for which I pay 500B/3years for the ATM card, which is also a Visa debit card that can be used in shops. I specifically wanted to avoid having ATM cards with my other accounts as if you have no ATM card you can have no ATM fraud (hopefully!). The TMB account with the card rarely has more than a few 10s of thousands in it, which limits my potential loss to ATM fraud. A friend of mine here lost well over a million Baht to ATM fraud and I have learned from his expensive lesson.

I agree that in Pattaya Kbank is probably the easiest bank for farangs to open a deposit account with. Most other banks generally want to see some sort of long visa, which isnt very helpful if you are in the process of moving here or buying a condo for holiday use for example. I know several people who work offshore and own a condo here as their main residence, and yet only ever arrive on visa waiver entry and never stay more than a few weeks and so never need any sort of visa, even a short one.

Would be interesting to hear any details of your friends million baht loss due to having an account with a linked ATM card. I have plenty of baht in Thai bank accounts all with ATM cards for years and never lost a satang. It probably says more about the intelligence of your friend than the security of ATM cards if he indeed "lost" this amount of money.

[KittenKong]

Would be interesting to hear any details of your friends million baht loss due to having an account with a linked ATM card. I have plenty of baht in Thai bank accounts all with ATM cards for years and never lost a satang. It probably says more about the intelligence of your friend than the security of ATM cards if he indeed "lost" this amount of money.

A simple story. Over a million Baht was withdrawn from his Thai bank account via ATM in a part of Thailand to which he has never been. He had proof that he was in Pattaya at the time and that the card had never left his possession and had never been used in anything other than the bank's own ATM machines. The police didnt want to know. The bank didnt want to know. The whole thing was made more complex by the local bank insisting it wasnt their problem and he would have to complain to their head office in Bangkok, in person and with a Bangkok police report. A year or more later he's still waiting for news from the courts.

I dont think he is alone in having lost money like this but either way I will not have a Thai ATM card linked to any account that has more than a few tens of thousands of Baht in it. I'm sure that there are plenty of people like you who have lost nothing (yet), but that wont help you or them if one day you do lose something.

Another thing that is worth bearing in mind is that card technology (including chip and pin) just isn't very secure, and this applies throughout the world. So I prefer to use cards issued in countries where the bank offers a 100% guarantee against fraudulent use (the UK, for example).

[giddyup]

My friend eventually got to open an account with the Kasikorn Bank at Big C Extra. They charged him 800 baht to open the account, but after so much stuffing around by the other banks he was happy to pay.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Would be interesting to hear any details of your friends million baht loss due to having an account with a linked ATM card. I have plenty of baht in Thai bank accounts all with ATM cards for years and never lost a satang. It probably says more about the intelligence of your friend than the security of ATM cards if he indeed "lost" this amount of money.

A simple story. Over a million Baht was withdrawn from his Thai bank account via ATM in a part of Thailand to which he has never been. He had proof that he was in Pattaya at the time and that the card had never left his possession and had never been used in anything other than the bank's own ATM machines. The police didnt want to know. The bank didnt want to know. The whole thing was made more complex by the local bank insisting it wasnt their problem and he would have to complain to their head office in Bangkok, in person and with a Bangkok police report. A year or more later he's still waiting for news from the courts.

I dont think he is alone in having lost money like this but either way I will not have a Thai ATM card linked to any account that has more than a few tens of thousands of Baht in it. I'm sure that there are plenty of people like you who have lost nothing (yet), but that wont help you or them if one day you do lose something.

Another thing that is worth bearing in mind is that card technology (including chip and pin) just isn't very secure, and this applies throughout the world. So I prefer to use cards issued in countries where the bank offers a 100% guarantee against fraudulent use (the UK, for example).

Sorry to hear about your friend's loss but still don't understand how it could have occurred. I assume he didn't know about or didn't care about the SMS alert services offered by all Thai banks for a nominal annual fee that in real time notifies the card holder that a POS or ATM transaction has occurred? If so, after the first fraudulent withdrawal he could have called the bank and canceled the card to prevent any further losses. Also, all accounts have 40-60k daily withdrawal limits from ATMs so like was the max amount stolen/withdrawn everyday for almost a month without his knowledge? These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered before I could take your friends claims of a loss seriously. I suspect like most if these reports, it's of a punter who either opened a joint account with someone and they cleaned out the account and he's somehow trying to blame the bank for it or he gave the card/PIN to a partner and the same occurred. Edited January 29, 2014 by OMGImInPattaya

[KittenKong]

Sorry to hear about your friend's loss but still don't understand how it could have occurred. I assume he didn't know about or didn't care about the SMS alert services offered by all Thai banks for a nominal annual fee that in real time notifies the card holder that a POS or ATM transaction has occurred?

He probably didn't have this. I have it but it doesn't always work.

If so, after the first fraudulent withdrawal he could have called the bank and canceled the card to prevent any further losses. Also, all accounts have 40-60k daily withdrawal limits from ATMs so like was the max amount stolen/withdrawn everyday for almost a month without his knowledge?

No, this was all done on the same day in only a few transactions, some of which may have been ATM transfers rather than cash withdrawals. I'm not sure of the details but I have no reason to doubt his story.

I suspect like most if these reports, it's of a punter who either opened a joint account with someone and they cleaned out the account and he's somehow trying to blame the bank for it or he gave the card/PIN to a partner and the same occurred.

This certainly isn't the case. He had his card with him here and tried to use it here on the same day that the withdrawals were made elsewhere in Thailand. This is how he discovered the loss.

[bmanly]

KittenKong, something with this story isn't adding up. I have held a KBank account for 2 years, it has SMS service attached to the account. I have used it dozens of times, for withdrawals, deposits and international transfers in. For every transaction (apart from bank fees) I get sms notifications, even when I am back home, so it does work all of the time for me.

If someone has transacted 1 million baht at ATM's in one day then the money has to go somewhere, it would be traceable and the bank can follow that up easily. Surely in a dispute like this it can be tracked to the account to where it went. How hard would it be to identify who's account it went to and what their address is? If several transactions occurred on the same day then there will be several names and addresses there. Also did none of the ATM's used have cameras on them? Again you could identify who pulled the money out.

As the other poster said, these accounts have limits. I know I have a limit of 50K per day. How on earth can a thief pull out 1 Million baht on one day then?

Was the account a Visa Debit card? If it was, isn't that covered by the international "no loss" for fraudulent transactions policy?

Surely if all the investigations are carried out they can find out what happened, everything can be traced.

I am not disputing what the person had told you, it's just that a lot of things are not adding up.

[KittenKong]

KittenKong, something with this story isn't adding up. I have held a KBank account for 2 years, it has SMS service attached to the account. I have used it dozens of times, for withdrawals, deposits and international transfers in. For every transaction (apart from bank fees) I get sms notifications, even when I am back home, so it does work all of the time for me.

Great. My bank's SMS alert does not work all the time. It missed twice to my certain knowledge last year. I dont know why, nor do I care particularly. I prefer just to arrange my finances so that there can be no possible large loss from my Thai bank accounts, with or without alerts.

However the above has nothing to do with my friend's problem as it was my own experience and as far as I know he didnt have SMS alerts on his account at all.

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Edited January 30, 2014 by KittenKong

[bmanly]

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Mate, I know we are talking about Thailand but this case wouldn't even go to court in my home country of Australia. The bank would refund the lot, particularly with all that evidence. Some of my friends wonder why I don't have more funds in tied up in Thailand, it comes down to sytem risk as you have described. I only keep what I have to there. I really hope he gets his money back, keep us informed if he has any luck.

[blackman]

My friend eventually got to open an account with the Kasikorn Bank at Big C Extra. They charged him 800 baht to open the account, but after so much stuffing around by the other banks he was happy to pay.

it was not a charge

he paid for an accident insurance backed ATM card

[OMGImInPattaya]

My friend eventually got to open an account with the Kasikorn Bank at Big C Extra. They charged him 800 baht to open the account, but after so much stuffing around by the other banks he was happy to pay.

it was not a charge

he paid for an accident insurance backed ATM card

Yep...bank staff must love these stupid farangs who fall for this stuff as they get a commission on these sales. Does any bank "back home" charge almost $30 to open a savings account with ATM card...why would anyone think it does in Thailand? Edited January 30, 2014 by OMGImInPattaya

[OMGImInPattaya]

KittenKong, something with this story isn't adding up. I have held a KBank account for 2 years, it has SMS service attached to the account. I have used it dozens of times, for withdrawals, deposits and international transfers in. For every transaction (apart from bank fees) I get sms notifications, even when I am back home, so it does work all of the time for me.

Great. My bank's SMS alert does not work all the time. It missed twice to my certain knowledge last year. I dont know why, nor do I care particularly. I prefer just to arrange my finances so that there can be no possible large loss from my Thai bank accounts, with or without alerts.

However the above has nothing to do with my friend's problem as it was my own experience and as far as I know he didnt have SMS alerts on his account at all.

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Well you really haven't said anything. All you have done is make wild accusations with no proof and probably unnecessarily scared off some people from using Thai banks or at least ATM cards. Unless you are making a charge of some internal bank fraud, which I don't think you are, I don't think you can support the charge you/and friend are making. It appears you are saying that 1M baht in cash withdrawals were made from your friends account via ATM machine. You say your friend didn't activate SMS message service so mistake # 1...for about B30 a year he could have potentially saved 1M baht. The only other possibility is his card was skimmed, which is certainly possible. The PIN number must also have been skimmed...very lax security on your friends part is all I can say. I don't blame Thai banks for not returning money in these situations...can you just imagine how many people would be reporting such losses if all anyone had to do was pass off their card to a friend with the PIN code and tell them to take out allot of money which I'll then report as stolen and seek reimbursement? Of course, this is just a hypothetical...not saying this happened in your friends situation.

[giddyup]

My friend eventually got to open an account with the Kasikorn Bank at Big C Extra. They charged him 800 baht to open the account, but after so much stuffing around by the other banks he was happy to pay.

it was not a charge

he paid for an accident insurance backed ATM card

Yep...bank staff must love these stupid farangs who fall for this stuff as they get a commission on these sales. Does any bank "back home" charge almost $30 to open a savings account with ATM card...why would anyone think it does in Thailand?

800 baht, whoopee! Around A$25, I don't see bank staff getting rich from commission on that. He's getting accident insurance for the 800 baht, so why does this make him stupid? Or is anyone new coming to Thailand stupid in your opinion?

[KittenKong]

Well you really haven't said anything. All you have done is make wild accusations with no proof and probably unnecessarily scared off some people from using Thai banks or at least ATM cards. Unless you are making a charge of some internal bank fraud, which I don't think you are, I don't think you can support the charge you/and friend are making. It appears you are saying that 1M baht in cash withdrawals were made from your friends account via ATM machine. You say your friend didn't activate SMS message service so mistake # 1...for about B30 a year he could have potentially saved 1M baht. The only other possibility is his card was skimmed, which is certainly possible. The PIN number must also have been skimmed...very lax security on your friends part is all I can say. I don't blame Thai banks for not returning money in these situations...can you just imagine how many people would be reporting such losses if all anyone had to do was pass off their card to a friend with the PIN code and tell them to take out allot of money which I'll then report as stolen and seek reimbursement? Of course, this is just a hypothetical...not saying this happened in your friends situation.

Whatever.

I'm not making any accusations of any type. I'm just reporting something as it was told to me by my friend. Believe it or not as you will; it doesnt make a scrap of difference to me either way. Personally I do believe it and even before I heard of it from him I had taken steps to ensure that it couldn't happen to me.

[OMGImInPattaya]

My friend eventually got to open an account with the Kasikorn Bank at Big C Extra. They charged him 800 baht to open the account, but after so much stuffing around by the other banks he was happy to pay.

it was not a charge

he paid for an accident insurance backed ATM card

Yep...bank staff must love these stupid farangs who fall for this stuff as they get a commission on these sales. Does any bank "back home" charge almost $30 to open a savings account with ATM card...why would anyone think it does in Thailand?

800 baht, whoopee! Around A$25, I don't see bank staff getting rich from commission on that. He's getting accident insurance for the 800 baht, so why does this make him stupid? Or is anyone new coming to Thailand stupid in your opinion?

I wonder how many farangs in Thailand are walking around with B800 ATM cards in their pocket...probably adds up don't you think? Plus, this bloke didn't even know he had purchased insurance so not only did he buy something he didn't know about or want, but if he might ever have an instance to claim on it, he doesn't even know he has a policy!

What makes such people stupid is they think Thailand is off in its own separate parallel universe and the norms in other countries don't apply here. They just go around and accept that they must get ripped off for everything without using the common sense. Why not just ask the staff why an ATM card costs almost 30 dollars? I tried to get a credit card at a Thai bank once and they said I had to buy some 1M baht annuity product at some lousy interest rate to get one. Of course I told her where she could put her annuity and got one at another bank no problem. Same with ATM cards, if you just ask, you'll find out that they are a couple hundred baht at most...depends if it's solely an ATM card or a debit card as well.

[KittenKong]

Mate, I know we are talking about Thailand but this case wouldn't even go to court in my home country of Australia.

Yes, I think this is the important point.

[OMGImInPattaya]

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Mate, I know we are talking about Thailand but this case wouldn't even go to court in my home country of Australia. The bank would refund the lot, particularly with all that evidence. Some of my friends wonder why I don't have more funds in tied up in Thailand, it comes down to sytem risk as you have described. I only keep what I have to there. I really hope he gets his money back, keep us informed if he has any luck.

Do you mean because the "case" would be laughed out of court? What evidence...that someone was careless and allowed his ATM card to be cloned and also gave or allowed the PIN for the card to also be known and then $30k was "stolen" from his account. Are you saying in these situations, aus banks say "oh so sorry, it is our fault you were so careless with your ATM card and PIN so here is our shareholder's money to reimburse you for your carelessness." What's to stop someone from having "stolen" $1M from their account next time? Imagine what a haul Ned Kelly could make today!

[giddyup]

OMG

Naive maybe, stupid, no. If the 800 baht actually gives you accident coverage, it's hardly a rip-off if you are getting something for your money. I suppose when you newly arrived in Thailand you were aware of the price of everything, didn't overpay for a T shirt or a pair of shorts, but got the rock bottom price on everything? Very easy to act superior when you've been here a while.

[OMGImInPattaya]

OMG

Naive maybe, stupid, no. If the 800 baht actually gives you accident coverage, it's hardly a rip-off if you are getting something for your money. I suppose when you newly arrived in Thailand you were aware of the price of everything, didn't overpay for a T shirt or a pair of shorts, but got the rock bottom price on everything? Very easy to act superior when you've been here a while.

It certainly is a ripoff if it's something you didn't ask for and don't want (and don't even know you purchased). There is also a difference when dealing with an institution like a bank and a whiley Thai street vendor.

[bmanly]

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Mate, I know we are talking about Thailand but this case wouldn't even go to court in my home country of Australia. The bank would refund the lot, particularly with all that evidence. Some of my friends wonder why I don't have more funds in tied up in Thailand, it comes down to sytem risk as you have described. I only keep what I have to there. I really hope he gets his money back, keep us informed if he has any luck.

Do you mean because the "case" would be laughed out of court? What evidence...that someone was careless and allowed his ATM card to be cloned and also gave or allowed the PIN for the card to also be known and then $30k was "stolen" from his account. Are you saying in these situations, aus banks say "oh so sorry, it is our fault you were so careless with your ATM card and PIN so here is our shareholder's money to reimburse you for your carelessness." What's to stop someone from having "stolen" $1M from their account next time? Imagine what a haul Ned Kelly could make today!

OK, seeing you asked I will tell you what happened to me. I use an OZ Mastercard ATM credit card in ATM's in Thailand. I do not use it anywhere else except AEON ATM's in Thailand. When I use it I cover the pad with my left hand when I enter my pin, it has never been a problem.

One day 3 weeks after I got back to OZ, I get a call at 8 AM from the issuing bank of the card. He told me he was checking suspected transactions that occurred overnight. There were about 6 transactions and my account was cleaned out overnight. I told him none of those were mine and that the last time I used it was in Thailand. He immediately put a stop to that card and said we will investigate it.

Within a week all of the funds (4K AUD worth) was returned to my account, I was checking it daily online. Once returned I rang the bank and ordered a replacement card which was sent out to me 5 days later. No courts, no Police, just internal tracing and checking and reversing of the fraudulent transactions. My point is, if Australia can be so vigilant why can't Thailand? Why can't the investigators do their job just like investigators do overseas? Why won't neither the Police or the Bank commence investigations?

So yes, within 2 weeks all my money was back in my account and a new card was issued. What is lacking with the banks in Thailand? Why can't they do the same?

[Jip99]

All I can say is that he did lose the money as I described, he didnt get it back from his bank in spite of there being video and other evidence and that the case is continuing in the courts. According to his lawyer he should get (most) of the money back eventually, though the awarding of costs is not clear. Of course in the meantime he doesnt have the money and he does have the hassle of dealing with the case and paying his lawyer up front.

As I mentioned, personally I just prefer to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to me, which I find easy enough to do by the application of a little forethought.

Other people will arrange their financial affairs their own way, and good luck to them.

Mate, I know we are talking about Thailand but this case wouldn't even go to court in my home country of Australia. The bank would refund the lot, particularly with all that evidence. Some of my friends wonder why I don't have more funds in tied up in Thailand, it comes down to sytem risk as you have described. I only keep what I have to there. I really hope he gets his money back, keep us informed if he has any luck.

Do you mean because the "case" would be laughed out of court? What evidence...that someone was careless and allowed his ATM card to be cloned and also gave or allowed the PIN for the card to also be known and then $30k was "stolen" from his account. Are you saying in these situations, aus banks say "oh so sorry, it is our fault you were so careless with your ATM card and PIN so here is our shareholder's money to reimburse you for your carelessness." What's to stop someone from having "stolen" $1M from their account next time? Imagine what a haul Ned Kelly could make today!

OK, seeing you asked I will tell you what happened to me. I use an OZ Mastercard ATM credit card in ATM's in Thailand. I do not use it anywhere else except AEON ATM's in Thailand. When I use it I cover the pad with my left hand when I enter my pin, it has never been a problem.

One day 3 weeks after I got back to OZ, I get a call at 8 AM from the issuing bank of the card. He told me he was checking suspected transactions that occurred overnight. There were about 6 transactions and my account was cleaned out overnight. I told him none of those were mine and that the last time I used it was in Thailand. He immediately put a stop to that card and said we will investigate it.

Within a week all of the funds (4K AUD worth) was returned to my account, I was checking it daily online. Once returned I rang the bank and ordered a replacement card which was sent out to me 5 days later. No courts, no Police, just internal tracing and checking and reversing of the fraudulent transactions. My point is, if Australia can be so vigilant why can't Thailand? Why can't the investigators do their job just like investigators do overseas? Why won't neither the Police or the Bank commence investigations?

So yes, within 2 weeks all my money was back in my account and a new card was issued. What is lacking with the banks in Thailand? Why can't they do the same?

This would happen anywhere in the "developed world".

Expecting it in Thailand would, sadly, be naive.

[NanLaew]

There seems to hard core of newbie locals who keep trying to open accounts at mall branches. Thai's can quite easily do that but generally speaking, a foreigner will get fobbed off with any excuse because it is "too hard" for the staff to open an account for a foreigner.

As stated numerous times, walk into pretty much any bank main branch with passport, an alternative proof of identity such as a driving license, foreign-issued credit card and proof of where you live locally and they will usually open an account for you.

[OMGImInPattaya]

There seems to hard core of newbie locals who keep trying to open accounts at mall branches. Thai's can quite easily do that but generally speaking, a foreigner will get fobbed off with any excuse because it is "too hard" for the staff to open an account for a foreigner.

As stated numerous times, walk into pretty much any bank main branch with passport, an alternative proof of identity such as a driving license, foreign-issued credit card and proof of where you live locally and they will usually open an account for you.

Never had a problem at many mall sub-branches, including the Bangkok Bank at Lotus North Road and Big C South Road, Bank Ayudha at Avenue Mall, and the Kasikorn at Big C Extra, so this is complete bunk. All I needed at all these mall branches was my passport.