Tik Shiro Car Crash Sparks Demand for Alcohol Test Inquiry

[hermespan]

I bank in Cambodia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Although I am not always happy with the fees and rules and sometimes sudden and bizarre changes , I am pretty much free to take money in and out of the country - in cash, wire transfers and via foreign ATMs and do whatever I want within reason. Plus I get great interest at micro financing institutions and a couple of banks (only in Cambodia). I am not asking to be babysat as in Singapore.

Is Thailand still the pain in the neck it was 5 years ago? Cannot pay your foreign credit card, can't bring gold into the country without paying duty, can't use your ATM card out of Thailand unless you have residency status. Etc

Why did Thailand have all these restrictions? Is it a national gov't thing. A bank thing? What's the purpose behind it? It sounds like a belligerent parent not letting the kids learn by challenges and failures.

But most of all a practical question - has it gotten any more open?

[SheungWan]

Since you can, say, get over 4-4.5% dividend on HSBC shares in HK, what are you hoping to gain by a poke in the dark in Thailand?

[davejones23]

I've been here for 4 years and never come across any of the problems you mention. I've transferred money in and out very easily. Go to bank in afternoon, transfer money to UK and it's in my UK account the next morning. When I lived in the UK it used to take 3 days to transfer money to a bank in the same town. I've used my Thai ATM card in about 10 countries and never had a problem with it.

I just don't know why you claim to have these problems. Maybe the problem is you and not the Thai banks.

[Clendenin]

Hmm. I've been knocking around Asia (principally Thailand) since the early 70's. In those years have done a fair amount of business for the Thai family as well as Thai and foreign businesses clients. I must say that on balance I've viewed Thailand as a relatively laissez-faire economy. Without question there is massive corruption which acts as a huge drag on the economy, but I think that is quite a different matter than a state controlled economy. Bearing the extent of corruption in mind, caution is always highly advised.

[samran]

Having lived in the UK Australia and Thailand, and having business accounts in Thailand and Hong Kong, on balance Thailand works out best.

The one annoyance here can be the capital restrictions on foreign outflows, but that can be easily gotten around by nominating a reason for payment. It is a legacy of the post Asian financial crisis when speculators did a run on the baht.

Opening up an account can be hit or miss as a foreigner without a proper visa, but to be honest when I lived in the uk banks refused to open an account for me without proof of residency going back to the Middle Ages, despite me holding a green card. When I finally got an account transfers in country took 3 days.

HK accounts piss you off with their compliance standards. And Australian banks...they hit you on fees.

Soooo. Thailand on balance wins out for me.

[hermespan]

Samran, thanks for your contribution to this thread. What do you mean by HKG bank's "compliance standards"? Do you mean the anti-money laundering and know- your-customer standards? I have already run to a little but of that. Hang Seng, in order fir them yo wire money to a foreign bank requires me to (so I just found out) print out and application and post them and they verify who the bank is or something. Seems rather niggly. Is thus normal now for banks to require in person visits or using the POSTAL SYSTEM fir what technology has graced us with faxes and email could do better? Is is Hong Kong being especially tight-assed? Is there perhaps a sovereign nation that says 'woah, we don't sign these treaties'

[samran]

Yep basically the kyc stuff and the aml stuff.

Compliance is a pain given the need to get and renew signatories addresses and make predictions about where your customers will be, all under the threat of shutting your account if you don't given them the reams of documents they need.