Anybody else missing their monthly U.S. Social Security direct deposit at Bankok Bank?

[buddhaland]

My heart-felt thanks to all of you who offered good advice and shared your own experiences. To the judgmental among you who don't know my whole story (A promised teaching job in Krabi fell through, and teaching jobs aren't easy too easy to come by (read: nearly impossible); had a burglary at my bungalow in Ao Nang, losing thousands of dollars of camera equipment, iPad, laptop, etc.; underwent the expense of two trips to Chiang Mai, the cost of shipping my motorbike here from Krabi and shipping numerous boxes of possessions; paying the first month's rent here plus three month's deposit plus the internet bill, which I pay separately here.......shall I go on? And three weeks after all of this happened, I had the accident ad the ambulance, without consulting me) took me to Lanna Hospital, an expensive private hospital. All very irresponsible of me, no doubt. And now my Social Security direct deposit is lost in space. And the other driver is expecting the money to pay for his repairs tomorrow, when we meet at Mae Ping police station.

Anyway, thank you to those of you that at least had some "hang in there" type message, and to the rest of you - there but for the grace of God......and specifically to the wise-ass who quoted the song lyrics - I can scarcely believe that someone so insensitive and lacking in compassion even knows who Bob Dylan is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[AlphMichaels]

The Tea Party took it.

[Frank James]

Sorry OP. That bit of sillyness was not directed at you, not at all. I hope your situation is straightened out very soon, and best of luck and speedy recovery to you.

[ray23]

Friday was a Holiday Bank of Bangkok was closed, in Thailand. Monday is also a Holiday. My PERS retirement is put in there normally I Get a SMS telling me the money is in the account. Didn't happen this time around 1600 Hours called the main Branch in Bangkok and confirmed the money was in the Account.

Still no SMS.

I will update the book tomorrow and hopefully get my normal banking done. I think the Bank is closed today so probably no one will answer the phone. You might want to check your pass book on Tuesday.

My SS is paid in the states and was deposited on time.

To find out if the money is in the account by phone they will ask your personal information, You need your passport number handy and the account number. Ask for someone who speaks English, or you will get Mai Bpen Lai for sure.

Good Luck.

Edited May 5, 2014 by ray23

[Stan7444]

I just checked my Thai account and my SSA payment was deposited on May 2, which is earlier than normal.

I get my SS deposit in Bangkok Bank with an email notice from the bank and copy of the deposit credit slip for my records. This month I also received my credit advice on Friday the 2nd since the 3rd is a weekend. In January, when they changed my payment from the 3rd Weds. of each month to the 3rd day of each month, they did not deposit my SS until the 6th January. I called SS in Maryland on their 800 number with Skype and had to call at least 10 times and was kept of hold for almost one hour.

I have never since being in Thailand 6 years now ever filed an annual form with the SS and never told by them this is required. Only form I ever filed was through Bangkok Bank at their corporate HQ in Bangkok on Silom Road to switch my SS deposits from a US bank to Bangkok Bank and then opened the required Savings Account to receive deposits. Every month works like clockwork and receive the money in Thailand 1 day faster than when I was receiving in a US bank, meaning the US institution was using the "float" of one day to make money from my money.

[gfinbkk]

PipPip

If you did not sign and send in the yearly form to S.S. they will withhold your check. This happened to me and after they receive the form it took 2 months to start receiving my check again.

What form is required? I was not aware of yearly form filing.

Thanks......

[Strangebrew]

It is best to use U&S bank got mine on the 3rd but according to hand book they go by birthdate call them and check it out also infortmation on web site to figure birthday payment Mine says 4th wed of month since I was 28th of month. But I just started getting mine thank god nfor pension from teamsters.

[Strangebrew]

Also once you get it sorted out best to put aside 25% a month in savings and get expat health insurance plus insurance for transportion.

[northernjohn]

Just out of curiosity. What is this form that people are talking about filling in? I have been receiving payments from them for 10 years and never had to fill out a form since the original sign up.

I get my money deposited into the Wells Fargo and try to leave it there for when I go back for a visit.

They screwed me royally as I took an early retirement and they assured me the rate I was going to get was for 62. Other wise I would never have taken it. When I got my first check it was no where near the amount they had quoted so I called them and they assured me that was the correct amount for 62. They ignored me when I said it was not the rate quoted to me when I first signed up. I get the minimum as I just barley qualified with 40 quarters and one was only for $5 two others in the $100 range and all before 1979. Still it was $249 less at the time I signed up.

[Strangebrew]

Oh good luck too know how it can be have blood sucking ex stateside here's hoping a mountain falls on her. Just explain issue it will workout bro.

[ebean001]

For some reason I got mine sooner than normal. Also, I have not gotten the yearly form for the last 2 years. Hummmm.

[gfinbkk]

Also once you get it sorted out best to put aside 25% a month in savings and get expat health insurance plus insurance for transportion.

Thanks for trying to answer my question, but you didn't. I asked what form I needed to file every year that I did not know about.

Also, you suggestion that I buy insurance is clever since you have a linkk to what I assume is your insurance brokerage.

Thank but no thanks from you.....

[tutone]

If you did not sign and send in the yearly form to S.S. they will withhold your check. This happened to me and after they receive the form it took 2 months to start receiving my check again.

I have been receiving Social Security for 4 years now and I have never sent in any kind of yearly form. Have never missed a deposit in my account. What are you talking about?

[gfinbkk]

tutone

Thanks....I had never heard of such a thing but wondered, never know!

[orang37]

For those living in LOS, receiving US SS payments via Bangkok Bank, some possible hypotheses for why some receive status-report forms which must be returned ... and which, if not returned, result in payments being blocked ... and others do not receive those forms ... is:

1. differences in enrollment date which correspond to new regulations or administrative procedures ? : my payments began about two years ago, and, so far, I have received two status-report demands.

2. imho, less probable: there is a random factor used to determine the issuance of these notices, just as the IRS randomly audits a certain number of taxpayers independent of their income, and other factors ?

In any case, if you don't get these notices, be happy, and if you do get them, fill them out, return them by registered post promptly, and be happy Or, if you need to be unhappy, you can work yourself into a tizzy worrying about them.

~o:37;

[PhillyBoy]

I have mentioned this before. I have my pension go to an account at the First Republic Bank of NY. You have to keep a $3,000 balance in the account but you can withdraw money from ANY ATM in ANY country and whatever the ATM fee that is charged gets credited back to your account at the end of the month. Not many banks offer this FULL reimbursement. I have a Kasikorn account here and withdraw money via ATM and then at the same time deposit it into my K account. NO FEE charged to me.

[Patrick Mills]

First of all I would had gotten Health insurance in Thailand, very cheap, name is Thai Life Insurance, they offer Life and medical very good policy for 1/2 what you would pay for 1 month in the US for the whole year. Then I would have my SS check deposited in a US bank and wire the money to Thailand once a month, am just not 100% comfortable with the Thai banks. Good luck.

[Kondiao]

Interesting post and some useful info. in the replies - along with usual trash-talking from some. I don't have much helpful or wise advice, but i would like to put in my 2 cents worth. First, i get my SSI direct deposited to my Chase account in the States. This worked for me fine for well over a year. I went through a hell of a lot of b.s. to get this set up - even bitched about it in this forum and was told by some person who thinks he is superior that I had done it all wrong, should have done my research, blah. blah. blah....talking about Wells Fargo, which gave me a very hard time, had to get the two small deposits made to my bangkok bank account, call to Wells with the exact amounts, etc., and they refused to cooperate after I did all the childish shit they wanted. I am sure the people who advise you to open a link between Wells and a Thai bank are telling the truth - but I could not make it work. THEN, I went with Chase and did the same procedure and voila! they set up Bangkok Bank as an external account linked to my Chase account. All my problems were solved. I was so pleased about this that I added my Wells account as an external to my Chase account - at the push of some keys on the keyboard. So I can at any time transfer my money from Wells - which handles my VA disability allowance - to Chase and from Chase I transfer into Bangkok Bank with no fee. I could even send enough for 2, 3 months at a time, save me the trouble of logging in one more time.

Then a lot of things went wrong, not as dramatic as for Buddhaland, but what I did - and this is my serious advice to everyone (DON'T DO THIS) - I tried to transfer some money out of the Bangkok Bank account out to the Chase account. Why not? Getting ready in case I repatriate. The system locked down my B.B. account and also destroyed my link between Chase and B.B. The nice lady at the B.B. explained to me slowly, like i am a retarded farang, that you can NEVER send money out of Thailand this way. Also, I attempted to withdraw some money from the B.B. ATM with my Chase ATM card, which i used to do before I got all this financial stuff straight. First the machine said O.K. fine, but it did not give me the money that it just said O.K. to.. Next try it ate my Chase ATM card. When I told the nice lady in the B.B. office this she clearly did not believe me. But she finally came outside with another nice lady and the keys and I told the story again in Thai and English with gestures and they clearly understood and clearly did not believe me, but they opened the ATM and reached in and got out my Chase card and handed it to me and pointed out the expiration date on the card and said that was where I screwed up.

Two stupid mistakes in one day. I tried to log on to Chase to straighten out these problems and the system would not let me log in - the message was I was on a new computer - so they would make me go through their maddening b.s - get a new temp. password and go through it again. They do this whenever you get a new HD or something on your computer - or whenever they are bored and want to screw with someone to make life miserable. I got to them by phone and they informed me they had sent my new ATM card to me in the mail, long ago - and they were not about to send me another one. And they told me to go through the protocol of again of applying to link up B.B. with Chase again. When I talked to Wells they told me they had no such link with Chase, though in truth I had made transfers - between my Wells and Chase accounts. And they denied that they had this link at all to any Thai banks.So they were lying. After further attempts to log in with Chase and arguments with them on the phone - they LOCKED DOWN my account. I cannot even make the login in attempt and ask for a pretend password. They won't unlock it unless I answer their insane security questions. Who the hell could remember details of events 10 years ago on another continent? You can say this is all about protecting my money. But to me it is simply meanness - some people will screw you just because they can.

I have things to say about the SS office in the Philippines, and the VA office too, but I have to end this. If you can take anything from this post maybe it is that there are alternatives to just using your foreign ATM card and DD to Thai banks, but a lot to go through to set up no-fee transfers. Make an effort to have a backup to your backup financial plan, so you don't find yourself at the mercy of Thai people, who watch people drown, or burn in a fire but not think about helping them, who stand ready always to join in and kick you when you are down. And you cannot trust American bankers.

That said, choke dee krap.

[richard10365]

If there is a check that comes from the U.S. Treasury to a Thai bank account it has to go to an account without an ATM card. The bank usually gives a warning before hand, but after a few months, they will reject the deposit for this check if it goes to a bank account that has an ATM card.

Each month, I have to physically go to Bangkok Bank and remove my monthly military retirement pension from a savings account and deposit it in another savings account with an ATM. This way, if I die, no one else can get my money in that direct deposit savings account.

Call the bank and ask if the deposit was rejected.

[jcnbkk]

Sounds like you're in a bit of a jam, OP. Calling that 800 number is probably the only way to straighten this out, but you should wait until Tuesday to see what's what. I called that number one time and this message came on, thanking for my call, I am so important to them, the estimated time to get a live operator is approx 38 minutes. Then they played some horrible non-descript music that sounded like it was on a cassette tape that someone had left in a glove compartment for months in an abandoned car down in South Texas. When I finally got someone, the call got dropped just as we were almost sorted out on the problem. Hope you don't have to do that. One number for the entire US!

On a semi-related note...I was going to have my SSA monthly check direct deposited into my Bangkok Bank account, but as I read the terms, one cannot access the funds via ATM, you have to go to the bank every time to withdraw money. I've been meaning to post about this, to see what is the experience of members who have used this service. Is this true? Makes it seem not worth it to me, even though I now must get periodic funds transferred from my US bank, at a cost of $40 per transaction. Somebody said that might be increased soon, but there seems to be no alternative.

You guys that say one should keep a million baht or so stashed "just in case"...must be great to be so flush. Congratulations.

Frank James, there's been a few TV threads on transfers of money from US bank account to Bangkok Bank through their NY branch which makes it a US to US ACH transfer at $3. I use it regularly. Since I'm nearing SS age that's what I'll be looking at, having SS direct deposit to my US bank then doing my normal ACH transfers to BB. I've also read some on that yearly reporting letter to the SS admin. when your living outside the US, but don't remember if you have to do it if funds are deposited into a US bank to begin with.

[joespnet]

We use a fairly simple setup to have SS deposited to our US bank, and also avoid fees when withdrawing cash for use in Thailand.

SS check is deposited into a US checking account. Then we make no-fee online transfers as needed from that bank to a State Farm Bank checking account for which we have an ATM card. We use that ATM card in virtually any ATM machine in Thailand. There is always a 150 Baht bank fee that pops up on screen for each withdrawal transaction, however SF reimburses all ATM service fees back into the account at the end of each statement cycle.

This lets you access your funds without incurring any ATM fees and without any bank-to-bank wire fees.

Even simpler would be to have the SS check deposited directly into the SF account, but we prefer to keep a lower balance in the account with the ATM card in case of loss of the card, so making periodic transfers to that account seems less risky.

The only occasional snag is that some Thai bank ATMs limit the per-transaction & daily amount you can withdraw, so you may need to make several withdrawals to meet your need.

[mesquite]

We use a fairly simple setup to have SS deposited to our US bank, and also avoid fees when withdrawing cash for use in Thailand.

SS check is deposited into a US checking account. Then we make no-fee online transfers as needed from that bank to a State Farm Bank checking account for which we have an ATM card. We use that ATM card in virtually any ATM machine in Thailand. There is always a 150 Baht bank fee that pops up on screen for each withdrawal transaction, however SF reimburses all ATM service fees back into the account at the end of each statement cycle.

This lets you access your funds without incurring any ATM fees and without any bank-to-bank wire fees.

Even simpler would be to have the SS check deposited directly into the SF account, but we prefer to keep a lower balance in the account with the ATM card in case of loss of the card, so making periodic transfers to that account seems less risky.

The only occasional snag is that some Thai bank ATMs limit the per-transaction & daily amount you can withdraw, so you may need to make several withdrawals to meet your need.

I use a combination of methods and State Farm bank is one. I think SF is the best thing going. No fees and reimburses ATM fees, and good fx rates. I use it all over the world.

[desertdog]

Hope you get this figured out soon..

Can I get some info. on how you have set up a D.D. with BKK bank

So I can get mine set up...?

Thanks for any info.....

[krabbyken]

Form I was referring to:

The Social Security Administration periodically sends Form SSA-7162 to a beneficiary living outside the United States to figure out if the beneficiary is still eligible to receive benefits. When you receive this form, you should answer the questionnaire and return it to the office that sent it as soon as possible. The form will include instructions in English and Spanish and provide the address where you need to return the form. Generally, a self-addressed envelope is enclosed, too. All you need to do is affix postage and mail it. If you do not return this form in a timely manner, your payments will stop.

[PJcm]

Sounds like you're in a bit of a jam, OP. Calling that 800 number is probably the only way to straighten this out, but you should wait until Tuesday to see what's what. I called that number one time and this message came on, thanking for my call, I am so important to them, the estimated time to get a live operator is approx 38 minutes. Then they played some horrible non-descript music that sounded like it was on a cassette tape that someone had left in a glove compartment for months in an abandoned car down in South Texas. When I finally got someone, the call got dropped just as we were almost sorted out on the problem. Hope you don't have to do that. One number for the entire US!

On a semi-related note...I was going to have my SSA monthly check direct deposited into my Bangkok Bank account, but as I read the terms, one cannot access the funds via ATM, you have to go to the bank every time to withdraw money. I've been meaning to post about this, to see what is the experience of members who have used this service. Is this true? Makes it seem not worth it to me, even though I now must get periodic funds transferred from my US bank, at a cost of $40 per transaction. Somebody said that might be increased soon, but there seems to be no alternative.

You guys that say one should keep a million baht or so stashed "just in case"...must be great to be so flush. Congratulations.

I have been using the system you describe for many years, I get my VA disability checks and my SS checks through this system. Yes you have to go down to the bank and transfer the funds to an ATM account to withdraw them, but another alternative is to have The checks deposited into a Schwab bank account and all ATM withdraws are reimbursed by Schwab bank monthly. Opening a Schwab bank account is easy if you are a US citizen with a US address, I use my brothers. Call their 800 number or go on line.

[personchester]

wasn't Friday a holiday in Thailand (or all of Asia)? that could be one reason as the banks were closed.

sorry, not trying to make you feel bad, but it's an example of why all foreigners need to keep some cash ---> couple of million Bath or more stashed away in an account that's never touched - in the event of emergencies.

Friday May 2 was NOT a holiday all banks open. Thursday was Not a national holiday in Thailand but it was a bank holiday. Tomorrow May 5 is Coronation Day and is a national Thai holiday. All government offices and banks closed.

Not all bank branches were closed on May 5. I went into BKB. and Kasi. they were open on May 5. maybe other banks branches were open as well,

In any event it is not an important matter if banks are closed one day, or a few days, A/c holders should have ... a credit or debit card, and ATM card, and a cheque book, thus any payments can be made by those items.

[northernjohn]

Form I was referring to:

The Social Security Administration periodically sends Form SSA-7162 to a beneficiary living outside the United States to figure out if the beneficiary is still eligible to receive benefits. When you receive this form, you should answer the questionnaire and return it to the office that sent it as soon as possible. The form will include instructions in English and Spanish and provide the address where you need to return the form. Generally, a self-addressed envelope is enclosed, too. All you need to do is affix postage and mail it. If you do not return this form in a timely manner, your payments will stop.

What on earth would make them ineligible to receive benefits just because they are living outside the states.?

I received a form once from one of my sources of income to see if I was still alive.

Had to have it notarized or signed by a professional who has known me for two years. I called them and told them I was in Thailand for another 6 months and they said no problem just drop it off when I got back. when I was visiting I got a Chiropractor to sign it dropped it off and haven't heard from them since. Except to get my monthly checks.

[northernjohn]

First of all I would had gotten Health insurance in Thailand, very cheap, name is Thai Life Insurance, they offer Life and medical very good policy for 1/2 what you would pay for 1 month in the US for the whole year. Then I would have my SS check deposited in a US bank and wire the money to Thailand once a month, am just not 100% comfortable with the Thai banks. Good luck.

I have my money directly deposited to my bank in Canada. The Visa charges me $5 for a transaction. I go into the bank of Siam one transaction get enough to last me a month put it in my savings account there which I have an ATM card for and there is no charge on it if I use A Siam machine which there is no shortage off. Total cost for money sent over every month $5 Canadian. If I use my ATM card they nail me big time $16.50 Canadian so I just use the Visa and transfer the funds on the internet.

[ataloss]

#48 Kondiao:

Type all security questions with answers for each and every institution especially Government and credit card companies, then email them to yourself. These are then available anywhere anytime.

Just don't forget your email password(s), which you can also email to yourself multiple times, such that at least one may spring to mind. Works for me, especially two summers ago when in the land of the really really really big deficit, I could not remember my log-in details.

[NancyL]

There have been a few questions on this thread about the form you have to fill out and return each year if SS thinks you live overseas. It's called Form SSA-7162-OCR-SM "Report to the United States Social Security Administration" and it seems the form is sent to everyone in Chiang Mai at the same time. So when we receive it this year, we should start a thread to be sure that no one overlooks theirs. Here's a thread I started last year:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/647276-anyone-else-get-their-once-a-year-prove-youre-still-alive-form-from-us-ssa/