Best bank for new company

[innerspace]

Has anyone got any advice on which bank to use for a freshly opened company?

No shortage of all branches locally so thats not a deciding factor.

I have numerous SCB accounts and an SCB business account previously, but am not tied to them.

Will be needing to use a kasikorn account for personal things soon.

Apart from that no allegience to any banks.

Before with SCB completely failed to even get a debit (not credit) card for the company. Apparently similar everywhere. But if I can get either a debit card to spend online or merchant services to collect online will be good.

Business is primarily web based if that affects any advice.

[Suradit69]

If you've had accounts with SCB and Kasikorn, you're probably as well equipped to decide as anyone else what will work best for you and it also sounds as though you haven't overwhelmingly impressed the bank managers if no one is willing to allow your (former?) business so much as a debit card.

As to a bank that provides merchant service for credit card billing, is your company registered in Thailand or something you operate out of a spare room at home without bothering about the legalities? Does it require only domestic banking/credit card services or international as well? Do you use an accountant? A lawyer?

It seems only you know enough about your company to be able to decide which bank is suitable. I don't think the newness of your business is especially relevant. Certainly a better source of information would be a branch manager or two. No matter what anyone on TV says, it will be the manager with whom you deal face-to-face who will or will not be of use to you.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Suradit69

[ksamuiguy]

The Bank of Thailand should set the rules for all banks to follow.

This would stop the arbitrary use of Local Branch Policies.

The Bank of Thailand does make the rules, don't they?

[innerspace]

If you've had accounts with SCB and Kasikorn, you're probably as well equipped to decide as anyone else what will work best for you and it also sounds as though you haven't overwhelmingly impressed the bank managers if no one is willing to allow your (former?) business so much as a debit card.

As to a bank that provides merchant service for credit card billing, is your company registered in Thailand or something you operate out of a spare room at home without bothering about the legalities? Does it require only domestic banking/credit card services or international as well? Do you use an accountant? A lawyer?

It seems only you know enough about your company to be able to decide which bank is suitable. I don't think the newness of your business is especially relevant. Certainly a better source of information would be a branch manager or two. No matter what anyone on TV says, it will be the manager with whom you deal face-to-face who will or will not be of use to you.

Thanks for your comments.

The debit card issue I have been assured is a nationwide policy covering all banks, though I do find it hard to believe - how are small Thai companies supposed to order things online?

But that's what former staff kept saying during years of trying to get a simple debit card. Personal no problem, but company no can do!

Do any small business owners here have a debit card linked to their company account?

If so, which bank? - and if in Pattaya, which branch?

Company is as of yesterday fully registered and legal in Thailand.

One section of the business will need card processing for Thai customers, another section needs international as well.

Accounting and legal bits are either handled by the Mrs (HR/admin manager and lawyer in training) or outsourced to her contacts.

I know about my business but not a lot about different banks commercial offerings. Many years since I last looked into this and then it was biased by both owners using SCB personally.

The newness of the company is relevant only as the company itself has no current banking ties.

I have no problem with SCB as a bank (though central Pattaya branch fairly useless) and am yet to use Kasikorn but will very shortly - just wondering if there are any pointers on where to go or not go to help save a bit of legwork.