Problems Opening A Thai Bank Account

[novo58]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

[thaibeachlovers]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

I opened a third account with Bkk Bank at the local mall- no problem. Didn't even ask for proof of residence, though I used that branch all the time with my other bank book.

[rocketboybkk]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

I opened a third account with Bkk Bank at the local mall- no problem. Didn't even ask for proof of residence, though I used that branch all the time with my other bank book.

Why would you want 3 bank accounts with the same bank??

Pointless waste of time

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thaibeachlovers]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

I opened a third account with Bkk Bank at the local mall- no problem. Didn't even ask for proof of residence, though I used that branch all the time with my other bank book.

Why would you want 3 bank accounts with the same bank??

Pointless waste of time

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh dear.

One account in Bkk, current account in local town, one account reserved for visa extension money.

You need to get out more.

[Pib]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

I opened a third account with Bkk Bank at the local mall- no problem. Didn't even ask for proof of residence, though I used that branch all the time with my other bank book.

Why would you want 3 bank accounts with the same bank??

Pointless waste of time

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Say a person has a Savings account "with ATM card" (that's one account) but wants to add some protection from ATM card fraud/loss of money by having another Savings account "without an ATM card" to keep the bulk of his day-to-day spending money....the account with the ATM would be kept at a low amount...when needing to get the account with ATM topped-up he just transfers some money via ibanking or visit to the bank from the account with no ATM card. OK, that a good reason for two accounts. Then the person has another account such as a Fixed Savings account....that's three accounts. And there are more reasons to have another account like maybe if you were with Bangkok Bank wanted to have your U.S. govt retirement pension(s) Direct Deposit then you would need their special Direct Deposit account for U.S. Govt pensions. We could go on and maybe talk a Current account, another kind of saving account, a foreign currency account, etc. Far from a pointless waste of time if a person is comfortable with having money in Thai banks, wants to take advantage of different banking products/services, and wants to use just one bank consisting of one branch or multiple branches. Or even multiple banks (i.e., Bangkok Bank, Kaiskorn Bank, Krungsri Bank, SCB, etc...etc..etc.)

Edited July 4, 2015 by Pib

[nontabury]

The answer is to NOT try the branches in shopping malls/centres. They simply wont make a decision .

You need to go to the larger main branches

I opened a third account with Bkk Bank at the local mall- no problem. Didn't even ask for proof of residence, though I used that branch all the time with my other bank book.

Why would you want 3 bank accounts with the same bank??

Pointless waste of time

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You would think so,but remember this is Thailand. I ran a fairly large business in the UK. I had a private A/c, a business A/c and a foreign money A/c.

In Thailand I have no business, but I have about 8 A/c's not including the one I had to open last week in order obtain a credit card.

Amazing Thailand.

[kekalot]

just chiming in to report that I succesfully opened an account at Bangkok Bank on a tourist visa using only a Passport, an expired Thai drivers license and a Thai person to vouch for me

opened in Cha-am branch.

got a Saving Account Passbook and one of those weird Be1st VISA debit cards..

I was advised that it would not work in any other ATMs (couldn't care less)..

wished to get that "Bualuang iBanking" sorted out but my friend who vouched for me wasn't paying attention to what I was saying and kept saying yes like she understood.

I was asking about online banking and also how to do the ACH transfers, I got passed a paper for SWIFT info, meh. can find that information myself.

now hopefully later this morning can go and get online banking sorted out.

something curious, they did not seem to be interested in my address at all, they might have took it from the back of my drivers license or used my friends address but.. I read online that the online banking stuff gets mailed to me.

I can sense that getting to be a problem soon, bah!

[BKKdreaming]

Just an update

Went to the big Bangkok Bank office in Silom to get an account

FAIL

the older lady there said you need a Passport and Work Permit or a "letter" from the Embassy ,

So is there another Bangkok Bank to go to ? Or anyone know what time the Older Lady goes to lunch so I can get a better answer when she is out

[mpa]

Double fail for me today, Bangkok bank & Krungthai.

They said work permit only. Btw I am on a double entry residing in a guest house in Bangkok.

Edited September 8, 2015 by mpa

[Walter Travolta]

Double fail for me today, Bangkok bank & Krungthai.

They said work permit only. Btw I am on a double entry residing in a guest house in Bangkok.

Did you take all the necessary paperwork? Passport, Certificate of residence? Mind you, if they said work permit only, I guess those forms would have no clout anyway!!

I opened an account in Bangkok bank in Pattaya on a TR visa with said documents but before that, was refused at a different branch so seems it depends on the bank personnel, rather like IO's

[Langsuan Man]

When Bangkok Bank pulls the work permit crap would posters just stand their ground and make the person you are talking to at the bank call the head office and have it sorted

There is no longer a requirement for a WP to open a Bangkok Bank account, there used to be, but that was eliminated several years ago. The problem is that the staff just go by what the computer says and the computer needs an override code in order to allow an passport number to be inputted instead of a Thai ID number and that code can only be obtained from the main office of Bangkok Bank

To the poster that said not to obtain an account in a shopping mall, good luck going to your home branch at night or on a weekend when you need it

Branches at shopping malls are no different than free standing locations, just more convenient, and the staff still need to be told what to do in either type location

[MikeCritchley]

Update to earlier post. I got a bank account today (Sept 16) with Bangkok Bank at their head office in Silom, as a few mods and posters said we should do. Some details:

1. The first girl I talked to just fed me the usual, "You need a work permit." Luckily, one of their English-capable staff there is a more senior teller who intervened and told her about the situation. She brought over a thick file of copies that they have for a bunch of countries to show what you need as your "letter from the embassy." In my case as a Canadian, I just needed a notarized copy of my passport -- about 550 baht from the embassy -- and my passport.

2. I am on a double-entry tourist visa, good for 6 months from when I was issued the visa. So I have no work permit or other long-stay visa entitlements. But I did explain both on Monday and today that I wanted this account for the purpose of holding money I needed to get a retirement visa.

3. I was asked for an address in Thailand, but I was not asked to produce any proof of the address. But I'd recommend bringing a copy of your rental agreement or something from where you're staying as evidence that you are living at that address. And be sure to have a local phone number, and be prepared to give a home address outside of Thailand as well.

4. Just to make sure I didn't get any strange looks, I was wearing proper pants and shoes and a proper shirt. Don't dress like a slob when you go, just in case you get somebody with a hate-on for flip flops.

5. In addition to the woman who "schooled" the younger teller on my first trip into the bank two days ago, the teller I was randomly assigned today totally knew the drill and knew exactly what to do as soon as she saw my notarized passport copy, so I think it's fairly SOP there.

After signing on a large number of dotted lines, I was out the door with a new bankbook and a ATM/Debit card. Total time, about 15 minutes. So thanks TV community for getting me sorted on this!!

Side note: Even if a bank manages to get 5000 retirees to dump their money in there, they will have $110 MILLION. That's a lot of cash for a bank to profit from via loans and investment, so Bangkok Bank is definitely doing the right thing here, business wise. I wonder if other banks will buy a pocket calculator and do the smart thing and get a chunk of this cash cow.

[smacko]

Bangkok Bank will open a savings account with ATM card (only works at bangkok bank ATM's) for Australian with just a passport and drivers license. No visa required, entry stamp is okay.

I was told no initially but advised the employee that the Bangkok Bank advise stated I could, 5mins later she returned and agreed to open an account (this was a week ago).

Most other banks (all the others i asked) will require a Residency Cert based on a long term (12months) visa.

[mauroest]

Pattaya today I asked to open simple bank account with ATM card

--KASIKORNBANK Central festival: She read my passport, pay attention only at my old 'O' non immigrant visa and read the date of the house rental contract that started 3 december.

''...You have only 3 months rental therefore You must pay 7500 THB to open''

--Siam Commercial Bank Central festival: only one year visa

--Krung Thai Bank Central festival: she did not check anything but you must pay 1000++ THB/year

--KASIKORNBANK 2nd rd: if you do not have one year working visa you must pay 20000 THB

[BKKdreaming]

must "pay" or make a deposit of that much when you open the account ?

and ask for a savings account , which at least at K-bank comes with ATM card

Edited December 21, 2015 by BKKdreaming

[Langsuan Man]

Those "pay" requests are not for a bank account but for the insurance all banks try and sell you since that is the only commission that the branch staff get if you open and account with them

[Pib]

Only a Bt500 deposit is the customary amount to open a Thai bank regular savings account. Anything above that is the initial cost of the debit card which can range from zero to almost Bt1,000 if it comes with some variety of accident insurance. Normal cost of initial issue of a debit card without accident insurance is approx Bt200 to Bt300 with that annual fee of Bt200 to Bt300...but if you have a debit card with accident insurance the annual renewal fee could be in the Bt500 to Bt1000 (or more) ball park.

Just for example, you can look at the Kbank debit card issue and annual fees at this link. Generally they range between Bt150 to Bt550, but they have a few which go up to Bt800 (K-SME Debit Card) and even an annual fee of Bt1,750 for the K-My Limit Edition Kitty Debit Card.

And in some cases depending on the type of saving account and card you are typing to get there may be a higher initial opening deposit amount. Like me, when I opened my Krungsri Mee Tae Dai (MTD) saving account and I wanted a low initial issue/no to low annual fee debit card if they had it...and they did. A no annual fee card but it required me to open the MTD account with a Bt15K initial deposit which was no problem as I planned to use this high interest payment account (currently paying 1.8%) for my big money emergency fund and now Bt800K in the bank for my annual retirement extension of stay renewal. However, even with that no annual fee debit card I was required to take their monthly SMS service at Bt19/month which sends you SMS of deposits, withdrawals, etc....no problem with that fee as I like this SMS service.

Then you have banks which try to get you to also buy some form of other insurance, like maybe whole life insurance....and they can try to tell you its a hard core requirement to open an account. Or as already mentioned some form of accident insurance as part of a pricey initial issue/annual fee debit card. But buying accident or whole life insurance is "not" a requirement to open a bank account...all of that is a rip-off sales technique if the bank is hard core/has an aggressive sales technique. And I bet some branches who could care less if they have farang customers probably use an aggressive sales technique.

Yeap, beware, some bank branches can be very aggressive in trying to sell you insurance related products tied to the opening of your bank account...beware of those branches. Other branches will just have a soft sell approach but as soon as you tell them you don't want any insurance related product or pricey debit card they will continue on with the opening of the account....they have to attempt this soft sell approach on you in order to try to make money for the bank....kinda like ordering something at McDonalds in that they will "always" ask if you would like to upsize your order or also buy some promotional item (they have to do this to keep their job)...you tell them no and then they continue on to finalize your order.

So, generally, you only need to make a Bt500 deposit to open a regular savings account, maybe a few hundred baht fee for initial issue of the debit card, and around Bt200-Bt300 for annual debit card fee. In some other cases your annual debit card fee maybe zero...or if you took a pricey one that comes with some form of accident insurance or even a Hello Kitty type card, you could be looking at up to almost Bt2,000 annual fee. And if you also signed up for a separate insurance product like a whole life policy the sky could be the limit. Be durn sure you understand what you are signing up for.

[smacko]

Krungsri SMS fee is optional. They ask if you want it, you do not need to have it and for an account that doesn't have ATM access its a waste of money really.

[mauroest]

Bangkok bank was ok, but they want certificate of residence by Jomtien police. I can't get it, I have only 60+60 day tourist visa. I need Non O one year visa

[Langsuan Man]

Bangkok bank was ok, but they want certificate of residence by Jomtien police. I can't get it, I have only 60+60 day tourist visa. I need Non O one year visa

Go to another branch, it is a coding issue and they pull that certificate of residence out of their hat, just like they do the work permit requirement, or the long stay visa , none of which are required

Easier to put up obstacles in the path of a foreigner than to pick up the phone and call Bangkok to get the correct information

[laxman1960]

Not true! My wife has a Krungsri account at Central Rama 3. We were in there and since their atm let's you take 30k I thought it would be good for me to have an account. They said no way without a work permit even though I have been on retirement extension of stay for 3 years!

[Pib]

Not true! My wife has a Krungsri account at Central Rama 3. We were in there and since their atm let's you take 30k I thought it would be good for me to have an account. They said no way without a work permit even though I have been on retirement extension of stay for 3 years!

The policy varies from branch to branch within the same banking company...depends on how farang friendly the branch "truly" is when lookng behind the typical Thai smile. I have a Krungsri account...no work permit...just retirement extension of stay.

[Tomtomtom69]

Something wrong here. If the military has clamped down on falangs opening bank accounts, doesn't that mean potential retirees can't deposit the required funds?

I opened a savings account with Bangkok Bank while on a tourist visa, no problem.

As previously suggested, maybe it's the type of account which is the issue. Perhaps the OP should take along a Thai speaker to help.

It's difficult to believe the economic advisers of government in any country would reject extra money in the country's banks, as this strengthens the local economy by making credit cheaper. However, TIT.

Nah I think that was either a rumour or misunderstanding. As another member mentioned above, the ability to open a bank account here has always depended upon the bank branch's individual policies.

I should note that in Thailand even tourists can generally open up accounts, especially if they open an account at the bank's head office in Bangkok or in tourist/expat heavy places.

In many "foreigner friendly" immigrant receiving countries like the UK, Australia, the USA and even Switzerland, it is difficult for a non-resident to open an account. The Swiss won't even allow their own citizens to open up accounts anymore unless they live there.

So while Thailand is as usual very inconsistent on many matters including banking, it is still comparatively easy to open a bank account at many banks. And they will even open accounts for Americans (a big no-no in many parts of Europe for example, although expats generally manage somehow).