Those needing U.S. banking while living in Thailand ... be paranoid before you leave

[Jingthing]

This probably isn't news to many longer term U.S. expats, but when you live abroad things can go south in your banking relationships in the U.S.

Once you live abroad, it's quite a task to open any NEW U.S. accounts, so the time to get it right is BEFORE you go.

Now there were some things I didn't know back then, such as the ACH transfer capability to Bangkok Bank from the U.S.

So I have been relying on SWIFT to another bank.

But being paranoid, I went overboard and opened LOTS of U.S. accounts before I left. Actually too many to manage well, but that's another story.

Anyway, since I moved to Thailand ...

One of my major banks which I had a SWIFT agreement with requiring in person branch activation got bought by a bigger bank.

That required the same thing ... in person SWIFT agreement.

Then I kind of neglected that account and it got closed.

The MAIN U.S. bank I was mainly relying on for SWIFT required home branch sign up but gave me a document saying it was good for 30 years!

A few years after that, they changed the policy.

2 year passwords only (wire by phone).

Then they failed to mail the new password.

Called them up and now they require a completely fresh setup in the home branch. Well, I'm in Thailand. See the problem?

So now I'm stuck with some second string options.

One a big bank I did an online SWIFT transfer once but they put me through so much security grief getting it done, I have low confidence it would work again.

Another one requiring of all things a FAX form to SWIFT.

So I've got some stress now but I DO have some backups.

So that's the moral of the story ... get this together BEFORE you leave ... and be paranoid, have some backups.

Your story will be different. There are smarter ways to start than how I started as far as which banks to pick ... but still, the moral is there ... conditions change, bank policies change, sheit happens!

Having to fly back just to visit a bank ... not fun!

Edited June 16, 2015 by Jingthing

[Jeffrey346]

If you are transferring social security funds, you can open an account with US Direct Express which is on the social security website. You can also open an account with the bank that manages the account. Now you can transfer funds to Bangkok Bank in NY for $1.50..

[RedQualia]

As an expat, I find Capital One to be a good company to do business with, all the way around. Credit cards do not have a "foreign transaction fee" at all, and provide generally competitive exchange rates. CapitalOne360 banking services can also support moving money around to various US banks, including Bangkok Bank of NY. You can sign up for CapitalOne360 online. No need to fly back to the US to visit any banks. And no need to pay the higher SWIFT and wire transfer fees.

[technologybytes]

HSBC are fully geared up for dealing with expats, but do change your address to Thailand once you get here!

No need to get involved with the Thailand HSBC outfit at all, just open a USA or UK account and switch address, that way they never require you to go to another country.

[SpokaneAl]

I think the same advice could apply to US credit cards. Each of the past two years we have had a credit card compromised. It did not cost us anything but did generate the need for the company to replace it. In that we split our time between Thailand and the U.S., without other cards to take over some auto bill paying, the situation could have perhaps been more problematic.

[Guest]

Dear Jingthing,

I love Swiss cheese, so therefore love this posting.

This has more holes in it than i care to count.

You have done a good job of letting us know that you are engaged in some shady financial transactions, and with "too many" bank accounts open ..you are a flashing beacon on "money laundering hill."

That is NOT to say you launder money, are doing anything illegal, or .. hiding funds from the IRS... It just LOOKS that way to the Americans who monitor it ALL.

The telltale in this wild story is the concept that, " ..... kind of neglected that account and it got closed."

Sir, accounts that have sufficient funds do not get closed for lack of use. Period.

I do not even want to get into the nuts and bolts of wire transfers and SWIFT codes ... let's just say the rest of us manage to do these, if needed, without much trouble.

So, dear readers ... if you would like some advice ...

(1) Choose an American Bank with a strong reciprocal agreement with a Thai Bank. (Example: Bangkok Bank) and that wire transfers are a norm.

(2) The dirty little secret is so old school, people have forgotten it.... and the "kids" have never heard of it !!

Traveler's Cheques - These must be purchased at a branch yo have an account in. There is a small fee to purchase them.

When converted to Foreign Currency, they get the same or more per unit than the corresponding cash equivalent.

Once you have the cheques, you are good to go. In Thailand? Need cash? Convert them .. no additional charge. Go back to the States? Rinse and repeat. Go to Europe .. same same. In other words, you have physical money that ... wait for it .. is REPLACED if lost or stolen.

Does it work? Yes and yes ... Lost $8,000 in Mumbai. Went to American Express office. Left 30 minutes later with $8,000.

(3) PAYPAL - You MUST have an American Bank Account to successfully open and link a Thai Bank Card. Once in place, you can direct funds to a Thai bank Account. Yes their are fees.

(4) All Bank-inf solutions generate fees, get used to it ... or meet me at the "free Lunch Cafe" to explain why not.

(5) The real value in this posting is this ... Yes. Think ahead, meet with your bank and ensure the reciprocal arrangements. Sign any transfer documents they require. (Not convinced they actually require this, sine we wire transfer all the time and do not have a signed agreement .. but to be fair .. those are Hong Kong banks)

Consider bringing traveler's Cheques - I can not tell you the peace of mind i have knowing I can go to any airport, buy a ticket on any airline, land in any country, and i have CASH in hand I keep meticulous records of the time and place each cheques was cashed, and back that spreadsheet up on the cloud.

Trust me, if you lose your cheques, and show Amex your record, and it is perfect match with their records .. it is child's play to get new cheques.

Oh, and by the way .. American Express Traveler's Cheques NEVER EXPIRE.

[maphraw]

My bank in the US won't transfer funds to my bank in Thailand. So I either go to my Thai bank and write a check drawn from my US bank and deposit it it with them and pay about a 300 Baht fee and wait about 3-4 weeks or do the Bangkok Bank transfer that a lot of people talk about on these boards which seems to be the the cheapest and fastest.

[Eff1n2ret]

HSBC are fully geared up for dealing with expats, but do change your address to Thailand once you get here!

No need to get involved with the Thailand HSBC outfit at all, just open a USA or UK account and switch address, that way they never require you to go to another country.

I thought HSBC had closed their Bangkok office?

But I quite agree, I have banked with First Direct (HSBC subsidiary) for years, and their service both online and by phone is just as userfriendly from Thailand as it was in the UK.. As an alternative to paying their charges for transfers to my Thai bank account I have found UKForex pretty useful. I also have managed to retain two UK Visa credit cards, but as the OP says, the time to set up all this stuff is before you go. Also, most savings vehicles become barred to you once you leave, so if you want to keep a nest-egg in the UK (albeit at lousy Interest rates), do that before you go as well.

[ThaiWai]

As an expat, I find Capital One to be a good company to do business with, all the way around. Credit cards do not have a "foreign transaction fee" at all, and provide generally competitive exchange rates. CapitalOne360 banking services can also support moving money around to various US banks, including Bangkok Bank of NY. You can sign up for CapitalOne360 online. No need to fly back to the US to visit any banks. And no need to pay the higher SWIFT and wire transfer fees.

I second Capital One especially their excellent customer service and phone app. However, my card recently expired (OP should have included to get updated cards before traveling) and Cap One had no way of shipping abroad. The sent it to a US address and a friend FedEx'd it to me here, not cheap. This was a few months ago. Now a few days ago they emailed me that they are sending a new card (to my US address) with some added features. Crap! I hope that does not mean the will cancel my current card. But having a card with zero foreign exchange fee is absolutely critical.

Another tip for overseas banking is use a VPN like hot spot shield as many banks will block activity from overseas and masking your IP with a US IP skirts this. I learned this the hard way with my Schwab account.

Here are some great links to see what you are actually being charged when using a credit card for a foreign transaction in any county:

MasterCard Daily Exchange Rate Calculator

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

Visa Daily Exchange Rate Calculator

http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

Fee Calculator

http://www.xe.com/creditcard-charges-calculator/#

[bluebluewater]

I'm going to have to let your "paranoia" as you call it be your own. Really - I thought you had been around a while?

For myself, I have my Charles Schwab acct - no fees anywhere - and I sleep like a baby.

This info, and any of the others that are similar, has been posted on this forum for years. Why do people make this so hard?

Good luck.

[NanLaew]

Dear Jingthing,

I love Swiss cheese, so therefore love this posting.

This has more holes in it than i care to count.

You have done a good job of letting us know that you are engaged in some shady financial transactions, and with "too many" bank accounts open ..you are a flashing beacon on "money laundering hill."

That is NOT to say you launder money, are doing anything illegal, or .. hiding funds from the IRS... It just LOOKS that way to the Americans who monitor it ALL.

The telltale in this wild story is the concept that, " ..... kind of neglected that account and it got closed."

Sir, accounts that have sufficient funds do not get closed for lack of use. Period.

I do not even want to get into the nuts and bolts of wire transfers and SWIFT codes ... let's just say the rest of us manage to do these, if needed, without much trouble.

So, dear readers ... if you would like some advice ...

(1) Choose an American Bank with a strong reciprocal agreement with a Thai Bank. (Example: Bangkok Bank) and that wire transfers are a norm.

(2) The dirty little secret is so old school, people have forgotten it.... and the "kids" have never heard of it !!

Traveler's Cheques - These must be purchased at a branch yo have an account in. There is a small fee to purchase them.

When converted to Foreign Currency, they get the same or more per unit than the corresponding cash equivalent.

Once you have the cheques, you are good to go. In Thailand? Need cash? Convert them .. no additional charge. Go back to the States? Rinse and repeat. Go to Europe .. same same. In other words, you have physical money that ... wait for it .. is REPLACED if lost or stolen.

Does it work? Yes and yes ... Lost $8,000 in Mumbai. Went to American Express office. Left 30 minutes later with $8,000.

(3) PAYPAL - You MUST have an American Bank Account to successfully open and link a Thai Bank Card. Once in place, you can direct funds to a Thai bank Account. Yes their are fees.

(4) All Bank-inf solutions generate fees, get used to it ... or meet me at the "free Lunch Cafe" to explain why not.

(5) The real value in this posting is this ... Yes. Think ahead, meet with your bank and ensure the reciprocal arrangements. Sign any transfer documents they require. (Not convinced they actually require this, sine we wire transfer all the time and do not have a signed agreement .. but to be fair .. those are Hong Kong banks)

Consider bringing traveler's Cheques - I can not tell you the peace of mind i have knowing I can go to any airport, buy a ticket on any airline, land in any country, and i have CASH in hand I keep meticulous records of the time and place each cheques was cashed, and back that spreadsheet up on the cloud.

Trust me, if you lose your cheques, and show Amex your record, and it is perfect match with their records .. it is child's play to get new cheques.

Oh, and by the way .. American Express Traveler's Cheques NEVER EXPIRE.

So many words with so many assumptions based on what works/worked for you.

Did you even read the OP?

[Suradit69]

I guess some people create a lot of problems for themselves.

I've maintained an account at a bank in Chicago that has changed hands 3 or 4 times since I opened the account 30 or 40 years ago. I haven't set foot in the bank or any of its branches in at least 25 years. Do everything online including paying credit cards, transfers to Vanguard brokerage account, sending checks to whoever. They automatically receive my Social Security and pension payments. No problems whatsoever.

Have been making domestic transfers to Bangkok Bank in NY for 15 years, Making deposits to a branch of a bank was apparently an alien concept to JT since when it was pointed out to him how to do that several years ago he suspiciously referred to it as a scheme.

Have also had a cash brokerage account and two IRA brokerage accounts at Vanguard for decades. Wasn't long ago that JT was spreading rumors and panic about how they were closing accounts for anyone not resident in the US or refusing to sell him mutual funds or whatever.

And I transfer money to Bangkok Bank from Vanguard money market fund all set up and done on line.

Then there was the rumor that Thai banks would refuse accounts for Americans.

It seems every month or so JT has a panic attack over some unsubstantiated rumor about Jomtien Immigrations or US financials issues .

Edited June 17, 2015 by Suradit69

[seancbk]

Dear Jingthing,

(2) The dirty little secret is so old school, people have forgotten it.... and the "kids" have never heard of it !!

Traveler's Cheques - These must be purchased at a branch yo have an account in. There is a small fee to purchase them.

When converted to Foreign Currency, they get the same or more per unit than the corresponding cash equivalent.

Once you have the cheques, you are good to go. In Thailand? Need cash? Convert them .. no additional charge. Go back to the States? Rinse and repeat. Go to Europe .. same same. In other words, you have physical money that ... wait for it .. is REPLACED if lost or stolen.

Does it work? Yes and yes ... Lost $8,000 in Mumbai. Went to American Express office. Left 30 minutes later with $8,000.

(3) PAYPAL - You MUST have an American Bank Account to successfully open and link a Thai Bank Card. Once in place, you can direct funds to a Thai bank Account. Yes their are fees.

Edited your reply to focus on 2 points.

Travellers Checks might be fine for people coming to Thailand on holiday, but are useless for those of us who live here. JingThing is talking about people who "have left" the US not just holiday makers.

As for PayPal - I love how you say "You MUST have an American Bank Account to successfully open and link a Thai Bank Card". This is totally untrue.

I have 3 PayPal accounts, one I opened whilst in Hong Kong using details of a UK bank so its a UK account, one I opened in Hong Kong using a Hong Kong Bank and the 3rd PayPal account I opened in Bangkok using my Kasikorn bank details; so you don't need an American Bank Account to open and link a Thai bank Card.

[kentb21]

As an expat, I find Capital One to be a good company to do business with, all the way around. Credit cards do not have a "foreign transaction fee" at all, and provide generally competitive exchange rates. CapitalOne360 banking services can also support moving money around to various US banks, including Bangkok Bank of NY. You can sign up for CapitalOne360 online. No need to fly back to the US to visit any banks. And no need to pay the higher SWIFT and wire transfer fees.

I second Capital One especially their excellent customer service and phone app. However, my card recently expired (OP should have included to get updated cards before traveling) and Cap One had no way of shipping abroad. The sent it to a US address and a friend FedEx'd it to me here, not cheap. This was a few months ago. Now a few days ago they emailed me that they are sending a new card (to my US address) with some added features. Crap! I hope that does not mean the will cancel my current card. But having a card with zero foreign exchange fee is absolutely critical.

Another tip for overseas banking is use a VPN like hot spot shield as many banks will block activity from overseas and masking your IP with a US IP skirts this. I learned this the hard way with my Schwab account.

Here are some great links to see what you are actually being charged when using a credit card for a foreign transaction in any county:

MasterCard Daily Exchange Rate Calculator

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

Visa Daily Exchange Rate Calculator

http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

Fee Calculator

http://www.xe.com/creditcard-charges-calculator/#

I too agree that Capitol One makes it easy and has great customer service. They will accept collect calls and they did Fed Ex my replacement card to my Thailand hotel last year. Edited June 17, 2015 by kentb21

[MrBrad]

Just to add another option: open an account at your local credit union. I believe that now--for the past 10 years or more--credit unions are open to the general public, not only to the employees and retirees of the company with which the credit union is associated.

Credit unions are typically smaller than big ole banks, and much friendlier and personable, too. They can process transfers and any other service that the big banks perform...and with less hassle. Transfers to Bangkok Bank in New York incur domestic fees, rather than international, which generally are about twice the cost. Send an email to your credit union, and, as a rule, your money arrives in your account here in Thailand in less than 24 hours.

For long-term residents here, what could be simpler?

[RedQualia]

As an expat, I find Capital One to be a good company to do business with, all the way around. Credit cards do not have a "foreign transaction fee" at all, and provide generally competitive exchange rates. CapitalOne360 banking services can also support moving money around to various US banks, including Bangkok Bank of NY. You can sign up for CapitalOne360 online. No need to fly back to the US to visit any banks. And no need to pay the higher SWIFT and wire transfer fees.

I second Capital One especially their excellent customer service and phone app. However, my card recently expired (OP should have included to get updated cards before traveling) and Cap One had no way of shipping abroad. The sent it to a US address and a friend FedEx'd it to me here, not cheap. This was a few months ago. Now a few days ago they emailed me that they are sending a new card (to my US address) with some added features. Crap! I hope that does not mean the will cancel my current card. But having a card with zero foreign exchange fee is absolutely critical.

Another tip for overseas banking is use a VPN like hot spot shield as many banks will block activity from overseas and masking your IP with a US IP skirts this. I learned this the hard way with my Schwab account.

It's true -- getting credit cards sent to you at an overseas address can be a bit tiresome and problematic. Like ThaiWai, I have them sent to a US address and then forwarded to me. Thai postal services appear to have become unreliable for me in the past year or two, and so I can no longer recommend trying to send the cards in the post. FedEx or UPS is much more trustworthy/reliable. UPS charges around $33US to send cards from the states to LOS.

If you do not have someone in the US who can manage a bit of mail for you from time to time, there are several mail forwarding services that can, for a sometimes almost reasonable fee. I have none to recommend, but if you want to check the various services out, do a search for something like "us expat mail forwarding service".

Too, I've no experience with banks that block overseas IP addresses. Never a problem that way (so far). The only thing I do that might be considered a bit quirky is to always do my online banking from within a "virtual PC" -- a separately booted operating system with only one browser installed, and said browser never visits anything other than a very few banking sites. I don't do banking via "smart" phone at all. Too paranoid for that.

And speaking of paranoia, I've learned to never, EVER let my credit cards out of my sight. Last time I did that was at a restaurant in Chiang Mai, after which I apparently began charging all sorts of perfumes, purses, lingerie, etc, on websites catering to women. And so the card was cancelled, with a new one sent, and in all, maybe a one month wait for it to arrive in LOS.

[Orac]

HSBC are fully geared up for dealing with expats, but do change your address to Thailand once you get here!

No need to get involved with the Thailand HSBC outfit at all, just open a USA or UK account and switch address, that way they never require you to go to another country.

I thought HSBC had closed their Bangkok office?

But I quite agree, I have banked with First Direct (HSBC subsidiary) for years, and their service both online and by phone is just as userfriendly from Thailand as it was in the UK.. As an alternative to paying their charges for transfers to my Thai bank account I have found UKForex pretty useful. I also have managed to retain two UK Visa credit cards, but as the OP says, the time to set up all this stuff is before you go. Also, most savings vehicles become barred to you once you leave, so if you want to keep a nest-egg in the UK (albeit at lousy Interest rates), do that before you go as well.

I have just had to close my First Direct accounts as they wanted proof of me living in the UK despite me banking with them for about 20 years - I had been using my parents address there for mail.

[Suradit69]

As an expat, I find Capital One to be a good company to do business with, all the way around. Credit cards do not have a "foreign transaction fee" at all, and provide generally competitive exchange rates. CapitalOne360 banking services can also support moving money around to various US banks, including Bangkok Bank of NY. You can sign up for CapitalOne360 online. No need to fly back to the US to visit any banks. And no need to pay the higher SWIFT and wire transfer fees.

I second Capital One especially their excellent customer service and phone app. However, my card recently expired (OP should have included to get updated cards before traveling) and Cap One had no way of shipping abroad. The sent it to a US address and a friend FedEx'd it to me here, not cheap. This was a few months ago. Now a few days ago they emailed me that they are sending a new card (to my US address) with some added features. Crap! I hope that does not mean the will cancel my current card. But having a card with zero foreign exchange fee is absolutely critical.

Another tip for overseas banking is use a VPN like hot spot shield as many banks will block activity from overseas and masking your IP with a US IP skirts this. I learned this the hard way with my Schwab account.

It's true -- getting credit cards sent to you at an overseas address can be a bit tiresome and problematic. Like ThaiWai, I have them sent to a US address and then forwarded to me. Thai postal services appear to have become unreliable for me in the past year or two, and so I can no longer recommend trying to send the cards in the post. FedEx or UPS is much more trustworthy/reliable. UPS charges around $33US to send cards from the states to LOS.

If you do not have someone in the US who can manage a bit of mail for you from time to time, there are several mail forwarding services that can, for a sometimes almost reasonable fee. I have none to recommend, but if you want to check the various services out, do a search for something like "us expat mail forwarding service".

Too, I've no experience with banks that block overseas IP addresses. Never a problem that way (so far). The only thing I do that might be considered a bit quirky is to always do my online banking from within a "virtual PC" -- a separately booted operating system with only one browser installed, and said browser never visits anything other than a very few banking sites. I don't do banking via "smart" phone at all. Too paranoid for that.

And speaking of paranoia, I've learned to never, EVER let my credit cards out of my sight. Last time I did that was at a restaurant in Chiang Mai, after which I apparently began charging all sorts of perfumes, purses, lingerie, etc, on websites catering to women. And so the card was cancelled, with a new one sent, and in all, maybe a one month wait for it to arrive in LOS.

I've had replacement credit cards sent to a US address and then forward them by regular mail. Never had any go astray.

[akentryan]

Plan before you leave the USA is good advice. Chase works well for me with transfers completed to my Bangkok Bank a/c in 4 or 5 days. I also have 3 Visa cards from Chase which come in very handy when checking into a hospital (Bumrumgrad wanted 500,000 baht to accept my wife) or trying to book flights and hotels. I maintain a US address and new cards, mail and crap goes there and are then forwarded by mail to Thailand. Customs used to not care how many TCs you had only actual cash. I tried to declare US$110K in Amex TCs once and the agent just waved me on. Don't know if that is still true or not. Last time I flew in from Japan, arriving at 4:a.m, there was no one in Customs so everyone just walked through.

[hawker9000]

Fidelity also a good option, at least I've found it so (have a CapitalOne cc tho'). If you maintain sufficient assets on acct with them, int'l wire transfers are free and overnight (but you must get the transfer details squared away back in the U.S. beforehand - then all that's needed is a free int'l phonecall to do the transfers).

[chicowoodduck]

I'm going to have to let your "paranoia" as you call it be your own. Really - I thought you had been around a while?

For myself, I have my Charles Schwab acct - no fees anywhere - and I sleep like a baby.

This info, and any of the others that are similar, has been posted on this forum for years. Why do people make this so hard?

Good luck.

Making it hard is what being an expat is all about....no pain, no gain....lol ?

I use ING 360 for the most part, but if I'm feeling stupid, I'll take a punt with Bank of America...the worst bank in the world......IMHO....??

[micmichd]

Be glad you didn't live in the Euro zone and had a bank account in a local bank.

I had one in Heidelberger Volksbank (Germany). They gave me new cards before I went to Thailand. One never worked, so I had to use the credit card. They'd put a limit on the credit card, and when I asked them to extend that limit they invalidated my credit card and closed the bank account. No pensions, no money whatsoever for 2 months. I had to go back to Germany just to open another bank account there, so I could get my pensions and some outstanding income.

I've learnt you better never get out of sight as long as you have money in a European bank. And never go to a local bank. They don't know what they're doing and put the blame on you.

[NeverSure]

-snip- "Sir, accounts that have sufficient funds do not get closed for lack of use. Period."

Au Contraire, Mon Ami.

From the website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Dept. of The Treasury, United States Government.

RE: Inactive accounts AKA dormant accounts.

"Answers about Inactive Accounts"

"When is an account considered inactive or unclaimed?"

"Generally an account is considered inactive or unclaimed when there is no customer initiated activity or contact for a period of three to five years. The specific period is based on the laws or rules of each state."

"Each state has an unclaimed property program. Before sending the account balance to the state, the bank is usually required to try to contact the customer. Some banks publish the names of the account holder in a local newspaper. Some banks send a letter to the last known address of the account holder. The bank will turn over the account balance to the state if there is no contact from the account holder."

Other Source: Me, former banker.

Edited June 17, 2015 by NeverSure

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Regarding traveler's checks from the U.S., I think someone forgot to mention that the Thai banks now are typically charging a handling fee of 153 baht per check. So if someone's using $100 or even $500 denominations of checks, it can work out to be more expensive than paying for a single large withdrawal Thai bank ATM fee at 180 baht. Of course, the differential would be even bigger if you were using a bank card like Schwab that reimburses all ATM fees for their account holders.

Of course, for someone who's actually living abroad vs being a tourist, there's also the issue that a full-time expat wouldn't necessarily have an easy way to purchase home country traveler's checks. And, depending on where you buy them, even the purchase of travelers checks often has a 1% or so fee involved. So, no, for expats, I'm not a fan of using/relying on traveler's checks.

As for Cap One, while their credit cards often having no foreign currency fee is a good feature and they often have pretty good customer service, they also historically have been pretty finicky about requiring proof that their account holders are U.S. residents. If they get the idea that you're actually living outside the U.S., it can mean trouble.

These days, most U.S. banks allow for free or low cost domestic ACH transfers. So given that, if someone doesn't want to use ATM cards or doesn't have low or no-fee cards like Schwab, then it still ought to be pretty easy to ACH from your home bank to Bangkok Bank's New York branch and then onward to your BKK Bank branch in Thailand.

That all happens essentially as a U.S. domestic ACH from your home bank's end of things, so no SWIFT or international wire transfer hassles and charges involved. Yes there are some fees charged by BKK Bank, but especially if you're doing larger amounts of transfers, the BKK Bank NY route can come close to a low-fee ATM approach in terms of economy.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BTW, I do think Jing's advice above about opening whatever bank accounts and cards you might need BEFORE you relocate to Thailand is very good advice... It's so much easier to get those things arranged while you're still in your home country vs. trying to do it from abroad, especially for Americans with all the Patriot Act and other government banking regulations these days.

As an example, I've always maintained a U.S. mail forwarding address in the U.S. that works very well for existing accounts. But, a couple of times now, I've had new bank account applications DENIED because, apparently in the account opening process, the bank checked my address and saw it came up as a commercial address instead of a residential one. And the result was, they either denied the application outright or asked for additional documentation like utility bill to prove residency at that address. Things can get complicated sometimes.

[micmichd]

Best is not to trust any bank at all.

Banks make their own rules and regulations, and be sure in case of doubt they will always be to the disadvantage of the customer. Always.

I'm an ex-banker, I know what I'm talking about.

[NancyL]

I second the recommendation to consider a U.S. credit union. I'm very glad that Hubby and I kept the accounts we opened at a credit union for employees of a company where we worked decades ago. We haven't set foot in one of their offices for over 30 years and let the accounts lie almost dormant, yet 25 years ago when I left the employer I'd joined after leaving that company (and no longer had a company car), we had to buy a car, so I contacted that credit union and discovered I could arrange a car loan very easily & quickly at an excellent rate. So, we were back in business with them, using them mostly for vehicle loans.

Fast forward to "time to move to Thailand". Our financial counselor recommended we consolidate our U.S. banking with them and he had no ties to that credit union. He said they were a strong outfit and, in general, credit unions were a good deal for people over age 50. They don't jerk 'em around the way banks do. And sure enough, they've been a delight to deal with. They issue profit sharing rebates each year based on account activity, which more than wipe out the already low currency exchange fee on their Visa card. They have a six-lady customer service dept who always asks me what's going on Thailand when I call. No need to hide where we're living. This credit union serves the employees of the headquarters unit of a Fortune 100 company -- they're used to their customers living all over the world.

Edited June 17, 2015 by NancyL

[Tchooptip]

HSBC are fully geared up for dealing with expats, but do change your address to Thailand once you get here!

No need to get involved with the Thailand HSBC outfit at all, just open a USA or UK account and switch address, that way they never require you to go to another country.

I thought HSBC had closed their Bangkok office?

But I quite agree, I have banked with First Direct (HSBC subsidiary) for years, and their service both online and by phone is just as userfriendly from Thailand as it was in the UK.. As an alternative to paying their charges for transfers to my Thai bank account I have found UKForex pretty useful. I also have managed to retain two UK Visa credit cards, but as the OP says, the time to set up all this stuff is before you go. Also, most savings vehicles become barred to you once you leave, so if you want to keep a nest-egg in the UK (albeit at lousy Interest rates), do that before you go as well.

Yes HSBC had closed their Thailand branch, sold to Krungsri. I opened a Krungsri account have still my HSBC account in Europe, transferred every year the 800.000 Baht for my retirement extension easily, but I have still an address in Europe where I am supposed to live for HSBC, even though the staff knows perfectly I am living in Thailand, they have my Thai phone number and called me sometimes. Till now very easy.

[micmichd]

You know every transfer above 15,000 EUR must be reported to the regulatory?

[happysanook]

I use Bank of America. Have been in Thailand for 7 years straight without issue. Went paperless and changed address from my old residence to my brothers residence, received new debit card in Thailand, updated phone numbers online to brothers #, etc etc... Never a problem, most everything can be done online without a phone call.