How long will my bank account be active if I'm not here?

[Suttisan]

Hello, 

I'll be leaving Thailand soon,  maybe for more than a year. Can anyone advise on how much money i should keep in my account to stop it being deactivated? A thai friend said the bank takes 100 thb per year,  not sure if that's accurate or not.  I use Kasikorns. Thanks for any information. 

[daveAustin]

I know they take 2-300 for ATM cards (the cheek!). Mine stayed active for a year; kept a grand in there.

[Pib]

Can't speak for Kasikorn, but the Bangkok Bank policy is when the account drops below Bt2,000 "and" there is no account owner activity (i..e, deposit, withdrawal, transfer) for 12 months a Bt50/month maintenance fee will be applied.   Once the account balance reaches zero the account is closed.   And of course any annual fees, such as a debit card annual fee, would continue to be applied to the account (that's bank initiated activity not owner activity) and draw down the balance faster.

[4evermaat]

I think if you leave 2k in there, you should be fine.  Or if you have 2 accts at the same bank, you can just setup an automatic transfer every 1-2 months to transfer 100 baht between accounts.  That will keep it active.

[Pib]

Looks like K-bank has the same policy is Bangkok Bank.   Below from K-bank website.

 

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/RatesAndFees/Charges/ChargesDoc/FeeDepositRate_30032016_en.pdf

[AlexRRR]

My account was closed because of no activity for 1 year they told me, maybe 400B on it...Good idea is to do and EFT a couple of times in a year of as one friend does gets one of his women to drop some cash in from time to time...

[trainman34014]

OP; why don't you just walk in your bank, tell them what you are doing and ask for advice ?

[KhunBENQ]

Post #3 describes it for Bangkok Bank.

Just seen a newly opened bankbook for a child with 500 Baht.

On the inner side of the cover it was stamped (in Thai) with what is described in #3.

 

There is no simple rule like 100, 200, 500 Baht/yr.

My Kasikorn account costs a whopping 800 Baht/yr (still not quite sure why).

Varies on bank, type of card etc.

 

To come back to the thread title: as long as there is money on the account (after deducting fee) it will stay alive.

A mate had bankbooks of "Thai Farmers Bank" and handed them in at a Kasikorn (Thai) branch in Pattaya in 2012. No questions asked, there were exchanged for Kasikorn bank books.

Quote

In 2003, Thai Farmers Bank changed its name to KASIKORNBANK or KBank.

(don't tell anyone that "kasiko(r)n" is the Thai word for farmer )

[colinthailand20005]

Can't speak for Kasikorn, but the Bangkok Bank policy is when the account drops below Bt2,000 "and" there is no account owner activity (i..e, deposit, withdrawal, transfer) for 12 months a Bt50/month maintenance fee will be applied.   Once the account balance reaches zero the account is closed.   And of course any annual fees, such as a debit card annual fee, would continue to be applied to the account (that's bank initiated activity not owner activity) and draw down the balance faster.

My Bangkok bank account has been open since 2008 I didn't use it since 2010 with 100 baht balance and I just went to use it a few days ago and it's still active. Same for my wife's account also. It's another story for Kasikorn the account I had with them shows still open on my online banking but upon checking is definitely closed.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[pumpjack]

dear god,  listen to some of you saying leave 400 baht in it blah blah blah....

 

just top it up with 10-20k baht and youll be fine !!!

 

stop bloody panicking over a few hundred baht. 

[Pib]

4 hours ago, colinthailand20005 said:

My Bangkok bank account has been open since 2008 I didn't use it since 2010 with 100 baht balance and I just went to use it a few days ago and it's still active. Same for my wife's account also. It's another story for Kasikorn the account I had with them shows still open on my online banking but upon checking is definitely closed.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

Bangkok Bank's general policy for savings accounts is as what I stated in post #3.    In fact I got a form letter from them in Jan 15 identifying one of my Bangkok Bank accounts (specifically my Direct Deposit savings account) and "Inactive for more than one year" and at the time of the letter I had Bt5,492 in the account.   It didn't say anything other than it's inactive...didn't direct me to do anything.  I hadn't used if for over a year....just had some money setting in it.   But after reading their form letter I went ahead and did an online transfer of Bt100 into the account and also went and withdrew some money from the account....later on I put some money it it. 

 

Below are a couple snapshots from that letter they sent me which talks their policy for various types of accounts.

[malt25]

21 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

OP; why don't you just walk in your bank, tell them what you are doing and ask for advice ?

Hey, steady on there digger. Too many logical suggestions like yours & we won't need TV anymore.