I want to get a retirement visa, but the bank says I need a work permit.  What do I do?  I need a bank account to get a retirement visa.

This is a common problem over many years.

Some bank BRANCHES are willing to open bank account for foreigners without special rules and some aren't. 

Policies can change over time and sometimes one staff member at the same bank will say no, and later a different staff member will say yes.

Just keep trying different banks and different branches of the same banks until you get a yes.

Are you going to import 800K?
If so, you might want to elevate this to talk to managers of places that say no, and explain that.

Good luck. 

try another bank . bkk bank, can open an account using just your passport . 

go to another bank or at least to another branch and try again (do NOT use any branches at Malls or hyperstores).

 

If that does not help, you may want to use a Visa agent for your first application and then once he arranged a bank account for you, you could do it by yourself in the subsequent years. Of course this depends where you are residing - you posted in "Southern Thailand" but not Phuket? Remote provinces may not have Visa agents offering this

Thanks for the comments.  I am asking for someone else.  This is what I thought and told the applicant keep trying new banks.  An interesting twist was to try an agent who has a little snakeoil selling ability.

So did it work out?