For the past three years I have had a deposit account of one million baht with Bangkok Bank. This has served two purposes.

1. I can use it for my annual retirement visa extension.

2. It is used to secure a credit card with an expenditure limit of 500,000 (which is way more than I need, but see 1). It also provides reasonable interest.

 

Every year I get the balance confirmation letter from BB stating I have  1 million baht in the account and I present that in support of my visa. This morning I went to the bank and the letter they gave me said I had 500,000 in available funds, and there was a note below saying that a further 500,00 was to secure a credit card balance. I expressed concern that this would not be acceptable to immigration, but the clerk said it was a new rule from Bangkok and she had another customer that had used it with no problem.

 

Not surprisingly, Pattaya immigration would not accept it. Luckily I had some funds with another bank which I could use to top up the required balance; but just a warning to others who have used this method in the past; the available balance may be less than you expect!

Ok! Thanks for the info.