Bureaucracy regarding registration / tax / insurance of motorbikes / cars

[jackdd]

I couldn't find any comprehensive post containing all the things you have to do and how you can do them, regarding the registration, insurace, tax and so on of vehicles in Thailand.

So i thought i would just share what i know by now from my experience by owning a motorbike, most things for cars should be quite similar.

Please extend it with everything that you think could be useful for others.

 

I bought my motorbike second hand from a shop, so the shop payed the first year of insurance / tax for me.

Because i'm in Thailand on tourist visas i can't get a certificate of residence (my embassy won't issue it either if i'm here on a tourist visa) i chose to register the motorbike on a Thai friend and the contract for buying the motorbike was on my friends name too.

After this we took the papers and went to the "Department of Land of Transportation" which exists in every province to change the registration of the motorbike.

The motorbike was registered in another province, so we actually had to go there twice, in the first step they changed the registered province, to do so they send a letter to the other province and after this is processed you have to come again to finally change the name. They will check the motorbike for 2 minutes and if everything is fine they update the green book and hand out the license plate and tax sticker.

 

Every year you have to renew insurance and tax, here some things that i learned:

You can chose for example this company for the compulsary insurance, there are probably others but i don't know them and they should all have the same prices: http://www.rvp.co.th/purchasing_insurance_en.php

Here you can see what's covered, obviously not much for the few THB you pay: http://www.rvp.co.th/ClaimQA_en.php

 

If you are Farang you would theoretically have to go to the insurances office to buy it. But actually it's possible to buy this insurance in every 7/11 (It seems to be possible country wide). All you need to do is to take the green book and a Thai friend with his ID card to 7/11 and buy the insurance there (the motorbike can be registered on you and your Thai friend can pay the insurance with his name, that's no problem).

Then you pay the money listed on the website at 7/11 and get the receipt from them.

 

If you are in Bangkok (maybe some other provinces offer this too, but at least Udon does not) you can also pay the tax in 7/11. You do again need the green book, the Thai friend with ID card (could even be another friend again) and the receipt from the insurance you just got. After you pay the tax there you have to write down your address on a paper (better let your Thai friend write it down in Thai) and after a while you will receive a letter with the Tax Sticker to put on your motorbike.

If you are not in Bangkok and you want to pay the tax you have to go the "Department of Land of Transportation". You can pay the tax in any province, doesn't have to be the one where your motorbike is registered. You just take the green book, the receipt from the insurance (which you bought in the insurances office or 7/11) and the money (this time don't need a Thai friend or even a passport) there, and after they processed it you get the new tax sticker.

The Department of Land of Transportation does usually have side offices in other locations, where you can do basic things like paying the tax, so before you travel across the city ask people at your place where you can pay the tax, maybe there is a place close to you.

 

If you lose the tax sticker you can get a new one, to do so you have to go to the Department of Land of Transportation. But there is one problem with this: It has to be the Department of Land of Transportation at the province where your motorbike is registered. Who knows why you can get the initial one everywhere, but if you need a replacement that's not possible everywhere, but that's how it is.

 

If the motorbike is older than 5 years you have to get some kind of "inspection" from a registered mechanic or something like this before paying the tax. I don't have personal experience with this yet, maybe somebody else can give more details about how this works exactly, also regarding paying the tax in 7/11 then (does the paper you get from the mechanic have a barcode that they scan?).

 

 

 

[jackdd]

Update as i learned something new:

Paying for the insurance and tax should be possible everywhere in the country, maybe just not at every 7/11 or maybe sometimes the clerks just don't know how to do it.

If it's possible to do it at the 7/11 they should have a small sticker like this at their door, which says it's possible to pay insurance and tax there if the motorbike is not older than 5 years and the car not older than 7 years.