Personal Bank account in Thailand/EMI accepting Thailand address

[Roo]

Hi,

I am looking to open a personal bank account in Thailand, local banks refused due to not having a work permit, at least where I tried in Bangkok. Any suggestions?
Is there any other EMI than Wise that accepts Thai address and has personal accounts? Revolut does not.

Last edited: May 29, 2024

 

[wellington]

Lot of changes here currently - your account banking now needs to be in a contract sim in your own name (or family members reportedly) that will severely restrict retaining an account in a foreign SIM card and it will also mean something like 30m bank accounts will be submitted to AMOL for domestic.

As for Wise / Revolut etc they accept Thai numbers.

 

[JackAlabama]

Roo said:
Hi,

I am looking to open a personal bank account in Thailand, local banks refused due to not having a work permit, at least where I tried in Bangkok. Any suggestions?
Is there any other EMI than Wise that accepts Thai address and has personal accounts? Revolut does not.
Click to expand...

what is the visa youre on?
With the right visa its really no issue (they even make an effort to make it work) but its not a cheap ride tho. You also need a tin from your passport country since they take the crs easy way out (residence = passport).

wellington said:
Lot of changes here currently - your account banking now needs to be in a contract sim in your own name (or family members reportedly) that will severely restrict retaining an account in a foreign SIM card and it will also mean something like 30m bank accounts will be submitted to AMOL for domestic.
Click to expand...

thats great. more data to overwhelm them completely 😉

 

[wellington]

As for opening an account - it used to be a case of going in dropping 100,000 THB in foreign currency down on the table buying their inflated insurance (I did that and cost them 25x the insurance amount when I used it so banned from it now ) and they'd open an account in a tourist zone.

But due to mule accounts, drugs/gambling the banking is increasingly becoming difficult.

Having said that Elite visa arrange new bank accounts in demand.

 

[Roo]

wellington said:
Lot of changes here currently - your account banking now needs to be in a contract sim in your own name (or family members reportedly) that will severely restrict retaining an account in a foreign SIM card and it will also mean something like 30m bank accounts will be submitted to AMOL for domestic.

As for Wise / Revolut etc they accept Thai numbers.
Click to expand...

Right now on a multi-entry tourist, looking at options for long stay visas looks like they will introduce some 5 year visas DTV soon so not rushing to spend a load of money on elite. Would like to be able to use QR payments here instead of cash and have a proof of address at hand as well.

I saw a page from Revolut saying they didn't accept non EU residents. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll try to sign up.

 

[JackAlabama]

Roo said:
Right now on a multi-entry tourist, looking at options for long stay visas looks like they will introduce some 5 year visas DTV soon so not rushing to spend a load of money on elite. Would like to be able to use QR payments here instead of cash and have a proof of address at hand as well.

I saw a page from Revolut saying they didn't accept non EU residents. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll try to sign up.
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The red carpet treatment wont be rolled out in such a case.
You need to apply cultural norms to achieve what you want, ask around and you shall be helped. 😉

 

[Roo]

JackAlabama said:
You need to apply cultural norms to achieve what you want, ask around and you shall be helped. 😉
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I wasn't expecting red carpet but not an upfront no either.

By cultural norms do you mean finding a person who knows a person at a bank that could help open an account there? I read that the person you deal with at the office pretty much makes/applies the rules as they see fit.

Funny thing is that it was perfectly ok to open an account if I had paperwork ready for buying property which makes the whole visa type a bit pointless if you can just come and purchase a condo an get an account on any visa anyway doh948"" 😀

 

[Roo]

@wellington funny enough Revolut accepts a Thai phone number but doesn't have Thailand in the list of countries when you have to select your residency but they have Tuvalu and other places that are hard to point to on a map 😀

 

[JackieTsan]

JackAlabama said:
With the right visa its really no issue (they even make an effort to make it work) but its not a cheap ride tho. You also need a tin from your passport country since they take the crs easy way out (residence = passport).
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@JackAlabama what do you mean by " since they take the crs easy way out (residence = passport). "? and where did you get this ?
thank you

 

[JackAlabama]

JackieTsan said:
@JackAlabama what do you mean by " since they take the crs easy way out (residence = passport). "? and where did you get this ?
thank you
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at the end of the day you can never now. But from ground research activities I have very strong indicia they do it that way.
(it also matches the overall picture and wouldnt be an outlier).

 

[JackieTsan]

JackAlabama said:
at the end of the day you can never now. But from ground research activities I have very strong indicia they do it that way.
(it also matches the overall picture and wouldnt be an outlier).
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but that is stupididy.. Because the home country see me as tax resident of Thailand so they just ignore it 🙂))))))))))))))))))

 

[JackAlabama]

JackieTsan said:
but that is stupididy.. Because the home country see me as tax resident of Thailand so they just ignore it 🙂))))))))))))))))))
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ofc, but its normal occurrence and normally things are handled this way 😉