Do I need to transfer my Social Security benefits to a Thai bank for my retirement visa?

You can contact Social Security administration in the Philippines to have them make direct deposit into your Thailand bank.

I have their direct email address. Send me request, if interested.

Thailand makes everything difficult. You would think they would be happy with retirees bring money in

IMHO, by far the easiest thing to do is just leave the 800K THB in the bank. You then don't need to worry about any of the pitfalls spoken about in the earlier comments and the pitfalls are indeed real.

Have your US bank, or SS direct deposit into your Thai Bank acct. When 12 months passed, bank will give you letter. And you give copies of bankbook for 12 consecutive months via FTT ( foreign fund transfer. ) after 1st time its easier. I wouldn't park 800k in a virtual 0-1% interest account.

Do you mean '1 year extension of stay with 800k฿ on the bank' or you still have the original visa for 90 days ?

If you are on extension of stay, you have to finish this first. After that you can use letter from y'r Thai bank with 12 international deposits of 65k฿.

If you still have the original visa, you need the 800k฿ in the bank for y'r first year extension. 1 year later you can use 12x 65k฿ for this.

I'm guessing you're American so your embassy won't provide proof of income for you. The only option you have is to either manage a 65k baht transfer yourself to a Thai bank or have SS make the payment directly to that bank. Be aware the transfers must show as being international in your bank account and you need a full 12 months of transfers of an absolute minimum of 65k baht per month

Neither will satisfy immigration.

You either need embassy certified income if your embassy offers it, but many do not. Getting your social security letter notarized won't do anything.

Just getting you social security payment deposited in your bank account also won't do anything. If you want to use transfer method then you need to show proof that you had 65,000 baht transferred into your account every single month for 12 months before you apply for your extension. Doesn't matter how you did it, it just needs to show as an international transfer and must be every month for 12 months.

It's better to do this yourself than rely on your social security payment being deposited directly as many things can cause the payment to be delayed and if you miss the month by even 30 minutes it won't matter, you'll be starting over again from month 1.