How can tourists open a bank account in Thailand, and do they need a guarantor?

I did it on a tourist visa two years ago. I provided proof of residence from a condo hotel and went to immigration for a 500 baht letter. Took the paperwork and my passport to the Bangkok Bank at Bluport and opened an account.

Christian, would I physically need to come to Pattaya to renew a non-immigrant-o?

I opened a bank account today at Bangkok bank branch in Phuket with tourist visa.

Here’s the steps I followed:

Step 1 - tell landlord (or hotel) that you need a resident certificate. They will give you a piece of paper and report to immigration that you are staying there.

Step 2 - Go to immigration office with the piece of paper from your landlord + passport and pay 300 THB to acquire resident certificate.

Step 3 - Go to bank with resident certificate and passport. Then inquire about opening bank account.

Step 4 - Fill out paper work, pay for 1-year accident insurance (they made me pay 5900 THB at bangkok bank), pay for debit card (599 THB) and deposit minimum 500 THB into your new account.

Step 5 - Download app on your phone and receive debit card.

Important to note that you must have a thai phone number to open your account.

Hope this helps ✊

Due to serious influx of people trying to obtain accounts it has become very difficult (near impossible is some cases) to open as a tourist without a longterm visa.

The easiest path is through an agent at this time.

Agent

Get a residence letter from immigration or your embassy if they provide it. If in Bangkok you won't be able to get one till you do a 90 day report. Otherwise just pay an agent it's 5000B in Bangkok with Siam Legal.

It's a lot harder to open one as a tourist than say 2+ years ago. If you can't get the required docs, just go the agent route (in Bangkok at least)

Bangkok Bank in Central Festival will do it

@Christian ********

yes you can open a savings account with Bangkok bank. Follow the directions on their website

If you need the account for a visa it may be worth explaining this to them

You just need a letter of residence , which you can get from immigration .

Go to the bank with a Thai friend that has large deposits with the bank.

It's a long slog but try the bigger branches outside shopping malls. A few thousand baht to pay in might help. Keep going until you find one. I found Krungsri the most helpful.

You should use the search feature as this has been asked 100 times.

But it's more and more difficult to open a bank account on a tourist visa. You're probably going to have to pay an agent or buy an insurance policy from the bank (3000-5000₿)