How much money should I leave in my Thai bank account to keep it open when moving back to the US?

@Bruce ********

if you love Thailand, like many of us do, you'll look for every excuse to go back often and or find a way to live there and call it home. It took me awhile to accomplish that. A bank account is a foothold and aging an account there, a good thing. Best wishes

Spell check is funny "tire" of course means "Thai"

@Bruce ********

understand now. Assuming you want to keep your account or accounts, a while ago that could have been a problem with minimums, but now there are excellent apps that are solely for the purpose of transferring money around the world to different accounts that you own. You can certainly refresh your accounts here in Thailand easily but at minimal levels. I like the app Transferwise, now renamed "wise" it's phenomenal in my opinion. I can move money in and out of my tire accounts within the course of a few minutes. The bank sends me an email "deposit arrived" it is backed up by the bank of England by the way.

@Mic****

they all do, the 2,000B is set in law rather than something the banks picked themselves.

@Bruce ********

Open a second bank account (perhaps an ongoing term deposit) and simply transfer 100 baht every few months from one to the other to keep both accounts active. As Tony says non-activity will result in the account being closed and although it's easy to reinstate the account you have to be physically there to do it. A simple regular transfer will do the trick

@Bruce ********

I'm assuming you have the banking app on your phone so you could do that from the US.

@Bruce ********

it doesn't matter what the transaction is. You could transfer 50 baht into a mobile phone account for instance.

@Bruce ********

Bkk bank

@Bruce ********

since February

@Dana ******

For me it’s both

@Frankie *******

I use AIS One-2-Call prepaid with roaming for years already without problems.

@Dana ******

I have Postpaid. I’m not sure if your service provider offer international roaming for Prepaid.

@Wilmont *****

Do you mean the PC-Online banking or the Phone App Banking... ?

@Frankie *******

How about a PREPAID SIM ? How do you keep it active abroad so that you can receive an SMS from the bank ?

@Rampi *******

Do you receive a SMS EACH time you want to access your bank APPS ? (Not talking PC e-banking..)

@Dana ******

The Thai SIM card will remain active as long as the monthly bill is paid;furthermore, you must must activate international roaming service with your provider.

@Dana ******

This is working. But notification to the Thai phone number doesn't

@Bruce ********

Someone told me that my online banking won’t work from the US. Don’t know if it’s true because that’s what I had in my plans. Furthermore it seems that only a Bangkok bank works but then again I don’t know but a bank manager told me it does.

@Bruce ********

problem aa sms will go to the thai number.

@Bruce ********

Question : if you remove your Thai SIM and replace it with your USA SIM once in the US, will you still have access to your Thai bank phone Apps ?

@Bruce ********

$500 more than sufficient

@Graham *****

agree

@Ron *****************

And a little to extend the life of your Thai sim if you want to keep the number

@Stuart ********

I usually withdraw a tiny amount ever few months when I'm abroad for more than a year, just to show a transaction in the a/c.

@Adam *********

so do I.

@Bruce ********

I think the suggestion was made as a simple way to keep your account active by purchasing something you will likely use

@Bruce ********

you can use in USA. Netflix shows the content of whatever territory you are in. No need for VPN unless you want to watch Thai Netflix in US

It's Netflix mobile from Thailand not working abroad?

Sorry, but it was already mentioned 2k and it won't close. So, probably, add something more esp. for unexpected fees if you're holding a card.

@Bruce ********

are you sure ? I use Netflix in Thailand via a netflix account that is paid for in the UK.

@Bruce ********

You can get a router on Amazon for a few bucks that will do a “network system wide” VPN. No idea if it’ll help.

@Stuart ********

Absolutely agree ...use the app to pay for something on line

I've heard of guys been charged because they didn't use it during pandemic ....pay for netflixs through it