I have the 800k but I don't think i want to tie it up in a Thai bank account. Is it worth getting an agent to sort things out?
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TLDR : Answer Summary
Many expats are debating whether hiring an agent to manage their visa situation in Thailand is worth it, particularly regarding the requirement to keep 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account. Opinions vary: some express concerns about tying their funds up and prefer to manage the process themselves to avoid ongoing agent fees, which can be expensive. Others feel that using an agent simplifies the process despite the cost, particularly for first-time applicants or those uncomfortable with Thai bureaucracy. Key points include the need for funds to remain in the account for a specified period, the possibility of switching to an income-based visa after an initial year, and advice on selecting trustworthy banks for fund transfers.
NON-O RETIREMENT VISA RESOURCES / SERVICES
Go to the Retirement Visa Section for information on requirements, including age restrictions, financial requirements, and necessary documentation.
For immediate assistance, contact Thai Visa Centre directly via LINE at @ThaiVisaCentre or Email them.
Explore recent discussions by using the Non-O Retirement Visa tag in the search box at the top of the page.
I am tired of the food after 5 weeks, how can people stay longer? I move around Asean every 4-5 weeks just to spice it up
John *********
I get 0.10% in a Thai bank and my last review I got 10.4% in the UK so a agency
Nigel **************
No Bank Statement necessary
Leon ********
*****
0 baht from $ is such a small amount. What risk is there really?
Leon ********
Thai banks guarantee the 1st million baht as far as i know.
Leon ********
Been with Bangkok Bank 12 years. No problem. Transfer funds to and from that account. The best bank for that in Thailand i would imagine.
Doc ********
Don't do it, I have heard stories in Vietnam where they had 30,000USD in a bank account. They exited the country and on return that balance of money vanished into thin air
you have "heard" stories? You know you can't believe everything you hear. And if were that common, it would be plastered all over here and the internet.
Thailand was so still so cool in the 80s and 90s. Now its concrete tarmac 7 11 wifi, chemicals in the food, one use plastics. The people have greatly changed, beaches are dirty, water and air is polluted. Too much tourism too many expats. But people still flock here...
Just open two accounts in same bank. Have deposit one sans card with restrictions.
No point in being worried about everything here. You won't last long
Philip ********
You can put it in mine for safe keeping
Michael *******
Horses for courses, if you take the agent route, very hard to normalize your status. You will be beholden to agent system - there is risk if they screw up or lose your passport, my passport never leaves my sight feel more comfortable with that - earn 20k a year from the money I keep here for visa, might get more in UK but then at the mercy of exch rate when I bring to Thailand…….always the risk that govt cracks down on corruption in immig which the agents feed……
Winston ********
I did mine from NON-O till Retirement for 5 years through an agent. Never had any hassles and proved prudent when Covid struck a month ater my first Retiremen visa was made.
Steve *********
Steve *******
Thanks John, see you at the next dark corner 😂 why put your real names?
Patrick *******
Yes. Call TVS in Pattaya.
Jo **********
it’s only 800,000 baht?
Paul ********
A good question, fully agree about tying up money, I use an agent and have done for many years. Ok if you happy to pay an extra 12.000 baht or so more.
It's peanuts really. I get the impression from some of the righteous on FB., that they begrudge Thai agents making a living.
Reply to
John ********
Reply
Samuel ********
For foreigners, Thai baht account balances aren’t covered by the Deposit Protection Agency, meaning there’s no insurance to safeguard your funds.
Essentially, if anything goes wrong, you have no guaranteed protection over your money.
Galenus ******
Sure, you need an agent and a nurse guiding you through life. Geez🤗😁
Patrick ********
Agent fee
*****
bht. Cambodia travel Pattaya.
Hartmut ********
Kasikorn Bank ist ok, bei der krungsri Bank konnten wir unser Geld gut anlegen. Die 800k müssen bei einer Thai Bank angelegt werden. Die Agenturen sind zu teuer, ausserdem möchten viele Immigration Büros, beim erstenmal, sehen wo das Geld herkommt.
Andy *******
yes
Gilda *******
DTV ( Destination Thailand Visa) is the best 5 years visa. You don’t have to transfer any money. Just have to show that you have equivalent of 500k Baht in your account to support your stay. All you need is to register for a class or seminar.
Oh just get an agent and keep your money in home country where it will actually earn interest. Here it will not.
Andy **********
I can manage it for you.
Stuart ***********
It is illegal to avoid using the 800,000 method, if the Immigration Officer is investigated (yes this does happen), all of their visas issued are cancelled and you will be forced to leave Thailand. Is it really worth the risk to save a net amount of 5 to 10,000 baht (after agent fees). Up to you.
I have seen people like you crying and complaining about the immigration officer because their visa was cancelled and they were deported. It's always someone else's fault!
I'm not sure, my friend did it. I just know he paid 15k and the year before 17k with a different agent. Walk around Pattaya and get some quotes.
Reply to
Richard ******
Reply
Albert ************
No.
Sam ******
Get an agent to do it if you’d rather the 800k work for you instead of the Thai “government”.
Sue *******
In my opinion, for your first year, yes. But it depends on the interest rate.
To get a retirement visa and bank account opened with an agent in Pattaya, it will cost you about 30,000 baht, or roughly $900 at 33.5 baht to dollar exchange rate.
Same exchange rate for 800,000 baht is about $23,900.
At 4% interest you would lose about $960, plus the fees to transfer the funds into Thailand.
And then, you can change to the income method for the next year, doing yourself going forward.
Namtan ********
Yes
Clive *********
It’s only for one year and after 3 months you can drop the amount down to 400,000 until 2 months before next years application, when it has to be topped back up to 800,000 again. In the meantime deposit 65,000 baht into your Thai bank under the heading overseas pension. Same day every month for 12 months to show 12 deposits at next application on you annual bank statement. From the day of application for your second visa, you will then no longer require the 800,000 deposit and you can start spending that money again( not worth putting back to your own country currency as the charges will be too high). For my deposits from UK I use a company called Smart Currency exchange. You get the exchange rate of the day in a forward contract for however long a period you want up to 12 months, so if exchange rate drops you stay on same higher contracted rate. However if your currency exchange rate gets stronger, then you will lose out a bit. Over the year £1550 bought me 65,800 and 68,000 TBH
Once you use an agent you will always have to renew with an agent to negate the deposit requirement. Over a few years renewals you will waste far more in fees than what you will lose in interest on the deposited money. The retirement visa process is fairly straightforward and easy to do and costs 1900 baht plus bank charges for documents required such as bank statements and managers letters, probably up to 500baht.
Hope this all makes sense and pm me if further help needed
You say, deposit on the same day every month. Is that a requirement? Surely as long as you have 65k deposited each calendar month, surely the date doesn’t matter? Or have I missed something?
Hi Nick I can only tell you what I was told by Thai immigration. It has to be same day every month as a pension would be paid. I set up like a standing order from my pension company. I was going to use a company like transfer wise but I read stories of how unreliable the payments were for whatever reason so I used the company mentioned which was like clockwork. If you don’t do same day or within a day or two it will be questioned if it’s a legitimate pension payment. Think about it , would your pension be paid on different days in the real world
So I will work back n forth from the USA . work 2 weeks and take off one month … if I keep 800k in a Thai bank what kind of visa would I get?
Paul ********
you answered your own question dude 🕶
Ziggy ********
Steve ********
100% Where you gonna live?
Wylie *******
You'll tie up 400k for the full 12 months and the other 400k for 5 months. At a conservative 6% interest that works out to 34,000 baht. If you can find an agent for less than that or earn more than that it would be worth it.
I do not. I believe the money needs to be easily accessible so cannot be in an investment account. So keeping your money invested vs sitting in a bank here doing nothing seems to be worth it based on what I see people saying an agent costs.
Reply to
Wylie *******
Reply
Dave **********
Those of us that want to live in this country will not plan to commit a crime to get a Visa. As they say in Thailand up to you.
Dave **********
Some of these dudes would argue with themselves, if you locked them in a closet 🙄
You as well as all the other keyboard warriors, forgot to mention the agents commiting a crime by processing the paperwork for you. I get the impression from the warrior expats that they think it's only the farang that is commiting an offence and not the agents ffs. The righteous on FB need to get a life.
One wrong plus one wrong make two wrongs, one wrong isn't right and neither is two. By the way did your mama take your dummy off you when you were ten years old 😂😂😂
Reply to
John ********
Reply
Charles **********
The last time I stayed in Thailand was 2019-2021. I always used the monthly minimum income of 65,000 method, although much more was deposited. I always did the paperwork with my Thai wife’s help. All was ok for the first year. The second year again doing it ourself the Immigration Boss started yelling at us saying the money going into our BKK bank account had to be coming from a U.S. government agency. This had never been a requirement before and I could not find a Thai Immigration documented policy stating that. I had been transferring funds via Wise to my Thai bank account. All my documents from the bank were correct, my bank book was updated that morning with the appropriate bank letters, statements, etc. But, he still gave us a hard time, but eventually approved my visa. I suspect he was upset because we did not use an agent for the reasons we are all aware of. Anyone else ever hear of this requirement or experience this situation?
there have been reports of some immigration offices starting to ask for proof of pension or retirement payments if you are trying to apply for an extension based on monthly transfers.
I’m going to Bkk 29 November for 3 months. Looking at the wording you provided it does not specifically say the government pension must be deposited directly to your Thailand bank account. It seems one can just provide proof of a pension equal to or exceeding 65,000 TB a month. With that said, if I decide to relocate there I’ll probably have my pension sent directly to the Bangkok Bank in New York City just to avoid a hassle. Tks Mitchell.
Joseph costs of single or multiple if l decide to travel not likely. But a moments regret is somtimes never retrieved. Joseph either a map or a bloody good description of how to find Immigration at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Help please.
The irony is that people are fearful of trusting Thailand's banking system with their savings.. but many banks in western countries like the US and the UK are on the verge of going under.. and when they do something called a 'bail-in' will happen.. which basically means they swallow up your money and say sorry we can't give it you back.. since the state insurance schemes are only funded to cover approx. 10-15% of all the monies deposited with the banks.. you could lose 85-90% of your savings in such a scenario.. you have been living with a false sense of security for too long.. and if you think the western banking system is 'safe' (or safest) then brace yourself for a nasty surprise.. and while we are on the subject of investments.. you'd better prepare yourself for the mother of all stock market crashes.. sorry to be the bearer of such bad news but personally I'd get out of cash and paper investments (including digital 'money' like btc) and get into real assets like gold and silver.. the stuff you can hold in your hand.. there's a reason why the spot gold price hit a new high these last few days.. you just gotta figure out why!
That's a load of hogwash. Not a penny has been lost in an FDIC bank since 1934. And Thailand has a similar guarantee for one million T. H. B. Your money's safe here. Stop with the fear-mongering.
I think you must have mis-read my comment.. the very point i was making was that Thai banks are every bit as safe as (if not safer) than banks in western countries.. and it's the western banks that will go under first when the sh1t hits the fan.. every retort has automatically focused on US deposit schemes for some reason.. whereas the term 'western' covers just about every North American, European, and Australasian country on the map.. and I'm pretty sure we have expats living in Thailand from a multitude of such origins.. all with different banking regimes and different deposit insurance schemes.. and taking a cross section of the 'rest of the world' into consideration I'd suggest it's safer to trust the (bigger) Thai banks with your money.. so I'm not sure what you think is 'hogwash' exactly.. unless you have a crystal ball of course!?
Sorry but this is very short sighted thinking and is clearly based upon your misunderstanding of Uncle Sam's abilities among other things.. the Fed is effectively defunct and can no longer 'print money' like it used to do.. the US Dollar will shortly become an asset backed currency (eg.silver/gold) once again.. which means you cannot have an infinite supply of 'money' in circulation.. this is the death knell of the 'petro' dollar (USD) and the advent of the US Note (USN) which will be referred to as the 'rainbow' dollar moving forward!
All insured depository institutions (ie, banks) in the USA (be they state chartered or federally chartered) include federal deposit insurance up to $250,000 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (a US government agency), which is extremely well capitalized. A depositor covered by FDIC insurance has never lost money up to the amount of coverage (currently $250,000) since the FDIC was established in 1933.
Think it’s reasonable to assess people want to keep their money where they choose, not trusting Thai banks is not the issue, it’s that they pay no interest for it! That’s why I’ve kept a non OA as long as I can. Compared, I’ve made a profit.
But in fairness Thailand also seems to make it more difficult to get your money back out if it’s needed elsewhere or urgently.
I can only speak to the US. Deposited funds in federally insured banks are safe up to $100k per person. FDIC has been around a long time now
You're absolutely right except for one caveat. The safest investment of all will be Bitcoin as it always has been. I'm curious to know if I can just show and prove to the Thai government my Bitcoin balance rather than trust a Thai bank.
I'd like to know your definition of 'safe' then.. because btc is largely unregulated and largely untraceable.. it was invented by a 3 letter agency as a means of funding their black ops.. an ideal 'currency' for the criminal underworld to trade without conventional banking oversight.. which allows its value to be manipulated of course.. but then it was sold to the man on the street as an 'investment' product.. to suck more money into its coffers and to try to legitimise it.. it remains a soft target for cyber criminals and fraudsters.. and the biggest risk has to be the volatile nature of its value.. with the current high of around $73k comparing to a low of just under $16k 2 years ago.. and its been a rollercoaster ride in between.. so it's definitely not for the faint hearted or anyone that cant afford to lose all of their holdings.. most people are also unaware that the world is on the precipice of a quantum financial revolution.. the evolvement of BRICS being a taster of what is to come.. but ultimately only 2 recognised (and regulated) crypto's (XLR and XRP) will exist in the quantum world.. so the future of btc is precarious to say the least.. when it starts to drop again it will look like a lead balloon on steroids!
yep. And what is the larger countries develop their own digital currency, you have to think they will at some point...it just makes sense, bitcoin will bottom.
It's not your money your faking, its the agents. God do a lot of Farangs in Thailand spend all their time on FB because their Mrs, girlfriends or boyfriends if that what floats their boat, spend most of their time just chatting with Thai family and Thai friends. Must be a lonely life 😆😆😆
no it's easy, you just put your money in the bank.
Reply to
Joe ******
Reply
Tracy *********
My thoughts exactly
Eric ******
I think absolutely it is worth hiring an agent, seeing how it is FREE! I’ll actually save money per year by leaving my money in my high yield account at about $100/ month based on the $800k sitting in a Thai bank account making peanuts, if anything. I’ve talked to an agent in Pattaya and he knows his stuff. I was a bit hesitant at first, but watched some You Tube interviews he did with a few Thailand channels and I was sold. You have outs if you want to fund the account in the future and do the yearly extensions on your own. He was fine with that when I brought it up telling him my reservations about being “stuck” to an agent to do it every year. I asked him about all the negatives that I’ve read on here and was satisfied with all of his answers. I don’t see a downside. Good luck with it.
but there's a lot of expat Angels on FB., that have a very negative view of anyone using an agent. Probably just because they've done it by the book, they think anyone that uses an agent is a criminal. They're always commenting to posters that they are doing something so called illegal, but they never mention that the Thai agents are complicit in this. 🤔 wonder why 🤔
Absolutely. Glad it worked out for them 20 years ago when it much easier. And I voiced all of these scenarios with the agent and was comfortable in his replies. If they didn't want this to go on, they could have stopped it looong ago. Think of many agents and probably thousands of people that have done this and been fine. If it falls apart in the future, I'll just do it the 'correct' way. I wouldn't think they would 'ban' ALL those people from coming back. Just my 2 cents.
Eric, I totally agree with your comment. As you'll be aware, there's so many righteous commenters on here, who are so squeaky clean and law abiding, I'm surprised they'd even contemplating living in countries where mai pen rai is the norm.
Reply to
John ********
Reply
Ally ************
John Jowett I think your comment needs to be considered with a little more perspective my friend.. imo if an agent acting on someone's behalf follows the legitimate process for obtaining a visa.. and their sole purpose is to guide you through it and attend to all the necessary filings.. thereby saving you time and energy and the headache of communicating with immigration directly.. and you are happy to pay for such a service.. then it a very 'positive' arrangement for everyone involved.. however many people turn to an agent because they do not meet the criteria to obtain the visa they want to secure.. often because they cannot meet the financial requirements.. such as the seasoned deposit in a Thai Bank account.. and some agents will offer to fudge this by presenting an application to a 'friendly' IO at an immigration office they 'work with' to get it passed without too much scrutiny.. in other words they have someone on the inside on their payroll.. and this practice is indeed illegal.. and the applicant, the agent, and the obliging IO are all breaking the law.. and whilst everyone turns a blind eye and nobody cares that the system is being abused like this it will clearly continue unabated.. however the danger is that there will come a day when someone does start to care.. when the authorities decide to clean up the agent process.. and to begin auditing these visa applications more stringently.. and if it's your application that is found to have been illegally obtained you could find your visa is terminated and / or worse.. that you get banned from the kingdom entirely.. that's the risk you take if you decide to use an agent to try and beat the system.. and in this latter scenario it doesn't just have negative implications for said applicant.. it has a knock on effect for all of us that need to renew our visa's periodically.. since we could find we have more hoops to jump through in the future and greater costs as a result.. the process is already a bureaucratic nightmare without any more red tape being introduced!
of course I read what Brandon writes, and those were the concerns I voiced to the agent. And again, I was satisfied with response I got from him.
Reply to
Eric ******
Reply
Ling *****
If you are based in the same area using the same agent every year it may well be worth it. For me I don't want to tie up 800k in a Thai bank account and have restrictions on how much and when I can use it. Furthermore you are losing out on interest on your cash. I have calculated that interest at home on my 800k equivalent would earn me 40k THB. I know for a fact several agents will organise everything and the costs are around 25k to 30k to do it. So as long as overseas interest rates stay high you are out in front. But if interest rates slip to where Thai banks are paying then I would probably think about parking my 800k in the Thai bank.
Assuming you have some sort of income to live on, you could keep the 800k in your account gaining interest and simply use your monthly income as your requirement for your long term visa thus saving your 25k agent fee adding the 40k interest to your bank account. If you don’t have the 65k monthly income (2200 US) then you probably should rethink your visa to Thailand. You can leave for less for sure but retirement on a shoestring really would not be that pleasant.
I can do 65k per month but I am only doing less than 6 months a year in thailand and I wouldn't be able to spend it all. I want to avoid any border bounces, hence thinking about the retirement visa.
"Worth it" is subjective to each person. Some might think it is worth it to not have the money in the bank, but you are then stuck using an agent every year and paying whatever they demand because you have no other option.
Others think it's worth it to keep their own money in their own bank account, where they can withdraw it any time as it still belongs to them, but they must leave it there for as long as they want to qualify for their visa. Annual visa extension price using your own funds is going to be 1900 baht paid directly to immigration.
just a question relating specifically to the “stuck with an agent” scenario,, I was in previous years using a visa based on having Thai family, then due to a change in circumstances I transferred to an extension based on retirement and I used an agent, this was around 3 years or more back, I was just short with the money in account due to a combination of making a big purchase at the time and my silly miscalculations ,
I then used that same agent the following year, this time had the money in account sufficiently, used a different agent this year and again had the money in the account, so if what the bulk of this conversation suggests is correct then I am stuck with using an agent ?
Can you explain specifically why there would be issues down the line ? I’m guessing it possibly relates to 90 day reports which I don’t do due to my extensive travels anyway ?
It’s easily enough for me to exit and restart the process if I need to do that, as mentioned I travel out/in fairly regularly anyway.
probably mostly I would I go through agent is I think I would get my passport back a little faster which is important to me, as I may unexpectedly have to travel short notice,
I was just curious that I might find any issue later down the line if I did go by myself to do an extension, due to being short in money in bank a couple years earlier
Right Sir. The way I look at it, the money saved doing it myself IS the interest payment on the 800k. Plus a person can use 400K of that for investments about 7 months a year, correct?
It’s hard to get off the agent wheel once on it, what you would need to do IMO (please correct me if I’m wrong)..
Fly out, deposit the 800k in your Thai account, fly back in on a 60 day TR (cancelling the extension of stay), then apply for a new extension of stay “O”
If anyone has other ideas/solutions, I would welcome their ideas.
That is one option. You can also just put the money in your account when the agent gets you an extension in a subsequent year and then do it yourself the following year.
If you don't meet the financial requirements of your visa, you cannot get next year's visa by yourself. You will need an agent. You have to plan 1-year ahead if you want to break out of the agent cycle, because your 12 month bank statement that you submit for your extension must be able to show you had the 800,000 last year and never dropped below 400,000 the rest of the year.
And that's the easy ones. There are agents that take your passport to a province hundreds of km away that's known to be a province that agents use, and get your stamp from there. If you get one of those, then you simply cannot do it yourself, period. Immigration will not touch a passport that has one of these extensions, and you will 100% be stuck using an agent.
you can only use the immigration office that matches the province of your TM30. For long term extensions, many immigration offices also require a lease or rental agreement as part of your paperwork.
If your visa was initially applied for in a different province than where you wish to submit your extension, simply submit a TM30 form or apply in the province where you originally obtained your retirement visa extension.
"Financials" generally refers to the financial statements and reports that provide a summary of a company's financial performance and position. This includes documents like the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, which detail revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, and cash flows. Financials are crucial for stakeholders to assess a company's profitability, liquidity, and overall financial health.
Finances with respect to a single transaction would be correct. What your quoting applies to companies with accountants employed cooking the books legally 😂😂😂
Who says I complain about illegals entering the UK and why should I have an issue with people using agents? Unlike a lot of keyboard warriors on FB its none of my business.
This is the formal requirements for a legitimate stay in Thailand now matter what people wants to do. Do you feel better to pay an agent thousands of baht each year for a couple of decades for ting you easily can fix yourself for “pocket money”.
describes that when you start with an agent without the 800K, you will need the agent each year again unles you start from scratch after leaving the country.
I never did tie up 800k for my retirement visa although that was
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years ago and I applied from Canada. I showed my pension income and kept bank statements showing the 65k deposited monthly for my extension. I changed to a marriage visa about 3 years ago and now only have to show an income of 40k per month and I do that through my embassy with an income letter. The immigration office does not even require the bank statements so I don’t even need to show the monthly income but I deposit the amount (more because I need to live) each month. The paperwork is annoying but once you complete it keep a copy of what you did and you can use it as a template for the following years (I haven’t done a good job of this and redo all the paperwork regularly). Depending on your IO the whole system is not that bad and certainly better to do yourself rather than paying thousands (I heard at least 10k to an agent but could be more or less). I am sure you could find another expat wherever you are and buy him a few beers to help you through the process.
The 800k has to remain in your account for 3 months after the extension is granted and be back in 2 months before you apply for your next extension. Can never go below 400k for remaining 7 months.
Reply to
Ron ******
Reply
Jan ******************
You’ll need to have the 800K baht in your bank at date when you apply for the initial 90 days Non O in Thailand. For the Extension of stay you’ll only have to tie up the 800K baht for five months and 400K baht for twelve months.
If you can provide proof of income minimum equal to 65K baht a month, you can switch to the income method from your second year extension of stay by showing proof of twelve months consecutive transfers of 65K baht and the 800K baht (or 400K baht) is again free to use.
And it’s in my opinion recommended to play by the country your residence in’s rules while you choose to stay or live in another country. If you jump on the agent train by illegally bypassing formal requirements for legitimate stay, you’ll never be able to jump of again unless you leave the country and start all over again.
My point was if you start using an agent to bypass formal requirements you’ll need to use agents to bypass the other agent bypass for previous year or years and you’ll never be able to get a formal legitimate stay unless you cancel your stay by leaving and start all over again from scratch.
You can stay for several years with an agent borrowing you the 800K baht for your extensions, but you’ll never be able to have a complete juridical legitimate stay.
And if you’re doing it the correct way the fee or cost each year is only 1900 baht instead of using thousands for agent when you have the possibility to do it easy and legal yourself.
Still someone who manage, but it’s quite difficult on short stay as tourists visa and visa exemption. If you apply for a 90 days Non O long stay visa at your embassy/consulate before you come it’s more easy. I know several people who has opened with assistance from an agent too. Takes 40 min at a fee from 3500 baht.
You can just go for fitness training. You don't have to get involved with fighting. I've seen 80 year olds who take part in martial arts. You do any type of sport at your pace, not anyone others pace.
Great question, I’m in same exact situation, I just don’t feel comfortable doing this , also what bank is most trustworthy and recommended to transfer money to from USA, thank you in advance
personally speaking,I'm in the same boat.. reluctant to tie that up in a Thai bank account as my money is making good interest in UK savings accounts..I'm with Bangkok Bank.. find them quite professional and any transfer of money is in Thailand bank within 2 days normally.I used an agent in Pattaya 1st year.she put in the 800k and then took it out 2 days later.. cost about £350 but she says much cheaper 2nd year onwards.hope this helps
Bangkok Bank is the only international Bank and seems to be preferred by Immigration, at least where I live but might be different elsewhere, nothing is consistent here, it costs to use an agent but very convenient if you don't want to tie up the
Bangkok Bank operates in the US, Federally regulated. While its a commercial bank, you can transfer money to it from a US bank, and then it transfers to Thailand essentially as an intrabank transfer.