What are the best money management solutions for DTV visa holders in Thailand?

Use true money

Just read all the previous posts about bankaccounts and DTV.

No need to ask the same questions again and again, instead of reading what’s allready has been answered.

N26 bank account for the rent, Lazada, shopping Malls, coffee shops and grab.

15k cash from an ATM once a month for things that can be paid cash only.

And Moreta app to scan (Life changing for the Tao Bin Machine lol)

So my only fees are around 5€ for the rent (because I send baht to the landlord) + 250 baht for the atm + around 5€ n26 fee for the atm too.

I have a Thai bank account under DTV. When there’s a will there’s a way.

Wise or depending on amount in baht you wish to withdraw some banks will allow you to buy baht inside the bank good market value and lower fee not an ATM

Just take cash from the ATM… 250 baht fee for baht. not too bad. compare it to having an account and paying for the Wise transfer fee and the difference will be minimal…

Rent and bigger sums: just use Wise or Revolut or any other fintech company to transfer the money into a thai account.

you can get TrueMoney and tagthai but in my opinion they are not very practical yet as you need cash for top up.

I opened a schwab account before I moved here so all atm fees come back to me. Have dtv. Cash has been pretty much universally accepted for daily living so no big issues with just that per se, only rare convenience issues. I have a rabbit card for bts and it works in places like 711, turtle, some of the mall/building food courts that want you to get a loadable card to pay instead of cash. I've opened a wise account but only used it once and it wasn't for thailand. If you really want to do the qr payments, there is a loadable card called pay & tour but you need to get it at the bank branches inside the airports. Most regular bank branches don't issue them. I believe you still load those at a bank with cash though. Really, getting a bank account that has 0 international atm fees or refunds them is best so you can access your cash. Cash can be used for just about everything else. Would also recommend getting a fee free credit card (visa or mastercard) to use for online stuff, bigger purchases, anywhere you dont have to use cash and wont charge you a cc fee. HSBC has some branches here if you can look into account types that have no fees abroad. You truly don't need a Thai bank account to live here and opening one on a dtv is a hassle at best, impossible at worst. Absolute last option if you're a native English speaker, you can probably find a short term contract at a school that will get you a working visa. While you're there, open a Thai account since you can keep it even if your employment ends with the school (whether you quit or finish the contract). Good luck

Cant think about living here without a bank account i never use cash wver only scan qr even here in ubon even the small shops that sell fruit have a QR code luckily opened mine when i still had my boi visa

Im finding a lot of places accept the rabbit BTS card. Similar to trumoney in that you have to refill with cash but good if you’re at .

Wise and the Thai wife has SCB account, and I have a card for that, so I can get cash easily.. The only thing I can't do is qr code payment.

You can still use cash for almost everything, I have local bank accounts but still mostly use cash. The main thing I value the local bank for is the stuff that needs a local card, like Shopee, although I've heard SOME foreign cards will work on that.

If you can get a good foreign travel card from your home country, ATM use isn't too bad, this does depend on where you are from. For Americans with something like Schwab, using an ATM is as cheap as Wise transfers, even slightly better. You can also try bank counter cash advances, this skips the 250B Thai side fee. Not all will do them but if you look around maybe you can find a bank that will. Most of the cost is your home bank though not this 250B, so important to minimise that. Take the max out of the ATM each time.

Wise lets you do transfers to most Thai accounts and it's often instant, you can use this to pay rent.

The QR system is convenient if you forget cash and just have your phone but it's really a convenience over cash, I have never found a place in Chiang Mai that will not take cash either. In COVID times it was encouraged but that's over now. Maybe in Bangkok.

Wise

My home country banks have all bilateral agreements to use the Thai QR system and Alipay+. Of course Chinese and Thai bank accounts holders also can use their native apps there. So I use QR for everything and Alipay+ for the s. My home country banks also have an agreement with the purple bank (SCB?) to withdraw cash here with a very low fee, sometimes fully reimbursed if they have ongoing promotions. So it depends on where you're from. I think most Asian banks have those kind of agreements.

I'm always confused why people want to open a bank account? What's the benefit?

Visa - Wise / Cash

Sim card - CC

Grab - CC

Groceries - CC

Rent - Wise

Scooter rental - Cash

Appliance store - CC

Etc. Why is a bank acct so necessary? What am I missing?

I am using Moreta Pay, I linked my Wise account. The only issue is that for now it only works for business bank accounts and not personal ones, but they said it's coming.

Just open a bank account

I recommend you to apply True money to pay 7-11 and some restaurants ,it’s very convenient. And you also can use your Visa card to pay. Some shop in shopping centers don’t accept cash anymore. And for online shopping better if use Cash on Delivery.

In the future if it’s easier to apply bank account I recommend TTB bank it’s very useful and only pay for debit card 350thb/year.

Why are you leaving Bali?

True money. And they also provide True Money Prepaid Mastercard.

Get a Revolut or Wise card and use that for payments where they accept cards, and for online payments.

Get cash for the small stuff, but always withdraw 30,000 at once, so you get as much as possible per paid withdrawal fee.

His might help. It covers the pros and cons of a few options.

Before I was on a ED visa I had my banks open a bank account, but now on DTV I opened another one at SCB. Possibly try there but it depends on the branch. If that doesn’t work you could always use an agent.

I got full access (for foreigners) to true money with my DTV. It's not like having a bank here but it helps a lot. I also heard about Morata which as the advantage of using your foreign credit debit card