What do I need to open a bank account in Thailand before retiring?

Richard Browne Where do you live?

Dac Samui or get a Non-O visa for the initial visit ;)

Richard Dvorak I find your last comment slightly confusing.. surely there is just as much chance of any visa rule changes affecting your 60 or 90 day visa applications.. as there is of any changes affecting a married or retirement visa.. so you are going to 'have to keep up on it' regardless of your choices.. meaning the rules will undoubtedly change over time for all types of visa.. they are not based on rocket science at the end of the day.. you just learn what hoops exist and how to jump through them safely.. and given the increasing difficulties being faced by some travellers wishing to make multiple entries into the Kingdom.. a longer term visa would actually make more sense.. because they will not have to make repeated applications for short term visa's.. for me personally, having to apply more than once in a calendar year would be a real ball s ache!

Steven Burton why lucky to open an account? Correct visa and documents and it's easy. In app or bank you can change withdraw limits or with draw large amounts. Initial low amounts are for your protection against fraud.

Steven Burton Don’t exaggerate the visa rule changes, it’s not true. If you want to adjust the amount you can withdraw from an ATM, spend daily off your card or app, you can contact the bank and make these changes relatively simply.

Steven Burton can go inside the bank and withdraw large amounts as they can up your limit

Steven Burton so what Immigration rule changed today?

GrayWallaby8130 or any other long term visa

Braulio Escobar what do you expect..it's a site about visa questions, if everyone knew, there would be no need for this site

Braulio Escobar this is where Facebook sucks. If this was reddit these QAs would be easily searchable.

Braulio Escobar this is his first. 😂

John Farkas Same here at K-bank. Passport plus Thai drivers license.

John Farkas .I opened account last june 2025 .rkrungsgri. No thai drivers license mentioned. SCB two weeks ago for a second account ..need thai drivers licence..oh well..I

SC B was in a main shopping mall in Udon thani,last year all the banks I shopping mall refused me an account,including krunsgri, Sent to a smaller kgrunsgri branch,same paperwork,account open in about 35 mins and extremely helpful since with paperwork for visa etc. It really is hit and miss lol

John Farkas Don't know what bank You went to but I never needed either with Kasikorn. I don't rent or have a contract I live with my girlfriend in her house. All I needed was My passport and long stay retirement visa. Didn't need Thai phone either. Have one but didn't need it, same for my Thai driving licenses. All they wanted was my passport and visa and TM30 showing my address.

John Farkas all you did was you met bank staff that liked to pull random silly requirements out of their dirty noses. Neither a rental contract nor a drivers license is the standard requirement to get a bank acocunt opened

John Farkas why would you need a driving licence?

Scott Travels he could do a 90 day non-Immi O and open a bank account and explore the place in preparation for his retirement. Go home for a few months and then apply for another non-Immi O visa.

Probably the main gotcha will be that he needs a thai phone number linked to his passport and if he doesn’t hold the number he may have issues when he comes back.

Can put a post paid plan on hold to keep the number for a small monthly fee of about ฿60.

Scott Travels Just unfreeze it when he comes back in. Very unlikely they will freeze it.