What documents are required to open a bank account in Thailand on a tourist visa, and which bank is recommended?

No documents, zilch, nada, zero only thing you need is proof you will transfer 1,00,000 baht into an account and bingo you will be treated like a “king”

I just recently did this at the Bangkok Bank at Emquartier.

You will have to go there twice. You need to first go and say you are a tourist and want to open an account. They will give you a form and then you need to go to your embassy and get it filled out. They might fill out the form directly or they might give you a different one. This is called a certified letter of residency or something similar. You need to bring proof of address and some cash with you as well to your embassy. Your embassy will charge you for this letter most likely so I can't tell you how much it will be. Mine cost 1400 and most seem around there.

You might be able to skip going to the bank for this step and get the letter directly from your embassy, but I just wanted to be safe and get the form from the bank just in case.

The second time you go there you will open your account. You need to bring your passport, proof of address, the letter from the embassy and 1200 baht.

500 is the minimum amount you need to open an account and it will be deposited into your account. The 700 will be charged to get a debit card. It might be more than 700. I can't remember exactly but definitely not more than 1000.

This was my own first hand experience and it was quite simple to do. I really suggest going to Emquartier to do so. Any big location should be okay, but they were extremely knowledgeable on how to open a bank account for a tourist and seemed to do it very often. I think there even were two other tourists and ahead of me opening one too.

Ask your landlord or hotel for a letter stating you reside at that address, then go to immigration. Obtain a residency letter from immigration for 500 baht, go to Bangkok bank, use a main branch, they will most likely ask you to purchase a Bank product which is accident insurance for 12 months minimum cost is $6,000 baht for the insurance, the insurance is not a scam, yu get accident insurance for 12 months, if you really want or need a bank account just bite the bullet and buy the insurance, just make sure you do not elect auto annual renewal of the insurance. If you hold a retirement visa you can use it to open at Krungshri Bank, this is their usual request is to hold a retirement visa, SCB usually requires you to have a yellow house registration book, this is issued to foreigners as opposed to Thai nationals who have a blue house registration book. Every bank is different and it depends on who serves you, I opened a Bangkok bank account and was not asked to buy insurance, I took a friend 2 months later and same branch wouldn’t help him, took him to another branch & they helped him as he agreed to their request to buy insurance, then went with my girlfriend who is Lao National on tourist visa, the branch I used allowed her to open an account provided we purchased insurance

Passport and a lease would help

you just meed money ,and finding a branch who will welcome you

@Anastasia ***********

so easy...Bangkok bank

Bangkok Bank and you need a residence certificate, available from immigration office

Kasikorn head office main branch on silom road... never had any problems 👍

Bangkok Bank main branch on Silom Road in Bangkok.

Bangkok Bank, take a Thai with you to do the talking.

Krunksi did not try to get me with the insurance scam so I gave them my money. But I believe it is luck of the draw for if you get crooked staff or not. If they try to get you to pay for insurance go somewhere else.

Every bank and every branch can be different, on a tourist visa it can be difficult, but not impossible. Some may ask you to purchase insurance before opening a account with them. But basically you will require a certificate of residency from your local immigration, that in itself can be challenging on a tourist visa. Good luck, but I would be trying Bangkok bank, most people find them more accommodating.