What is the experience of obtaining a Non-O visa in Thailand and opening a bank account as a retiree?

A day of stress🫣

Non-O Visa based on retirement.

Optained my resident certificates from Immigration, took 7 days, x3 , 2 for different banks SCB and Kbank and last one for car purchase.

Each certificate was marked with the bank and location i stated. No dramas at immigration ever though my local Immigration has really bad reviews, I faced non of the issues others have had.

That was a plus, secondary to what was stated i did not have to pay for the certificates. 👍🙏

now the fun :

SCB shopping mall, having many more than the requested documents ( previous email contact email SCB).

Lady was pleasant but said "No", I then showed the email which also included the branch name stating I could open. She took documents and email to the Manager and returned with a yes. 30 minutes later all set up. ( for my 800k)

Each bank gave me a list of requirements, I doubled down on the lists

Kbank

From the offset, after viewing my documents, said 👎 did not believe my sign copies of my Condo ownership Canote was real and was pushing documents back.

I pulled out the Original chanote, and showed my name as owner. She then gave up the fight and proceeded to open. 👍

Both banks accepted different documents with Kbank insisting on the Chanote.

I think it would have been harder at Kbank if I was renting 🫣

Now this big issues I had....

Uk Bank... failed 15 times to send international SWIFT payment. On the chat they could not sort...

Back home on the laptop, went through the whole thing again. this time it worked ......

But wait......

BANK locked call england fraud department.!!!!😒

£1 per minute through to fraud call centre £41 pound later 😳 All was sorted. Changed to PAYG Sim, to keep mu UK number.

Reason i used Swift bank transfer and not Wise is because peace of mind that all bank codes will meet my very strict Immigration Centre, and everything else will be done via Wise.

Some information here might help others. Email the help centre of the banks and request what is needed and which bank near to you.

If doing Swift perhaps contact you Bank first to let them know not to flag the transaction.

🙏