I know many people have had their Bangkok Bank account frozen. I was just curious if anyone has used UOB? I have both a Bangkok Bank and a UOB account so far no problems with either.

The UOB account is a legacy Citibank account, I thought maybe people having problems with BB could try UOB, they seem ok with branches and ATM everywhere.

Many stories about Bangkok Bank.

But did anyone experience this block issue with Kasikorn Bank? I just got my visa and i will withdraw all the money in the meantime just in case

Good news and possibly bad news. It looks like accounts with wrong visa type may still be frozen or closed. Let's see the full outcome.

This below from Pattaya News

"The Bank of Thailand resolved in a meeting today with commercial banks that accounts frozen must be unblocked within four business hours if the holder provides proof they aren't tied to scammers. Additionally, only funds believed used or connected to scams should be frozen and not the entire account. However this may take until the end of the month to implement.

Additionally, this is only if the account is flagged or frozen for potential scams or ties to mule accounts, not if it is flagged for Know Your Customer violations like suspected incorrect visa for foreigners, sim card, or other incorrect information used to set up and register.

However, it's a start. Full article later."

This is going to start our like I'm just complaining about the banks, but it builds up to an interesting situation and I'm curious to hear some predictions. Also if you are the kind of wag who bitches about long posts- you should stop reading now. This will exceed your attention span.

Marriage visa. Doing the one year renewal- if I mess up the vocabulary forgive me, but hopefully everyone knows what I mean. Not a 90 day check in. Not a new visa. For this year I want to move from the 400k to the 40k a month. I've been wiring cash into Thailand the first week of the month for three years. I popped into immigration a couple months ago with a bank statement because I'd seen people have trouble here where it doesn't show the transfer as coming from overseas.

For those of you in that situation here is (I think) the problem. When you use a service like Wise they keep accounts in various countries and to save themselves money instead of transferring your dollar from Kansas to Bangkok they take your dollar and transfer one of their dollars already in Bangkok to your final destination. I believe the "reason for transfer" informs exactly how they do. I'm using e trade not wise and the closest option they have is something like "expenses for travel". They have one for "compensation" but the transfer from USA to Thailand in my case isn't compensation, I've already been compensated, I'm just moving the money. This is important later in the story.

So I went in and showed the statement and a couple of bored officers went through it with a fine tooth comb. I had theorized that one of the codes indicated the source- this is either not true or they don't know the codes. They explained I needed a report signed by the bank that verified the origin of the transfers. The lady also wrote a note and her number and stapled it in my passport so I could show the bank and they could call if they needed help. I took a trip in August and the officer who stamped me out of Thailand removed it and threw it away. I gotta say they have more than their share of rude staff in bkk.

Okay fast forward to yesterday when I go to the bank and try to explain what I need. The woman gives me a bank form with 4 different reports listed. The third one (I think? Maybe second?) was "internal remittance". I sit and wait and eventually a guy brings me report 1 "average balance" I explain this is not what I want.

Okay and here we have outrage point number one. Stuff like this just kills me and I know I need to develop my meipenrai, but it is hard sometimes. He basically says "I've never done that report and don't know how to do it so I did this one instead.". Whoever started this habit in the culture here should be strung up. Anyway, so I explain again. He then calls the branch I opened my account in and they basically refuse to do it. The claim first that my choosing "travel expenses" is wrong and somehow that means they can't do it. Then they change the story to "this is only for people buying houses" and then to "the farang can go soak his head, we are busy". The fellow helping me says "maybe we just print 12 months of statements and you could try that? Which is basically him trying to get me to do the same dumb thing he did. But my wife just wants to roll over so I compromise. I'll take the wrong report, but you give me your phone number and when it's wrong you talk to immigration and they can repeat what I said and since they are Thai and you sir are racist maybe you will believe them. He reluctantly agrees, off I go.

So the triage nurse at immigration seems to think it is fine and my wife gets smug because I was negative for nothing. I harbor doubts. I am sent to a desk where I signed my name ONE HUNDRED AND SIX TIMES.

PROTIP: use a separate bank account for immigration than you do for your daily transfer with a household of 7 people.

We are almost done and I ask the officer "I was told very clearly by the lady at the next desk that I had to have a report from the bank that said the transfers came from overseas and the one you are holding is the same report as she inspected a couple of months ago" he was slightly startled and confessed they don't actually check that at this stage in the process. It will get kicked back in 2 weeks and I'll need to fix it then. So I basically wasted a solid 8 hours at the bank and signing documents that are wrong.

The good news is I actually got my stamp and that failing the paperwork doesn't mean you don't get the visa it just means you need to redo some stuff.

So, expert assessments? Will the report sneak through? Will I just need a fresh one later? Does choosing "expenses for travel" fail the "this came from abroad" test?

One more note. After the remote branch was invoked I commented that once this was over I wanted to close my account and open a new one where I live now. The banker freaked out and said it is basically impossible to open a new account now. Take that with a grain of salt after the rest of his performance, but it jives with the rumors I've been seeing here.

Just an update on in country extension and Bangkok bank :-

Went to immigration with orginal documents (workation)

Self certed letter of employment

Company registration docs (uk)

Business description

Residence certificate

Copy of dtv visa

Copy of passport

Had photo taken there

didn’t need any bank statements just asked for bank account certificate of funds which i didn’t have

Went off to a Bangkok bank not my normal branch.. they said as I had recently transferred money across they will lock 400k for four months due to internal policy.. shows in total balance but deducted for available balance.

No mention of issues with dtv visa etc although they took photo copies of passport pages and I had to sign several documents..

Back to immigration, 90 day report done, extended with a new 180 day stamp in an out in 30 mins

Bizarre that they are selective with which DTV accounts they close 🤔

An update by BOT on the 50,000 baht limit 🙄

[members only]

Some advice, there’s a Bank at Chang Wattana that has changed its policy and requires you to deposit the required visa funds for four months even though Immigration law requires two. If you don’t they will not issue your certificate of balance letter unless you give them the deposit to use for four months after you get your visa. Not a big issue but be prepared.

Just read this and thought useful for some who deal with Bangkok Bank

Bangkok bank told us that since 1 July, they require you to have the money in your account for 4 months (!!), before they can issue a letter that confirms proof of funds for various visas. And if you do not meet this 4 month requirement, they will lock the funds in your account for an additional 4 months, before you can access it; while giving you the right papers that you need for immigration (proof of funds for 2 months). Its not an immigration or visa requirement, but rather a banking requirement to deter money laundering and people using agents (that is what they told us)

It is my understanding that when you apply for a marriage visa Bank bank freezes your funds.

Do they only freeze the 400,000 thb or do they freeze all the money in the account?

I was told by my visa agent today that if I deposit 500,000 into my Bangkok Bank Account, they will hold that money for 90 to 120 days. Regardless of where it came from or where it is going.

If that is true, What the Fck is going on here?

I have seen reports that differ... Can anyone comment with actual first hand knowledge of the situation? Please don't waste my time with comments that are unrelated to the question asked.

Have a great day.