In the process of moving to Thailand - retirement - is it required to have a Thai bank account it can I keep my $$$ offshore?

I opened a Bangkok Bank account by DTV. Currently the account has been locked for 2 weeks without a due date. Does anyone in the group know a lawyer to go with me to the bank to request a refund or sue? A few million baht. Leave a comment and I will dm you. Thanks

DTV: Remote Worker

I want to Bank in the land of smile to make life easier but there were more frustration than smiles. Yes, there are other method but you may be prone to Scam using hard cash plus there isn't a paper trial.

I live near On Nut and I read the banks in Big C may be more forgiving so I gave it a try and here is my experience.

I tried TTB, SCB, Bangkok Bank

I called TTB at Digital Park which about 1 month ago told me to try head office and they now said no.

I have the following docs and they didn't even ask or take a look at any of my docs. I tried the supposedly magic words "Remote Worker" they don't care. They ask what Visa and the moment they hear DTV. It's a No Can KAA! or You have work permit? No Can KAA!

TM30

1 Year Condo Lease

Employment Contract

Tabian Baan "House Registration" signed by owner

Passport (American)

Phone Number Thai (Data & Phone)

DTV Remote Worker

I'm either going to try the True Money method with 20k limit

or use cash or wait until the whole banking thing cool down.

lmk if you know other method that would make life easier using QR.

Hi all. I recently made an international transfer to my K-bank account. It was shown as a "bahtnet deposit" with THB100 deducted from the transferred amount.

This seems odd as I made a similar transfer just last month and it was received as a "transfer deposit" with the remarks on the transfer channel being "internet/mobile across bank". No fees were deducted.

According to aseannow web forum, it seems that K-bank have only recently started charging and switched to bahtnet. Anyone have similar experience?

All I've been thinking about the last couple of days is how "money talks" in Thailand. I got dressed in my Sunday best today, waltzed into a UOB and said I was moving to Bangkok, needed an account b/c I was transferring approximately 10M TBH into the country. He never flinched. Asked if I had a work permit. I said "no" - never asked for my passport. Said to try Bangkok Bank and to have a nice day.

What a waste.

Thai police have arrested 11 individuals, including four bank employees in Pattaya, for assisting 15 Chinese nationals in opening bank accounts with forged documents. Over 118 million baht was laundered through these accounts before the suspects left Thailand. Authorities have since frozen the accounts and linked the case to a larger scam network responsible for over 2.2 billion baht in damages.

According to our government sources, DTV visa holders may face increased difficulty opening bank accounts in the future.

Furthermore, accounts opened at the Bangkok Bank Pattaya branch are likely to come under scrutiny, and any foreigners found using accounts opened through agents connected to the arrested individuals may be subject to police interrogation.

At this time, we strongly advise individuals seeking to open a bank account in Thailand to use only trustworthy agents with no business ties to Chinese nationals.

Such agents are likely to be involved with Chinese criminals and scammers. When choosing someone to help you, make sure it’s an agent you can truly trust—not just a random person who DMs you on the internet.

How do I open a joint bank account with my Thai partner and I only have retirement O (obviously I have a singular account) ???

Non O retirement visa requires 800,000 baht in a Thai bank. How difficult (or not) is it getting your money out and back to their home country if they decide to return home? Is it just a matter of a bank transfer? Any penalties?

[March 16] Here's the list of documents required for opening a new account using DTV which was given by the bank(TTB). They need a printout of everything mentioned here. I'm yet to do it. Just posting it here as a reference material.

[April 10] I got all my documents ready and within 2 hours I got my bank account.

Steps:

I've seen a lot of posts in this group about how some are able to open and most cannot. Here's the exact steps i followed and the documents needed:

1) You need your remote employment contract signed by you and your employer in ENGLISH. (Mine is from the US)

2) You MUST have a rental agreement for 1 year in your name.

3) TM30 dated not less than 30 days.

4) The House registration document of the owner of your apartment/home

5) [Important] Once you have all these, apply for a Driver's license. This will require a residency certificate too. (I got both of these done through an agent. I got it in 1 day with the express queue. The total cost was 7300 = 3900 [ Residency certificate ] + 2400 [ Existing license in my country converted to Thai license for both car and motorbike] + 1000 [ Express queue ]

Now you have everything ready for the application

[Important]

I applied in TTB, True digital punnawiti. But please know that they only take 3 DTV account applications/day. Since it requires 2 hours for the whole process and they only have 1 English speaking staff

The bank opens at 10.30 AM. And I went there and stood from 9.30 AM. I got everything done by 12.

[ General guideline ]

Don't try to talk loud and be very polite with the staff. They will treat you the same as how you treat them.

I will not be replying to DM's I have already added all the information here. In case of questions, please post as comments. And if it's a valid one, I will answer it there so that there is transparency with others as well.

My husband went to three banks today in Chiang Mai trying to open a bank account with his DTV. All saying they couldn’t do it. Anyone have success opening a bank account recently?