Maybe this is useful for DTV holders.

I had to Pick up someone at bkk airport and went to the kasikorn Exchange booth to obtain one of those travel prepaid Debit cards that also allows QR payment. Heres what I learned:

You need foreign currency with you to Open an Account. I only had thb but they let me exchange 30 baht to 1 USD which was fine. The lady helped me to install the Application called tagthai which contains the scan to pay Feature. After talking a bit with her, she told me that QR pay only works when the Receiver is a Business. In my Experience, this means no payment at most bars and markets, as they use private Accounts to receive money. I went up one floor and bought a whopper with my balance which worked fine. The Application is a bit disappointing that you can’t top up with a credit card. Only in a kasikorn branch. So in short: the card is easy to get with no long term visa. Just passport and foreign currency is enough. The use cases are pretty Limited though. I just got one to try as i have a Thai Account since it was easy to get. I will try to add the card to shoppee which doesn’t like any of my foreign cards 🤣 Hope this was helpful and I have not tested it but I believe my condo water bill goes to a Business Account and therefore should work for this. Cheers na

This can be a promising alternative to Thai Bank for those who have not been able to open Thai bank account.

For those that don't have a Thai bank account and want to use the QR code for payments, you can now use tagthai that uses KBANK. For info go to

Has anyone done the Ranong to Myanmar visa run lately? I’ve been told I need a brand new $10 bill for the Myanmar immigration, does anyone know if there is a currency exchange booth there or at the Ranong port? Any advice or suggestions, I’m in Ranong now and doing run tomorrow morning

Hi guys, I hear plenty of buzz about “wise” as a good alternative for money withdrawal while in Thailand. Is “wise” an App? Do I just download it and link my bank acct to it? And then withdraw from an ATM in Thailand? Any advice much appreciated and apologies, I know this is a very basic question to many.

No matter how rich, we all try to safe money where we can. I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for fees and lost conversion rates. So I applied for the 5 years TEV 3 weeks ago. Ever since I try to get a bank account to make the 600.000 THB payment for the membership.

The plan is to slowly transfer the money from Wise to the Thai Bank account. Slowly, because I see many people get their account frozen by wise if they transfer too much money at once. I know some get away with it. But I use wise daily and do not want to risk getting my account frozen and then wait weeks to get it unfrozen. Because I read Wise customer service is slow and terrible.

But so far I got rejected from every bank I tried in bangkok. I even tried the bangkok bank in opposite of Thai Elite in Silom. They have no interest to help me. I don’t know some people are stupid or it’s a communication issue, but they asked me to take out the 600.000 THB from the ATM in cash and then put it on the bank account. That way they can help me they said. lol.

Any other bank recommendations where somebody had luck with a tourist visa?

Just wondering on putting 800k in a Thai bank? Have heard some mixed reviews on banking issues etc. just wondering on what the majority have done to get the retirement visa and their thoughts on the Thai banking system! My main concern is A: corruption within the bank system B: how safe my money will stay over the years?Thanks in advance!

Update:

Hands down I’m finding Wise is the best option for exchange rates.

Forget the fees. It’s the exchange rate that will get you!

Thanks, everyone! Your input is appreciated. ❤️👍🏼

Original Post:

The cost of transferring the money for the 800,000 baht into a Bangkok bank account from my US account is quite high.

The US side comes with costs, and the Thailand side does too.

Can somebody share the best way you found to lessen these costs?

Also, time is a factor for visa purposes.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Enjoy your day!

So just a question about the 800,000 thb needed in the bank, when applying for the lets call it retirement visa. If i have brought into Thailand some of my country's currency, and use the Bank where my account is to exchange the money and place it directly into the account, is that ok?. Or do the records have to show it coming from a foreign bank of mine? Tia.

I am looking to start the process for a retirement visa. My bank in America can transfer the money to my Bangkok Bank very cheap. But I have read accounts that some people say this would not be recognized and I need to use Wise to transfer as they have a box that stipulates what the money is for? Have people bee rejected for transferring money directly from their home country bank account to Thai Bank?