3 Banks told me essentially history and use of the account trumps social media hysteria by expats imagined or dangers for whatever reasons they feel the need to express opinions without knowing anything for sure

@Bob *********

I have a life that involves stuff, Can not be brothered taking a month out of it for a visa

@Eamonn ******

the simple answer is convenience, I am involved in the service industry and the amount of people who lose their cards or have problems that take days to a week to sort out (3 weeks to get a new card) is large.

I like that if this happens I can go to a local bank without international phone calls, fix it in an hour and then go and use the card to buy things as required without having to plan an arm visit first. Mind you I live here, if I was a tourist I wouldn't bother

No, it's valid for 5 years. You don't need to plan your exit

The banks are closing accounts for everyone (not just foreigners) if the account looks like it is being used as a mule account for crime. The trigger is multiple millions or hundreds of millions of baht per transaction, or non use.

I am thinking of getting a DTV, because my 800k earns about 1500 baht a year in interest on retirement Visa. But I loan money to a Thai condo flipper and could get 90,000 a year back on that 800k if I only had to show it once in 5 years on a DTV. So I am going to go and ask the bank about my particular situation in the next few days. The option to ask the bank is available to everyone and will probably produce more accurate results than asking for other people's guesses on Facebook

Ok ok Todd. In two years I will hit you up on the latest. I am being lazy in my response. I am aware it's a different visa, and the old need to be cancelled for the new. My point was I can do it easier and cheaper than getting insurance and extending the OA. Although I assuming with my 2nd year on the reentry they will check to see if my insurance covers the extra year and since I am not doing insurance again it might only be good for a year. Will wait and see :)

@Tod ********

yep. That is exactly the plan. Except I will do in country swap of the OA to an O

@Tod ********

yes then with the year extension based on funds. No problem going to Laos is easier than going to NZ (who don't actually do Non O for retirement)

My advice. Don't get insurance in Thailand. The website of approved suppliers tend not to answer enquires from email and hang up on you when you call.

But even if you do obtain Thai insurance (as I did eventually using an agent) the junior staff at the Visa department of the embassy may not understand it fully and still make you file as if your insurance was foreign (mine embassy caused a week delay)

This new process for a Non OA is a complete screw up. I had the ministry of health services email my countries consulate with correct information after they clearly did not understand the process and were requesting documents I was not supposed to need having Thai insurance. AND they still insisted on disagreeing with Thai immigration rules and made up their own.

The only reason for a Non OA is if you wish to keep your money in a foreign bank account. In today's world there is no reason to do this. Once there was higher interest rates, now the only reason people give is they don't want so much money in Thailand. Easy enough to transfer half of it out again for 9 months of the year if having money here bothers you. Although the term deposit interest rate now is higher than most other countries

@Derick *****

why? I already got insurance I have 5 days left on my visit to get the visa processed so I can not see how getting additional insurance is going to make this situation any easier