@Peter ********

a guy on here called me a liar when I said I did my yearly extension in 20 minutes! Glad you had same experience.

@John *******

simply to keep the bank up to date with my address in case they decide to post something to me. I can't remember if the documents they produce for immigration show you live in the province.

If you close one account to open another you may have problems with your visa as you will be messing about with the 800k.

I moved provinces and simply changed address at the Bkk bank.

I subsequently extended my stay for a further year and the bank issued the required documents in 10 minutes.

If you use the cardless withdrawal method to get cash from ATM, you do not pay charges wherever you are.

@Bart *************

yes there is a tax treaty between UK and Thailand, so I agree this gentleman has paid tax already and need not worry.

It definitely seems to be getting more difficult than it was when I arrived less than 2 years ago, but back then, with a bit of persistence and travelling around banks/branches, I managed to open an account with a tourist visa.

If you try and cannot the going rate for an agent for this task seems to be 4-5,000 and might be worth doing. The rest of the visa process is easy, so agent not required (I think you know this already).

Good luck.

@Jonas ************

you beat me to that reply.

I thought you could only apply online up to 7 days in advance at the latest too.

@Amanda ********

I tried that and it's not possible.

This one is mine, does it help (not saying it is good!).

@Phil *******

I did something like that as well as my very basic hand drawn map and he didn't even look at the Google map, just took my hand drawn one. It's a strange requirement as surely a Google map is better.

@John *******

I agree, this seems to have changed in the past couple of years, but a one off payment to an agent to open a bank account (3 to 5,000 Baht) is nothing like paying an agent 35,000 Baht to get a visa and then being forced to use them every subsequent year or lose the visa.