@Christopher **********

not a crime, of course, but if the bank is actively trying to detect whether customers are really living in the UK then being asked for a verification of adress would not be surprising if your charges come primarily from a country other than the UK.

@Andrew *******

after creating a Baht account on Wise, when I try to add Baht to the account the menu shown below comes up. One of the options that you need to select is what currency to pay in (to use to fund the account) and THB is not one of the choices. It seems like Wise will only allow you to fund THB account by exchanging from another currency.

@Andrew *******

OK,but how do you transfer money from a Thai bank account to that Baht account on Wise?

@Andrew *******

I don't see an option in Wise to transfer THB from a Thai bank account, though maybe you could draw it from a Thai debit card.

@Robert *********

maybe that would be a risk if you were carrying a briefcase full of cash when entering the country but there's no risk in a US citizen wiring money into an established account in the US.

@Laurie *****

17K would be 2%. That could be a good deal if the alternative to putting the 800K in a Thai bank would be to invest it outside of Thailand.

@Brandon ***********

are there similar rules for the required $400K when extending on the basis of marriage to a Thai?

@Dave ********

actually the rate is set by Visa, which might be close to the TT rate at Thai banks but it's not identical to it.

@Martino ******

by his account of events he tried to explain his lack of an onward ticket by saying that he intended to extend his stay once in-country. In other words he wasn't planning to leave and he had lied about the purpose of his trip being tourism. Sure, a lot of people do that and you never hear of if causing a problem, but it's surprises me that he would given a second chance after admitting that to an immigration officer.

@Graham *****

either way he was given every opportunity to fix the problem, even after trying to get away with a fake ticket and explaining that he was planning to work from Thailand as software developer and not to leave after 60 days.