@Ray *********

I use Wise also but prefer Revolut, I don’t even bother having a Wise card these days, I only really use it for sending small amounts around.

Best thing you could do imo would be open up a couple of additional accounts with whoever you choose and then move your money out of Santander asap. I wouldn’t bother closing the Santander, leave it empty and let them close it if they feel the need.

I use Nationwide, Smile, Revolut, YB(Virgin), Monza all without hassle.

Never used Santander but over the years any of my pals who have had problems with banking it’s always been Santander giving them hassle.

Revolut in particular is useful because you can setup a Thai baht account inside the app and use your card normally in Thailand. I swap GBP for THB in the app then use it for buying fuel & groceries etc. here in Thailand.

@Phil ******

I do recall their communication could have been better, but they got the job done. Might be worth trying to call them.

I used sevenseasworldwide to ship a movecube from Uk to Thailand last year. Received ok in about 7 weeks, didn’t pay any duty. About 500kg of items. Pretty good service, would recommend.

@Peter ******

this is incorrect information, you don’t need a returning Thai partner.

Baht is the unit of weight commonly used in Thailand for gold.

All prices you see advertised for gold in Thailand will be per 1 baht in weight.

Thailand never really prices gold in ounces.

@Jon *******

I just renewed my mums extension and immigration scheduled another appointment in 3 months to check her bank book to make sure the money hasn’t moved. No problem for us as we did it ourselves and followed all the rules but I’m assuming there’s going to be a lot of tears flowing over the coming months if they’re cleaning up those who don’t have the money.

Once all the lawsuits start the business will simply go bankrupt and it’ll be a rotten deserted shell like every other project this has happened to.

Pretty sure you won’t get any money back so I think I’d just cut my losses but good luck, I’ve seen this happen too many times in Thailand. However I’m pretty sure lawyers will be falling over themselves to help, with guarantees you’ll win your case- which you will, but there will be no money left to pay you anyway.

I’ve done it myself, they wouldn’t give me the refund when I tried the next time I left Thailand (and was still within the correct time window)

Despite all the obvious and correct replies above, about 15 years ago I managed to send my UK passport along with my clothes to the laundry in Thailand.

It came back having gone through a full cycle and was looking extremely worse for wear with most of the stamps smudged.

I actually continued to travel extensively with that passport, every time I went through a border control I was of course challenged about it but I was polite and just told them it had been washed by accident. It was often met with bemusement.

I was never turned away from anywhere in what must have been 20+ passport controls over years.

I’ll add a disclaimer that I have a second passport so the ‘pressure was off’ as I could have pulled out another passport if denied entry. I purposely tried to use it to avoid filling up my ‘good’ passport.

Of course it should be replaced.

But, with the above in mind I wouldn’t be panicking too much about getting home and going through the motions to replace.

(Might he country dependant, and border guards may have become much more strict).

Just my experience.