Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Bank Accounts. Folks really, I see this from an American context more than anything, but folks who are, especially new first time expats don't really understand or even tourists that come to a foreign country, I don't think they really fully grasp coming in just how perhaps easy it is in their home country to set up a bank account but to come to a foreign country, especially a foreign country that not only uses a different language, but uses a totally different script, how there can be some difficulties associated with banking. The reason I thought of making this videos is I was reading recent article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand to become a more popular destination for Russians fleeing Putin's draft. It's interesting, a lot going on here.

To preface this, they are quoting a person named Alexei who they were interviewing in this, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article, a lot of interesting insight in there but they're quoting a person named Alexei who has apparently just recently come in to Thailand. Quoting directly: "Alexei complained that he had met some official hostility even in Pattaya. “Bank accounts are very hard to open here and I was told by an official to forget the idea unless I could produce a 12 months' rental contract. That kind of discrimination doesn't seem to apply to other nationalities."

Look, I don't know about this one person's situation. What I can tell you, he is not the first person that has showed up in Thailand and has had problems getting a bank account. You can go across a ton of the forums out there and things; it's not a walk in the park for any nationality really especially those who come in on a Tourist Visa or a 30-day stamp, they get set up with a bank account because the banks, and bear in mind the banks set their own policies about who they decide to open a bank account for but long story short, the banks basically they look at that person, they say, "where is this guy going to be? we don't have any background on this person". Now you could say "well I'm trying to put money into their system, not take it out", well the way "know your customer" paradigm has sort of percolated up through the banking system roughly the past 20 years, not to say I particularly agree with that paradigm because I kind of think people's privacy with respect to their financial transactions and things should be respected, but when you understand that mentality has kind of percolated up through the banking system, you will kind of see that look this isn't like a particularly discriminatory policy against one specific nationality or another. Quite honestly, we see a number of folks of all nationalities, especially here in Bangkok, have tremendous amount of problems getting a bank account open. Usually when they are in a long-term Non-Immigrant Visa, at that point they find it easier but in some cases Banks won't even open an account without a Work Permit being provided. So again, it is going to be different from bank to bank; it is going to be different depending on circumstances, but long story short don't take banking as a foregone conclusion for an expat, especially a new expat, here in the Kingdom of Thailand.