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Personal Savings Accounts and Bank Books in Thailand
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Personal Banking and we are specifically discussing these; bank books in Thailand. These are from different banks. One here is from SCB, Siam Commercial Bank. One here is from Bangkok Bank.
The reason I bring this up is because I talk about it rather frequently with clients both in the office, I have talked about bank books somewhat frequently on this channel. It's a topic that does come up especially in the context of Immigration and especially moving forward now from 2019 where rules have changed with respect to Retirement and Marriage Visas.
I often find it interesting because a lot of folks don't even know what these are and this is what they look like. They are Bank books and they maintain a balance. They are issued in people's names. There’s a balance associated with them; this was in my name. These things are antiquated by American banking standards. I don't think they have used Bank books in the United States probably since the early 90's, maybe even the late 80s. It just isn't something that is frequently used. But Thailand still uses them and they use them frequently. The banking system uses them in the context of personal savings accounts. This is also going to be the main document that people have to deal with, with respect to proving up income or assets, specifically financial assets associated with things like retirement and marriage visas here in the Kingdom. It is just going to be something that has to be dealt with so I decided to go ahead and make a video about them. This is what they look like. If you lose one it can be a problem but basically bank books are used in Thailand. They are used frequently with respect to the Immigration process. They are used on a day-to-day basis in a personal banking capacity and they are just something that comes up and we have to deal with.
Those who are going to be renewing retirement or marriage visas in the coming years, will probably become quite familiar with these but for those who have never been to Thailand and looking to possibly retire here, looking to do banking in Thailand and have never done so, YES they still use these, they still exist and I don't see that they're going away anytime soon.