Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing banking yet again. I am hearing a lot of things regarding banking, getting a lot of feedback from folks, both by email as well as in the comments on our channel. As we have discussed in other videos, anecdotally I am hearing that certain banks, and I am not naming any Bank specifically, it looks like this is sort of an overarching policy, not sure if it's coming down from the Bank of Thailand or not, or it's just a trend or maybe Immigration has something to do with this, or the anti-money laundering office. I did other videos recently where we were talking about so-called “scam” accounts, they are not exactly going after people's accounts, but they are scrutinizing them and if they are on Tourist Visas and remain on Tourist Visas, they may have their accounts shut down, again citing anti-money laundering, scam and mule accounts. This whole trend of ultra-digitization and totalitarianism in the banking sector seems to be a global phenomenon. I don't find it coincidental that the World Economic Forum representative was recently here meeting with our Prime Minister, which I would ask who voted for that? But setting all of that aside, look it's having a practical impact especially on the expat community.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Had my account blocked 3 weeks ago, opened at BKK Branch, the account 18 months ago, no agent, on 60 stamp Tourist Visa - so 60 Day Tourist Visa stamp”. So I think they meant they opened it at a Bangkok not necessarily Bangkok Bank, but at a branch of a Bangkok bank and then on a 60-day stamp Tourist - "purchased a condo in my name 15 months ago. Had to go into bank and show passport, now on DTV, land office paper title deed showing my name etc. They wanted to close all accounts on Tourist Visa; they sent copies of my documents to BKK for review; on day 6 of waiting my account was reopened. If I didn't own property, my account would have been closed for sure." Well hard to speculate what would have happened but one, I wanted to read this comment because a) it shows the trend that yeah I've been talking about this anecdotal stuff. I've gotten some negative feedback saying, "oh this isn't really happening." Well it looks to us like it is happening. It is in fact happening. 

Now that said, let me take a moment to do sort of a shameless plug for Pancake Palace. So we have got these photos. I wanted to show people some of the food; I've done other videos, a specific video on this channel introducing Pancake Palace but yeah, I basically along with my better half, have set up a diner style American eatery here in Bangkok. We are nearby Patpong area down here between Silom and Surawong. It's one of those streets in Bangkok that has multiple names depending on who you talk to. You can call it Soi Tarntawan, you can call it Narathiwas Soi 1, you can also call it Soi Anuman Rachadhon. Whatever you want to call it we are Pancake Palace; we are just about 20 paces up from the Mango Tree; I will put a link, a Google maps link in the description below but I wanted to show some of the food. We've got chilli, we've got buffalo wings, we've got of course pancakes, we've got great American breakfast, all day long, currently open from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. We are looking to extend our hours as time goes on because we are looking to try to give folks here in Bangkok that unique kind of American diner style experience. So if you are interested in having some American food, come on down to Pancake Palace. Now that said, let me get back into what I was talking about here.

Yeah, one of the main reasons I wanted to make this video was a) I wanted to show that yeah there are real people that are seeing problems having their bank accounts maintained on their visas. Notably as pointed out and as we pointed out in another video I made prior to this one, Destination Thailand Visas are proving to be problematic with regard to banking because they are being treated as Tourist Visas as frankly they should be because they effectively are Tourist Visas. As I have discussed in other videos and I was talking to a client actually just this morning, the day that we are making this video, that person was on a Destination Thailand Visa and it was explained to them at an Immigration checkpoint that, no they did not have a five-year visa; they had basically a document that allowed over the course of five years, the ability to request permission to stay 6 months at a time - it was not a Visa per se. I've been talking about that for some time as well. As I have discussed in prior videos, the DTV was sort of created ad hoc. It was entirely a brainchild if you will, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It didn't really seem to have any feedback from local immigration here under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. And as we have discussed in other videos, there have been all kinds of problems especially associated with work authorization here in Thailand and Ministry of Interior themselves issued a statement stating Destination Thailand Visa holders could not do anything which "impinged on the Thai economy". 

The upshot of that in my mind is this banking issue that if you are just here on a DTV Visa, it doesn't look like you are going to be able to maintain a bank account long term; the same thing can be said for a Tourist Visa. Now as the title of the video suggests, it looks like property ownership may be, I stress may be, a mitigating factor as noted from this commenter who went through this whole process and ended up showing, "hey I have got a condo here, can I please keep my bank account?" And they went ahead and allowed it. I don't think it is necessarily a prudent move to presume that just because one has a condo in Thailand, one can go ahead and maintain a bank account on any Visa they choose. Again as many things work here, underlying circumstances dictate outcomes in Thailand and many, many things here in Thailand are handled on a case by case, some may call it an ad hoc, basis. 

So the thing to take away from this video is one) if you are looking to come to Thailand long term, the best way to do that is to seek the standard - old school if you will - but tried and true Non-immigrant visas to do that. For example, retirees, the O or the O-A Retirement Visa may be a better way to go. Now again I do understand, folks that are under 50 or don't have the circumstances where they necessarily want to be on a Retirement Visa, maybe the DTV is a good idea, but there may be other options. The new LTR Visa may be an option. Again that was touted as being sort of much more broad-based than it ultimately turned out to be; it is a very narrow subset of people that I have seen that even qualify for the LTR. Meanwhile though the standard old school visas are still out there. O Marriage Visas for example. If you are married to a Thai National, an O Marriage Visa - again there are issues associated with both getting and extending those kind of visas - but they are still available and they can be a major benefit to folks. 

If you are looking to come here and actually work - and I know that they have murkied up the waters the last two years especially under this current government regarding work in Thailand, and this whole notion of Digital Nomads and they have said, "oh you can come here and you don't need a Work Permit if you are working for somebody offshore", that is a whole murky issue to begin with. But setting that aside, you know if you are coming here to work, okay? And if you really are coming here to work the best thing to do, instead of trying to mess around and play around in the margins or the gray areas, because frankly those gray area are becoming far less grey, they are becoming blacker and whiter by the day, the margins are shrinking down, and it is a byproduct of digitization. Like with this banking thing, they can now see, pretty much at their fingertips who has what visa with what bank account and it is having an impact on whether or not they are going to keep the bank account open or not. 

The point I am trying to make is if you know you are going to come here to work in Thailand, the best way to handle that is in my opinion, just go down the straightforward route; do what has always worked here which is set up a business, do a Business Visa, do a Work Permit and go down the line that way. Again there may be people that are kind of again, maybe in a gray area, kind of on the bubble with regard to that kind of thing, but at the end of the day, you know your own intentions. It's very good advice right now just generally, don't try to game the system at the moment. It is too volatile and frankly at the moment, it looks to me like immigration especially here internally, is very interested in playing things completely by the book.