Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing opening a Savings Account here in Thailand; this is a standard personal savings account. Banking in Thailand can be a rather cumbersome process especially for those who don't have Non-Immigrant status. What do I mean by Non-Immigrant status? I mean a Visa that is not a Tourist Visa. 

Tourist Visas and Bank Accounts can be like oil and water. It can be kind of a problem to open up a Thai bank account without either having work authorization or some sort of long-term Visa that doesn't necessarily need work authorization associated with banking notably the Thai Retirement Visa is a perfect example of this. But, you can kind of get into a catch-22 with the Thai Retirement Visa because oftentimes you need the visa to get the bank account and you need the bank account to get the visa because there is a bank balance requirement oftentimes associated with Thai Retirement Visas. So this can lead to this sort of catch 22 where you need the account to get the visa and you need the visa to get the account. Now we assist a number of folks with Thai Retirement Visas and bank account set up here in Thailand so for those that are interested in that specific issue, you may want to contact us. 

Meanwhile just general sort of personal banking, if you don't have work authorization in Thailand you are going to find this rather difficult. Now that said, different banks have different internal protocols associated with opening accounts as well as KYC so-called or Know Your Customer and for this reason you may want to have a look at specific banks. That said, it has been my experience, if you don't have work authorization and you don't have a long-term visa of some sort, you are going to have a really hard time getting a bank account open here in the Kingdom of Thailand. Now that said, if you are looking for assistance, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.