Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Bank coding issues associated with Thai Retirement Visas. I thought of making this video after reading a recent email from a viewer and I'm only going to quote an excerpt from the email, because there was more in there, but it's pertinent to this specific video. I've done a video recently on Wise, Transfer Wise, and there are internal changes, and it is having a big impact on the Expat Community out here. 

That said, I'm going to go ahead and quote this directly: "Regarding Wise, as you are aware, in early August 2026, Wise will secure a Thai license. What does this mean and what impact will that have on expats in Thailand? For existing Wise account holders, Wise will request proof of address. For those of us who opened the account prior to departing the UK (or other country), this will mean moving to a Wise Thailand account. This means that sending a monthly transfer of 65,000 Baht and requiring it to show the correct code (Bangkok Bank code being FTT) will no longer be possible. The incorrect coding has always been a Risk which needs to be managed. I monitor this via the banking app each month and send on the 1st of the month regardless of the exchange rate to ensure that it goes through correctly. If it doesn't, I have sufficient time to fix. In the last 26 months or so, I have faced this issue once. I sent a further 65,000 baht and it went through correctly - issue easily resolved. However, this month, I have sent the transfer twice and both have gone through in seconds and neither of them are coded as International transfers/FTT." - they don't have this specific code that notes that it's an International transfer. That's important as we have discussed in other videos, because immigration, when they look at banking documentation showing one's monthly income, they want to see that it is coming from abroad; they want it to have that specific code that says that it is from an international remittance. - That said, quoting further: "I think Wise have topped up their funds in their Thai Bank Account and are using this for these and all future transfers. On speaking with my Visa Agent, she confirmed that ALL other expat Retirement Visa Customers who use the Wise monthly transfer method are facing the same issue." 

Well, I've talked to other people that are; I've done a recent video on this whole Wise situation. Yeah, long story short, I think this will probably continue to be a problem; if not creating a situation where you can't even use Wise to bring in funds and then use that proof of funds, the proof of that regular recurring inbound funding, that may not be possible to do that through Wise now and then be able to renew one’s Retirement Visa based on that type of remittance. Now that being said, it remains to be seen exactly how this plays out between now and August, but we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.