Inside a Bangkok Bank, and Sending Money to Thailand

The first bank in Thailand I set up an account with was Bangkok Bank as most people told me they were the easiest for foreigners. Not sure if that's true but it worked well for me.

I went in, showed them my passport, and they opened a saving account for me.

From what I understand some foreigners have a difficult time opening a bank account the first time if their passport only has a tourist visa stamp. If this happens to you I would just try another Bangkok Bank branch, or try another bank like, Siam Commercial Bank, TMB, Bank of Ayudhya, Kasikorn (which I like too), or Thai Farmers Bank. By the way there is no Bank of Bangkok, it's just Bangkok Bank.

You can easily set up a savings account at most banks but you will not get a checking account or checks. Checks are reserved for businesses only. I believe they do this because it would be too easy for some Thais to just start writing checks. Credit cards are not easy to get either.

In Thailand they do have a sort of credit system but it's not the same as the West and not nearly tracked of as much. For credit you need to get to know the bank managers on a personal level if you want to get loans and lines of credit approved easier. In Thailand, it's more of who you know than just your name.

Once I opened my savings account at Bangkok Bank they gave me an ATM card that said electronic use only in small letters on the face. This means it cannot be used as a credit card, it is debit only. Also, you cannot use this card to purchase items online, you can only purchase item at brick and mortar stores. Another fraud prevention and general mistrust in Thai society I guess.

The next thing Bangkok Bank gave me was abank book which you slide into these old DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) machines and it prints your transactions out onto the little book. Thais don't use check books so keeping this bank book up to date is important if you ever want to borrow money or do various other things. My wife is adamant about moving large amounts of money in and out of the banks on a normal basis. She calls this, "running the money"! She swears that it will help your chances of getting a loan.

The Thai banks are CRAZY about your signature so it MUST be the same as your ID card or passport!

Also many Thais transfer money to other peoples bank account through the ATM, this is very common practice. You can also pay almost all bills from the ATM. Once I got use to this practice I rather enjoyed the ease of doing transactions this way.

Foreign Banks in Thailand

You can find foreign banks from your country in Thailand but don't expect service there. These banks are like individual islands with very little relation to your bank back home. They will and often do treat you like an outsider. So even though they have the same name you must open an ENTIRELYnew account at that branch. Many of these foreign banks won't even open an account for you unless you show them tons of proof of you living and doing business there.

Some of the banks you'll see in Bangkok are HSBC, Bank of America, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Standard chartered, Bank of Tokyo, etc.

Sending Money to Thailand Bank Account

The best way to send money from the U.S.A. to Thailand is through the U.S. bank Washington Mutual as they charge absolutely nothing for international wire transfers no matter much you send. However, Chase bank now owns Washington Mutual and even though Chase allows Washington Mutual customers to be grandfathered in with all the services they had before, new customers must pay the Chase wire fee. Which is somewhere around $30 I believe. However, if you don't have a Washington Mutual account take a look a few other options below.

The next best way to send money to Thailand form any country is to send the recipient an ATM card from your own bank. The withdrawal exchange rates from ATM's in Thailand is not bad at all (usually right at market rate), at least they were with Bank of America and HSBC from what I've seen personally. Of course you do have to pay the ATM surcharge fee of around $5 on both sides for a total of $10 in most cases.

The third best way (and this is rapidly rising) is to use www.ikobo.com as they can send a pre-paid ATM card to recipient. You can also recharge the card from your bank account, not bad!

Another way is to use PayPal as they cross international boundaries but be careful as they do have a some annoying rules.

Notice I never mentioned Western Union. Because all of the above mentioned are better. However, if you have not set anything up then Western Union is the fastest way to send money.

Final Note:

You cannot set up an account with the Bank of Thailand as this is the central reserve bank or monetary authority in charge of lending actual paper money to the government and commercial banks. The Bank of Thailand is equal to the Federal Reserve System in the U.S. and the European Central Bank in Europe. These types of money systems are called fiat money. It is any money that is declared to be legal tender by the government. I don't agree with the fiat money system and believe everything should be backed one to one by gold but this is a subject way beyond the scope of these pages.