Setting up a bank account in a foreign country is something most UK expats do when they move overseas. Obviously rules vary from country to country but this article focuses on Thailand, although some of the information is fairly universal.
How you deal with banking when living abroad will of course also depend on your individual circumstances, whether you are working there, on an extended holiday or simply retired and perhaps living on a pension and investments. As I fall into the latter category this article maybe more useful for the retiree.
In Thailand there would seem to be two choices that you might consider. Firstly you could simply choose to leave your money in the UK and access it via the international banking system, there are plenty of ATM’s here and they accept most cards.
This of course can lead to a couple of dilemmas, for instance what do you do if you loose your card or like me have it retained by a Thai bank cash machine. Also there is the issue of what your home country bank charges you to withdraw your cash and of course what exchange rate they apply. Thai banks now also charge you a fee on top so that adds the equivalent of £3 to each transaction.
An alternative approach might be to open a Thai bank account, something that I have done, which has both advantages and disadvantages.
The first obstacle to overcome is finding a bank that will let you open an account, but there are quite a few, although they all seem to have different criteria. I choose the Bangkok Bank, since I had heard of them because they also operate in London.
My choose proved OK since all they required from me was an address in Thailand and a copy of my passport to set up a savings account which would accept international money transfers. Incidentally at the time I was living in a hotel waiting for the builders to finish my house. They did however use my new homes address for my account.
I made an initial deposit, using some travellers cheques I had and left the bank 30minutes later with a savings account, complete with pass book and ATM card. Incidentally it is very hard to get a current(checking) account or indeed a credit card here, but my ATM card gives me access to facilities for transferring money and paying bills so I can’t see any advantage in having a current account anyway. In fact the ATM system in Thailand is excellent and many people use it to purchase goods from say Bangkok, deposit the money in the recipients account and then automatically generate an SMS message to confirm the transaction.
The advantages of having this account in country means that I can make electronic transfers from my UK bank although HSBC charge a hefty £25 each time for the privilege. That said I get a better rate of exchange from the Bangkok Bank and they make no charge for receiving funds. Unfortunately the Thai Baht and the Pound have been quite volatile lately so the value of my regular monthly transfers from the UK can vary quite a lot.
To counter this and also get rid of the crippling bank charges from HSBC I am exploring keep my cash in the UK and making transfers only when the exchange rate is favourable and using a cheaper organisation to make the transfers.
Having a lot of cash on deposit here is in the banks is not a good move anyway since they pay very little interest to foreign account holders (0.75% in my case). You might also feel that having a lot of money tied up in a country like Thailand with its unpredictable political system is also not wise.
Personally I like to cover all my bases so besides my bank accounts in Thailand and the UK I also have a Visa credit card which I rarely use but keep for emergencies.
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