Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Banking Documentation yet again. Probably second only to Immigration, I would say banking is probably the top concern of most expats coming to Thailand or most foreigners coming to Thailand for the first time especially those who are looking to make Thailand either a destination for retirement or just living or just having Thailand as their hub so they can travel throughout the region, possibly to work; some folks just like to travel around but banking is important. Having a bank, the ability to avail oneself of banking facilities is a major benefit and it's something that if you are going to live out here in this part of the world, you are going to want to have some sort of banking facility. Quite honestly, the banking facilities in Thailand are pretty top-notch, the infrastructure is quite good. That said, the documentation associated with banking can be rather Byzantine. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Survivors: The knowledgeable Cambodian in the Thai Visa office. Quoting directly: "Quote: "Lots of foreigners come to our office and are confused by the documentary requirements for a driving license or to open a bank account", says Den”. And Den is the Cambodian reference in the title of the article. As usual, I really recommend that anyone watching this video go check out that article in the Pattaya Mail, read it detail, a lot of good information in there as per usual. That said, back to Banking. Yes it can be very confusing for foreigners to deal with Banking Documentation. That confusion can be exacerbated by the fact that different banks have different requirements. Not every bank has the same requirements regarding documentation and in fact not every bank here in Thailand has the same requirements for even opening an account let alone the documentation. For example as we have discussed in other videos, many banks require Work Permits. There is also the sort of catch-22 with Retirement Visas where you need the Bank Account to get the Visa, and you need the Visa to get the Bank Account. We have talked about that at length in many other videos; that is still the case here. And as noted in that article and as we have discussed many times on this channel, yes it is possible if you have somebody that you know or that you can deal with I should say, that knows the system and has dealt with it, they can navigate you through these kind of catch-22s and documentation requirements especially associated with Banking here in the Kingdom of Thailand.