Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing no "seeking documents to open bank accounts" in Thailand. What are we talking about here? Well I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya has recovered only 50 percent say travel gurus. 

Now I urge those who are watching this video, I am going to quote an excerpt but go ahead and check out that article for yourselves, a lot of good information and insight in there, and that information and insight goes to a different thrust than what we are talking about in this video, specifically bank accounts. Quoting directly: "Chonburi Immigration, with headquarters in Jomtien, now offers air conditioned comfort and a streamlined service for many. But the queues of yesteryear have disappeared. "You no longer see lines of Russian tourists seeking documents to open bank accounts or obtain driving licenses, whilst the number of long-stay British and European tourists seems much smaller than in pre-COVID days," one reception volunteer told Pattaya Mail. The ladies at Joy Massage and the staff at Jomtien post office, situated in the same street, concurred that business had nowhere near recovered to 2019 levels."  

Yeah, fair dues on that, I think we haven't seen tourism recover to pre-2019 levels. That stated, I think one thing to keep in mind is I think a lot of people who came in during past high season may have come in to do the long haul if you will, to live here. A lot of perhaps retirees were coming in, need to deal with things about banking that then secured them their Retirement Visa so that they could then live here on a more full-time basis. Well if they came in during high season, they are not going to need to renew until high season. Other folks that came in and got one year visa's, Business Visa holders, folks married to Thai Nationals for example, those kind of folks, even Education Visas, you are not going to routinely be seeing them down at Immigration in the numbers when things reopen. So I mean basically on the Immigration note, and I know the thrust of this video is on Banking and I will get to that in a moment, but on the one side of it, I think it is relevant to point out that look yeah there was a big boom of demand to come in to Thailand and get oneself sorted out, and then yeah we are now in low season and if those folks during the boom got one year visas, well we are not going to see them back down there dealing with Immigration, possibly dealing with their bank accounts in the same way until they need to renew their visas. That being said, specifically to bank accounts as we have noted many other videos, Bank policies different from bank to bank. Banking can be quite difficult in Thailand especially for foreigners who do not have a Non-immigrant Visa, either some sort of like a Retirement Visa, Business Visa and a Work Permit. If one does not have something like this it can be very difficult to obtain banking facilities here in Thailand. 

Now that said once banking facilities are obtained, banking in Thailand can be rather convenient especially compared to my opinion to certain aspects of the West especially when you want to move money and get cash; far more a liquid system here in Thailand than I would argue exists currently at least at the present time back in for example the USA. So it's a good banking system overall but yes it can be rather difficult for foreign nationals to get access to Thai banking facilities, especially if they do not have appropriate Immigration documentation.