Reader question: Opening a bank account in Thailand

Equipped with a bag of documents, my wife and I tried to open a bank account in my name last week
We were told at every branch that, given the new rules, this was no longer possible. Until we came to the Kbank and the lady handled this, because we already had two accounts there
had one in my wife's name and one in both names.
As many as 19 documents, including a yellow booklet with a stamp from Thai Buza, a birth certificate and a marriage certificate in the Netherlands, both with stamps from the Thai embassy in The Hague, were faxed, and there was constant telephone consultation.
Finally after two hours the green light came. A savings account for the eight tons.
All kinds of A4 sheets rolled out of the fax, which I all had to sign. This took another two and a half hours.
Very happy we then went out the door. Equipped with a booklet with the first deposit of 10000Bht and a Debit card.
The lady said that it would never have been possible without a marriage certificate, stamped by the Embassy
NB Since nothing is ever certain in Thailand, things can go differently and easier in your case.
SUCCESS.

I have had a Bangkok Bank account for half a year, but now they are sending my money back to the Netherlands, I am curious how that will be resolved, I have already sent e-mails, but have not received a reply. And then I have to pay 100 Thai monthly for good service .

When I read this and experience in other contributions that people who live outside Europe can no longer have an account in the Netherlands, I am convinced to do the best… you start looking for alternatives. Money institutions such as ADVCash, OKpay, Payeer will soon be able to take over the international role of banks. You have your money sent there. You can get prepaid credit cards and even ec cards at most.
You open a bitcoin wallet and buy bitcoin or another alt-coin. With this you can buy or pay for things worldwide without significant costs.

I wrote about it a few months ago. Yes, came the answer: highly speculative. Leave fingers off was written. Then, in December, it was worth around 900 euros. And now? 1 Bitcoin now costs you 1428,57 Euro!!!! Its value has increased by 50%.
And this is just the beginning. I'm not saying it's going to go down in value again. That is quite possible, but as I wrote then, the trend is upward. This will be worth over 2000 Euro at the end of the year.

The German Bundesbank warns people to put money into it. It would only be something temporary and not to be trusted.
When the first PCs were made, the CEO at the time at IBM said that no one in a normal household would use a PC. And where are we now?
My colleagues have looked at me in surprise when I talked about compuserve and thought they didn't need it at all.
And now? Who is without internet today? How many devices does it run on? What do people look for when they go on holiday?

The large money institutions are increasingly turning off the tap for the small user. For millions, nay a few billion people, it is impossible to open an account in a bank, because it is too expensive and because they simply do not have enough money.
A bitcoin account costs you NOTHING. Someone with a phone can install a bitcoin wallet on their phone. There are more people with a telephone than with a fresh water supply.
You can store your entire bitcoin on your phone whether it's one thousandth of bitcoin or 1000 bitcoin, doesn't matter.
No government or government agency can block or close your bitcoin wallet. Only you are responsible for that.

If you open a bicoin wallet in Thailand at, among others, coin.co.th, you can withdraw money from any ATM and also buy bitcoin with Thai baht. As a rule, this takes a while, but for that it costs you next to nothing. All you pay is the conversion rate…
You can also transfer bitcoin worldwide on Sundays, public holidays, at night and so on. What was it like at the banks? Last week I had to wait five days for my money. Yes, unfortunately I still have to use banks, but I also have a bitcoin account, which I can use 24/7!

Here's a link to a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLnZ8SfLYbw
This video is from April 17, 2017. There are very few new videos in Dutch. The old ones are worth a look, but you have to remember that bitcoin was still very low at the time. Even at the time the above video was played, bitcoin was at 1200 Euros!
This video is from 2015, but also interesting….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDBUAEpQGOI

The development does not stop here. There are other currencies such as the Bitcoin Lite, Ethereum, Dash and many others. Each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But right now is a good time to consider these.
But act wisely. I've never had just one bank account in the past either. Always spread everything over at least three banks.
I do this now too. I do not put everything on Bitcoin, but certainly not everything on one bank….

It will now really concern me whether a Thai bank accepts me as a customer or not…
Moreover: you don't need a marriage certificate, no passport, no other dozens of documents. Opening a bitcoin wallet takes a few minutes!

All Thai banks work with the same guideline that everyone can also open a bank account in Thailand as a holidaymaker. However, every bank, branch or employee applies this guideline differently. So it just depends on which bank you enter. Since opening an account here is a whole paperwork, the banks are not keen to open an account for a holidaymaker (short stay). People want to see that you are not staying here for a short time, which can be through a Thai driver's license, proof of ownership of a condo or house, an electricity or water bill in your name. The easiest is a letter of recommendation from someone with an account at the bank where you want to open an account. A friend of mine who was here on vacation wanted to open an account here, I went with him to the SCB where I have an account. He had an account with the address of the apartment where he stayed, in his passport they could also see that he is in Thailand several times a year. Maybe it helped that I was there, but opening an account was no problem at all.
According to most logs, you would have the best chance of opening an account with the Bangkok and Kasikorn bank. I couldn't do it myself at the Bangkok bank (no work permit) at the neighbors SCB it was arranged with a debit card. Later with the Krungsri also no problem opening an account. Even a credit card (not a debit card) with a limit of 200000 thb was no problem. You normally only get this with a workpermit. Have also opened an FCD (Foreign currency deposit account) with this bank. To open this, an amount of 500 dollars had to be added in Euros. This from my THB account via conversion, which was about 485 Euro. If you type into Google FCD account followed by the name of the bank, you will certainly receive clear information from the Krungsri about how and what.

“Anyone, including a holidaymaker, can open an account in Thailand, according to the guideline,” you say.
If I can simply find the conditions on the websites of the banks, which you usually cannot meet as a 'short stayer', the guidelines are apparently different and it is not appropriate to suggest that individual employees of banks would be unwilling to foreigners because it's such a mountain of paperwork.
For example, the Bangkok Bank does provide a list of branches where you can go for the FCD Account. Apparently not every branch has staff who are trained/authorized for this.