If You Receive Money via Direct Deposit to a Bangkok Bank Account, Make SURE to Read This

[Gaybutton]

Anyone have any advice on good hospitals in Bangkok

Some who lives in Bangkok will probably know far ore than I do, but I've heard that the St. Louis hospital is very good:

 

http://www.saintlouis.or.th/main_page.php

[Guest jtrack33]

One hospital in Pattaya that looks reassuring to me but is hardly ever mentioned is Pattaya International Hospital on soi 4.

 

As far as Bangkok is concerned, that is my area of specialty!! Had a lot done and tried a lot of different places:

For heart bypass and major, complex, potentially hazardous work...Bumrungrad. Their ICU, nursing and management are the best in my opinion. Considerably less expensive and fewer add-ons and fees than Bangkok Hospital group.

For routine stuff like tests, dentisty, skin and less major surgery, Bangkok Christian Hospital. Like St. Louis, theoretically they are non-profit-making. Incidentaly, when I periodically visit my cardiologist at Bumrungrad, I get the cholesterol blood checks done at Bangkok Christian and take them to Bumrungrad and the cardio man doesn't seem bothered and enters the results on my records....Try doing that at Bangkok Hospital and they'd add on corkage and God knows what else.

Bangkok Christian has a brand new super shiny new wing and so soon they will be able to offer better in-patient services I guess.

I believe also the Vibhavadi hospital is a good alternative. They have much better room/nursing rates than the Bum. and Bangkok Hos..

 

 

[Guest fountainhall]

Thank so much for all that useful information, jtrack33

[mahjongguy]

I'm happy for you if you're rich enough to be able to afford to have $10,000 worth of liquid cash readily available in a Thai bank. Unfortunately, not everybody has that kind of money.

 

I'm not very rich at all. Wish I were. But surely most of us have some liquid assets somewhere? Even retirees who get by mostly on their public or private pensions have some small bit of cash and time deposits. It's more a question of where it's kept.

 

I realize that the current savings rate for baht at Thai banks is only 0.50%, and foreign currency deposits are down to 1%, but rates are low everywhere. Wells Fargo savings accounts now pay only 0.30%. So, whereas in the past many were loath to keep money here and miss out on a couple of hundred dollars in (taxable) annual interest, that side of the argument has diminished. By using the example of emergency medical care I was making the case for having baht at hand in a Thai bank. Call me nuts but I don't like being half a world away from my money. And it sure let me sleep better last November when it seemed the US banking system might have to go offline for a while.

 

The majority of us have to have about $11,000 or $22,000 for 3 months out of the year anyway; I'm just saying why not keep a minimum of $10,000 throughout the year?

 

Getting back to the Treasury form for US citizens, any American who gets extensions based on the 400k or 800k baht method has thus exceeded the threshold and must submit the form by June 30th.

 

[2lz2p]

As with GB, I do not keep that kind of money in my Thai bank account. I do have a couple of credit cards (-0- balance) with very high credit limits in case I should have to pay up front in an emergency. I also have a good health insurance policy from US - they have a telephone number staffed 24/7 that can verify coverage and fax the appropriate guarantee to the Hospital - I have my insurance information and the 24/7 number on file with my records at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya (BHP).

 

Another hospital not mentioned, is Phayathai Sriracha Hospital -- they are private and have an International Ward with rooms offering the same amenities as BHP - room is not as large and no flat panel TVs, though . From most reports of people who have used them for surgeries, they offer quality care at substantially less cost than BHP. Of course for an emergency, their distance from Pattaya is a negative factor as would going to Queen Sirikit in Sattahip.

 

[2lz2p]

Back on topic -- Bangkok Bank has sent out the letter GB received to all their customers with direct deposit. The Pattaya City Expats Club website has information about these letters and their contact with Bangkok Bank about them.

 

Pattaya City Expats Club Information

 

[Gaybutton]

The Pattaya City Expats Club website has information about these letters and their contact with Bangkok Bank about them.

Thank you for that post, 2lz2p. I read the Expats Club letter. While it is encouraging that they are trying to do something about it, I'm reluctant to expect they're going to accomplish very much, although I'm hopeful. Some of the methods they posted about how to get around this seem to me to be much more complicated than just going ahead and changing over to the Direct Deposit account and going to the bank whenever funds are received.

 

One potential problem the Expats Club letter did not address: Suppose you happen to be traveling in another country when your monthly benefit comes in and something happens to you that requires access to your money. Since you have no access to it at all unless you can physically get to a Bangkok Bank, what do you do in that situation? There is always the possibility that some bizarre situation will occur. In accordance with Murphy's Law, that's exactly what's going to start happening to people. How would you like to have been arrested for something, find you can pay or even bribe your way out of it, but can't access your money.

 

"There's always the unexpected, isn't there?"

- Warden to Shears, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'

 

In my opinion, something is really wrong with a banking system in today's electronic age that prevents people from being able to access their own money. What Bangkok Bank needs to do is figure out some way to comply, but in such a way that the recipient can at least move the funds to a regular savings account without having to physically go to the bank to do it. It seems to me it shouldn't be all that difficult to come up with something satisfactory to all parties.

 

By the way, last night I did receive a text message from Bangkok Bank notifying me that the SMS alert system for international deposits into my account is now in place.

[PattayaMale]

Too many problems for me as pointed out by GB. If I would go to the US for a visit just for 30 days (ex. 15 May to 15 June). 2 payments would be a waiting for me to show up at Bangkok Bank. And if I had to make recurring payments on my credit cards, and depended on my SS check to be able to make the payments how would I do this?

 

For those that have a deposit account here, how would you make payments on Credit cards in America?

[Gaybutton]

For those that have a deposit account here, how would you make payments on Credit cards in America?

This whole thing is so typical. A close friend of mine said it best, I think: "Everything in Thailand is reactive. Nothing is ever proactive."

 

In other words, they come up with these things without ever thinking it through. There was absolutely no warning that this was coming. Everyone affected by this simply received the letter and was given less than two weeks to comply. If Bangkok Bank handled this the way it should have been handled, then they would have sent out notifications at least one or two months in advance and would have asked people what problems might arise and what suggestions for solutions could be offered, and would have given people plenty of time to make alternate arrangements if they wished.

 

But noooooooo. Just send out the letter first and then worry about problems later. I wouldn't be surprised if once full clarification is received by Social Security, or whatever entity, it will turn out that none of this was necessary in the first place.

[Gaybutton]

I received my first deposit into the Direct Deposit account. Here is how it all worked:

 

First, I have never received a direct deposit before 11:00am, Thailand time. I received the promised text message at 11:32am the day I was due to receive the deposit, which means the message must be sent out automatically and immediately. The message tells you that a deposit has been made, how much you received in baht, the dollar amount that was deposited, the exchange rate you received, the source of the deposit, and the time of the deposit.

 

I looked at my online bank account. Both the Direct Deposit account and my new savings account show up. Whether the Direct Deposit account will continue to show up, I don't know. I had understood there is no access to it via online banking, but at least for now, there it is and the balance shown is current. I did try to do an online transfer from the Direct Deposit account to my savings account, but as I expected they don't let you do that.

 

Passport and both bank account passbooks in hand, I was off to the bank. I was lucky. When I arrived at the bank there was only one person ahead of me, waiting for the bank teller. When it was my turn I simply told the teller how much I wanted to withdraw from the Direct Deposit account in cash and how much to transfer to my savings account. There were no problems.

 

By the time they make a copy of your passport and get you to sign the documents they require, it takes somewhere between five and ten minutes to complete the transaction, but it was painless.

 

Despite the inconvenience of physically having to go to the bank, it did work out just fine with no problems at all. It really was no more difficult than going to an ATM to withdraw cash, so I guess there's really not all that much to complain about.

[Guest Schadenfreude]

Never mind!