not everyone are americans

i would do cashouts for 3% anytime too. small profit + makes my own withdrawals cheaper

yea sorry if I sounded negative in my first reply. that wasn't my intention. it just hit me when someone is asking for 3% when most of us can withdraw for much less fees

i'm sure it is a good service for some yanks

Sponsorship is paying a girl a salary every month to be your girlfriend.

This conversation makes me jealous.

intermediary bank wire fees + bank wire fee from my bank + 'currency exchange fee' + MGR hit + intentionally lowered exchange rates from my bank + ATM fee = ~6%.

Was going to open an HSBC over here to finally get some proper withdrawal abilities, but they wanted 10k usd up front + like 50k usd to avoid recurring fees.

Dire, open a Kasikorn savings account. Passport only needed, 300 baht minimum deposit. No fees on withdrawals at the ATM. I haven't yet done a bank wire straight from poker sites to my account, but I've been told it should be possible.

yeah, if you are staying here long term ytou should try kasikorn bank, and set it up for direct bank wire withdrawals. For a lot of people this is pretty impractical, and have to rely on getting shafted until you open an account and have funds to deposit. You can get a bank account, set it up with the poker sites, and you won't have to pay anything but the $30 or so wire transfer fee when you cash out.

Charles Schwab refunds all ATM fees worldwide. I think a good option for us Americans. There are no fees for incoming wire transfers.

I would highly recommend anybody staying long term use HSBC on Rama IV. You can withdraw from all poker sites as a Thai bank account, have USD, Euro, Baht and GBP accounts (in one account). They (HSBC) treat it as an overseas account, so you are not subject to (most) Thai banking laws as a resident would be. It is also HSBC and not some random Thai bank you can't pronounce and don't know the stability of.

If you can afford to deposit 3,000,000 baht it gets even better with HSBC Premier, but I'll let the hot girls at the bank tell you about that lol

Is there a Charles Schwab retail branch in BKK?

so what is different with you withdrawing to hsbc and me withdrawing to kasikorn?

also not everyone lives in bangkok

A million things. If we have another financial crisis, or an Asian financial crisis, which bank do you think is going belly-up first?

A thai person will be a lot less able to jack you from HSBC. Small risk, but an important one since your safety may be on the line.

Can you keep funds in Kasikorn in USD/GBP/Euro? If so, then their stock just went up a lot and I'll probably open an account myself. If not, then its pretty worthless as a long term place to hold money.

And you don't need to live in BKK to use HSBC, though I guess you would have to come here to setup the account.

It is a solid as a rock long term bank that you could use for the rest of your life. Kasikorn is a medium term solution for cashouts and spending money, though not a bad one.

well i am not keeping mirrions at kasikorn, only spending money. after i get monies it is spend usually within a month. don't think it matters that much to me which bank it is as long as i get minimum hassle which I do with kasikorn

To be clear I am not knocking Kasikorn, I was told it is the best Thai bank and will probably open an account myself. HSBC is just the nuts.

don't worry. I am just asking because i don't know about that bank and how it would change my life

and good to have somebody here to help the yanks with banking problems. i can't really help there much

no, but I sent them an email suggesting they build one there

Helmet controls in Samui, near Nathon. Maybe the law is reaching finally this island ??

For newcomers just bring pile of cash and deposit it on Kasikorn (you get a debit card in the moment), and say good bye to fees.

you don't get same rates with depositing money at a branch compared to wire transfers. wire is always better rate

lon or anyone else, you know how TOT adsl is working in phuket atm?

I think my complex is getting TOT adsl packages to every house here because the tt&t offer was pretty ridiculous. some people came to ask me if they should get that or just use cdma

any info appreciated

Might try that out. Using click2pay?

I setup a Bangkok Bank account but never ended up using it for much. There was a pretty big language barrier just setting up the account and it seems like you can't even check the balance online. I was pretty worried about the language barrier if there ever was any sort of problem.

I had an employee with fairly decent English at the Kasikorn branch at Esplanade. My internet banking is working fine, though obviously the English translation is kind of bad. I had some sort of problem w. click2pay, actually I have trouble with all online wallets, it seems, so I'm just going to try and do straight wires.

Hey guy, i am in Bangkok for like 3 weeks now with some Poker player friend, but i would like to meet new people, if anybody want to hang out or whatever just send me a PM or reply here

kasikorn bank gives free condoms when you open an account so being they have my safety in mind if i choose a thai bank that would be it...purely for the free helmets. lol

oh lol yea forgot about the condoms. obviously a deal breaker

No nw information has come to light to change my opinion that TOT is the least reliable, most expensive, GOVERNMENT RUN, pile of poop ISP here.