If you’re coming through Thailand and planning to stay for a while as opposed to just cruising through, you might be looking for a place to bank in Thailand. So I thought I’d just take a minute to give a quick tip.

Many people will tell you that you have to have a work visa in order to bank here, but that’s not true. Apparently, this is the law as spoken to the banks, but just like most things in Thailand, laws are pretty flexible, and this isn’t even a case of having to get corrupt or start slipping people money.

After going to several banks in town and being told that they couldn’t issue me a bank account, I got on the Internet and did some browsing around. Several people in online forums suggested Kasikorn Bank, although in some cases it appeared to depend on the branch. I found a tip on one that seemed flexible here in my city and went in, and they gave me an account with no problem whatsoever.

I believe I had to deposit 200 baht into my account, they checked out my passport, asked for a street address, and I was good to go. You can probably just use the street address of the guesthouse you’re staying at, but if you’ve got a Thai friend, that’s even better.

Also, if like me, you do any business or make purchases online, you can get an online Visa card through Kasikorn. It’s a quick approval process and then they give you a number to make transactions, and you can also use that to set up a Thailand PayPal account so that you can receive payments.

Not the typical fun article that we usually have here on tikikiki.com/newsite, but I realize for some of you it might be important, and I know that in a country like Thailand these things can be a headache to figure out on your own.

If the first Kasikorn doesn’t work with you, just walk into another. No one is going to give you a big deal about it and you’ll find that every branch seems to have its own in-house policy for dealing with these things. Sometimes it might even depend on who is working and their comfort level in speaking English.

Just the way it works here sometimes.