I went to open up a bank account with UOB this morning. I am currently with Bangkok Bank which I’ve not had any problems with, the only reason for the change is that the BB always has ques since installing a ticket machine, while UOB is always empty.
Anyway, I go in and tell them I want to open up a personal and business account. I couldn’t open the business account as I need to hold a meeting in person with all my shareholders… WTF! Most are based outside of Thailand.
I then filled in the forms for a personal account and the lady asked how much I wanted to deposit. Understanding that most Thai companies are poorly run and wanting to make sure the account was fully set up and working perfectly, I told the lady 1,000b
She turned around and said that the minimum is 50,000, I explained that I wasn’t prepared to deposit a large sum until I know everything is working perfectly. Anyway, she calls the manager over… he recognized me as I go into UOB weekly to withdraw funds from my credit card. I get the 50,000b initial deposit down to 2,000 because he says he knows me. Now what happened next made my jaw drop…
Just before I went into UOB, I had gone to Bangkok Bank to withdraw 200,000b cash, which was rolled up inside my jeans pocket. In order to get 2,000 out, I had to get the whole lot out. I tried to be discreet as I could but the manager saw the money and then started haggling with me to give him more. This went on for at least a minute. I got to admit, I was offended.
I was then offered a credit card. I’ve never heard of a Thai bank issuing foreigners credit cards on personal accounts so my eyes lit up. I asked what the interest rate was and she replied 40% 
No wonder why UOB is always empty!
Have you had any rememberable experiences with Thai Bank’s?
I’ve got accounts with three different Thai banks. Based on my experience, SCB and Kasikorn are the most reliable and their service is not bad.
Bangkok Bank is shite. Always huge queues because the bankers work slowly. I’ve also heard its finances are now in the massive red and might soon be nationalised, like the UK’s Northern Rock.
As for UOB – U Out, Bastard! hahaha
“I’ve also heard [Bangkok Bank's] finances are now in the massive red and might soon be nationalised.”
Rubbish – it won’t be nationalised. You know nothing about the 1997 aftermath and the influence of the banking families in Thai politics to make that comment.
I recently opened an account with UOB Thailand because there was a branch near my house. Opening the account took an awful long time and the staff had to make several phone calls to some one to ask for instructions. They failed to offer me a sweep between savings and chequing account which I thought was automatic. So I had to go back again with copies of the same documents they had in their files already. They demanded 40k baht to open a savings account. When I needed a statement letter from the bank for a govt department they again called some remote authority and insisted on doing it in a certain format which I thought was wrong. Of course it was rejected by the govt dept who wanted it in the format I had asked for. I had to go to the bank 3 times to get the statement and eventually stood over them while they produced taking a very long time. There is no passport updating machine in the branch which closes at 3.30pm. The crowing glory is that they are closing the branch and moving my account to somewhere inconvenient for me. It has foreign owners but at heart is still a hopelessly inefficient small Thai bank. Bye bye UOB.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I probably don’t know nothing about it but again if I’d told you Northern Rock would be nationalised last year, you’d have thought I was talking bollocks too!
Not really. NR was a walking time bomb.
UOB is actually a Singapore bank that has operations in Singapore, M’sia, Thailand and Hong Kong. I guess the practice of offering you a credit card when the manager saw you holding a bulk of cash because that’s a practice in Singapore (not too sure of other places though). Usually, once any bank tellers or managers get to know how “rich” you are, they will try to introduce you to their other banking products, such as cards and structured deposits and investments et cetera.
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I have had nothing but good luck dealing with the Pattaya branch of UOB. Reasons for doing so? 1)They pay the same interest on time deposits to foreigners as they do to locals. 2)being a retiree from the U.S. I have a problem getting my money into Thailand. UOB now offers quick clearing of personal checks drawn on U.S. banks. Just tried it last week. Put the check in for deposit on June 2 (afternoon). The check cleared my bank on June 8 and the funds were made available on June 10. That is 5 working days – not bad. Total cost was $20. There are a couple of restictions though 1)You must have had an active account with UOB for six months 2)the deposit is limited to $10,000.
hahaha. Crish that bank is bad famous in thailand. it is Charter standart bank? . They want to let loan for news customer and get hight margin back. i dont know where he get my mobile number and they call to me for give loan to me.hahaha I say I dont have promblem with money now . I dont think they can do with foregner customer like you hahhaaha.
Iwent into my local U.O.B. requiring a loan for 7 days only with adequate security,I was informed that the bank does not lend to Farangs{white man} as it is against U.O.B.law!