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I am an expat in Thailand with two bank accounts: One in Krungsri and one in Kasikorn,

Generally I don't use the Kasikorn account. It has zero money counts and neither a smartphone application nor a payment card attached to it.

For a period I thought about closing it and staying only woth my active Krungsri account, but I might as well just keep it for any possible future need silently in the background,

Say it stays in the background, inactive for 1 year or 5 years or 10 years or more,
Is the Kasikorn company and/or the Bank of Thailand allowed by national law or international law respectively, to terminate it?

Anonymous
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    I would think the treatment of inactive accounts with zero balances would depend on the individual bank’s policy rather than law. If however the account were dormant (ie inactive but with a balance) there are likely to be banking regulations in place that would govern how the account must be treated. – Traveller Dec 19 '19 at 08:19
  • If the account is that important to you, just setup automated transfer from one account to another every month or every 2 months for 10/50/100 baht. Problem solved. – Jon Grah Dec 20 '19 at 06:28

2 Answers2

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Thai banks have a very odd approach to inactive bank accounts.

If you have a balance, and don't use the account for a set amount of time (I believe it's around one or two years), it gets set as 'inactive' and they start charging a monthly 'inactive account' fee of up to around 200 Baht.

After the account hits a balance of zero, I believe the account is closed after a further two years.

Source: This happened to one of my bank accounts - I believe it was a Krungsri Bank (Bank of Ayutthaya) account.

Scott Earle
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  • If the account is that important to you, just setup automated transfer from one account to another every month or every 2 months for 10/50/100 baht. Problem solved. – Jon Grah Dec 20 '19 at 05:59
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    Well I think it’s reasonable to ask what happens if you don’t ... also, this comment belongs on the question, not this answer – Scott Earle Dec 20 '19 at 06:01
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In my experience "inactive" means you don't check the balance. If you update your bank book regularly and the amount of the account covers the yearly fees for the card (in case you have one) then all should be well. If the amount of money goes to zero when fees are due they close the account.

Patrick
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