BUMMERJACK

Out of the 7099 THB I was asked to pay if I wanted to open an account, 501 THB was deposited into my account. The rest was the "insurance" and some administrative fee since I am on "The Tourist Plan".

I asked my landlord to register me online at the Immigration website, and then mail me the documents that proved my registration. She sent that, and one or two other things related, unsure of specifically what they contained seeing as all the text was in Thai. I went with those, my passport and my E-Visa approval copy to Phuket Town Immigration. They have a little shop there that can scan, copy and take photos of you for a small penny. Took face photos and made copies of my passports ID and current visa pages. Then I went into Immigration and submitted everything together with 600 THB, had to wait around 30-40 mins and they sent me off with two copies of stamped residence certificates. The bank asked zero questions about anything when they saw the certificate.

Went to the Rat-U-Thit Bangkok Bank in Patong today, instantly got an account with SETV and Residence Certificate only. The catch though was that they wanted somewhere just under 7000 THB to open one for me. Since it's very important for me to set an account up quickly to transfer funds from abroad, I bent over and feel no remorse. So if you are ready to pay, it's a solid option for getting a Thai bank account while on SETV.