The official minimums on 24 September 2026: ฿20,000 for a visa-exempt arrival or tourist visa, ฿500,000 for the DTV, ฿800,000 or ฿65,000 a month for retirement, ฿3 million for the O-X, and the LTR's dollar thresholds. How long each balance must be held, and where embassies ask for more than the e-Visa site.
A holiday policy stops working when the trip becomes months. The three kinds of cover available to long-stay foreigners in Thailand, what each excludes, how hospitals bill, and how to choose by length of stay.
A plain-language overview of Thai personal income tax for foreigners: the 180-day residency test, how employment income is taxed, the rules on foreign income brought into Thailand, tax treaties, and the filing calendar. General information, not advice.
On 24 September 2026, £1,000 sent by Wise landed as ฿43,930 in a Thai account; the same £1,000 by Santander SWIFT arrived as about ฿41,921, and by Lloyds ฿42,026. The US figures, the ฿200 the Thai bank takes on every wire, and when a wire is still the right choice.
Opening a Thai bank account as a foreigner depends more on the branch and your visa than on the bank. Which visas work, the documents to bring, why a tourist visa is hard, and the tricks that make a branch say yes.
Instead of one made-up number, here is how to build your own monthly budget for Thailand: the categories that vary most between people, why Bangkok and Chiang Mai differ, the costs newcomers forget, and the tiers most expats end up in.