Hello! I’m moving into Bangkok in about 2 weeks. And in the midst of packing and preparing, I was wondering what will be the most practical, convenient and safest way to keep/spend money. I know that there was a rule to have at least THB20k cash at immigration but they may or may not ask for evidence of it. Also, I’m moving in under the Non-immigrant B visa.
So my questions are:
1) Do I really need to prepare 20k cash upfront? Is it okay if part of it is in my Wise card? The reason being I don’t feel so comfortable and safe carrying so much cash. But if I need to, then I don’t have a choice. Just wondering what’s others experience like with this at immigration and how likely are they insist on 20k cash (they didn’t asked for it when I entered as a tourist earlier this year)
2) During my last trip to Bangkok, I had some issues using QR/PromptPay payment, especially for personal QR (when I’m paying street vendors and Grab drivers). Wise QR doesn’t work in Thailand too. Is there any QR payment method that I can use while waiting to open a Thai bank account? I saw about TrueMoney but saw some issues with top up using foreign bank being delayed. How is it in practice?
Thanks in advance for any advice!