Two ways in
New here, or moving
Living here, and what it costs
Visas, insurance, banking, property, bills. What the rules actually say and what the paperwork actually costs.
- Thailand long-stay visas compared: what each route really costs Five years on a DTV costs ฿10,000; ten on an LTR, ฿50,000. Every long-stay route compared on cost per year, capital lock-up and insurance rule included.
- Expat health insurance in Thailand: what your policy won't cover Local insurers typically exclude pre-existing conditions outright. What Thai expat policies won't cover, and why the age they stop renewing matters most.
- Opening a Thai bank account in 2026: what actually works No major Thai bank will open an account for a DTV holder in 2026. What the banks actually require now — biometrics, a Thai SIM in your own name, and a visa class most long-stay foreigners don't have.
- What ฿30,000 a month actually gets you in Bangkok An honest ฿30,000 Bangkok budget — including the annualised costs every YouTube budget video quietly leaves out. Real 2026 prices.
Here for the argument
How the country works
The pieces that collect the others: what Thailand built where the formal system does not reach, and why some of it works.
- Thailand's parallel economy The state old age allowance starts at ฿600 a month and reaches ฿1,000 only at ninety. In every gap the formal system leaves, Thailand has built something else, and it runs on the fact that you have to see these people again.
- The wrong way round Across labour law, heat regulation and motor insurance, Thai protection reaches the least exposed. The systems that work are universal. The ones that fail are categorical.
- Money you can wear Thai gold is 96.5% pure, weighed in baht, and priced identically in every shop in the country — repriced 38 times in a single day this June. That's not jewellery. It's currency.
- Borrowing to eat Thai household debt is ฿16.41 trillion, 85.9% of GDP. The composition has shifted from assets to daily expenses, and the official number can't see the rest.
The three pillars
Systems & Society
What Thailand built where the formal system does not reach, what the institutions everyone passes through actually do, and how people earn.
121 articlesMoney & Survival
Visas, tax, insurance, banking, property, permanent residence.
39 articlesCity & Life
Bangkok — infrastructure, history, the things you walk past — and the customs nobody explains to you.
45 articlesRecent
Not the golf courses
Thailand's argument about military business is about golf courses. By the Army's own figures, welfare land is 0.2% of its holdings; a quarter is lived on or farmed by civilians. Releases so far: about 6% of that.
Taken down, not fined
Thailand's data protection law binds state and companies alike. In four years, nine fines: eight on companies, one on a state agency, ฿153,120. Most exposed data the regulator finds is on state websites, and is taken down.
Ahead of the bank
Thai condo common fees are split by a ratio fixed at registration: by area since July 2008, by price before. Unpaid, they cost up to 20% a year, block a sale and, since 2017, come out of a court sale before the mortgage.
The second million
In 2001 every Thai village got a ฿1 million revolving fund. Every top-up since has gone to the funds that were ready. In 2026, ฿3.4 billion promised in 2012 is still waiting for the ones that weren't.
Somebody else's form
Thailand's TM30 rule puts the duty on the landlord: 24 hours to report a foreign guest. Since 2019 the receipt has been checked when the foreigner extends their stay. Why a 2020 reform could only redefine the rule, not remove it.
Where the money went
Lending your bank account for someone else's use has been a crime in Thailand since 2023. The suspension system beside the law works differently: by July 2026 it had suspended 4.3 million accounts, more than half in categories that need no police report.
Cheaper in the capital
Bangkok households pay ฿8.50 per cubic metre for their first 30 units, on a tariff unchanged since 1999. Provincial households pay ฿10.20 rising to ฿21.20. What that does to a bill, and to the welfare-card subsidy.
There is no list
Thailand's credit bureau keeps no blacklist. It keeps a monthly record of every loan for up to three years. What it holds, who can see it, how to check it, and why 40% of working-age Thais have no record at all.
It starts at the third flat
Thai rules cap deposit and advance rent at three months combined and set 7- and 14-day deadlines to return a deposit. They apply only to landlords letting three or more homes.
Worth more used than sold
Thailand buys rooftop solar power at ฿2.20 a unit, unchanged since 2021, and sells power to homes at up to ฿4.36 before fuel charge and VAT. What the tax break and the proposed ฿50,000 grant are worth, and to whom.
More from the archive
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