When living in a foreign country and making money you should be able to open a bank account but in Thailand foreigners can not even open a savings account in the bank account if they not have a big amount of cash with them.
They also have different system for all the banks so have a lot of bank charges like if you want to put in money in a Bangkok Bank in any of your current accounts and you are in Pattaya, you have to pay 2 dollar fee just because it is another city. You also have to pay some money every time you use a different ATM from the once you have an bank account in.
This year the Thai banks put in a new few for foreign bank cards and you now have to pay 100 THB for every withdrawal plus the fee your bank charge you. The only bank and ATM machines that does not do that is AEON. So if you find a Thai bank with a ATM from that company use it and save some money.