Lemsta69

Wow, so lucky! Off you pop and buy a lottery ticket 🤣

The locals do it every waking moment so why can't Johnny Foreigner get in on the action? Also, why bring "morals" into the discussion in a country that has none?

Maybe Thailand needs to become like Singapore. How exciting will that be, can't wait! 🤣

Can they beat Medisafe?

Now now lads, that's enough talk about Fight Club for one day 😉

he's probably a teetotaler.

Time waster.

Which implies that it's easy to open a bank account without the use of an agent. If the OP follows you're advice hell probably end up in the hospital after schlepping all around Pattaya or Bangkok looking for a bank that he doesn't have to "pay" to get them to open an account.

Presumably you're saying this for the OP's benefit because I don't give a rat's 🤣🤣🤣

You can live anywhere you like however there are a few niggling drawbacks if you live in a different province to where the visa/extension is issued. Eg. 90-day reporting usually requires you to take or mail your passport to the agent's office and pay a service fee. Obtaining a Certificate of Residence could be difficult too, if not impossible. Also bear in mind that if you want to move away from using the agent in Year 2 then you may run into issues. In one case I know of, the chap had to leave the country without a re-entry permit to kill off the agent-assisted extension and apply for a new non-O in a neighbouring country.

So why are you implying that it will be easy for the OP to open a bank account?

Have you not been reading all the threads about how it has become considerably more difficult to open bank accounts since about a year ago, especially if you arrive on a Tourist Visa or Visa Exempt entry?

Well duh! That's why the 'netizen' was getting so upset.

I just tried Lazada and input "wide brim hat men" and all sorts of weird and wonderful hats came up. How about this one? 😅

AFAIK, most of the cost of opening the back account goes towards the Bangkok Bank insurance policy. I paid ฿3,700 two years ago because I'm in the lower age bracket, and that covered the insurance policy plus an opening deposit of ฿521. So you're actually getting "something" for your money and not just lining the agent's pocket. If they get anything it's not much. The OP could, of course, try to open a Bangkok Bank account on his own but that involves a lot of walking around and waiting in bank branches to likely be told "cannot". Yes, I know you know this but just reiterating it for the OP's benefit 😁

First I'm hearing that high-octane petrol can damage an engine. I learnt the opposite, ie. that "premium" fuel won't hurt your engine but might be waste of money if you're not driving a high-performance vehicle. Now if you put E10 in your older car instead of 100% petrol then that might be an issue.

Government subsidy is the problem. If they didn't have restrictions on who it can be sold to then half of Thailand and probably all of Singapore, and their grandma, would be crossing the border every day with a trailer full of jerry cans to fill up on the cheap gas.

97 octane will destroy your engine, are you serious?

D'oh!

Why would you let foreigners cross the border to fill up on state-subsidised fuel if they aren't paying taxes in your jurisdiction?

The USA doesn't subsidise gas/petrol/benzene.

Well you completely missed the bit about 95 octane being state-subsidised and for locals only.

As per the article she was expected to pay full price for the 97 octane fuel. Just as us dirty foreigners are expected to pay higher prices in Thailand because... reasons.

She didn't pay full price, which was the Malaysian chap's issue. Did you not read the article?

Don't forget about the bank account! When I was last in their office at the start of December it was still ฿4,700 for the OP's age group.