gamb00ler

You have conveniently ignored the fact that the inflated values led to Trump receiving loans at a more favorable rates. The banks/investors should have received more interest than they actually did. In fact the huge judgement awarded was based on the difference between the amount the orange charlatan actually paid and what he should have paid over many years. Have you always had trouble with simple financial logic?

When you send US$ to a Thai bank, they will use their exchange rate in effect at date&time the funds arrive. Schwab has no say in what exchange rate you receive. The Thai banks post and update their exchange rates very often. For an inbound transfer the bank will use their TT Buying Rate. Currently Bangkok bank's rate is 36.26 ฿/US$ but that doesn't account for any fees. https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Other-Services/View-Rates/Foreign-Exchange-Rates

I used #'s 2 & 3 for our house project. I always send in US$. I never checked the rate I would get for sending ฿, but my nephew sent ฿ from his Canadian bank to my Thai bank and the rate was poor. I forgot to tell him to send in US$. Instead of focusing on "the most favorable FX", you should compare methods to get the highest amount of ฿ that arrives in your Thai account after all fees have been deducted. SWIFT has a fee from the sender and also the Thai banks will charge a fee (.25%?) with a minimum of 300฿ to a maximum of 500฿ for receiving it. There are NO fees using your Schwab debit card. I wouldn't recommend using the ATM unless you don't mind either carrying the cash or also making a deposit via machine or teller. Also the ATM limit is too low and I assume your construction payments will be much larger in comparison. The exchange rate for Schwab debit card withdrawals at ATM, retail purchases and teller withdrawals are the same and determined each business day at about 7AM Thai time by the processor, Visa. The limit for teller withdrawals is 15K US$ per day and for the ATM it depends on which Schwab debit card you have. They offer debit cards for Schwab bank accounts and for brokerage accounts. I think the only advantage to having a Schwab bank account is that you can use Zelle for sending money domestically. I only have brokerage accounts. For #3 if you hold a high balance with Schwab they may offer to refund your SWIFT fee (25$) for such transfers. I don't know what they consider "high" but the Schwab representative sometimes offered to refund it without my request and sometimes only refunded after I requested it. I have been a Schwab customer since '87 so that may have some bearing as well. I have been sending money to Thailand for 20+ years and can initiate a SWIFT transfer by calling them via Google Voice.

If the crooks were smart, they would just cruise up and down the streets in high end moobaans and scan the power bills the meter reader just deposited in the mail box and produce a replica with just the QR code changed to that of their own account. Hopefully PEA/MEA have in place a defense against such a scheme.

I had two Thai brothers-in-law that were very good friends, not just because they were relatives. One was my wife's eldest brother and a senior naval Officer. The other was the husband of my wife's youngest sister and a senior army Officer. They both started on the bottom rung. During the 20+ annual visits of 1-4 months to Thailand we became very close. I was so looking forward to spending a lot of time with them, but they both passed before my wife and I moved to Thailand. I think it will be hard to make such good Thai friends now as I'm older and not very socially active.

If you do a Cardless Withdrawal, there is no fee for out of province ATM withdrawal (I've only tried Bangkok bank).

I like this YT channel because it is very even handed about one of the topics where misinformation and sensationalism is rampant.

Prior to moving to CM, I lived in USA and I have never had dealings with Clarity. For a few weeks I monitored the exchange rates vs US$ at Thai banks, Wise, Visa & MasterCard. The only time I saw large differences between Visa/MasterCard and Wise/Thai banks was when the US$ would suffer a sizable decline during Thai business hours. The only pattern I noticed in movement of US$ vs TH฿ was that periods of decline were faster but shorter compared to periods of appreciation.

@johng I'm fairly certain you know that pre-trial release is dependent on factors such as risk that the defendant will flee or continue the behavior that led to the charges. But if you don't know that, then your opinions about J6 incarcerations are based on ignorance that is totally undiluted by facts.

MasterCard sets the rate about 7AM Thai time and it doesn't change that rate until the next business day. Wise on the other hand is continually adjusting their exchange rate throughout each business day. Maybe that is the reason for the discrepancy at the time you checked them. A 1% move in exchange rate does happen in a single day a few times a year.

I am looking for another bank besides Bangkok bank which will do teller "cash advances" on my US debit card. Does Krungsri charge for this service?

My Thai wife and I moved from USA to CM during COVID in Sep. 2020 but her Thai passport expired 4 months before we left. She was required to submit her expired passport and Thai national ID to the LA Thai Consulate to get a document permitting her to travel one way to Thailand. I think the document was called Certificate of Identification.

Since investment opportunities in Thailand suffer in comparison to most of the world, you could keep those funds outside Thailand. It would seem likely that those funds would remain as non-assessable even after remittance to Thailand because they were earned/received when you were not a Thai tax resident.

Way of topic, but.... Originally in blackjack the player's initial two cards were dealt face down and subsequent cards were face up. If a player wished to "double down" he would turn up his initial cards, add an extra bet and then receive one card face down. When I was learning to be a BJ dealer, the casino switched from old style face down dealing to all cards up format, so I learned both styles. The picture included in the OP could be blackjack dealt in the old format. But, since the there is a pile of disordered chips (the "pot") in front of the player's hand (KK) I believe a hand of Texas Holdem is what's being shown in the photo. The three Aces are part of the five community cards used by all players to make a five card poker hand. To address the actual topic.... I have spent a LOT of time in casinos and it became obvious to me that many people do become addicted to gambling. I think easy access to a casino will make that problem worse than it currently is. I also think the ability of the Thai government to effectively oversee any casino licensing and regulation is very suspect. I saw many casinos violate the stringent government regulations in Nevada and when customers complained the outcome of the investigation was rarely in the customer's favor.

Instead of doing your withdrawal from ATM, go to Bangkok bank branch and do a “cash advance” at the teller. I have done this many times and I got the same exchange rate as the ATM and no additional fees. VISA or MasterCard set the exchange rate, not the bank. Check if your credit union adds a foreign transaction fee which would apply at the ATM as well.

A USA.GOV page disagrees with you about SS payments being ended upon renunciation of US citizenship. https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship

I use almost the same strategy as you do. Except I just go to Bangkok bank and do a teller cash advance using Schwab debit card and then deposit into my savings account. SWVXX is a flexible investment that pays about the same as 9 month CD's without the hassle of a fixed term or having to renew.

I moved to CM 3½ years and I have done teller cash advances with my Schwab debit card about a dozen times. I used the proceeds to pay for our house construction. I always took the maximum withdrawal. I only had a problem one time and that was because the manager was not available at that branch that day. The last such transaction was about 6 months ago. I always checked the VISA exchange rate web page and calculated how much ฿ to withdraw before heading to the bank. I never have been advised by anyone at Schwab to notify them in advance. Have you used that branch before for a cash advance? When was your last successful transaction?

Did you try tying your clothes in knots before loading them into the washer? Maybe the washer would untie them.😆

Not quite on topic..... If you want a disposable email address, you can just make up some unlikely combination of characters and use it together with "@yopmail.com". Then you can check if you got any mail on the yopmail.com website. There is no password or any type of security so only temporarily use it to protect your real email address from getting spread around.

Is that the same foxnews that had to pay $800,000,000 for lying about a voting machine company? You won't find CNN, MSNBC paying that kind of judgment... can you figure out why?

I tried to get gmail account called fupped_duck. Did you beat me to it?

Matter is preferred because it hopefully makes it easier to integrate devices from different manufacturers. Thread has the advantage of using IPV6 so that communication is more direct and less complicated than other methods. I know at this point there is less selection of devices supporting those new standards, but I am patient. It shouldn't be too long before more manufacturers get on board. I'm willing to go through the hassle of retrofitting a few switches/plugs. Our house is new and has neutral available at every switch/plug. My first actual device will probably be a Sonoff MINIR4M to convert existing switch from dumb to smart. https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switches/minir4m/

@sirineou, you have 2 7.5cm AAC layers for your internal walls? Our house's internal walls are a single layer 10cm thick plus render and our WiFi is rather weak after passing through 2 walls. A Thread network uses the same frequency of 2.4Ghz as normal LAN but is described as a low power mesh network. Thread devices don't use the normal 2.4Ghz network, only the Thread network. A Thread router is required to function as a bridge between the Thread mesh network and the normal WiFi or ethernet LAN. Initially I won't have so many Thread devices on my mesh so range between devices may be an issue.

I've been reading as much as I can about the new home automation connectivity standards of Thread and Matter. Anyone have first hand experience using a Thread network in a house with 10cm AAC block walls? I'm afraid I would need several Thread routers to cover the entire single storey house, garage and potentially to the front gate as well. I would like to see some of the switches/plugs so I can really get a good idea how much effort will be required to fit them into the small electrical boxes used in our house. I don't see any Sonoff vendor in CM only in BKK. Any other manufacturers have a presence in Thailand?