briley

Air asia is the cheapest and goes from the new airport. Can easily be booked on line - there are 4 or 5 flights a day and fare changes with demand. Tickets are non-changable non-refundable

You can book at the airport but the price is a bit higher.

Nok and 12go fly from the old airport.

Thai air is very expensive, having said that their fare of about 3500 baht can be transferable and refundable if your flight is late

I've been trying for some time to listen to football on Radio 5 live - you used to be able to use a proxy server but for the last two years I have been unable to find any way to convince the Beeb that I am in the UK.

For TV there used to be a HK service that streamed certain TV stations. Chargeable but at a very reasonable rate. However I've not found it recently nor am I interested as I only want the radio.

This is not the P2P services that I find do not work.

Having just flown Ryanair the baggage allowance is 20Kg per person. Two people with two bags, one 25Kg and one 15Kg are charge 5 Kg excess baggage.

Mind you the fare including tax was only 1p .............. (for my party)

I can't seem to disentangle a consensus out of this thread so far. In the light of the coming rules is a person nearing 65 well advised to pay or to not pay voluntary contributions?

Whether to make voluntary contributions or not it is very open to your feelings.

Some people think the UK pension is the best thing since sliced bread, other that it stinks.

If you are working in the UK you have no option but to pay, every year you work not just 30 years. But if not working in the UK you can pay the voluntary contributions, currently a bit under £400 a year. Put that into a private pension scheme or a saving account and it will not pay the current over £4,000 a year pension (£6,500 for a married couple). And from 2012 it will increase by the rate of increase in wages in the UK, not inflation as is the current case.

The big fly in the ointment is the fact that if you live in LOS - or are out of the UK for over 6 months and not in the EU or a couple of other countries then the pension is frozen at the rate you were getting when you left (or if out of the UK when you start your pension the rate at pension age).

Personally I think it is good value for money and many people pretend to be in the UK by just getting all their DHS mailing to a UK address.

I finally found the answer.

As most people know the UK government is proposing to reduce the number of qualifying years for a full pension to 30 years as from 1st April 2010.

BUT these changes will not effect those who reach retirement age (65 for men 60 for women at that date) before the 1st April 2010. So if you are on a reduced pension due to lack of contributions the new chages will not help you at all.

This is a warning for those within a couple of years of retirement who want to pay voluntary contributions to bring their pension entitlement up to 100%.

The law states that 50% of all the owners (by area owned) must vote for a new manager.

But if the meeting fails to get the 50% then a new meeting can be called within - is it 15 days??? - then only a simple majority is needed provided the meeting has a quorum of either 30% or one third of owners present or represented.

Sorry I always forget the exact numbers!

Slow - but it does depend.

Are you on a shared connection, ie sharing with all the others in the block?

When did you test it, in the evening when everything is slow or the morning when things run better?

How much are you paying?

How fast do you want? If just checking e-mails and browsing the web then the speed will be OK. If trying to download a DVD everyday forget it.

If you're paying only a few hundred Baht and tested in the evening (you posted about 8pm) then I'd say you are getting what you pay for.

You were lucky to get a bounce, AOL often just erase the e-mail with no message to you or the recipient.

Virgin in the UK and a few others can do the same.

I set up a gmail account and send all my mail via them, setting my 'reply to' address as the one I actually use. You can send from Outlook express and the like if you set that option with Gmail for POP mail - and follow their setup instructions carefully.

And when the opening window is the outside window, the inside window is fixed so you have to go outside to clean the fixed window.

Bit difficult on the 11th floor of a condo block.

As I use the same letter year after year (I give them a photocopy and, if asked, sight of the original) I assume that you can get it a few months early.

The only limit I have heard of is the passport number on the letter must match your new passport number?

I was un-reliably informed that owning over 5 condo's and you are assumed to be running a business and need a work permit.

Anyone met that stipulation?

The size of a packet is variable and depends upon your computer set up, routers on the path and net congestion.

No,

But for anyone trying to get the UK pound sign hold the left hand alt key and press 156 on the NUMERIC key pad and then let the alt key go.

Of course that doesn't work on a laptop with no numeric key pad. I'll go back and sit in the corner.

Of course I assume you have the UK set as language and Keyboard? (Control Panel - regional and language options - languages - details)

Don't forget that the UK keyboard has one key more than the US/Thai keyboard. If you map the US keyboard as a UK keyboard you don't get the - now is it the / or the \ key?

IOM Irish Nationwide, 6% fixed rate 1 year bond, minimum investment £50,000

Birmingham Midshire 1 yr fixed rate 6.23% minimum investment £1

http://www.askbm.co.uk/savings/t/fixed/intro.asp

I know which one I prefer.

(Actually I prefer the variable instant access with ICICI or A&L with between 5.8% and 6.05% rate, instant access and will - hopefully - go up with the next rate rise)

Swapping ideas is always good, that is how I get most of my knowledge

I have used Abbey and Fsharp in the IOM, Abbey never got over about 50% of the UK rate and Fsharp shut up shop and never bothered to tell me. Does leave a sour taste in one's mouth.

Incidentally the Irish Nationwide IOM page has a very good summary of the European directive on taxation - well worth a read for those affected.

Maybe Bangkok is more expensive than Chiang Mai. Our condo charges 6 baht per sq meter and almost manage it - there will be an increase by a couple of Baht next year. With swimming pool, security guards, CCTV etc.

Mind we have no sinking fund, and the building needs painting but they are both on the list 'to do'.

Places in Chiang Mai that are expensive tend to have one person owning a high percentage of the Units and not paying their dues.

How to find out if the management is any good, talk to owners? Rent in the building? really is hard to easily find this out. Also one person's definition of good is not everybody's definition - especially if comparing to the west.

I do like the free program gspot from http://gspot.headbands.com/

that will tell you all about your video file in a trice.

Naka,

I just find the interest rates are 2-3% lower and charges for everything deposits, ATM, withdrawals etc. I was not impressed. Swiss banks were less gready!

But horses for course.

Thanks - so all income from interest is tax free if you are Non-resident in the UK.

I have always said that the UK is an excellent 'offshore' tax haven for non-residents - better than most places as it has high interest rates and low tax and bank charges. With no tax it is even better.

For other investments, shares etc, there is no tax to pay as a non-resident (it is all in the notional tax paid bit that is not reclaimable - thanks Mr Brown).

Once you have been non-resident for over 5 years no capital gains to be paid either.

Why put money elsewhere?

Naka - I'm going to stick my neck out,

Although the form you quote does not say so if your UK taxable income is over the personal allowance (£5,200 or so) then you do pay tax on the saving (above the allowance).

I'd love to be proved wrong?

(grammatical error corrected)

In my experience in most condo's you can either get your electricity from the condo or direct from the leckie company.

If the condo supplies your electricity then you must ask them the price - 5 baht per unit is not unusual. Direct from the PEA then it is 2.6'ish a unit. The difference is partially explained by the fact that the Condo pays commercial rate but you pay private rate. There is a small (35baht?) standing charge.

Water - seems you must buy through the condo, I've seem prices from 10 baht (condo pumps the water themselves) to 25 baht (town water) per cu metre - again you have to ask the condo office.

Telephone through the condo is often about 5 baht per call (local) with a 10 minute cut off. But get your own line for 100 baht a month rental and 3 baht per local call unlimited - installation is around 3,000 provided the condo allow you to have your own line. Again you must ask the condo office for details.

The seller, in theory, might know the price, but many people do not know how much they are paying for utilities. The banks know nothing in my opinion.

I've never know a farang pay more than a Thai, but read the meters when you buy. You should be able to see the last reading taken by the condo management if they made the reading. If it is electricity from the PEA then you are only responsible from the time you take over. Since all utilities are cut off quite quickly if bills aren't paid then there is only a little chance of a big bill (relative to farang prices) being outstanding.

Nothing to stop you asking the seller for sight of the last bill, they all come monthly and if you read Thai are easy to understand.

On condo charges you will pay X baht a sq metre, there X is some magical number between 6 and 40 or more. You MUST know that figure before you buy. Also look for payments to sinking fund, water meter charge, security charge, swipe card charges, legal fund etc. These are normally small, 50-500 baht per year. Ask the right question of the condo office and they will tell you, but keep asking until you are clear about the answer. All these charges will be up-to-date when you buy otherwise land registry won't register the sale. But 40 baht a sq metre charge will cost you around 4,000 baht a month for a nice sized condo - not cheap.

Management can also add your share of any major repairs. As a co-owner you are legally liable to pay your share of all essential work/maintenance/repairs/bills etc of the Condo building. So do look at how good the management is - this is the biggest pitfall in buying a condo.

(All quoted here is Chiang Mai experience)

If I recall correctly your first deposit into ICICI has to be by cheque from a linked account. But it might have been ING?

Bit of a problem as I don't use cheques any more. When I contacted then they said no cheque no account.

Learning to read and write is not that hard, did it myself over a period of a few weeks and am now OK with standard stuff - there are enough exceptions to trip me up.

I learnt the consonants - writing, sound and ending sound. Then the simpler vowels, added the vowel clusters and the rarer vowels. I have yet to master the rules for the tones

So now I can read and write Thai - but often don't know what it means!

AFAIK - I've never paid into a UK pension - you can't transfer a pension out of the UK. I know certain 'advisors' claim to be able to do so but it appears to cost more than the savings.

10% rate disappear in April 2008 onwards, except for savings income.

About (I do not know the exact %) 1% to 3% of the land registry valuation.

Believe it is normally 1% but if it is a business then can be 3%. Google Thaivisa for a definitive answer a short while ago.

hqvneil - if non-resident you still pay tax on your bank interest if it is in an account in the UK.

The only benefit is that income earned outside the UK is not taxed.

You don't have to work outside the UK or prove no financial ties to be non resident. Non-residence is based solely on how many days a year you spend outside the UK.