NotaNutter

Thanks Bob, well it seems that their website is wrong. I thought it was too good to be true. Quite a big difference between 1% and 10% annual premium.

Bob, don't do it is my advice. I think you've answered your own question in the post above, it's far too risky for the small returns (if any) that you could expect, and you could very easily lose the full 3M.

I suspected the same thing Bob.

I've not seen this type of policy anywhere else (eg. UK).

I've been thinking about future retirement and noticed an insurance with pension policy on the ING Thailand website (terms copied at the bottom of this post).

Is this too good to be true? It says you pay 1% of the sum insured per year, for 20 years. Then you get a lump sum of 30% of the sum insured + a pension of 1% of the sum insured per month. I've copied the terms below. Am I reading this correctly? For example, if the sum insured is 10M baht then;

You pay 1% of 10M per YEAR as a premium - 100,000 x 20 years = 2,000,000

After 20 years you get 30% as a lump sum, and you get a MONTHLY pension of 100,000 until you die. I realise inflation will reduce the value of 100,000 in 20 years, but it still seems a good deal to me. Anybody know if this is a good deal or not? I'd post the link but I know URL's are not allowed on this site, here's the main points.

From ING Thailand website, under products. . .

Income protection for retirement and early loss of life

- Annual cash payment of 1% sum assured from the end of year 1 until year 20

- Non Guaranteed Maturity Bonus at the end of year 20 (approximated 30% of sum assured)

- Monthly pension benefit 1% sum assured,commencing from the end of the month following the anniversany year 20th, but if loss of life occurs ,

company guarantees to pay for 120 months to the beneficiary

- In case of death before the end of year 20 , beneficiary receives either face amount or cash value , with greater

Yes, it doesn't add up. If UBC's signal is incompatible with widescreen TV's, and UBC virtually have a monopoly here for cable/satellite TV, then why are the shops full of widescreen TV's these days.

Just received the following email from UBC customer support. . .

Thank you very much for your support in our service. Regarding to your inquiry, UBC would like to inform you that your service would not support a widescreen plasma TV. We are sincerely sorry for this inconvenience that may have caused.

Should you have any further queries, please contact our customer service at tel: 0-2271-7171 or email; [email protected]

The only thing you should need is a travel plug adapter for the mains connection plug, which you can buy here or in the UK. They are available in most large supermarkets here for about 1 pound.

The mains voltage and telephone sockets in Thailand are the same as the UK.

PS I've emailed UBC for an update, I'll post their reply assuming I get one.

Thanks for the replies.

It seems that the salesguy in Emporium was showing me some fancy stretched picture that the untrained eye can't recognise? I watch about one dvd a month, and so I wanted the widescreen for normal day-to-day UBC viewing. If UBC don't broadcast in widescreen format then I can't see much point in me buying a widescreen tv. But any counter opinions would be welcome.

I was looking at some plasma tvs at emporium the other week. The salesguy showed me Thai channels 3 and 7 and they seemed to be transmitting in widescreen format (the "7" logo was a few inches inward from the right side of the screen, unlike my 4/3 at home where the logo is near the right side). He told me most channels on UBC are available widescreen now.

I emailed UBC last year for an answer, and the reply surprised me, they said that they don't recommend widescreen tvs for UBC signal, must admit that I've not asked them again though.

My set top box has a widescreen option as the simcity mentions above. I just don't want to spend 180k if UBC don't actually transmit in a widescreen format (BBC, CNN, HBO, etc). Any more comments would be welcome, I'd like to get to the bottom of this before shelling out 180k.

Do UBC broadcast in widescreen format? I'm thinking of buying a widescreen TV but don't want the "stretched" picture you get when the broadcaster is only transmitting 4/3. Anybody personal experience of this?

Thanks for the replies. It seems to me that the Perth Certs at www.kitco.com are the way to go, with perhaps some Thai gold bars stored here aswell.

The misses keeps telling me that the best place to buy gold is Chinatown. Do the shops in Chinatown offer a better rate, or is the daily gold rate pretty much fixed across Bangkok?

I want to buy some gold, say 1M baht, and put it in a bank's safe deposit box for about 10 years until I retire as everybody seems to be saying it's going up. Even if it doesn't go up it will at least diversify things a bit. I've already sorted out a safe deposit box at HSBC Bangkok (very reasonable rate by the way). I know there are lots of Gold shops in Chinatown, but is there a proper honest dealer to buy a large-ish amount like 1M baht in Bangkok? Or should I just buy lots of heavy gold chains in Chinatown?

Thanks Digger,

Anybody managed to get a mortgage with a company rather than guaranteeing the wife? If so, with which bank? Cheers.

I frequently drive past The Lakes (the new condo on Rachadapisek). I was considering buying something there once. There are 170 apartments, it was finished a few months ago, but I can only ever see 2 or 3 apartments with any lights on. Last night at 10pm there was only 1 light on as I drove past. What's going on? Is the condo market spriralling downward again? Are the investors trying to sell now that it's time to pay up the final balance? Anybody know?

I'm buying a house in Jomtien. Need a lawyer. Who do you recommend and who to avoid. Thanks.

Has anybody else noticed that there are various new housing estates around the new airport but most are not being heavily promoted by the developers (apart from a few signs on the road)? For example, Land & House Plc have Nantawan Gin-Gaow and Nantawan Suan Luan 9 new projects; Golden Land have the Monarco Project on the ring road, plus a few others. I subscribe to Land & House newsletter and they send me brochures every month, but nothing much is mentioned about these new projects, and the website only has very basic info on the new projects.

But I drove past the two L+H new estates and they are almost finished. . strange.

Golden Land Plc have been building their Monarco Project for about a year, but their web site still says it's an "upcoming" project. It's wierd, I wonder if there is something going on with the new airport city being planned around there. Perhaps they'll be anouncing tax advantages. or that foreigners can buy around there (wishing thinking). Or perhaps nobody is buying and they are trying to clear old stock. Something doesn't seem right. Any comments?

Just heard of another land/house purchase option from a friend who has first hand experience of this.

Register the land/house in the name of a Thai person and at the same time the Thai person (and their next of kin) sign undated land transfer documents. You keep hold of the title deeds and the signed land transfer docs.

Any comments?

I guess I should forget the lease for my own case (because I will borrow the money from a bank, and also my wife’s ID Card/Tabian Ban show her Western surname).

I’m wondering if there’s some protection (however weak) provided by being the guarantor of the mortgage (whilst the mortgage is being paid off of course). For example, do the banks hold onto the title deeds until the mortgage is paid off? Do they seek the guarantor’s approval before handing over the deeds? How does this work? Anybody know?

Thanks SM. I know that the lease option is popular, but I'm wondering who do most foreigners lease from if they are not married. Their lawyer?

Please can somebody confirm that if I buy a house in my (Thai) wife’s name, with myself as the guarantor of mortgage (this part is already agreed with my bank), then my wife can lease the property to me or not? A lawyer has told me that a wife can’t lease a property to her husband because they are classed as the same entity in Thai law. I’d prefer the lease in case we ever split up.

I did the interview earlier this year and recently got residency. The following is what happened in March this year, can't say if it will be the same in 2005.

There were 2 parts to the interview, firstly there are about 10 multiple choice questions, and then they record a video of you speaking Thai. No reading/writing Thai was required.

The first part: they say a Thai word and ask you to point to it from 4 picture options. For example a color, or a fruit, etc. I heard that they change the questions every year, but they follow a common theme something like colors, fruits, animals, simple objects, some questions about Thailand, etc.. I guess that if you can find a law firm that is processing lot's of PR's then they'll be able to prepare you better than I was.

The second part they video you speaking Thai, it's not as hard as it sounds. It's supposed to be an introduction to yourself, eg. name, age, nationality, place of birth, why you want residency, etc. I suggest that you sit down with a Thai friend and write it out in phonetics, then record a Thai person saying it, then after a week or two of learning it then record yourself saying it, get a Thai person to check it, then memorize it between now and March. It should be something like 1 to 3 minutes long.

I heard that they give you points when reviewing your application, like how long you've been here, your profession, if married to a Thai, salary, tax paid, ability to speak some Thai, etc., and so even if you don't do so well in the Thai language section you still have a chance, especially if there are less than 100 people of your nationality applying this year.

Hope this helps, and good luck.