falang07

Downsizing and ingredient scaling, all corporate strategy of greed.

not just corporate, it happens at the markets and small restaurants, too

I think the rule is to go to the bank and open an account with them ONLY if internet banking is included, and provided immediately, not asking for it later on.

Basic rule in Thailand is that everyone offering anything for sell is trying to exaggerate the price as much as possible and hope to find some fool who will buy. This applies to local markets, selling a car, condo, house, and basically everything. The rule is to bargain aggressively, and move over to another offer in case the owner keeps asking the ridiculously overpriced amount since the market is over-saturated already.

And the reason is simple, you just need to prove that the currency exchange took place (i.e. that you bought Baht for any foreign currency, because this is the reason for the government to impose this rule, to support the Baht), so in the end, it is not important if you import the money physically . In theory, you could even exchange Baht to let's say Euro and then back to Baht, but you would loose quite much if you did the backward exchange in the same day, or even at a later date, unless the exchange rate would move in the right direction.

The answer is YES, you will get a FOREX TRANSACTION FORM even for currency exchanged in Thailand. So I confirm you can do it that way.

So to sum it up, the bacterial infections are usually not a big issue unless you do not start the treatment after early symptoms arise (even though the antibiotic treatment is not very healthy either), but most of the viral infections are pretty dangerous, with some of them, like HIV, probably not so easy to contract, and others, like hepatitis or herpes, contracted quite easily, usually with no cure available (apart from some symptom relievers (in case of herpes) or killer medicines, like in case of hepatitis C or HIV, where it is hard to estimate if you get killed sooner or later by the disease, or the medicine itself - usually strong chemotherapeutic drugs). The choice is your

The cost of the chip version is peanuts anyway, especially if you order big quantities like the banks do. I think it would be quite stupid to refuse this offer, or would you rather save 100 baht for the card and risk having stolen your money from your old magnetic ATM?

re your step 3: this is done by specifying the currency you want to wire, so if you instruct your bank to send 2,000 USD, they must send USD. If you instruct them to send 2,000 THB, they will first convert your USD to THB and then wire directly THB. So just wire USD, EUR or whatever currency of yours and you will be fine.

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(General question) What happens if your own bank does attempt to convert the funds prior to transfer (even though you specified otherwise)? Will the receiving bank in Thailand refuse the transfer? (While this shouldn't be an issue -- US banks are legendary for their boundless incompetence.)

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In case this would happen, which I really doubt, you would have to contact your bank and ask them to revert the payment and reimburse you for all the losses incurred to you. The receiving bank would not refuse it (why would they?).

I just bought a cheap condo for about 500,000 THB, no FETF is issued for such small amount, you just ask the bank to issue a confirmation that the money was wired from abroad and the exchange rate is filled in by the bank (it is the exchange rate that was used to convert your foreign currency to THB). Bangkok Bang charges 100 baht for this paper, issued immediately.

of course OTP is preventing any real damage caused by such attempts

Apart from the genital herpes, there is also hepatitis B, C and so on which I would not like to get either. And liver damaged by hepatitis = very low quality of life and more diseases (even cancer) soon after. Gonorrhea is a piece of cake compared with anything else, even a flu.

If I had any bitcoins bought before this crazy price surge, I would quickly start changing them for gold before this bubble will burst. I find it really crazy that people are willing to pay such high price for some encrypted numbers with no real value or guarantee? I admit paying for papers called money is crazy, too, but there is some guarantee associated with it. Bitcoins, on the other hand, can crash any day.

What about transferring out of Thailand ? You get better rates changing in Thailand. Can you wire "farlang" currency or will they only send it in Baht? ITT

Of course, you can open a foreign currency account in Thailand, move the bahts to that account so it gets converted automatically, and then wire from this FCD abroad. In case you need to wire bigger amount, be prepared to face some slight difficulties like proving this money was remitted to Thailand from abroad before.

Yes, there is no limit on how much money you can transfer to Thailand but bear in mind the opposite might be a big problem (like asking for a work permit if you stay on retirement visa, and other catch 22 requirements).

yes, open a Paypal account in your country and then use Bangkok Bank to withdraw using the much better exchange rate they offer (Paypal's exchange rate is a scam), as you can read in http://www.bangkokbank.com/bangkokbank/personalbanking/dailybanking/transferingfunds/transferringintothailand/receivingfundsfromusa/pages/receivingfundsfromusa.aspx:

PayPal Payments for International E-Commerce Operators in Thailand

If you operate an international e-commerce business or want to transfer funds in US Dollars from your PayPal account to your account with Bangkok Bank in Thailand, you can now transfer funds from your PayPal account via the US ACH system and Bangkok Bank's New York branch.

Service benefits

Better Baht exchange rate - Bangkok Bank will receive and convert your US Dollars funds from PayPal into Thai Baht using the bank's prevailing daily exchange rate in Thailand.

Fast payments - You will receive your funds within 3-4 days after you instruct PayPal to transfer funds.

Free SMS notifications - You can receive an SMS as soon as your funds arrive in your account. To apply for the SMS Remittance Alert service or for more details, click here.

How to use the service

Open a savings or current account at any Bangkok Bank branch in Thailand, or use your existing Bangkok Bank account. Please note, the name of the new or existing Bangkok Bank account must be the same as the name registered with PayPal (if a mismatch occurs, funds will be returned to PayPal).

Add your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand with PayPal to receive funds from PayPal via Bangkok Banks New York Branch:

Select United States as the country.

Bank Name:

Bangkok Bank (without specifying a branch name)

Account Type:

Checking or Savings Account (choose type of account)

Routing Number:

026008691 (Enter the 9-digit routing number for Bangkok Bank's New York branch)

Account Number:

xxxxxxxxxx (Enter the 10-digit number of your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand)

Re-enter Account Number:

xxxxxxxxxx (Re-enter your 10-digit Bangkok Bank account number in Thailand)

PayPal will send an email to confirm that they have added your Bangkok Bank account. You can then start to transfer funds from PayPal to your Bangkok Bank account.

Important note:

PayPal may send two small deposit amounts into your account and request your confirmation. We recommend you do not respond to this request, as it is only applicable to those who maintain their accounts with banks in the US, and is designed to allow PayPal to automatically debit your Bangkok Bank account. Bangkok Bank will not allow PayPal to debit and transfer funds from your account with us to the US.

Bangkok Bank will be able to credit the recipients account in Thailand only when the name and account number of the recipient in your transfer instruction from the banks in the US matches the recipients name and account number at Bangkok Bank.

If you have a USD account with Bangkok Bank in Thailand, you can have the funds deposited into your USD account without converting them into Thai Baht. Please enter the first 16-digit number of your USD account at Bangkok Bank in Thailand*.

So basically today's slogan is "In paper we trust" instead of the old fashioned "In gold we trust". Should a really serious problem happen, it is very easy for any central bank to saturate the system with more paper or digital money made out of thin air, since they are really the ones who are legally allowed to do it anytime and in any scope. So yes, there are deposit protection schemes but it would become a joke in case of a serious breakdown of the system. Still, people believe more the corrupt governments and such promises more than the real value. There was a reason to abandon the golden standard, and it was exactly this, to be able to manipulate the markets at their free will and to hold the unlimited power of printing the money, thus the unlimited power to control the mankind.

With the ability to trade paper gold and anything else in Forex without a physical delivery, this is all just an artificially manipulated market. Add short-selling, and you get the picture. If everyone asked physical delivery at this moment, the price would skyrocket and the majority would just realize there is no gold for them. The same as if all depositors in a bank suddenly asked for their deposits to be paid out, the bank simply does not have it and would just have to go bankrupt. Then the government would simply print more colorful papers for those depositors to fulfill the deposit protection scheme, and if this happened to every bank in the country, the inflation would skyrocket, too, so even though you would get your money back, it's real value would become lower than the paper they are printed on is worth. However, no one can print gold so those holding real gold or anything of a real value, would be affected much less.

Yes, unfortunately making business in Thailand with having too much rights is not possible for foreigners. They (Thais) want to make business themselves, foreigners should just spend money earned abroad in here. This is the main policy in basic terms.

Citizens of this country are really free since they can enforce their rights in here, unlike in Europe where if you would storm a government building, all you would get would be a jail term for the rest of your life. This is what I call freedom. The government can not do what they want, they must listen to the people who they represent. I wish we had this freedom in Europe where you can not pee without first checking if you do not break some rules.

Can you get back a house or car you just sold? The simple answer is NO, unless the new owner wishes to give it back to you. Same in this case.

still better than before

One transfer is enough and paper validity is not limited.

So please stick to the topic, and the topic is Was the law really changed? I hope I do not have to explain this for anyone else since we are getting nowhere. If you can not confirm by reading the current Thai version (which I can not find), please do not comment.

rgs2001uk: I do not need advice on my tax situation or anything else. So just for you since you did not read the topic at all: I refer to http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html which in May this year was still OK, as you can check in the internet time machine at http://web.archive.org/web/20130510085324/http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html