gearbox

Still much better than giving an ATM card. The card can be damaged, the pin lost and so on. I knew a Thai/foreigner couple, the guy had a major accident and was incapacitated. The girl had his card but he couldn't remember the pin. Eventually he got evacuated and the girl was left empty handed. He had nearly 1 mil in the bank, not sure what happened with his money, as he wasn't dead, but not functioning mentally either.

Curious to know how the bank would figure out if you died. What if you die outside Thailand? I know people who live outside Thailand but have opened accounts here many years ago. I have my gf as a signatory of my Krunsri account, but is not for inheritance purposes, we both put money there and she usually has more than me. We haven't tried doing a signatory withdrawal yet, she is using ATM card.

The attached image shows the bulk of the Thai exports to the US. Rubber is self explanatory, and substitution importers are not easy to find, so the Americans need to absorb their own tariffs. Nuclear reactors? Hmm I didn't know Thailand is producing them. The bulk is machinery and electronics. Thailand doesn't have any major companies in this area, so it is likely multinationals producing in Thailand and exporting. Not much of the profit is left here, so the multinationals either have to pass the tariffs to the consumers, reduce the prices and absorb the tariffs, or relocate to a different country where there is no guarantee of future tariffs from anywhere. Not much impact on the Thais unless the production is curbed. Life goes on.

The tax residency in Australia is a complex topic, but if you don't have any substantial connections to Australia, like family, house, businesses , cars and bank accounts with fair bit of money you should generally be ok. If you are non resident you don't have to submit tax return, there is a checkbox in the return to notify ATO you won't be submitting returns. If you want to be 100% sure you can apply at the ATO for a private ruling.

If you see the masseuses, you'll figure out in 3 seconds that they are not into deep tissue massage 🤣

The massage is opposite the former Kasikorn bank building in Chaweng, there is iHerbs massage in the former bank building, part of the established iHerbs chain. The two massages are just opposite each other, iHerbs closes before midnight. This place opened recently, there are close to 10 girls there sitting all day around on the stairs with open legs and short skirts😄Most are middle aged, overweight and not very attractive. Most of the times they seem to be all outside, not many takers. It functions in area where there are no similar places next to it, it is mostly old established businesses. Most don't seem to be happy that they moved in from what I know.

I is a happy ending place...it remained closed yesterday, usually the girls are quite active in front of the place. The Thais are saying that it seems he smoked quite a bit of weed before going to massage. RIP.

Good news but they had a few false starts to Europe a few times. The fights to Istanbul never eventuated. Otherwise they are a great airline to fly with a bicycle, cheap baggage allowance and no issues with box dimensions. They are the only airline I know which would fly your bicycle just wrapped with cling wrap.

Yeah...the Italians should own most of Europe as there are Roman artefacts everywhere.

Likely when the containment of the Chinese economy fails. That may take a while. The Chinese will be provoked to attack Taiwan, and on it goes.

The rules in Thailand are quite "elastic". They vary from branch to branch, and from person to person. I arrived in Thailand with O-A visa a while ago and tried to open a bank account. All of the bank branches required a work permit from me...tried in vain to explain them that I'm on a retirement visa. Then I brought with me my gf, which had substantial amounts in 2 banks and the staff was 'wai-ing" her, the accounts were opened pretty quickly. The requirements seems to get tighter, I had to provide my Australian tax file number last time in order to open a term deposit.

It is a possibility. I met a Brit in India 5 years ago just before covid. He got some infection in India which took nearly 3 months and quite a few doctors to diagnose in UK. He lost 16 kilos and was barely able to go upstairs in the end.

That's correct for most countries if you are not a citizen or have a status with access to health care.

I did have issues converting from visa exempt last time, if I can get non-O outside probably would be better. Can I get non-O in Australia? One observation relevant to this thread. Bangkok Bank in Samui can't do 12 months bank statements, from memory it is only 6 months. Myself can't be bothered updating my bank book too, I usually do it before extension. As a result there is a time gap in both the statement and the bank book for a few months. Initially I was worried that I would have problems proving I have the funds as required in the last 12 months, but the IO can't be bothered, it seems more relevant to them is to deposit 100 baht on the day the book is updated and the statement is done. TiT, every province and office could be different, this is the Samui Immigration.

I opened term deposit with Bangkok Bank by transferring money from my savings account. I did get a separate bank book. Actually I opened 2 X 12 months term deposits - one 820k, the other 250k. As far as I know, there are no issues with the Samui immigration if you have 2 bank books, they are both with the same bank and there is clear trail. Anyway I don't need it now, currently in the country on visa exemption, departing again next month. If I do move to non-O retirement again it would be much simpler way to maintain. No tens of transactions in the bank book, and term deposits are generally safer, difficult to scam them, no ATM card attached to them.

Max 6 months per year, will move to DTV soon. I don't plan to spend more than 4-5 months in Thailand in the next few years, first I have extensive travel plans, second don't want to be a tax resident here.

My retirement non-O extension has lapsed now, but I still keep 1.2-1.5 mil baht in Thai banks as currency hedge. I transferred the amounts when the Aussie was 23-25 baht, so I'm ahead at least 10% for the time being. Everyone has different circumstances, for me tax issues are much more important than 800k sitting in Thai banks.

Bangkok Bank...but I did it the beginning of January. I think they lowered the rates since then.

You need to compare apples with apples, different investments carry different risks. Cash deposit rates are going down across the world, so the difference with the Thai rates is getting smaller. I have 800k on term deposit at 1.5%, the rates in Australia are going below 4% now, so not that much of a difference. Of course I can put them in penny stocks and make 100%, or lose everything...

The people of my country have no business attacking other countries. And any country attacked should fight back, including Iran.

WW3 is likely one way or another. Nothing to do with Iran, it is all about the containment of China.

Time for China and Russia to provide nuclear umbrella and hand out a few hypersonic missiles. Give them a bit of a proxy war taste.

Nothing new...there will be more wars, until China dismantles this nest of parasites. I would be probably gone by then.

Most of the fatf members do a process called "entity resolution". They have to legally attribute a transaction to a unique person. As a starter they would need your name, address and DOB - highly unlikely that 2 people with the same name and DOB would live in the same address. When they don't have all the required info they may try to triage the data, taking into account extra information...could be a passport number or a driving licence. For international bank wire transfers the banks are required to include the information, so the wire transfers are pretty much always traceable at the sending and receiving points. Agencies as AUSTRAC have vast databases with current and previous international bank transfers. However no ATM withdrawals data. The ATM withdrawals info can only be obtained from your bank by the tax and law enforcement agencies in your country if there is ongoing audit or investigations.

The ATM withdrawals with a foreign card are not traceable by any institution except the bank which issued the card. The debit cards don't have enough information for the transaction to be attributable to a specific person.