Bobsuruncle

Thank you again,

I'm guessing that I'll have a much better chance of getting a no fee (from Thai bank) credit card cash advance with my Pen Fed card by going to a larger city that has more farang.

Those two links are going to come in very handy as well for the different bank exchange rates and the visa rates.

I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge on this subject.

Cheers and happy 2016!

Richard

are penfed credit cards unique in not charging for cash advances? i asked cap one visa card and they said it's $10.00 , then immediately they begin charging interest, i'm wondering if anyone has done the cap one card cash advance, or has another card in mind besides penfed's cards, thx

Done a cash advance 4 times now at a Bangkok Bank branch using my CapOne credit card--no cash advance fee charged by CapOne. Then logged onto my CapOne account same day and made a credit card payment to completely offset the cash advance and prevent any interest charge due to the cash advance. Cash advance amount allowed per day/transaction is $2,000 (approx Bt64K) which I've been doing. Total cash amount allowed is your line of credit on the card. So, get a cash advance today up to $2,000 and go do it again tomorrow if desired...and go the next day...etc...etc...etc...right up to you hit your line of credit limit if desired. No fees of any kind charged...you get the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate with no foreign transaction fee applied...no fee charged by the Thai bank either. Summary: PenFed credit cards do not charge a cash advance (one of the few who don't) or foreign transaction fee.

Sent from my Samsung S4

Hello Pib,I hope this isn't too old of a thread to ask more questions.

First I want to thank all of you for all of this good information. I have now done several ACH money transfers from my Bank of America account to my Thai Bangkok Bank via the NYC branch with no hassle. I have also acquired a Pen Fed Defender visa and Pen Fed American Express card.

I have tried to do an over the counter cash advance with two different Thai banks (Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank) with my Pen Fed Visa. But both Thai banks wanted to charge me a 3% fee for the over the counter transaction. But you're saying above that the Thai banks don't charge you a fee. I'm wondering if this is just because I don't live in a tourist type town. I live near Renu Nakhon half way between Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom. They both suggested that I use the ATM machine which I did successfully and since I went home and logged on to my PenFed account and paid the balance the same day PenFed didn't charge me any fees. The only drawback to using the ATMs are the 180 baht fee they charge and the exchange rate is less than the exchange rate that I got for the same day of my ACH money transfer from Bank of America. Another disadvantage is the maximum-one-time-withdrawal out of the ATM is 25,000 baht. So if I wanted 50,000 baht I'd have to do two withdrawals and pay 360 baht fee.

As mentioned above I accidentally found out that the exchange rate given via the ACH transfer was about 0.14 points better than the visa exchange rate.

So my questions to you, Pib, are: 1) are you still doing the over the counter cash advances with no Thai bank fee? And if so do you live in a tourist town?

And 2) have you found the exchange rate to be different from ACH rates?

Even if the rates are different and it's only 0.14 points, that's only 280 baht out of $2,000 which if done through my B of A to Bangkok bank the 3 day transaction fee from B of A is $3 (108 baht) and the NYC Bangkok Bank charges $10 (359 Baht) and the Thai Bangkok Bank charges 0.25% (180 baht). So the ACH costs around 647 baht whereby the same amount of money via the cash advance with a lower exchange rate is only 280 baht. So you'd still be 367 baht ahead with the lower rate. That's of course if I could find a Thai bank that didn't want to charge me a 3% fee just to give me the money via my visa card over the counter.

I'm obviously missing something here. But isn't the King's birthday on 05 December? It's a Saturday and would seem like the perfect day to have the festivities.

John 1

It is my understanding that you are allowed to report up to 14 days prior and up to 7 days after your 90 day report date without being charged a fee.

Besides this wasn't a late fee charge that the officer was asking for, she was calling it a new fee for entering me into her computer for the first 90 day reporting date on a new 1 year visa.

thanks for your response though.

riepan963

I wanted to look at your previous posts regarding the problems you've had there but apparently my searching skills aren't very good. Do you have a link to get me started?

Thanks

riepan963

Thank you for your comment.

That makes me feel a little bit better. I was beginning to wonder if it was just me that was constantly having problems with this office as this was not the first time I've had difficulty with this officer. In the past I have always been polite and have given no reason that I know of to make her angry with me, but on every occasion (6 times now) she has either been incompetent or intimidating and this last time I lost my temper. Not good, I know. I now plan to take all my 90 day reports to Mukdahan where they have always been professional and friendly.

Thanks again for your insight

I have a question about a "new fee" of 800 baht for doing a 90 day report. This was in Nakhon Phanom,
For the last 6 years I've done the 90 day report without any fees in many different offices (Koh Samui, Phuket, Pattaya, Chumphon, and Mukdahan. I now live in Renu Nakhon (or a village close by) and have a yellow book with the new house we built 2 years ago.This year though I was out of the country when my retirement visa expired and had to get a new one before returning the middle of September. My first 90 day report was due on 14 December. When I went in 4 days past this on the 17th (but still within the allowed time frame for reporting) the Immigration officer said that I would have to pay 800 baht in order to be entered into their computer system. She said that my first 90 day report on a new visa had to be entered into the computer so that my wife could find me if I was sick in a hospital somewhere. That sounded like she made it up so I asked her to provide me proof of this. "Show me this new rule". Not happy with my questioning her, she went into the back room and emerged 5 minutes later with another Immigration officer with a mean look on his face who had the Immigration handbook opened to a page for me to read. It was in both Thai and English. What he showed me in the book said that if I am a resort that if I don’t report a foreigner who is staying with me I can be fined. After reading what they showed me, I said this has nothing to do with what you just said. Things got a bit tense for a few minutes and then the Immigration officer handed me back my passport with everything set up for another 90 days in March. She told my wife that she would let me pay the fee next time.
Is there a new fee for your first 90 day report on a new retirement visa or was this another extortion attempt?

Thanks in advance for any advice or other personal experiences from this office.

I have a question about a "new fee" of 800 baht for doing a 90 day report. This was in Nakhon Phanom, so if I'm in the wrong site just delete this.

For the last 6 years I've done the 90 day without any fees. This year though I was out of the country when my retirement visa expired and had to get a new one before returning the middle of September. My first 90 day report was due on 14 December. When I went in on the 17th the Immigration officer said that I would have to pay 800 baht in order to be entered into their computer system. She said that my first 90 day report had to be entered into the computer so that my wife could find me if I was sick in a hospital somewhere. I asked her to provide me proof of this. "Show me this new rule". She went into the back room and emerged 5 minutes later with another Immigration officer who had the Immigration handbook opened to a page for me to read. After reading what they showed me, I said this has nothing to do with what you just said. Things got a bit tense for a few minutes and then the Immigration officer handed me back my passport with everything set up for another 90 days in March. She told my wife that she would let me pay the fee next time.

Is there a new fee for your first 90 day report on a new retirement visa or was this another extortion attempt?

90-day notification of staying longer than 90 days

Are there any plans for an immigration office for Chumphon in the near future? If not can I do my 90 day reporting for my retirement visa at any police station?

I felt an earthquake yesterday early in the day it was a small one and didn't seem to last for more than 15 to 20 seconds. I was sitting down at the time and felt the roll come in. I called several friends but none had felt it and I was beginning to question my alcohol intake. So good to see that someone else felt it also. I live in the Chalong area. <br>

Anyone know the conditions of the roads from Phuket to Surat?