pattaya1234was

Credit Card from Amex. OK it costs a few thousand but they have been excellent to deal with. Twice they have got money back for me-money owed by airlines.

Comments such as yours are best binned

Not all front office staff in top hotels have University degrees-my partner has qualification from Aksorn and that and an interview were sufficient to be accepted. He cannot be the only one!

I am not sure about that. Hotels were crammed full last weekend and will be again this coming weekend. You clearly do not live in a Tourist town.

Really? In the top hotels Receptionists are not permitted to sit down-they stand for all of their 10hr shift When you have 150 rooms occupied by Thais checking out at the last minute , noon, and another 150 waiting to check in at 2pm it is not much fun-I can assure you. I mention Thais because they use the limits whereas foreigners tend to drift away during the morning giving the cleaners time to clean.. Clean 150 rooms in 2 hours? You need an army of cleaners for that! And, by the way, they all speak and write excellent English.

I tend to agree. But, last year I was not given a notice that had to be counter-signed and not given an exact date on which to report. Neither was the information regarding my comment about obtaining a visa before October 1998. So things have changed and, maybe, the reporting now HAS to be done. Who knows? Yes, Jomtien

I do.

A friend has recently obtained his yearly extension. On leaving the office he was handed a form detailing his reporting duties for the proving of his having 800,000 baht on deposit for the past 3 months. This he had to sign and was given a date on which to report. Hidden at the bottom of this form were details for those who obtained their Visa before 21st October 1998 and have been consecutively permitted to stay for retirement purposes. There are two different criteria: (a) For those over 60 years of age and have fixed income with fund maintained in the the bank account for the past 3 months no less than 20,00 baht (b) for those less than 60 years of age...... To me there is an error in (a) as I believe 200,000 must be the sum in the bank or a monthly income of 20,000 baht . It is difficult to find this information on the Immigration site but it is there! I thought I kept up to date but obviously not-is this "news" to anyone else?!

Being a Barclays customer with no UK address I have spent a while looking at alternatives. I have chosen Wise with whom I have been dealing for a few years and so already had an account. Trying to call them in Singapore was a fruitless exercise so I had to try the on-line option. It was quite clear that I was talking to a 'robot' and when you are in that situation life can become very puzzling in that specific questions cannot get direct replies. Anyway I eventually managed to impress 'Jude' enough for it to verify me. So I was then able to get my account information- Sort Code etc. At present I am having my State Pension (UK) paid in to Barclays and I needed to move that to Wise so I called the DWP and fairly quickly and seamlessly was able to make that change. My conversation was on Wednesday and the lady officer asked me if I wanted my next payment , due today, to be paid to Wise. The lady told me that telephone enquiries are dealt with immediately whereas postal requests take a while to process. So sometime next week I hope to see my Pension in my Wise account. Watch this space!!

Thank you OJAS. Yes, I could make do with my Thai debit card but I always like to have some form of back-up. Last September , as I am 83 , I traveled domestically by National Bus. But they would not accept my Barclays debit card whether I tried to make bus bookings in Thailand or the UK. I visited Barclays in the UK and tried to make the booking in front of their staff-they had no idea of what was happening and National Bus told me they would look into the problem-end of story! I will try to get hold of another Thai debit card for back-up-that will not be easy either! The other solution is not go back to the UK. And life is meant to be easier nowadays!

I am one of those long time Barclays customers who have been informed that their account in the UK is going to be closed in August this year. I only have a small amount of money in the account which I find useful when I travel to the UK-Debit card for example. I also suffered when they cancelled my Barclaycard 7/8 years ago. After much searching I was accepted by Amex who have been excellent. The only problem is that Amex is not universally accepted and thus a Debit card becomes essential. Yes I could travel to the UK with a lot of cash in my luggage but I would rather not take that route. So are there any suggestions for a Debit Card? I am not prepared to pay the 40 pounds per month demanded by Barclays International. Obviously I have a Thai Debit card. Any helpful advice would be most gratefully received.

Or Dr Roy at Rutnin also

I have been watching test cricket from NZ and India over the weekend. A lot of buffering on BT1 and BT2 but no problems when I watch the same pictures via Supersport in South Africa.

They certainly are not short of money. Whether they are 'big' spenders or not I do not know.

Try the "Farcent' one from Thai Watsaduexcellent

Many Russians are trying to lengthen their stays here-at the moment most are booked in on Package Tours of a month or less.

Yes, Airtv but it will cost you approx 6000 baht per annum. But very well worth it. There are other cheaper versions but you get what you pay for

I did my 90-day report on line this week-for the 5th time. I use the 'idiots" guide found on Google, namely thailand .acclaim.com. I was concerned that I may have a problem as I returned to Thailand a couple of weeks before my 90-day report was due. When I received my reminder I followed the advice of "Ubon Joe" and ignored the reminder. This week I simply filled in my recent re-entry date and got approval within 24 hours.

I normally book a night at At Residence Suvarnabhumi Hotel in Lat Krabang which has free parking-for how long I do not know. Worth a try.

That was quick-thank you.

I do the above on line and have just received the usual warning that my reporting date is approaching-8th October. I have been to the UK for a week or so and returned on 12th September. So technically my reporting date is reset to early December. I thought the Airport Immigration and Chonburi Immigration systems had been linked-but apparently not. I am sure some of you have had this problem. Do I ignore the on line warning or fill in the on line form using the December date? Decisions, decisions!. Thanks in advance

No idea on the first one. As I said nothing in Swampy

But I was asked to show a vaccine certificate when checking in at Heathrow last Sunday- Eva. Nothing in Swampy.

My reference was to one hospital which happens to be in Pattaya. For major operations ,if you do not have Insurance, I suspect a CC will be asked for-maybe I am wrong but...

Has anybody any experience of the above flying on either Eva or Thai? Were there any Security/luggage delays/problems?