doctormann

In Pattaya we have been bracing ourselves for weeks but, apart from the occasional brief shower, nothing has happened!

Tempting but I don't want to p*ss them off. I still have an International Account and I don't want to compromise that one.

I would be interested to hear from any Barclays customer, living in Thailand, who has actually managed to close their Barclays current account, as required because they are not UK resident. If you managed to do this, how did you do it? I, among others, received notice from Barclays that my current and savings accounts were to be closed. I was told that I must clear the accounts of any funds, direct debits, regular credits, etc. I was also given instructions on how to then close the accounts. Well, I cleared the accounts but have, so far, failed to close them. There are, allegedly, three ways to close the accounts. (1) From the Barclays online website; (2) From the Barclays phone app; (3) By telephone call. In my experience, Option 3 is best avoided unless you like listening to 'tune of the month' while your phone credit evaporates, only to be eventually connected to a call centre where the operatives know nothing about the issue. Options 1 and 2 do not work - there is no obvious way to close an account from either of these. So, I sent them a secure message, using the facility on the website, explaining the problem. To be fair, the person that I communicated with was very helpful, although may have been a bot, judging from some of the responses. The first response was the provision of a phone number that I should call - i.e. Option 3. I asked if there was a way to close the accounts online, thus avoiding the phone call option. I was assured that this could be done. There followed a lot of two-way dialogue that seemed logical - confirmation of details etc. This ended with 'Are you sure that you want to do this?' then 'Are you really sure?' then 'OK, please give me a few minutes to service your request'. Wow, I thought, I have succeeded - but no, I then get 'Sorry, I do not have the authority to close your accounts, please call this number and someone there will be able to help you'. So, back to Option 3, it seems! Honestly, why can't they get their act together! I am tempted to do nothing - the accounts will get closed anyway, I'm sure. Might get blacklisted though!

So, another five weeks of Limbo!

UK has many strange place names. A quick Google turns up quite a long list. We even have a Scratchy Bottom - somewhere in Dorset.

You forgot Six Mile Bottom!

For Glasgow, should be a deep fried Mars Bar. Yum yum!

Dodgy LPG conversion, maybe?

Rather, was back, as it seems to have disappeared again!

ToT (now National Telecomm) also do fibre internet - at least they do where I live.

The newsletter banner is now salmon-colored but the 'dismiss' option is back!

I see that we can no longer dismiss the orange 'sign up to the newsletter' banner (on the desktop - don't know if this is the case with the app.) Just another irritation. I don't want the newsletter so stop nagging me about it!

Or two short planks.

Indeed, paper maps are like hen's teeth. Coming here in 2004, from the UK, where we had/have excellent Ordnance Survey maps, it was a bit of a shock to find that local maps of the Pattaya area were next to impossible to find. Those that did exist seemed to be more a work of fiction, rather than reality. It was crazy - I forget how many times I got hopelessly lost trying to find Mabprachan Lake, which is really not very far away!

OK but that doesn't actually help at all. I am sure that you are aware that the meager UK state pension falls far short of meeting the Thailand Immigration requirements so pensioners here require an additional source of income, which may or not be payments from an occupational pension scheme. That money has to be paid into some sort of account and that may need to be a 'proper' UK account.

There has certainly been a lot of talk about this over the last three months but, before that, not so much. I received my closure notice about three months ago - a complete surprise to me as I had seen nothing about this before then.

Sorry but you are incorrect. It is certainly possible for UK State Pensions to be paid into a foreign bank account but this is not the case with some occupational pension providers, who will only pay into an account with a UK sort code. There is at least one report, on this forum, where the pension provider refused to pay into a Wise account - even though Wise have a UK sort code - because, as they said, Wise is not actually a bank. A financial institution it may be but a bank it is not.

Well, in my case there was no indication that my banking arrangements were 'living on borrowed time'. I have banked with the blue eagle bank for nigh on 60 years, for the last 19 of which I have been in Thailand. There was never any indication that the bank was unhappy about this then suddenly, out of the blue, 'We need to close your accounts.' The reason that was given was that I do not maintain a UK address. As a UK tax payer whose sole source of income stems from UK pensions I find this rather unfair. It seems that not all UK banks are acting in this way so is this UK address requirement set in stone by the BoE or is it discretionary and left to the individual banks to decide? I don't know but, as I said earlier, it does seem like having the rug pulled, or being thrown under the bus. I think that a far fairer way would be to 'grandfather' those customers who have a blameless financial record and allow them to keep their accounts. If all this is being done in the name of 'money laundering' perhaps they should concentrate on the real criminals and not victimize pensioners who need UK accounts in order to receive their pension payments. Easy enough for the banks to keep tabs on the money flow so any anomalous transfers could be easily detected and investigated.

More like retroactive actually - in this case called 'pulling the rug from under' with no concern for the consequences!

BB are closing my current and savings accounts at the end of August, because I don't maintain a UK address, and I have banked with them for 60 years! This, apparently, counts for nothing. Neither does the fact that I am a UK citizen, paying UK income tax on my pensions. I am fortunate in that I do also have an International Account which, apparently, I am allowed to keep - for now. It just seems very wrong to me that a UK tax-paying pensioner should be denied access to the on-shore banking network. What do they expect us to do? Some pension providers will only pay into an on-shore account. It is possible to get the UK state pension, for what it's worth, paid into a Thailand account, but this may not be the case for occupational pension providers. Some people here use Wise but Wise is not actually a bank, as has been pointed out previously in this topic, and seems to come with its own problems - such as currency transfers from the UK not appearing as international transactions. I am getting too old for all this cr*p!

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the planet is entering an "era of global boiling". Quick, quick, press the panic button!

Anyone here have any experience of Framework laptops? <https://frame.work/> They do sound very interesting, being highly customizable and upgradeable and fully Linux compatible. It's time to replace my ageing Lenovo Ideapad so I might just give one a go - if I can get one in Thailand. I'm not sure that there is any availability here. Their website indicates that they are starting to expand their shipping destinations but it's not clear if Thailand is on the list yet. Thanks for any info.

Bank provided a 12-month record of all foreign deposits, also a letter confirming that the account is mine. Passbook was updated - the account balance has to match the amount stated in the confirmation letter. This obviously requires a visit to the bank but NOT to the Immigration office.

Khaotalo Visa Services <http://www.visakhaotalo.com/en/Home/Index>

As many of us do.