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1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Not quite. This issue has already been to court and the court ruled that Euro clearing could remain in the UK as it was an EU member state and there is every likelihood that decision will be overturned.

There is a precedent, the US has taken control of the dollar so there is little to stop the EU taking full control of the Euro.

So true -- in what world are people living in that thought a country can not take control of it's currency?  Control of the euro would be better suited to any of the euro-zone members, of which UK is not one.  The fact the control rested with UK for many years in that situation speaks volumes about the mess the eurozone is in with it's internally flawed banking structure.  Now that chicken might well come home to roost and the MEPs want to extract a fiscal control based on dodgy political grounds for a benefit to the EU which has not been thought through properly.

42 minutes ago, sandyf said:

"' Chances are she (May) will cave to the DUP"

 

She may have to win first.

 

A Northern Irish politician who campaigned for the Good Friday Agreement is taking legal action against the government.

Ciaran McClean has launched a legal challenge against the proposed deal between the Conservative Party and the DUP.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/23/northern-irish-politician-launches-legal-challenge-against-conservatives-and-dup-6730340/

Some great points sandyf.

Trade in the future will depend on the trading partners and the WTO only becomes involved if both partners are already "signed up" with the WTO ..  UK currently trades with other EU countries based on the EU agreements, but the question I pose is, will trade between UK and - for example - Spain - revert to the prior WTO agreement that existed between them before the EU's own agreements were rubber-stamped by the WTO?  Another possibility would be to take the trade element of the terms of the EU agreements between UK pre-brexit and an individual EM member country and apply them via WTO. Being a pre-existing agreement, the WTO would have little input and the process would be much more speedy.  Yes - it's a biut simplistic, but the current thinking amongst the best Westminster minds is so muddled as to be unfathomable. People are only slowly coming to understand that Brexit ia a blank piece of paper and a gtreat opportunity to rewrite UK's place as a trading partner with it's european neighbours, Such a freedom is truly frightening for both politicians and Beaurocrats of all political hues, so they frantically scrable throug the exist paperwork and try to patch it up - not having the vision to create something new and better..  UK voted for Brexit at the referendum, but then voted for a truly pathetic bunch of mindless sheep to implement it.

The DUP find themselves almost on the same side as Sinn Fein now, both talking to both sides of the house in attempts to get the "bet deal" for their angles in NI.  TM has no idea what she has bitten off with the DUP, and they are currently masking their agenda behind the financing of infrastructure, but the reality is they will be going for support beyond re-establishing rule from Stormont. 

Immigration is starting to take a back seat now as people realise that the issue is already governable with current rules.  The fly-in-the-ointment is the link between freedom of movement of immigrants from EU and freedom of trade between EU countries.  That issue will easily be resolved when MP's wake up and realise that UK just tore up the old agreement - it no longer applies and they need to apply their own currently existing immigration laws.

41 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

 

Perhaps nobody really knows, hence the fear and uncertainty is perfectly justified.  So, if one accepts that, I suppose we are doing little more than tossing a coin.  That's not a good basis for leaving imo, indeed sheer madness really. 

 

There is a broad assumption among Brexiteers that leaving the EU will magic away our trade imbalance, but we will still need to import as much before- the imbalance will just be spread out among more countries; it could even worsen.  And on the other side, leaving is assumed to be tantamount to a glorious recovery in exports.  For the life of me I can't see why in both cases.

 

Isn't it the case that WTO rules have set tariffs?  ...whereas the smart countries are trying to form trade agreements that reduce these.  We'll be well behind the curve, which is a bit silly since we're currently at the front.  It'll take years to disentangle from the EU and Trade agreements won't happen soon, and there are political obstructions too.  Argentina is highly unlikely to welcome us to any club unless the Falklands is up for grabs, and I'm sure numerous nations will seek to exploit our plight.

Tossing a coin was the last GE - and look how that went.  As Naam rightly points out Brexit won't stop trade, but the increase/decrease in the taxes and tariffs is unknown until someone fathoms out the baseline of WTO rules.  The actual numerical value of - for exanple - Germany's exports of Mercedes to UK will probably not change much, so there's a good opportunity for speculators to make hay in the sunshine of the changing profit sources.

During the times after the referendum there were occasions when various countries expressed strong support for new trade agreements with a post-brexit UK.  Australia, India, Canada, etc were hot to trot, but TM has been too busy with tory internal politics to lead the UK forward in that direction.  They seem to think it's more important to stay in power of a bankrupt country than to encourage the UK to prosper on their merits.

The legislation exist, and aways has, for immigration to be controlled, but successive governments have failed to implement it.   Now UK finds itself kow-towing to rules on the timing of negotiations on new trade agreements, imposed by the same over-arching legislature that UK is leaving anyway.  It all stinks to high heaven of a remainers party in power by the skin of it's teeth. 

6 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

The thing about uncertainty is that it is corrosive and breeds yet more.  I think the damage is already done,ie, the horse has already bolted.  And I also think blame for this lies squarely with the Government.

Agreed -- and the GE would not have changed the seat of the blame no-matter who won since there's only a handful of MP's of any/all colours who are truly committed to brexit.

27 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Who knows? Maybe as the negotiations proceed and UK citizens see what they stand to lose, it might generate enough opposition to scotch Brexit

Maybe as negotiations are developed we will see that the WTO terms are not so bad and there will be little difference.  No-one has produced facts on this, and no-one has been able to make a simple, if somewhat broad-brush comparison.  All we get is hot air about trade, and fear about immigration.  Why is the government not giving clear direction to the country and allowing us all to "get back to work"?  Oh - I forgot -- a short while ago the same government was extolling the virtues of remaining, went for the referendum and lost, and then went again for a "confidence booster" and lost their overall majority as well.  "Project Fear" is perhaps a reflection of the Fear the UK people have of their own governments double-dealing incompetence. 

42 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

You're right about the uncertainty and it extends across all aspects, and is real.   Uncertainty is surely a reason not to do something, not a reason why we should give the plan the benefit of the doubt! 

The uncertainty will be reduced when someone takes a bit of time to read the WTO protocols for inter-trading members.  Meantime it's just another facet of  the well-known "Project Fear" that continues in spite of the referendum result.

29 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

The people who work for these houses are very highly paid. If the EU compels them to move, I think they'll move. There's too much money at stake for them and the owners of these companies, mostly Americans,  not to. What does it take physically to move these highly compensated professionals and some very high powered computers to Ireland? Or Germany? Or the Netherlands? Or possibly even France?

There's little ount that some shuffling will happen, but there's no chance of the "houses" givin anything away at this stage.  Every announcement will be pounced on and traded on for their mutual gain.  We are not even live spectators in the play - we only see the results.

There has not been any attempt to describe the situation post-brexit if UK car distributors want to sell Mercedes cars.  What will the invoice include?  What import duty?  What VAT?  Everyone is huffing and puffing about the rights and wrongs of something that no-one has actually defined.  Selling post-brexit UK's produce to EU countries will incur what duty and taxes to the buyers in France, Greece, etc?  If the WTO rules apply - what is their baseline for tariffs in that situation?

2 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

I wouldn't know how to do it, mine is AIS which I think is the biggest one. On my other Amazon account, I have a printout of the chat we had, and when I go to the UK, I will see a lawyer. I bought a kindle from Amazon for 8000 Bt and I can't now get in to the website to buy books although I can still buy from my kindle, but it is not the same.

Rather than going to spend lawyers fees -- better you get a person to talk to in Amazon who actually knows what they're talking about and sort this out properly.   It's like all these catch-all complicated network systems -- usually great when they're working, but really not flexible enough to allow some special set-up for a small fringe of users who have special situations.  I'd try amazon.com and see how that goes.

55 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

I tried the Mobile SMS, and it did not work, three times, a message even came up on my screen saying a VC was on it's way. Not true. 

Did you try all the Thai mobile networks?  As I said before - not all have reciprocal agreements with all the mobile networks in other countries.

2 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

If they don't deal outside the UK, why were they answering all my emails full of apologies and saying they will help me.

 

Also what about all the business I have done with them over the years, I know most of the time they will not ship to Thailand, but there are sometimes when they do.

The shipping issue depends on the suppliers.  As you probably know, some suppliers ship direct to you, but stuff supplied and shipped by Amazon.co.uk seems to be for the UK only.  Because of the mixture of responses, they allow you to register a thai address for deliveries, but then disallow it on a case by case basis depending on the supplier. 

You'd probably have to cancel/change your email addresses, but the easier way is to use the Mobile SMS for a verification code.  Just make sure their sms messages come through on your Thai mobile network.

No matter what your history with them, there appears to be no loyalty rewards scheme - you're just getting the usual friendly customer service -- which I have found to be very good, even though well over half of the responses are from bots with standard replies.

afaik -- amazon UK do not deal outside UK.  You might have to make an account with amazon.com but before commiting to that - find out if they will send verification codes to a Thai mobile and which mobile network they will use.  I have found that my bank (for example) can send texts to DTAC, but not to AIS.  When I asked, I was told it is due to the recipricosity agreements between the UK bank, their phone network providers, and the Thai mobile networks. 

5 hours ago, Rockee said:

It's my understanding that travel insurance requires you to have a return ticket. Many expats living here like myself don't have a return ticket.
Some credit cards provide travel insurance if you purchase the ticket with your credit card BUT only applies if you have a return ticket.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Not so -- You can easily find policies that are paid monthly, can be cut short without penalty, have specific excesses to suit your situation, and don't need a return ticket.

Did the OP get his blockage cleared?  The internal pressure created by such a block can seriously mask other symptoms, and in the medium to longterm it can poison your system to the extent of diminishing your ability to think sensibly.  Plain water helps by diluting the poisons as well as lubricating the bung.

It's easy to criticise a patient who is struggling with multiple symptoms from several issues. What was needed  (in my case) was a project to alleviate some of the simpler issues like constipation, so that the more complex issues could be seen  by specialists.  That kept costs under control and prevented me wasting expensive consultancy time on an issue that was at least partially fixeable with over-the-counter preparations.  It also gave me time to get into a better life-style and diet regime, which needs to be maintained whether you're feeling ill or not.  Taking care of your body is something only you can do - albeit with advice and hands-on maintenance from experts in specific topics. 

4 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Latest comment on progress of the Brexit discussions: "I reckon by the end of these negotiations we'll have agreed to join the Euro" 

The way things are going - - - nothing would surprise me now.......  

BTW -- who said that?

32 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Wake up!

"The moving finger writes..........."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40339330

There is no way the DUP deal is impartial -- the Supreme Court will throw it out.  Watch who signs the lawyers cheques!    For the first time in 100 years they went to westminster to "sign in" as MP's - thereby giving their appeal to the supreme court credibility that was missing when they refused to acknowledge the UK government having control of part of "their" island. 

TM might be stupid, but clearly she is being manipulated viscously by the back-room tories who are determined to block brexit one way or another.   She will take one for the tory team (again) but her rewards will come later when the Tories re-establish their overall majority. 

What's the odds on another GE this year? Just keep doing it till you get the 2 results the tories want -- overall power and stay in the EU.........

Following up the commentary about mis-information during the campaigning, here's how they did it....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-40330022

1 hour ago, SheungWan said:

I think I was stoned in 1975. I voted against.

I was uncertain in 1975, now I'm not so sure  

2 minutes ago, dontoearth said:

      Most people doing 90-day report will tell u they tried online UNTIL they were  blue in the face.   A few get thru but you need a win 7 machine and IE 7 or so.   Some pretty obsolete stuff and of course there are those error pages like dbconnect not placed stable.   ????   I never did get the online version to work.   There is a whole discussion board on it.  It did work for some.  Not many!

       If they had a neat uptodate mobile version that would be nice.

       I never tried the mail in option.  I mailed stuff from here to my house years ago.  Still waiting???

 

     

Indeed the online reporting has had issues, but some people seem to use it.  Maybe it depends on the immigration office involved -- not all are connected? 
Don't overlook the passport validity.  Most passports have a ten year life, so a ten year visa will probably not be fully used and a new fee will probably be needed to keep it alive. 

Insurance with a Thai company is a blatant way to get the money into the country.  There are plenty of non-Thai insurance companies who will insure older folks with pre-existing conditions, but the cost is going to be high - depending on cover and excesses.  Finding a policy that will deal with the hospital direct is by far the prefereable option as they will have a vested interest in keeping costs down and will take your own bank account out of the loop.  What level of coverage will need to be decided by immigration when they issue the visa -- maybe less coverage as the age increases?

47 minutes ago, dontoearth said:

      It says the 90-day report is still  mandatory.   We need to line up for that first.   

Do it by post or online.  No queuing needed

It'll only be valid for the length of the passport, and the length of the insurance. Any renewal because of tone of those things expiring will probably involve another set of fees.  :S  

5 minutes ago, CharlieK said:

Only 42% of the population voted. That mean 58% did not vote. Hardly strong leadership.

 

42 minutes ago, NextStationBangkok said:

Simply they can call Visa-G-8.  Sounds something for capitalists.

 

With the interest amount from 3 million Baht, how much visa run one can do ?

Anything around 2.5% to 3% net -- depending on where you look and what the tax situation is, and no need to keep the investment in Thailand. 

http://www.infochoice.com.au/banking/savings-account/term-deposit-interest-rates/

https://www.anz.com.au/personal/bank-accounts/term-deposits/

Whatever is chosen, the least amount of interest, even allowing for FX fluctuations, is likely to be about 3mTHB x 2.5% = 75,000THB per year, clear. 

Even if the rate is the average Thai bank term savings rate it would be about 1% after tax, etc (reclaimable), and even if it was on the reduced capitol requirement of 1.5mTHB, the net Income would be about 1,500,000 x 1% = 150,000 THB net per year.

Compared to the fees for the annual extension, the re-entry permit, the cost of your consular income letter or Thai bank letter, and the cost of an agent to run around and do it all for you isn't going to make a dent in that......

7 hours ago, Puccini said:

 

I think I found the answer in paragraph 5 of the announcement. It seems on every arrival with the non-O/X visa you get permission to stay up to 5 years in accordance with the remaining validity period of the visa.

5 years or till the expiry of your passport ?   

28 minutes ago, Khun Han said:

 

My view is that there probably won't be a deal struck.

There doesn't need to be -- both France and Germany have said UK can stay .....   so now we know who's in charge of the EU :)