khunPer

8 hours ago, tebee said:

...start playing on the thai stock market - anybody got any recommendations...

I use SCB-online, which is quite easy to both set-up and use (trading platform); however you'll need a SCB savings bank account with an ATM-card to do it, and a balance of min. 30,000 baht when applying for online trading.

Other banks probably have similar systems – I'm not recommending one – but being familiar with SCB I'm able to share a bit about that system.

Both a Thai national and a foreigner can open an online trading account (I have one, and my Thai GF has her own).

Registration can be done online, just click on "Open New Account" next to the log-in.

Approval of requested documentation can be done in your local SCB branch, where you have the savings account, and they will send the approved documents to the main office in Bangkok for you.

In about a week the trading account will be opened.

You will have a personal account officer assigned, and you can communicate with via Email, in English if it's an account for foreigners.

As foreigner you can only buy SET-stocks within the 49% limit that can be owned by foreigners, however a number of plc have registered for stocks without voting rights, that can be held by foreigners outside the 49% limit. You can mark NVDR (Non-Voting Depository Receipt) when you buy stocks (can be set as default marked), making it easy to buy a large variety of SET stocks.

You move money from you SCB savings account into your stock trading account instantly by a click of a mouse, any money deposit there gives at the moment 1% annual interest. Money moved out from the stock account, and back into your SCB savings account, is also a mouse-click, but it takes a few bank days for a transfer. When buying stocks the money are withdrawn immediately, when selling stocks it takes five banks day for the money to appear in your account; you may have a "line available" for buying, balance might be depending of due payment from sale. You will have a daily trading limit in your cash account (live available), which you however can ask your account officer to change to fit your needs, and available funds. Dividends are paid directly into your SCB savings account, after 10% dividend tax has been withheld.

I'm not day trading, but a long term investor that look at both dividends and potential value increase. So far my SET portfolio (the stocks I choose) has performed very well (not a gurantee or recommendation for all SET stocks or any future outcome).

I'm not sure if you legally has to be father do be guardian, but I would presume so. However, to be legal father, apart from a name on a birth certificate, the procedure is depending of the age of the child. If under seven years old you'll need a DNA-test, if seven year or older you can be legalized at the local amphor (office for ID-cards) by meeting there together with mother and child, both shall confirm you are the father. You'll need documentation, i.e. pass port, birth certificate, Thai ID-cards, house book; all also in signed copies. Do check first, as some offices has a procedure for how for example a house book shall be copied (first page, and name page, on same A4 portrait copy), and an ID-card (font and back on same A4 portrait paper). I did the amphor legalization myself, I'm also not married.

A child of any age can own land – a foreigner can own a house, if the house ownership is separated from the land – but make any servitudes before the land is transferred to the name of the child; for example lease contract (max. 30-years), usufruct, and/or superficies, as most land offices will not accept them later.

In some situations it can be beneficial to have house ownership separated from land ownership, which shall also be considered before transferring a property to the name of a minor. The house has be separated from land already, or able to be separated from the land (not sure when that's possible, a lawyer should know); however a new build house can from beginning be in the name of a foreigner (documentation is that all paperwork has to be the foreigner' name), and preferably also a superficies agreement is in place; superficies is important if the land is transferred to a minor before construction of a building.

Hope other posters may know about guardian and share information to you.

Try to ask where you bought the lawn mover, they may likely know. Otherwise HomePro in Tesco-Lotus mall in Bo Phut (Chaweng) will probably be able to recommend a repair shop or sparepart supply for lawn movers, and they don't ask if you originally bought the machine there...

On 4/19/2018 at 11:11 AM, russianrobert said:

He has a young son 5 y.o and his wife, Europeans.

I would not consider Phi Phi and Karon Beach as child-family friendly areas. However there are numerous larger resorts on Phuket that provides well for a family inside the walls, and organised touring to family friendly attractions when going outside.

Another possibility is looking at the two islands at the other side of the mainland, they are becoming family destinations – however apart from Haad Rin on Koh Phangan (Full Moon and other parties).

Also Krabi area, and around Khao Lak, could be possibilities to look at.

8 hours ago, Crossy said:

I see plenty of vehicles parked with "for sale" signs so I don't think the actual act of parking with a sign will attract the BiB.

 

BUT, I wouldn't be leaving it outside a mall or Seven, both are private property so they may well call the cops to have the "eyesore" removed.

 

Maybe outside a local food outlet or Mon-n-Pop shop (with permission of course) would work.

 

And don't forget, motorcycles are inherently "portable", make sure nobody can "port" it without paying for it.

I often see cars with "For Sale" signs parked outside my local Tesco-Lotus mall, but on the public road, where also other cars are parked. You are probably not allowed to use the private parking area without permission, but most shopping malls have on the other hand pin-boards for private sales messages at their main entrance, and these pin-boards seem to be quite effective. A photo, some information – eventually both in English and Thai – and contact telephone; many use to cut phone-number in small strips at the bottom of paper, that can be torn off. Normally they are "erased" once a week, so you may need to re-post...

Quote

Police said they were investigating who fired the gunshots.  They said the person who fired the gunshots in public is liable to ten years imprisonment and/or 20,000 baht fine.

In this case, the gunman will face an additional charge of firing gunshots, causing injury to the other people which is liable to one month jail term and/or 10,000 baht fine.

Presume 10-years is more preventive than 20,000 baht, the extra one month is not that important, if both 10-years and 20k baht is used.

Luckily no one got killed or seriously hurt.

12 minutes ago, BEVUP said:

Same here

As my wife keeps mentioning to use my branch ATM 

But I'm not going to walk around looking for it to save less then a $1, because it's less then half the price in Auss

& this is also just like buying groceries (not know here because I pay cash ) but in Auss if I use a card at (lets say Tesco ) there's no doubt they would probably be using a different branch for their banking. So I would end up paying for a withdrawal from a different bank.

Agree with the fee – using another bank than my own is 10 baht or 20 baht fee, I been charged a couple of times already this year – but if there's an ATM from my own bank I'll chose that, and I even take a little walk to where there is one, more for the healthy exercise, than saving pennies; however I actually save double, as taking a walk also saves a fee for the gym...

However, I've never been charged a fee the few times I've used a Thai bank ATM to pay at the cash-line in shops etc. here in Thailand – normally I always pay cash, but I've been using ATM a number of times this year in HomePro, also for fairly small amounts – perhaps the shops paid a fee...

2 hours ago, chocdee120 said:

No, your not charged to use other Banks machines, and your not charged if you withdraw from any part of the Country by your own bank

I'll be happy and thankful if you'll let my bank know that...

The Thai Lottery is said to be the worst lottery to play of all, seems like this makes it worse than the worst...

On 4/19/2018 at 6:57 AM, johng said:

Just "go fibre"

 

I have fiber in the Surat (Thani) area, however TOT, and that is also unstable in speed for websites abroad. Before I had 3BB, but ADSL at that time, and that was even worse. Seem to be cause by routers (often the Surat-router due to information for support), and outgoing connections; a higher speed will in general give you higher options, or share, during slow connection, so you don't feel it that much.

5 hours ago, crazykopite said:

I to had a 4 storey property with the same issue I purchased a computerised Grunfos pump this is the dogs <deleted> of pumps it even has an indicator that tells you if you have a leak in your house . I put on all 6 of my power showers as well as 14 taps and on every floor there was no difference in pressure it made such a difference , the only issue was the price 20,000 baht the whole thing is plastic so no rust issues best pump I have ever had .

<images removed>

Thanks, I was just going to mention my home country's Grundfos pump with constant water pressure, that a perfect solutions, and worth the investment, as Grundfos pumps almost lasts for ever (talk from experience).

On 4/18/2018 at 8:18 AM, chocdee120 said:

...my issue is using your own Banks machine outside of your own Branch town you get charged. It’s as if they are saying your money is in your Branch in a box.

Yes, outside the area, or province, of your bank's branch, is like withdrawing from another bank, or withdrawing abroad your home province, and there a fee is due. Someone has to pay for the ATM's, and the users do the payments. It's not that complicated, do you pay a fee using your home country's plastic cards to withdraw in another bank's ATM, or in another state or country..?

20 hours ago, Franck60 said:

My point is :

1 - How can I move to Thailand ... get a retirement visa ... or a right to residence ? IS IT POSSIBLE ?

2 - There are so many confusing stories ... I don’t manage to MAKE OUT how it works ...

3 - What are the different steps ? How much money would I have to show up ?

 

Would any of you have some good information which could help me to start bringing the pieces together ?

I did my move when I was 57, had similar thoughts as you before, and I'm not married (never been), but has a Thai girlfriend. It does often make things little easier when one is together with someone talking the language, and know how things work out, but others have managed to get around on their own, or by using advisers/lawyers.

Retirement visa

- is a Non-immigrant O (often shorted as "Non-O") visa, based on retirement. You can either obtain a three month single entry, or a 12-month multiple entry, or the new "1-year retirement visa" from your home country's Thai embassy. The last, "1-year retirement visa" is almost similar to obtaining an 1-year extension of stay, based on retirement – the rules seem slightly more strict when obtaining it abroad, than the extension-of-stay rules where I live – the benefit is that you can stay in Thailand for a full year without leaving the nation, but only reporting your address to a local Immigration office every 90-days, something almost all expats does. To obtain any of the Non-O visas you'll need to show proof of funds, i.e. how that you are able to live in Thailand without the need for work. Proof-of-fund is normal an amount equivalent to 800,000 baht, or a steady annual income summing up in that level, or a combination of both. Your local Thai embassy should have a guide page, probably similar to the one at the Danish Thai embassy (link); there's also a 5-year retirement-visa possibility, which don't seem that attractive to use.

Moving to Thailand

- apart from buying an air-ticket for your person, and doing the check-out paperwork in your home country, you can have one smaller air-shipment, and one larger (surface) sea-shipment of household; i.e. a 20" or 40" container, which is often both cheaper and better than individual parcels, even you don't have enough to fill up a whole container (they will use air-ballons in empty space, to stop the goods from being thrown around inside the container). You need to make a detailed packing list, and the accepted items are personal household, i.e. not 10-pieces brand new identical something that can be re-sold. You can find good information on the Internet, there's an official government site with all explanations in English and up-yo-date information (my experience is about a decade old). Expect to pay a little custom duty, and a little v.a.t. in custom clearance,  all together a 20" container shipment will cost you between €7,000 and €10,000.

There are a number of threads in this forum with usable and detailed information about shipping household.

Right-of-residence

- can either be annual extensions – which most of us use – or a "permanent residence", which is more complicated, and need 7 years of continuously annual extensions, and a fee around 200,000 baht, and a lot of documentation, and a test in Thai language skills. The annual extension af stay based on retirement is fairly easy, however it vary a bit from province-to-province; in general a question of showing funds, and a proof of residence, the latter by for example rental agreement and maps showing the home. If you can afford it, then keeping 800,000 baht in a fixed long-term Thai bank deposit is the easiest method, for example a 12-month deposit at about 1.5% annual interest; you can cash the interest annually, which is some 10,000 baht after 15% withholding interest tax.

Tax

It might be a benefit to live in Thailand, but depending of you home country's rules and "how much" you can check out; i.e. there might be better tax-benefits living outside EU, than in another EU-country. Any retirement pension from France will not be taxable in Thailand, due to double-taxation agreement, provided you pay tax of the pension in France. Money earned abroad are only taxable in Thailand, if you bring the money into Thailand the same year as earned; i.e. bringing savings into Thailand is tax-free. Interest earned from Thai high-interest account; i.e. long-term deposits, are withheld taxed by 15% – which you in principle can claim back, if your Thai income is under the taxable minimum – whilst any fund placed in bond deposits are tax-free. You can use a so-called "Fund Book" from most Thai banks to save up in bonds, and invest in mutual funds, and you can even open an online account for the SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand). Any dividends are withheld taxed by 10%, from both Fund Books and SET stocks. A benefit of having some of one's money placed inside Thailand is to avoid currency exchange rate deviations, i.e. you are going the spend to money in baht, so it's better to get dividend in baht – but stay away from mutual funds in foreign currency bonds, or foreign markets – the Thai stock market is performing Okay, and has a low dividend tax.

My personal advises:

Try to visit and test-stay a number of potential locations of interest, before you decide where to settle more permanently. Check the locations at different times of the year, some places might be flooded during rain-season or monsoon, or extremely hot in the dry-summer-season, or bitterly cold during winter – cold weather are mainly northern places like up Isaan or in the Chiang Mai area – and availability of shopping, hospitals, social places etc. like restaurants, bodegas, pubs, nightlife, mingling with other expats, and so on. You might wish to check areas with numerous other French people (kind of communities), which could be some of the Southern islands, for example Koh Samui has numerous French folks living there.

Rent a place in the beginning, or the first few years, before considering to buy a home. If you find it's not the right area, which can show up as late as after a year or more, it's easy to abandon a temporary kind of rent. When buying a home be aware that a foreigner (officially "alien", in slang "farang" for Caucasians; originally meaning "French" or rather "farancee" due to one legend) can only legally own a condo in a complex, where 51% of the owners are Thai.

If you should consider a house, be aware of the saying "Thai ladies are the best housekeepers in the World, you buy, they keep". A foreigner can own a house, but not the land under the house. The are different ways to secure a house, owned by a foreigner (might often need to be a new build house, to get status separated from the land under the house), either by a 30-year lease agreement, or a so-called superficies, and by a combination of both. There's also a "company limited"-method that is challenging the intention of the Thai law, but an often used method to hold land. Important: You don't need a Thai wife or girlfriend, to legally own a condo or a house on leased (or like) land, and it's not more easy with a Thai lady being the owner, in some cases it can be a fatal solution. You can read a lot more about land title deeds, and legal rights, on for example the web-site Samui for Sale, or search for other similar informative sites in Google, there's a number good ones.

Enjoy your otium, and be careful not easily falling in love – the pay-and-play method can show to be cheaper and more fun in long term – if you need someone to clean the house and cook, you can hire domestic help, or employ a housekeeper; some will confirm that it's much cheaper in long term than other solutions. If you find the right soulmate, you can live together without marriage – still makes everything more easy in case something... – and if you wish to secure someone in case of death, make a last will. I use the say that "one has to be worth more alive than dead in Thailand", a good explanation is "that if I die, the money-flow stops". However, a will is always a good idea, also if you have relatives in your home country, and make two wills, one in France covering any assets you have there (governed by French Law), and one in Thailand covering your assets here only (governed by Thai Law); there are no inheritance tax (yet) in Thailand. And even you decide to get married, it might be more easy to keep your extension-of-stay based on retirement, if you can afford the deposit.

Finally I'll say, that I began to think about early retirement in "paradise" a few years before I did the move, traveled a bit around to different places, and long-term rented a small home where I felt it was right for me. I spend the better part of a year in Land-of-Smiles before I officially checked out from my Scandinavian home country. Today I live with a lovely Thai girlfriend, we're not married, and together we have my only heir, now 12-year old. It's now also 12-years ago that I checked out of Denmark, and so far I don't regret my decision – however, sometime still scared that it’s nothing but a dream, and I shall wake up a snowy and freezing cold winter morning back home...

11 hours ago, soistalker said:

If he had carried or helped to carry the bags to the elevator, I would have given him a tip. I didn't get how he expected a tip for not helping with the bags

Normally a little tip will often be given, also by Thais; and you could politely have asked for help with the bags, if they were a problem for you, I presume he would gladly have helped, and expecting a tip...

It's amazing how much even a small tip of just 20 baht helps – and of course little more, if it's a higher value service – bit of balance, to tip, but not overtip.

April 23rd to 27th, Koh Phangan Colored Moon Festival, Thong Sala Pier

The annual ‘Ko Phangan Colourmoon Festival 2018’ will be held from 23 to 27 April at the HMS Phangan Memorial Museum near the island’s Thong Sala Pier. Under the theme, ‘Melody of Life’, the event is aimed at showcasing the variety of music genres, ranging from Reggae, Jazz, Disco, Electronic dance to local folk music that can be found and enjoyed on Ko Phangan while enhancing awareness of the unique local way of life on the island.

The five-day festival will feature a range of fun and meaningful activities on over 1,000-square-metre of event space, including various displays on the island’s local way of life and travel and hospitality booths, as well as an exhibition on the history of Ko Phangan in the shipboard museum...

Full story at Richard Barrow's "Thai Travel News & Events".

19 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

...appears to be an invasion of privacy?

I'm not sure the word "privacy" can be found in a Thai dictionary...

On 4/18/2018 at 12:42 PM, Syd and Kyd said:

Can I plan this myself and just take my friends or must I partner with a Thai travel company? Anyone have any advice.

It sounds a bit like some level of business, so I would be skeptical if your status become "guide", and you get some benefits from that, including money, as you may then need a Work Permit. You can always try to keep low profile and do it under-the-radar, but there has been cases in later years, with foreigners acting as guides, without a legal permission. Perhaps you should contract with a local guide/tour arranger.

However, you can arrange everything yourself – an investigation trip in advance might be beneficial.

15 hours ago, lkn said:

I would recommend you open your own bank account because if you ever want to take out money from Thailand, you’ll have proper proof that you transferred $30,000 into the country, which you wouldn’t have, if you transfer directly to your wife’s account.

I think that the limit has been raised to amounts equivalent to $50,000 for both in and out – it used to be $20,000 before – so not really an issue here. 
Someone please correct me, if I'm wrong...

11 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Have you ever been anywhere in Thailand where you were the first farang to ever visit that town, city, etc.?

Yes, and I seemed like just everybody came out to experience this weird alien creature that suddenly appeared there...

Try Makro in Bo Phut – up hill between Tesco-Lotus and BigC – or Makro in Lamai, they sell wholesale to hotels and restaurants. I think there also is a specialized coffee shop in Bo Phut, close to The Wharf on opposite site of the Ring Road, if my memory serves me right; a coffee-expert user will probably be able give more correct information about the present bean-situation...

I don't think there's a German School, if you mean like International School or Bilingual (English Programme) School, but there are some language schools that include German in their program, for example "Mind Your Language" in Bo Phut and "Samui Language School" in Lamai; and there might be more.

There are several International Schools, from Year 1 to Year 10, a few to Year 13, at Samui – five in all I believe – and a bilingual English Program school for K1 to K3, and P1 to P6 only, which is "relative" affordable. Only one of the international schools is to my knowledge up in the €1,000 a month level, some are in the range of 250,000 baht a year (3 terms), excluding extras, like school-bus, uniforms, books, etc.

9 hours ago, webfact said:

You're much more likely to win the lottery.

Presume the talk is about the Thai Lottery, and in that case it makes me feel really safe, because that's probably the game with lowest winner odds in the whole World...

I don't think there are much left of that kind of bungalows, especially not "mega cheap", but that's of course relative.

A few years ago I read an article about the last still existing "old style" bungalows in Lamai, not sure if they were the same as I've noticed when passing by, called "New Hut Bungalow", which seem to be a bit of like "old time" once was – apart from the price probably has change from 5 baht a night...

The bold text is a Google Satelite link, you can actually check the beaches with Google-map, and using "Street View" you can do a virtual walk on some of them and find potential places.

However in the range of 500 baht to about 800 baht a night for a bungalow, there are numerous possibilities in Lamai – for example in this area – but don't expect beach-front; however it's often around 200 meter or so only walk to the beach.

Hopefully some Lamai expats can give you better advice...

2 hours ago, zombie nights said:

If you know of other places to stay away from with screaming tourists please advise...

Numerous Chinese also visits, otherwise beautiful Koh Nang Youan...

I dont think you shall expect to walk the beach and hire a "taxi speed boat"; however you can hire a private boat with driver. 

Mr. Tu got a very good reputation – and is very kind man – you can hire a boat with driver, and he has transfer from/to your hotel/resort also.

However, there are several other firm that offers charter speedboats, take for example a look here...