Darrel

USD reserves wouldnt be much use if the USD crashed.

As I said, if it came to the crunch many would doubt that Thailand (or any other country for that matter) could actually honour these large guarantees. Iceland didnt, Greece and Ireland are bankrupt, Italy, Portugal and Spain are looking dodgy. The UK and the US are so unhealthy it hardly bears thinking about.

These guarantees are there to reassure people, and to support them to an extent if a small bank collapses. If a big bank collapses the authorities step in and take it over, to avoid panic and meltdown (and because it is cheaper than paying out on the guarantees).

"Too big to fail"

Otherwise why increase the cover to 50MB and then reduce it to 1MB again?

All a bit variable with type, size and ambient temperature, I know, but a fridge could be used for under 50 units per month.

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/energyrunningcosts

Depends how cold you want your beer.

You dont say how big it is, but if it is a small 1-bed or a studio then he could be very lucky to get even 2MB.

For 4MB these days, you can easily get 60+ sqm in a convenient location with a good sea view, or 80sqm with a nice view that isnt directly onto the sea. If you go out of town you can get 145sqm for 4MB and get change to buy a new car. I've seen a brand new 40+sqm studio, fully fitted with big TV and nice kitchen, for 1.65MB including agent's fee and within 5 minutes walk of Jomtien Complex and all shops and services.

Sounds like your friend bought at the very peak of the boom. There's been a long downhill slide since then.

Many people would describe being near Carrefour as an awful location. Personally I wouldnt live there if you paid me to.

I wish him luck anyway: he'll need it.

Isn't it stupid to buy a condo by the sea without see view ?

It depends on whether or not you are paying for a view. Some people are happy to pay a lower price for being near the sea, without paying the premium for being able to see the sea. And that premium can double the cost of a unit without a view. I can show you two identical studios in VT5: one at 1.8MB and another at 3.5MB. Guess which has the good view?

And ask VT1 owners if they are pleased with the sea view that they bought before VT2 was built and blocked it. Idem for the VT5 owners who now have a great view of VT7. Location-wise, all those buildings are still very good, but not necessarily for the view.

The xenophobic interest rate issue was resolved several years ago, you will get the same rate of interest as Thais, which is minimal on transactional accounts, but up to 3% can be had on term deposits.

Some farangs say that they still arent getting any interest from savings accounts here. Seems to depend on the bank.

Currently the Deposit Protection Agency in Thailand will fully protect Bank deposits to 50 million baht (GBP 1million approx.) per customer. This will be reduced to 1 million baht in august 2012.

Bank guarantees assume that the guarantor has money. Iceland wasnt up to the challenge and some might doubt that Thailand could really pay a 50million Baht guarantee if it came to the crunch. (Without printing a shed-load of money.)

Hopefully it wont come to the crunch.

There is a dedicated mobile phone forum on here. Asking there would probably get more replies.

For what it's worth I got my first mobile phone under 1 year ago and I'm an IT professional! I managed to get through 55 years in Europe without using/wanting one, and only bought the one I have for use here in retirement, and even then it was more for all the other things it does than for the phone function. (Playing music and video files, camera, internet radio, satnav, email.)

I'm still on my original 50B top-up after 6 months, and hope to string it out to the full year.

One would have to believe that there is even a remote possibility that a electric bill anywhere on this planet could be twelve U.S. dollars per month.

Well, monthly bills of less than 50 units (= 175Baht = 6USD) are waived in Thailand, and I dont suppose the government would bother having that scheme to benefit poorer families unless people actually had bills of that amount. One can also suppose that even more people would have bills between 50 and 100 units or 6USD and the 12USD you mention. I doubt that many of them live in Jomtien condos or use aircon, admittedly. Though that said I've seen some impecunious farangs loitering on Pattaya Beach Rd and begging for cigarettes that look like their electricity bill is under 12USD/month.

Some of those figures sound slightly high but nothing astronomical.

You could try asking another installer for a quote for aircons. At that price they could be expensive cheap ones, or they could be super fancy inverter units with bells and whistles, which might be about right.

The maintenance fee sounds about right, assuming there are some facilties and the common areas are nice.

The meter is perhaps double what some buildings in Pattaya would charge: not a huge extra though. Never heard of a water temp adjustor. Do they mean a heater?

Sinking fund sounds right.

Presumably floor tiles and bathroom and kitchen (without appliances) were included? So it wasnt actually a shell (no tiles, no fitted units).

The total price per metre sounds fairly normal to me (perhaps I would have expected CM to be a little cheaper), but again it all depends on how classy your building is, how conveniently located it is, and if you have a view of heaven or of the local pig farm/disco.

Your main problem is that you didnt clarify with them whether or not the furniture package was included. If they dont say (loudly and often, as a specific selling point) that it is included, then it isnt.

I go to Chiang Mai

Hell of a way to go from Pattaya for a couple of mangoes.

Soi Buakow (Tuesday and Friday)

Amazing how much time people have on their hands.

Indeed.

Almost as amazing as the amount of money ignorant people lose every day to scams that anyone with half a brain would spot a mile off.

says tax may not be payable with the right forms etc,

I think you will find that it refers to withholding tax, not tax.

Your tenant (or agent) is supposed to withold the tax on the rental payment, unless you have filled in the right forms.

Either way, you will be taxed on the income minus your personal allowance.

Earthing is not enough.

Use RCD breakers.

Would those be the same as what we call GFI's..................Ground fault interrupters??

Yes, as far as I know.

One local brand name : Safe-T-Cut. Other brands are available.

When I wrote "do now know" I meant "do not know".

Sorry.

Because the Baht was pegged to the USD, as indeed were many minor currencies in the region and elsewhere. It wasnt a real value though. Even after they "unpegged" the Baht it continued to track the USD extremely closely, for no obvious reason.

a ride from THB 55 to THB 30 (plus 45%) = "extremely close tracking"?

I was talking about the years immediately following the point when they stopped (officially) pegging it.

Earthing is not enough.

Use RCD breakers.

Before that my condo was rented out for 4 months to a tennant who did not mention being overcharged for electric .( but he may not have noticed ?)

I have noticed that a large proportion of property owners and tenants do now know the rate at which they are being billed for electricity. Owners often dont know the rate at which the maintenance fee is calculated either.

Of course most of them have an idea of what the average monthly total comes to, but not the basic rate.

Depending on where you are you may be able to get ADSL via the phone line, cable internet from your cable supplier, "fibre to the home", or (if you live on/near 2nd Rd) keep your fingers crossed for 100mbit fibre/cable/thingy later this year. They are laying the conduits at the moment and it seems to be going well. Not sure how they will get it from the conduit to the end user though.

It does all vary hugely according to where you are, as mentioned. Some places have a choice of 4 or 5 ways/providers, and others have to wait months for just an ADSL line with no choice. Quite a lot of people dont even know what is possible in their area, so your neighbour may not be the best person to ask. A geek in a local internet shop might know more.

Because the Baht was pegged to the USD, as indeed were many minor currencies in the region and elsewhere. It wasnt a real value though. Even after they "unpegged" the Baht it continued to track the USD extremely closely, for no obvious reason.

I live here so put me in that group if you like.

But I cant help thinking that it would be more useful to classify members who are alive and those who are brain-dead.

Is there some particular reason why you only want Thai assistance?

Diana Inn (110B), Diana Dragon (105B) and Casa Pascal (165B) all have real bacon.

They also all use real eggs. Only Diana Inn pre-cooks the fried eggs; the others cook them to order, as they do for omelettes.

All of them have that "orange" juice.

The maintenance fee in old buldings is often around 10-20B per sqm per month.

In newer buildings it can be anything up to 50 or more.

The more facilities there are, the higher the probable fee.

It is supposed to cover all costs relating to the common areas (security, lighting, painting, pool etc) but clearly a fee voted in 20 years ago that has never increased (Thai owners will hardly ever vote for a maintenance fee increase) will not cover costs at today's prices. So what usually happens in old buldings is that either they go to rack and ruin, or a supplementary fee is voted in, or the bulding just spends the sinking fund on maintenance and day-to-day expenditure. Or all three.

The exact fee is ALWAYS available from the Juristic Person Office in existing buildings, or indeed on the new build factsheet for new builds, along with the sinking fund and the meter charge. The mall salesmen dont know it because they are prats very busy.

But the cardinal rule still applies...don't put in more money than you can afford to lose if you had to walk away from it all tomorrow.

Good, sound advice.

Hold on ..... arent you just paraphrasing what I said earlier in the thread? And didnt you also say that I should be keeping those opinions to myself?

Hmmm.