NotEinstein

But they asked for my Thai bank details, they now knowing 'where I live'...... And I no longer have a policy with them.....

In May I received a letter from Pru, part of M&G plc, requesting me to fill out a 'confirmation of details' form, which I duly did. I assume they got my address from HMRC via my NI number. Yesterday I received another letter requesting me to send a recent bank statement so that they can "proceed further". As with HMRC, I ended up phoning them 3 times, each time being on hold for 15 minutes and then speaking to someone that, while being very courteous and helpful, couldn't get access to my details - the last one arranging a call-back, which happened this afternoon. Once clearing identification, I asked why they wanted my bank details (the policies I had with them were transferred 10 years ago). I then asked for a transfer balance, I was put on hold, then not given a value, she was very evasive, and then could no longer hear me, although I could hear her. Are they now so incompetent that they may be paying out on old policies?

Probably indicates that a different kind of 'surgery' is required, if the brain thinking it would be a good idea can't be made to see how shallow the idea is.......

I didn't say it was difficult - my point was that there is the risk of single point of failure that would be down to you to fix - crossy has had issues for example. With luck maybe you will not encounter any problems, but we all know about the business models of organisations manufacturing such products - cut corners as much as possible to maximize profit. The days of companies being run with technical professionalism being prime is long gone - think Boeing.......

While the cost increases may make solar investment more attractive, the most important aspect tends to get over-looked - risk. Owning solar at the moment reminds me of what is was like when cars were first available - the owner had to know how it worked so as to be able to repair it, or have a servant for it. Adding batteries to the equation only makes it worse. I suppose, at some point, enterprising individuals will start selling service contracts to maintain solar installs.

In my computer engineer days in the 80's I was called to a city stock broker to repair a non-starting CDC 9766 300MB exchangeable disk drive which used a large motor to spin the pack - I put my fingers on the start capacitor and started to 'white out' until I fell away - had some nice burn marks on two finger tips as a souvenir!

Short-termism in the extreme - do you remember the 'new car tax discount' scheme to boost flagging car sales - everybody that could bought a car, and then the market collapsed to lower than before, obviously..... Now if they could make it a 10K payment per month - different story.......... Thaksinomics to save the day......

Last year about 6 weeks before extension deadline, I went to Bangkok Bank to get the statement and letter, and wanted to get a new ATM card too (it got eaten by an ATM years ago). I was told to come back after extending - not long enough now. The same thing happened at the government office for "pink card" - come back after extending.

I've never seen any ads on my desktop - change your browser.......

Yeah, that seems to be the default for many posters on AN - attack any comment for grammar etc. as some sort of twisted entertainment. I guess this is the legacy of social media.

Believe what you want to believe. Wife's niece went to the main police station in the city and reported what happened this afternoon - this evening the police contacted her sending a photo of the guy to get confirmation they have him, they tracked him on cctv.

He stood sideways so they could see. Later they went to the pawn shop opposite (he works for the tessabahn) and could see on their camera coverage.

Another anecdote that shows the opposite: My wife's niece and her husband were returning home from the city market last night when a car pulled across in front of them, the driver jumping out and demanding they get out of their car, while holding a gun behind his back. They refused to get out and asked what the problem was - he shouted to his wife to come - she then said 'wrong person' and they left........

With the optimum word you used being 'his'............

Except he is the cunning sort, as in utilizing his sociopathic way of thinking for self enhancement at the expense of literally anything and anybody else, well maybe not his kith or kin, but that ain't sure given the right circumstances........

You should all read Larken Rose - The Most Dangerous Superstition (2011) - download it free: http://libgen.li/ads.php?md5=38F4296FBC5805F6B03527858534F331 if you can get past the lifetime of conditioning to believe that government is necessary, a much better future could be had.

Very old news, in fact they have probably finished filming by now......

You could mix it into a can of diesel to make very good glue.....

I stopped working anywhere in 2002, so it's Class 3 for me, but the rate for before 2016 - 824pa? if I ever eventually get to pay that is.....

I've been trying to do this for over a year now. There was a deadline of last August to make top-ups for years up to 2016 I think before they increased the amount by about a hundred quid. Having spoken to the pension department they told me what I needed to do, so I downloaded the form, filled it in adding the payments to make as suggested by them. I received a letter in December accusing me of having worked in certain years, which I haven't - not even been there, but I did cash-in some pension pots. I called them and explained - they apologised and said I should never have been sent that letter and my case would go to the front of the queue - seven months later I called to see what was happening - they can see my case but don't know why it is held up so I asked them to write to me - I'm waiting.......

The shallow thinking on display by this clown-government is breath-taking - obviously if they restrict the wallet money, it will get spent on necessities and the money usually spent on them with buy a new phone, after all, many will need a new phone to get access to the wallet......

What reason was stated? My last was rejected because I only filled in the asterisked (mandatory usually) fields - they said incomplete. Filled in every field and then accepted

Happened to me time before last - I had been to Hua Hin for a couple of nights a few weeks before. I just did a TM30 online and then re-submitted. The rules say this isn't necessary, but Chiang Mai Imm. now seem to require the last TM30 to align with the 90 day address.

I've been running LibreELEC, which is a minimal Linux with kodi, for 10+ years, currently on a raspberry pi3+ - very happy with the performance when playing torrents I have downloaded.

Obviously I meant in Thailand, with Thai numbers......