55Jay

32 minutes ago, Pib said:

That update explains things.  Sometimes banks just will not open an account (especially when applying online) unless they get the specific document(s) they are asking for....just will not accept a substitute.   Otherwise, you must physically visit one of their branches.  Preach to the choir I know  

 

I would always recommend a person have their social security card and keep it in a safe place like other key docs like birth certificate, etc.  Documents which you will "rarely" need to show, but sometimes you must show them.

 

About two months ago I took an American neighbor (actually dual Thai-US citizen) to Bangkok Bank to open a Direct Deposit account as she was getting ready to apply for here Social Security pension and needed the Direct Deposit account for the monthly payment.

 

Anyway, Bangkok Bank wanted to see/copy her Social Security card which she has long lost..finally convinced them the Social Security number she put on the application was indeed accurate...was indeed her's...and they finalized opening the account.    

 

I've seen quite a few other ThaiVisa posts of where U.S. folks were asked for a copy of their Social Security card when trying to open a Thai bank account.   

 

Probably time for your friend to get a replacement SS card....he'll do doubt need it for something else "sometime" in the future.

 

 

Yup, preaching to the choir.  He's a cantankerous old fella, has said, "Oh well, screw them!", so that's the end of that.  LOL. ///  Cheers, Pib.  J.

On 3/9/2017 at 8:00 PM, Pib said:

If the application hasn't been approved in two weeks that don't sound positive at all....that's a long holding pattern.  Strange the ACH pull to fund the account fell off his Wells Fargo account unless maybe it was a "test" pull never meant to go through....like one bank just pinging another bank to confirm such an account does exist and funds are available.

//snip///

 

Yup, seems the writing's on the wall at this point.

No, it was the initial funds to open the USAA account - think he said $25. 

Turns out USAA has asked him repeatedly for a copy of his Social Security card, which he doesn't have and has told them so.  He's shotgunned other documents to them - DD214, tax returns, US driver's licenses, etc., to no avail.  SS card is their deal breaker....  He's not arsed to get a new SS card, so has pretty much abandoned the USAA idea.

This event shot a hole in my unsubstantiated idea that USAA might be more lenient wrt overseas customers.  I think they are, certainly moreso than Schwab/CAP1 in my experience, but new joiners are, nonetheless, run through the same post-9/11 wickets. 

"By the way" indeed..... 2 to 3 years ago. 

17 hours ago, Hayduke said:

How exactly do you accurately count ‘illegal’ border crossings? And how would anyone be able to track increases or decreases in the rate of illegal border crossings? Illegal entries are, by definition, undocumented and uncounted.

 

As reported, what this actually represents is a decline in the number of apprehensions and denied entry attempts. How can there be a definite and necessary correlation between this number and the number of people who have successfully managed to evade detection and enter the country illegally?

 

It would be positive news if illegal immigration is actually declining. Hopefully this is the case. Yet this methodology doesn’t appear to reflect a particularly reliable measurement. Sadly, a more reliable conclusion here might be that this 40% claim is somewhat speculative and has been formulated with political ends in mind.

It's not a exact science, nobody, said it was.  You might be filtering through political bias?

DHS Secretary is reporting the complied data and comparisons to previous data points.  Nothing wrong with that.  https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration

Now to your point - the spin and unsubstantiated attribution to Trump signing the EO.  LOL.  DHS Secretary is a political appointee peacock, this one's pretty sad. 

However, it is plausible that all the constant drum beating about this and the now highly publicized interior enforcement, has put some folks off for a while.  That's just human nature. 

The ones I would expect to still try it on are the hard core criminals for financial reasons, and normal folks, in particular ones from Central and South America (and beyond), who go through a ton of shit on the way to the US border, where they finally get a chance to run the gauntlet.  Turning around isn't really an option for them.

On 2/23/2017 at 1:30 AM, anotheruser said:

All I can say is nice ass.

7 hours ago, Pib said:

You are saying he applied to USAA and his application is on hold, right? Or he applied to Wells?

I ask because you say the charge for the initial deposit in Wells has fell off the screen like he was making a deposit into Wells. Maybe you meant the withdrawal/pull from Wells to USAA failed to fully process and it's no longer appearing in his Wells Ibanking.

Regardless of whether the application is to USAA or Wells, strangle the will not tell him the reason for the hold. Each time I've applied for a new bank account and it got blogged down/delayed for some reason the bank would tell me why. Happened to me on three applications over the last half dozen years...in each case it was due to additional docs needed from me to prove identity or address.

 

USAA.  Yes, it was the hard pull from Wells to prospective USAA Acct.

My wife got approached/hit on at BigC Korat last week, by a gaggle of young US Military dudes in town for the exercises.  Said she laughed, flashed her ring and responded in good English that's she married..... to a retired US Military guy no less....sorry boys, you missed the boat on this one, plenty more out there.  LOL. 

And I'm quite sure the mere attempt made her feel good too. 

Not a condo but in the big countryside house we lived in first 4 years, a/c only at night in the bedroom, open air/fans during the day, couple fridges, computers, typical infrastructure.  We ranged between 1,900 in the short cool season with no a/c at night/window open, fan on, to between high 4k to 5,000/mo the rest of the year.

We just moved into a 3 bed/2 bath rental house in a moo ban closer to the city infrastructure.  We keep it closed up, use a/c all day and night.  First bill covered 2 full weeks of residency, 1,500... so I expect a full month will be around 3k or so.  And I'm chillin' in a/c all day now instead of in front of a fan blowing hot air at 30mph.  I feel like I'm cheating but I'll muddle through somehow.  

Do yourself a favor, don't flick it on. 

21 hours ago, little mary sunshine said:

Not enough homeless in the Parks and on the Sidewalks

of Honolulu....let's add about 200,000 immigrants to this

problem.

Jeez, the locals resent the howlies.  Just want to thumb their nose at Trump. 

But why?  Perhaps the ones already in illegally are staying put, don't want to risk going over and trying to get back in the current climate.  And if all the uproar in the media and hurt feelings is discouraging new comers, so be it. 

Got no desire to expend lots of resources chasing illegals (of any stripe) around the block but reckon we'll have to break a few eggs first, then go from there.

16 hours ago, Tchooptip said:

What about this one at Tesco Lotus Chaweng, not far Home Pro entance?

I asked to speak to a manager at Home Pro, showed the photo taken with my telephone, telling it was a narrow shave with my tire, three people came with me...Antarai kap.... one year later it is still there!

Get a sledgehammer, pound that sucker over.  TVF Member "kannot" got tired of the potholes on his soi, fixed them himself.  Caused a stir with the local idiots, but..... the holes are fixed.  If he ran for Mayor, he'd probably win. 

I watched the video in the OP link and, contrary to my own cynicism, lean toward the Company on this one.  To me, the language used by passengers and furthered in the press, is a bit over the top in this case.

Of course the admission by Raja Ferries that a OTS deck drain, or more than one perhaps, was blocked, doesn't help their case any and certainly feeds the stereotype, and my cynicism. 

Having said that, the amount of water wasn't normal, neither was the sea state (apparently), but IMV, not a grave concern. I could understand how a less experienced and/or nervous passenger might think it was a huge problem standing in ankle deep water.  I would like to think, however, that the crew would have recognized the fact the water wasn't gravity draining OTS as it ought to.  Not clear if they sussed and fixed it out there on the spot or later, only AFTER the flame spraying they got on social media. The latter, again,, smacks of explaining it away by admitting to carelessness with maintenance and safety checks. 

Re: listing..... In the video, it appeared to me they were taking on water from a forward/stbd angle, sloshing to and run aft on the port side;  suggesting they were probably quartering into the wind and waves, which would contribute to pitch/roll and that "listing" feeling, especially on a vessel not suited to higher sea states.  It would also mean that the portion of waves not deflected and dampened by bow projection under the ramp, were sloshing up and onto the lower hinge joint, and against the right side vertical ramp/hull join area.  So yes, esp in higher sea state, water's going to get in....which is why the frickin' deck drains and scuppers need to be clear.. 

The Belgian capsize in '87 was due to having previously filled forward sea water/ballast tanks to compensate for ramp config issues at the pier, and the tragically wrong ASSUMPTION made by the responsible officer on the bridge, who got underway without the required confirmation that the bloody front doors were closed. 

tp://www.ship-disasters.com/passenger-ship-disasters/herald-of-free-enterprise/

Regarding confirmation of US addresses, my buddy here finally had enough of Wells Fargo, and I suggested USAA as he's directly qualified, the ACH ceiling based on comments from some of you in the past, and my belief they would likely accept his address here w/o need of a US physical address.  I recall they, and Navy Federal, didn't balk when I changed my mailing address to here, unlike Capital 1 and Schwab.

Anyway, on-line application wouldn't go through, so he called.  All seemed to go well, set up the initial deposit via hard pull from Wells, and then went into a hover pattern for days.  The charge for initial deposit in Wells fell off the screen, never went through.  He's still in holding pattern nearly 2 weeks later.  They will only say the application is under consideration.  He's not a financial derelict so I suspect it's his physical location at issue here.  I hope he gets the account, but I doubt it at this point, and am watching with interest on how it pans out.

Yes, you must provide and utilize your true and correct marital status.  Failure to provide correct information and/or withhold of relevant information, is a punishable offense; in particular if it results in loss of revenue for the government.   Keep in mind that legal blurb at the end when you sign (digitally of otherwise) your return. 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/tax_crimes_handbook.pdf

Ok, so I don't condone lying or withholding accurate information, but if you're a regular joe little fish, very small risk of them deciding to investigate whether your selected filing status is accurate or not.   Even if they did, chances are you'll have paid the pirates MORE tax than you otherwise should have as married-joint, so they aren't coming after you on GP.... unless you've got lots of problems and skeletons in your closet.

In my case, and many others I'm sure, it was in my favor to get the Thai wife an ITIN, and file married-joint.... but that's not what you asked.  Good Ruck.

You have to acknowledge the problem first, but that's inconvenient because that'll require action, so....

22 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

That's nothing !!

There's young Thai ladies on Beach Road getting impaled on Poles every night !!

( Allegedly )

Those are the (alleged) lucky ones.

1 hour ago, fruitman said:

Pattaya has good restaurants, much better and cheaper than BKK.

 

The Thai there also speak better english than BKK.

 

It's cooler than BKK.

Which helps to mask the stench from the sewers, or at least blow it around some. Yum Yum! 

Boob job?  Thought she already had a nice pair of udders. 

The battle against age and gravity.

There's always the "<deleted>" genre. 

The low pressure/warm wind has been coming out of the SW, running into the cooler/high pressure to the North, building the impressive cloud line shown in pink/purplish color below, indicative of hot season thunderstorms.  Right, feels a bit early, I usually think of this more toward April, but it has been hotter than hell last week or so.  North sky was very dark gray when I went out about 1730 yesterday, and saw the swarms of "rain bugs" around the street lamps in the evening.    

Thailand was an interesting, exotic place when I was in my late teen/early 20s.  Lived/worked around the world most of my life so when I ended up here 4 years ago, it wasn't a "Wow" moment.  I'm at the point now where nothing about Thailand really interests me. 

Eventual Leaver........but not rushing to the airport out of anger or disgust. 

1 minute ago, elgordo38 said:

This discussion has come to my hoot and hollar point. You can hollar all you want and I do not give a hoot. Over and out. 

No problem.  I'm sure the OP appreciated your sage advice.

Just now, elgordo38 said:

Imagination is a good thing. Where would we be without it. I use other guidelines as well. The term imagination run wild was subject for this topic only not running ones life. 

Sure, but not in the negative, paralyzing context you intended. 

1 minute ago, elgordo38 said:

No it is something I afraid to use at my advanced age here in the land of driver madness and if I had one and had to leave in a hurry well you figure out the rest. 

Generally speaking, the advice is worthwhile, but you went a bit too far with the "let your imagination run wild".  That's not a good way to live one's life or make decisions. 

1 minute ago, elgordo38 said:

I think my statement was never buy something that your not prepared to leave behind if you have to leave the country on 24 hrs. notice. Health reasons, immigration etc. What were you referring to??

Have you ever purchased a car here?