Jump to content

Swiss1960

Advanced Member
  • Posts

    3,828
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Swiss1960

  1. @TimF: I had a well and water tower built for my wife's parental home. Thais normally build water towers for two reasons:

    a) The water supply from PWA is unreliable, thus the tank is for continued water supply

    b) They need a lot of water for irrigation of the gardens (however big the "garden" might be), thus saving money.

     

    We spent around 20K (can't remember exactly), all included. Main cost was the tank itself, the pumps (one for the well, the other to the house as there was none before). VERY important is to put the tank in shadow / build sun protection around the tank, to protect both the tank and the water quality it it stays in there to long.

     

    If you have reliable power supply (reliable meaning few hours of cut every few months like I have here in my village), then I would not bother with either generator or solar, it is not worth it, except if you have a HUGE number of electric stuff that NEED running all day/night long. 

    • Like 1
  2. 2 hours ago, Chivas said:

    lol why have you deliberately moved the goalposts.

     

    I'll make it more clear for you. The "reason" for the transfer makes not one iota of difference as regards the amount of time it takes to land

    Very Trumpian of you, I have to give you that. First, you post deliberately wrong or misleading information, and then you twist and jerk words to try and make you look good and me wrong... 
     

    But at least, I can see from your last sentence that you learn from your mistakes.

    • Sad 1
  3. 2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

    Most of what you've posted is IMO speculative without any real evidence to support it.

     

    What I am sure about is that when you cancel one transaction and then initiate another, the reason why you are likely to see a different exchange rate is because it has changed. Exchange rates fluctuate from moment to moment (ask any FOREX trader) and all you're seeing is the difference between those two snapshots.

     

    Wise will always give you the mid market rate prevailing at the moment you place your transfer request and the amount that you're transferring is immaterial.

     

    But if you've got the time to faff around in order to safe 5 Euro then carry on and enjoy the beers. ????

     

    My posts are based on REAL WORLD transactions, all listed in my post. If that is not evidence in your eyes, you must live in a different universe. My Note 1 is slightly speculative (and I admit to that in my post already), but it is based on the exchange rate development of EUR/THB and USD/THB which pretty much support my statement.

     

    Of course, for the same-minute transactions, Wise will use the midmarket rates, I have listed them, and I said nothing else. BUT you also see in my mail that the exchange rate for the transaction which would have been executed in the 4th of January, was MUCH LOWER (37.6746) than the average of the transactions executed (37.7730).

     

    That difference is not supported, when I look at the minutes chart in XE for the time I executed the transactions. Therefore it is pretty good evidence to assume that Wise does look at FUTURE trading exchange rates for such transactions that will be executed several days in the future and does NOT take the current mid-market rate. 

  4. 9 minutes ago, userabcd said:

    So with all the testing, phaffing around and time you could have just transferred the monthly desired amount and waited a little bit for it to be in the account.

     

    Most times with a few days advance planning the money can be transferred and deposited in Thailand when one needs it.

     

    Or just do a swift transfer in the am and it will be deposited in Thailand the same day on work days.

    If you would have read what I wrote instead of just blabbering useless things, you would have realized that

    - it is about optimizing transfers (getting more THB for your EUR or USD)

    - it is not about SWIFT, but WISE only, not to mention the less favorable exchange rates and bank fees in SWIFT

    - I don't care about the delay, if I can get more THB for my transfers. 

     

    Just one  advice: If you don't see value in a post for yourself, better not answer than make yourself look stupid.

     

    • Sad 2
    • Haha 2
  5. MY CONCLUSION 1: What ever Wise does, it is NOT about money laundering, otherwise they would not allow me to make several transactions just below their limit, they would stop me on the second transaction...

     

    MY CONCLUSION 2: In the future, I will always initiate (but not execute) smaller (49K) and larger (> 50K) transactions and compare the exchange rates and then choose the best transfer way for me, since I do not need the money immediately, it is all about optimizing rates and amounts received.

     

    NOTE 1: This is for Euro only. For USD, it might just be the other way round, since the exchange rate for USD vs THB has been going up in the last year, but the EUR was going down, so you might get BETTER exchange rates for a larger transfer than smaller ones.

     

    NOTE 2: I do NOT yet know, whether my Thai bank might contact me over the several smaller transactions or not, I will have to see that. 

  6. I do monthly transfers (same amount every month) from my Wise account (in Euro) to my SCB account. Up to (and including) this last October 2021, the transfers with reason "monthly living expenses" took minutes. Ende of November and now the December transfers took 4-6 days. The transfer I initiated this morning would have arrived in my bank on the 5th, exchange rate given to me was 37.6746

     

    I cancelled the transfer and started to play around and I found out, that 50K and higher will take DAYS, below will take SECONDS with the chosen reason "monthly living expenses". I know it will be days, if you choose the "retirement purposes" option.

     

    So here is what I transferred (SAMPLE amounts in THB) and the exchange rates. The fee is always a fixed fee of €0.81 plus 0.52% of the amount sent, see later:

    1st transfer:      2K THB, rate 37.7869 just for test purposes

    2nd transfer:  49K THB, rate 37,7705

    3rd transfer:   49K THB, rate 37,7722

    4th transfer:   22K THB, rate 37,7582

     

    All transfers arrived WITHIN SECONDS! When I compare the single transfer (that I cancelled) to the transfers 2-4, I lost €1,62 in fixed transfer fees (3 transfers versus only 1), BUT I got the money immediately, AND the exchange rate was BETTER for ALL transfers versus the single transfer. OVERALL I saved more than 5 EUROS with the 3 transfers, which gives me quite a few beers at home.

     

    • Like 1
  7. @notrub: as for the name,  that IS in fact misleading, but it is up to the Thai government to stop the company.

    As for the info for test & go, that is absolutely correct, you could verify it I.e. on the facebook site of "PR Thai Government ".

    As for the company, yes,they try to sell their services, but they also.provide many interesting, accurate and for some people valuable information 

  8. 23 hours ago, bradiston said:

    Where in the world are bank account numbers between 22 and 34 digits long? My UK one is a mere 8. If you include a sort code, it's 14. And how would having between 22 and 34 digits prevent mistyping? Built in redundancies and checksums? Checksums are computed separately to ensure data integrity, for example, for music files. And redundancies in a bank account number? Aren't you mixing up your technologies?

    Many years ago, Switzerland stopped using the 12-digit account number standalone, now the Standard in Switzerland for account numbers is full IBAN, i.e CH31 8123 9000 0012 4568 9.

    Checkdigits are included in the IBAN, it is the two digits on position 3 and 4, directly after the country code. 

  9. 11 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

    What do you do with the 360 camera? I mean you're driving looking out the front while scanning the rear mirrors. What am I missing?

    You never know, when an accident will happen and from where the "opponent" will come from. And if both parties claim that it is the others fault, then a 360 degree view will help determine the cause of the accident. 

    Imagine: You alone in the card, driving through a 4-way intersection. A car crashes in your side, 4 people in that car swear that you were speeding and you refused their right of way... standard front/back cams will not help, it is 4 against 1, so a 360 degree view will come in very handy to determine the truth.

    • Like 1
  10. 36 minutes ago, Emeraldisle said:

     

    Oh dear. Have I upset another sad farang. lol

    Oh dear... have I upset an American who just realized that America is not "many" but only one... and becoming increasingly more irrelevant?

  11. 2 hours ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

    So all the doctors are wrong then they say a few glasses a day is good for you

    "a few glasses a day" to me sounds like a bottle a day... and that is A LOT of sugar and carbo... and I still have to find a doctor (let alone all doctors) that would tell you that "few glasses a day" is good for you. "Few glasses a day" qualifies more for an alcoholic than a diet-aware person.

    And btw... meat pies are also not very diet-friendly

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
×
×
  • Create New...