dave111223

I've got a Krung Sri loan that is MRL-2% for the life of the loan.

Another Krung Thai that was something like MRL-4% for first year, then MLR-0.5% for the life.

P.S. If you go to a Home Loan Expo they normally have good promotion rates.

Krung Sri homeloan uses MRL: http://www.krungsri.com/en/consumer-detail.aspx?did=130&tid=2⊂=true

SCB: http://www.scb.co.th/en/personal-banking/loans/home-loan/housing-loans

Fixed or floating Interest rate based on MLR.

I also have a Krung Thai loan that is on MLR.

MRR is about 1% higher than MLR.

Most home loans I've seen use MLR as the base, I thought MRR was for business loans...? (MRR is higher than MLR)

P.S. Thanks IMF/ECB for driving the price over $50

Your assumptions are pretty much correct.

Also all banks have mostly the same rates, but they do offer various different promotions (such as 3% discount for the first 2 years, or .5% discount for the life the mortgage etc...), but they all use very similar MLR starting point base rate.

You've got to shop around for the promotion that best suits your needs, if you plan to pay off the mortgage quickly get a rate which is heavily discounted at the start of the loan, and viceversa.

Also factor in hidden costs as this can vary a huge amount between different banks, ask about loan fees, insurances etc...this can save you a lot of money (or cost you alot if you choose the wrong bank).

Comparing it to the rates in other countries for other currencies in fairly irrelevant.

Interview is in a few days, I don't know the woman never spoke to her she is just the point of contact.

I've lived here for the better part of a year before and really enjoyed it. That's a tough question that I have been struggling with the past few days. I've just started a new entrepreneurial enterprise in a new industry, and this is going back to my old one. The question is was my new enterprise mostly motivated by the prospect of traveling/living abroad? And if so, was it mostly about traveling, or just being abroad? Because taking a full time job in Bangkok obviously is a commitment and I can't travel the way I'd envisioned. I have a flight to Jakarta at the end of the month and am lining up projects there at the moment.

Undertaking a financial risk for the new venture, a big part of me says I see a safety rope and am grabbing it before I give my new endeavor a chance to get off the ground. At the same time it's sort of unique (I'd rather not get too specific since this such a small community) in that I rarely see many opportunities abroad outside of TEFL. Walking around Paragon yesterday it was pretty tempting to imagine myself making a good salary and eating at all those nice restaurants. Living in this city with money seems like a lot of fun. Right now I'm on a pretty strict budget.

My current feeling is that this opportunity and the questions sorrounding it have distracted me from my work for the better part of a week and I should just ditch it. But I want to go to the interview because if I feel like I can pocket $20k+ over a year it might be the smart move to grit my teeth and do it, and hit the pause button on what I'm doing currently. It's sales so I really have no idea what sort of money to expect until the interview.. and that's really my primary consideration

Ahh $20K a year, then you'll be livin' large in the big city, you'll be able to go to MK and sup on the finest oriental delicacies that currently seem so elusive.

I use Thunderbird + Gmail IMAP.

Even if Gmail were to randomly lose all my emails, I'd still have my local Thunderbird copy. Plus I sync my local data to my network drive daily.

what other options do you have in mind?

The IMF/EU could have set any requirements/conditions on the bailout that they wanted; choosing to steal 10% for bank deposits is an insane condition. General tax increases, general public spending reductions would have been the sane requirements.

When I heard this news it reminded me historically of Franz Ferdinand, something that does not seem like that big of a deal but could have huge repercussions. How is this anything but totally insane? These people running the EU and these bailouts and this austerity are totally insane.

the alternative is that the IMF and the EU do not make the necessary € billions available to prop up the banks in Cyprus. that would mean bankruptcies and depositors would lose much more than 6.75 respectively 9.9%.

would you consider that "sane"?

So you look at only 2 insane options, and say this one is less insane "Let's do it"

of course what it says and what it means are not the same

Central Bank of Cyprus

Deposit protection scheme

http://www.centralbank.gov.cy/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=8158〈=en

Cyprus is levying a tax. there is no protection scheme against taxes.

Doesn't this then essentially set a precedent that all deposit guarantees are meaningless.

For example if there is a run on bank XYZ, instead of the government having to pay the depositors they just set a "tax" of X% on the bank deposits, and thus the bank is now able to pay the remaining deposit amounts which have been reduced by X%.

If I had money in any EU banks I'd be pulling it out ASAP.

IMHO it is absolutely retarded to levy a tax on bank deposits.

- Person A has $100K in a bank

- Person B has $100K under the pillion

- Person C has $100K in Gold

Surely any reasonable tax they should all be liable for the same amount of tax, but to say that only person A has to pay sends a clear and shocking message "Don't keep your money in a bank"

More edits...

They should have at just said that everyone is liable for a 10% haircut (on all their holdings) and then only really enforced the bank deposits. At least then people would be angry in general, and not specifically at bank deposits; which is surely going to send all Cypriot banks straight down the toilet.

If I met someone in Thailand who was on holiday and ask them if they were interested in a job. They then show up in a brand new full suit they've bought for the interview...i'd be thinking "Didn't realize he needed work this badly..."

I see your point. But, when people need work "badly", I would think they are the ideal type of people to be hiring and the least likely to quit. In other words, performing well in the suit (which may be good attire for the workplace) would be ideal.

True, i guess it could cut either way (a hungry go-getter or a desperate and unwarned individual) depending on the employer.

Anyways if the OP cannot assess his own situation and figure out which pair of pants to put on...I don't hold much hope for him becoming gainfully employed anywhere.

I think it really depends on the context of "I sort of stumbled into a job interview"

If you mean that someone you met here specifically asked you if you were interested in a job, and would like to come to an interview. Then obviously they know you are traveling as a tourist and would not expect you to show up in a suit (in fact they'd probably think it was pretty weird that you went out and bought a suit)

But if you mean that you happened to pick up a Bangkok Post and look at the job offerings..then yeah that would be pretty strange if you showed up in casual-wear.

Serious? I would think showing up in a suit would say nothing but good things.... unless the guy came off as never being offered an interview before, which is possible I guess.

If I met someone in Thailand who was on holiday and ask them if they were interested in a job. They then show up in a brand new full suit they've bought for the interview...i'd be thinking "Didn't realize he needed work this badly..."

I think it really depends on the context of "I sort of stumbled into a job interview"

If you mean that someone you met here specifically asked you if you were interested in a job, and would like to come to an interview. Then obviously they know you are traveling as a tourist and would not expect you to show up in a suit (in fact they'd probably think it was pretty weird that you went out and bought a suit)

But if you mean that you happened to pick up a Bangkok Post and look at the job offerings..then yeah that would be pretty strange if you showed up in casual-wear.

The drilling method you mentioned has to be used if there are other buildings too close to the piles, in which case driving the piles may cause damage to the other buildings.

It's more expensive to drill...so it appears your neighbor is the caring sort...

The definition of "too close" is often hotly debated between the new building and the existing close buildings

At Chocolate Ville they have a beer called Weihenstephan dark which is pretty good.
http://www.chocolateville.net/

The domain i want is available as .org and it may suffice......another close one is available as .co..........the .com one i want is available at auction for $500........auction finished yesterday with not one bid or any interest.......thought it might revert to best offer, but it just recycled to another auction date in 90 days time.

$500 is really not that much, if it's a decent short .com domain. If they are listing it at $500 you could probably contact the owner and start somewhere at $250...or even $150.

You do realize that domains can be worth millions of dollars? http://www.domaining.com/topsales/

But if their list price is $500...it's probably not a decent domain (and seeing as you are unwilling to tell us it, then i guess we can't advise on this)

Just get your domain through Google Apps, $10 a year with no BS, plus you get free gmail. calendar, drive etc. under your own domain name and automatically set up for you. (NB: You get a choice of registrar, choose enom).

Alternatively, if you love having endless amounts of upsell crap forcibly shoved down your throat with absolutely no way to stop it, use Godaddy. Their control panel is *painful* to look at.

But don't you have to also pay for Google Apps ($5/user/month), so if all you want is a domain, you'd end up paying $60 per year?

To the OP: "house built using Shera board" doesn't even make sense? It's like saying "I'm going to build a house out of Vinyl Siding"

As to the using plasterboard/studs for interior walls; it's not common practice in Thailand for a number of reasons, such as:

- Termites (will eat the paper on the plasterboard, and will eat wooden studwork)

- Flooding/Water/Humidity

Cost-wise I don't think it would be any cheaper. Bricks are quite cheap and the big white QCon bricks are very easy to lay (even for someone with no brick laying experience). The double wall method is, IMHO, the only way to go. Just lay the bricks yourself, then have a more experienced technician come and do the concrete rending (as this part is a bit trickier if you want it to look good).

Did you know that a Steel-Framed home is (from a construction-technical point of view) is many times stronger than a conventional concrete Post & Beam discipline ? ?

And this is based on what calculations? Surely a concrete column has a far higher compression strength than a steel beam? Are you using some kind of strength-to-weight ratio to make these statements? In which case you could say a piece of A4 is stronger than concrete because it's got a higher strength-to-weight ratio?

Sure .com is best, no argument, but what i am saying if it is not available and any good .com name is gone these days.......not paying silly money for a name for something new.

What are the .com domains you are interested in?

On the major exchange there are $1000per day withdrawal limits:

https://mtgox.com/press_release_20130313.html

If you want a higher withdrawal limit you have to "verify" (send in ID and proof of address). I have a $10,000 per day limit on mtgox. You can get up to $100,000 per day limit if you verify with mailed-in/notarized ID documents.

The inflation type adjustments you are referring to are when there are an excessive amount of claims by the group the previous year, this is imposed by the underwriter.

Could be, but got nothing to do with me, as we (my family and I) made no claims, so seems unfair that I'd get a 15% hike...and if I was infact in some kind of "group" it doesn't much make sense for me to be in an insurance "group" full of aging expats I've never met...

No need to take chances with these odd offers - talk to the sponsors of the forum over at AA Insurance brokers. Ask for Peter and check the Allianz plans as very good cover and reasonable premiums + they are well know here and you can trust them !

[email protected]

Personally I did use AA Insurance (or Thaivisa insurance as it was then) but I wasn't impressed that the insurance increased more than 15% after the first year (did not make any claims during the year). I have not had any large increases like that while using BUPA.

I am looking at the chart for BUPA premiums right now, every 5 years in age they increase about 15%, you may have just been on a change over point in age ranges, just about every Insurance company does this, also with cars as they get older and parts get harder to source.

No one on the plan had gone over an age gap increase increment. As you said they have price jumps about every 5 years in age, but no one on the plan changed age bracket. This was just a straight up 15+% "inflation" type adjustment.

Also depending on the plan you are BUPA has daily limits, such as on the Ruby plan room is only covered for 2,500 baht per day, ICU 5,000 baht per day, some other companies do not have these limits, the one I have covers 100% of inpatient costs and was a lot less than what BUPA quoted me.

I'm with BUPA international (not the local Thai version of BUPA) so there are no daily limits, it's 100% coverage.

No need to take chances with these odd offers - talk to the sponsors of the forum over at AA Insurance brokers. Ask for Peter and check the Allianz plans as very good cover and reasonable premiums + they are well know here and you can trust them !

[email protected]

Personally I did use AA Insurance (or Thaivisa insurance as it was then) but I wasn't impressed that the insurance increased more than 15% after the first year (did not make any claims during the year). I have not had any large increases like that while using BUPA.

It's not a viable solution for moving large quantities of GBP to THB between your own accounts, as you say this would just be adding additional currency conversions.

What i mean by "transfer large amounts of money anywhere in the world for almost no cost" is in the ideal future of bitcoin there is no GBP or THB. You get paid in BTC in the UK, you send BTC to Thailand, you buy stuff with BTC in Thailand. This is the future, not the now.

When considering currency conversions in the here and now it's only economically viable to use Bitcoin for transferring small amounts around the World. Where using wire transfers etc... have a high cost (such as a 800THB for wire transfer doesn't make sense when sending only 1000THB)

Would still loose about 10% with changing in and out though no? What's the point to send such a small amount? If for a purchase then may aswell use a credit card and have the saftey of getting your money back if the goods don't turn up.

So the only real point of it is a place to keep/ move money outside of the banking system. Which is not so strait forward as it could/ should be. If it really did get to such a level the governments would probably just declare it illegal on national security/ terrorist funding excuse. Not to say It might not continue as a currency of / for the black market, but the dream you have of a global currency with everyone getting paid in and spending in bit coin is never going to happen.

I'd say you'd lose more like 3-4% if you shop around for the best local conversion rates, and if you are sending them money to someone else then you personally are only eating half the conversion (maybe 2%).

Have you ever ordered many things online and had them shipped to Thailand using a credit card? Very few online retailers would consider shipping items to Thailand; and why you may ask? Fraud, stolen credit cards and chargebacks is the answer. This is why it's preferable for online merchants to receive bitcoins, as many wouldn't accept your credit card anyways.

And when you pay with a credit card you are still paying 3%-4%+ (the merchant is paying it) and as such this cost is already factored into the price. Many places in Thailand (and in the US too now) will add 3% onto your bill if you want to use a credit card. So this previously hidden cost, much to the chagrin of CC companies, is now becoming more visible.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mastercard-visa-users-pay-cards-article-1.1248759

It's not a viable solution for moving large quantities of GBP to THB between your own accounts, as you say this would just be adding additional currency conversions.

What i mean by "transfer large amounts of money anywhere in the world for almost no cost" is in the ideal future of bitcoin there is no GBP or THB. You get paid in BTC in the UK, you send BTC to Thailand, you buy stuff with BTC in Thailand. This is the future, not the now.

When considering currency conversions in the here and now it's only economically viable to use Bitcoin for transferring small amounts around the World. Where using wire transfers etc... have a high cost (such as a 800THB for wire transfer doesn't make sense when sending only 1000THB)