new2here

Pretty much all the major banks have been reassessing their real estate portfolio and footprints https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40014873 I suspect that post-C19 and with the advancement of various “e-“ forms of payments, deposits and such, this will only continue. While my BBL accounts are all at their 333 Silom office, I do know the branch managers of a few other offices in the general area and have heard that the head office is always looking at branches long-term viability.. not just accounts opened or assets under control, but net foot traffic, type of traffic, quantity and type of transactions being conducted in-branch etc.

here in thailand, individuals purely in the retail space, rarely have a “checking” account - that is the ability to write paper drafts against their account. They do exist, but for the traditional retail consumer, they are very uncommon and not usually something that’s actively promoted or discussed. Many banks will also have higher account opening standards- such as B10,000 minimums, the mandate you have a work permit or similar “long stay” type of immigration status etc .. it’s up to each bank to set these minimums. I was offered one as a part of my banks “suite” of services… but i declined despite being eligible, only because my personal experience was that few of the places that I do regularly to businesses with would accept a paper bank draft as payment or if they did accept it, it would incur processing delays/fees. Simply i didn’t see it to my advantage to have one… but that’s me and how and who i do business with. As noted, Citi’s Thailand retail division is being sold, so i wouldn’t be surprised to see some changes in what Citi offers from now until the actual date of sale effect and, if you do have one or get on with Citi, I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the new owner of their retail arm changes the product offering or eligibility either.

If you’ve got the time and the motivation, you can also stop by the Office of Consumer Protection.. They are (in my first hand experience) VERY helpful and fair..: they go by the facts, the evidence and any applicable law etc… IF you’ve got a legitimate claim against a business, thai owned or not, they will pursue it and they also do have the “teeth” to get resolution as the direct governmental agency and as i recall fall under the Prime Ministers Office. You would best be served to have thai speaker go with you, but it’s not necessary. If you go that route, prepare all your documentation, proof, emails etc as you’ll have to give them copies as poof of your case.

if you open the KTB app, then press the ( + ) button..: you’ll see a list of other KTB services open up, it’s there - GLO. add it from that menu then tap save. It will appear on your home screen when you launch the app.

To me this is just a consequence of some percentage of physical ticket sellers not being able to stick to the legal pricing model.. essentially the GLO took away their ability to sell at B80 because some wouldn’t… the days of selling a paper or physical instrument in the form of a ticket - be that airline, movie or lottery, are distinctly limited… I ALSO think this trend won’t reverse.. the GLOs costs to produce paper tickets, to manage the physical distribution, security and accounting all add up… and I’d suspect are a fairly sizable cost as well… While the IT costs would rise, I suspect that the total costs will drop… and I just think that’s the trend.. customers want to be able to buy on their terms, when it’s convenient for them.. not when they can find a seller that they like. So, IMHO, physical ticket sellers are kind of a like a dinosaur- staring down the barrel of their eventual market extinction

another issue is bilateral tax treaties.. thailand has a whole host of them, and as such if you’re a national of one of these countries, then special taxation rules MAY also apply to you with respect to your Thai income situation as well as any income generated externally. As for the withholding… yes, a non-citizen is subject to it in most cases… all you need to do is ask the bank for a tax statement at the branch (my experience with BBL is that any BBL branch can issue them regardless of the accounts domicile branch so long as you have proper ID and the physical bank book) after January, which shows the total interest paid and the withholding on the account and signed by the bank officer. then it’s only a matter of adding that into your PD90/91 on the correct line… easy peasy in my opinion. Do know that most, if not all, LABOUR offices will require you to show proof of the prior years tax filing/payment compliance before they’ll renew a WP for a subsequent period. This if true even IF your Thai subjected income/expenses/deductions left you in a “no tax due” or even a “refund due” situation… they’ll still want to see proof that you filed (and paid if required) as per law.

I would agree that at some point the “west” might start to show signs of war fatigue or war support fatigue…. I think part of this is going to be their everyday citizens seeing prices driven by the economic fall out - ie prices rising, in part but not totality, due to the war, and many will start to demand the focus shift inwards - ie their own daily cost of living.. I also think that in the end, the media cycle time is hyper short.. todays worldwide headline event will shift fairly quickly to the latest news somewhere else in the world… i just think that’s how it is with our ability to broadcast from nearly anywhere in the world and do so in near real-time. I’ve also got to believe that when the war in the Ukraine is over - whatever form that may take - I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s a “bill” so to speak, shown to Ukraine, and that they’ll tacitly be expected to pay back to those countries who backed them by direct financial support, material support or the like.

I don’t know about that.. I think that if everything is removed — and it’s well advertised, I do think thailand has a good shot at a decent high season…. but… they’ll have to hurry as many holiday makers will start to either begin their holiday planning or might be even be looking to finalize it by late summer or even as late as early fall… so… there’s some time— but not a whole lot… In addition, while air fares to Europe and North America are at very high levels, fares to Asia, relatively speaking aren’t as rich — just yet…. so people might find that the air fare part of the total equation makes Asia a better choice… but they’ll have to compete against places like Bali, KL etc ,, who’ve all be “ open” to varying degrees, well before thailand and may have already been chosen as the spot for this years year-end trip.

As a PR is not a citizen or national, as i read the current TP mandates, yes, you would still need to get a TP and have the insurance or one of the accepted alternatives (ie proof of Thai SSO cover) I am not aware of any exemption or the like that applies to this category of individuals.

ouch! is that due to some kind of unique scheduling reason or is that just how it’s going to be for the term/immediate near future?

Nice. While the book doesn’t seem to do a lot here, domestically, i do think that it can’t hurt when you go outside of the Kingdom and in those cases where perhaps the e-version isn’t readily accessible (ie website down) or something like that. In my head it’s never bad to have back-up means to prove something. Thanks for the report.

I agree.. a good, sharp PR team could have minimized any initial public blow back … and even turned it into something like a positive — sure, it’s spin.. but that’s what PR and media relations is.. controlling the narrative to a direction most favorable to your position while being the least favorable to that of your opposition (if applicable) The other thing is largely you don’t want the public shaping their own opinion as many will automatically take the position that’s least favorable to you … and once that initial position is formed, it’s hard to change later on.

I agree.. for the most part anything that has a large element of accountability AND also provides for easy and objective documentation makes some businesses here …. nervous.. it’s effectively hard to “hide” service failures when the proof/data is readily “out there” AND can be captured and documented. Hence the fallback and largely unchecked use of customer-initiated or uncontrollable delivery exceptions… be that “can’t contact”, “customer rescheduled delivery”, “address unknown” or the like… which provide the perfect “cover” for what would otherwise be properly labeled as service failures.

that’s the same as can’t contact.. it probably gives them a “pass” for what would otherwise be a missed delivery and I’d suspect also carries some kind of penalty based on their larger Lazada contract. so.. there’s an definite economic incentive for the delivery firm to misuse/falsify this and related exception statuses…. note that the SELLER doesn’t actually get paid (on COD shipments) until the actual delivery takes place— so they too are kind of getting shafted as well when delivery firms misuse/falsify these two delivery exceptions. So.. it’s pretty much down to who has the economic incentive.. the delivery firm has minimum downside (aside from nominal costs incurred with re-handling a package a 2nd/3rd time) and helps to protect them from financial minimum performance metrics when they enter these kind of codes .. so if they are short of delivery staff — perhaps they claim “can’t contact” a few customers …. and magically their delivery volume now matches the staff they do have…. maybe some drivers call in sick and it just so happens the same day customers call-in to reschedule their delivery — magically their delivery volume again matches their staff..

Apologies of this has been posted earlier (i didn’t scan the previous 6 pages) but .. the Post had a short article in Wednesdays edition (front page of Business section) that “Foreigners with a work permit or border pass” are/will be exempt.. This makes sense because having a WP in many (not all, but many) cases also means you’re covered for health care under the Thai SSO system.. and because one of the stated goals of the new fee is some kind of an “insurance” component, it would make sense that WP holders be exempted as their SSO would apply (again, recognizing that not all WP holder have Thai SSO, but a large percentage do)

As i know it, entering the exception code of “can’t contact” consignee effectively gets Kerry ‘off-the-hook’ ** for a late/missed delivery which i recall can carry financial penalties to Kerry… . so… there’s a built-in motivation for them/driver to misuse/abuse/falsify this issue. What I’ve done is take screen shots of the time/date and divers name.. then i GO TO the Kerry shop where this action takes place… i file a written complaint and provide the documentation … In 99% of the cases i’ll never see that driver assigned to me again (good for me and good for him) and most importantly, I’ve not had them misuse/abuse/falsify since. **Similar to how “weather delay” for airlines and “covid” for hotels and many other service-based businesses can be misused.

just on the surface it sounds like that “insurance” is really more of an indemnity versus traditional contact/policy-based insurance. My guess here - again, my guess only- is that the underlying goal is to make sure that if/when a foreigner is hurt while here - and (for whatever reason) they don’t have either an applicable insurance policy or access to funds to pay for their care, this “insurance” will act as a kind of last resort backstop so that hospitals aren’t really left with unpaid care. again, my guess …

I agree.. it’s a sizable jump when expressed as a percentage, but relatively squeaking small in absolute terms… To me, it’s more to do with being a ‘signal’ that consumer inflation is now hitting even the most common items and one that’s bought by a very large percentage of the people.

From what i’ve seen, it looks like TPs are approved much faster than the “7 days” window.. that said, I wouldn’t be surprised if things slowed a bit right at the beginning as I’d expect a bit of “surge” … So, if you’re ready, I’d apply as soon as the window opens.

That’s actually, IMHO, a slick way to go about it.. if they can’t make a case for the illegal activity, then they have another angle to which they can prosecute- and still seek imprisonment and/or fines/seizures.

i would have made it programmatic that orders: a) over X price must be prepaid, or b) orders from phone numbers/users with a history of unpaid orders require pre-payment … i think those two would be fair restrictions… I might also have a cap on the drivers liability..

the last part “… The only way avoiding that is recovery certificate, if you can get one.” isn’t exactly accurate. The fact that a person has a Recovery Certificate (plus proof of their earlier C19+ test) does NOT automatically entitle them to a waiver of quarantine… It will (or should) be used by the doctors/hospital when deciding what the treatment plan is, but doesn’t entitle the patient to bypass quarantine..

I agree … but it IS an approved option. .. but i agree with you that it’s probably not the easiest for airline staff to check.. so what I did was had my card translated and i also have the QR code that links to the website - which does say “Social Security”

I agree .. ask the hotel directly.. the hotels that I’ve contacted and the one i will use, either do testing immediately upon arrival in the way to the hotel or the hospital has a few testing “windows” like a morning, midday and evening .. and most all of them said that the hospital was obligated to return the results within 10 to 12 hours max.. So… I can’t really see a *need* that you’d have to remain and pay for a second “day” as you’d be gone at some point the next day — I think for T&G the hotels aren’t really following the traditional check-in (commonly late AM to early midday) and out (commonly late AM) times that would normally apply to a traditional hotel stay. Even the food.. My hotel said that I’m entitled to 3 meals off their T&G menu… IF i am cleared to leave and i haven’t received all 3 meals, then i can either tell them what i’d want off the menu and they’ll box it for take-away or give me a hotel F&B credit. So T&G bookings seem to operate with some fairly unique circumstances that you don’t see with traditional stays.

I agree with Blackcab.. You CAN get them.. i got a new one in November and my colleague got a new one in early March.. I didn’t have to pay a fee however (that might be because i needed a new card for an expiring one and that might be free as opposed to a replacement for a lost card might have the fee - I’m not sure) One thing to be aware of, antidotally it seems that not many entities outside of the DCA/MFA are aware that Thai SSO *is* a valid substitute for $20k insurance.. so it might be helpful if you have a copy of the DCAs latest updated rules .pdf to show - just in case one of the entities isn’t aware…