JB300

Your pension is safe from any Private debts so nothing to worry about there & I doubt any LSE listed PLC would want the negative publicity of a public row with a major charity so will probably write it off (I'm surprised they've taken it this far).

Even if they did sell the debt, the collection agencies cannot come after you if you have no UK assets (any writ & their jurisdiction would be limited to UK).

As has been said, not enforceable in Thailand (it's a civil matter) but they will try to recover the debt...

From a "Lender", they will sell the debt to a collection agency who may well get a writ to seize any uk assets in your name.

From HMRC, they can technically claw it back against any UK future Pensions.

And I was told by the Council Tax people that they'd enter my property & seize the goods if I didn't settle the arrears (house had sat empty for 3 years while I was working overseas), cheeky barstewards wouldn't even let me have the single person discount as I was living there with my UK gf before I left the uk.

Sorry, it's been available on IPhone for about 1 year now so I'd assumed it would be available in the UK (one thing I really hate about Apple is being tied to a specific country's app store).

There are (or at least used to be) ways you can register yourselves a new account (I have 1 for UK & 1 for Singapore but have credit cards registered to addresses in both countries), I'll dig out my old 5S at the wknd & see if I can remember how to do it (without having a US credit card).

Turns out it's really easy...

- create yourself a new email address (any will do)

- pick a US address from one of the examples here http://bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats/united_states/

- get yourself a fake phone number from http://www.fakephonenumber.net/US_phone_number/Arizona_phone_number (I randomly picked an address in Phoenix so used a phone number from there)

- settings, iTunes & App Store, click on your account & sign out

- go to app store, select any free app, select get

- when prompted select create account

- complete the details & select None as the payment type (you can use ITune vouchers if you plan on buying apps)

& Voila you have a US app store account

Alternatively, if you have a mate who already has a US account, get them to sign in on your phone while you dowload Cortana then sign back in yourself, App Store automatically switches between countries based on the Apple ID logged in.

Good Luck :)

Sorry, it's been available on IPhone for about 1 year now so I'd assumed it would be available in the UK (one thing I really hate about Apple is being tied to a specific country's app store).

There are (or at least used to be) ways you can register yourselves a new account (I have 1 for UK & 1 for Singapore but have credit cards registered to addresses in both countries), I'll dig out my old 5S at the wknd & see if I can remember how to do it (without having a US credit card).

You could run (MS) Cortana on your IPhone but by all accounts it's not as good as Siri (though maybe it will work better for you personally).

As for IPhone Vs Android, I'm yet to find an Android that feels as good to hold/use as the iPhone (just bought the S7 edge for my gf, lovely looking phone but doesn't feel as nice to hold/use as my IPhone 6) so I'll stick with it until I do (no way I'm upgrading to IPhone 7, not enough differences to warrant it).

Am waiting to get my hands on the Samsung flip phone, saw a Chinese guy with the one they released over there a while back & it looked pretty cool...
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-s-new-flip-phone-looks-sleek-as-hell-in-these-spy-shots (should add I live in Singapore so pretty hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one even if it's only released in China)

There is some data on Hipflat that includes sale/rent prices for previous properties in the building & nearby area though I've no idea how accurate this is.

Be interesting to hear real life experiences of people who have bought / sold & compare their experiences to it.

I am looking for a large condo in good location. Min. 180sqm. I have not come across any huge real discounts or emergency sales in 6 months. The only real discount ever offered was for a 220 sqm shell-unit in a Russian building which I would have bought if there were any people living there. But they could not show me any details about admin, committee etc. etc. 30% off the published price for quick sale.

So if anybody knows of a great unit with great discount up to 8 Mio Baht, please PM me.  Thanks.  MS>

180sqm is pretty big for a Condo, so I'm not surprised you're having problems locating one or (rightly or wrongly) getting one for 8Million.

Have you considered buying a number of smaller ones & knocking them into 1?

Edit: Out of curiosity I had a quick look on hipflat & there might be a couple on there that fit your criteria https://www.hipflat.co.th/en/search/sale/condo_y/TH.CB_r1/TH.CB.TY_r2/7000000,10000000_p/any_b/150,250_a/any_w/any_o/any_i/100.874692,12.921155_c/14_z/list_v

Langkawi (Malaysia) [emoji1303]

Oh My Buddha!!!

Stumbled across a BBC Horizon Programme, really enjoyed it so thought I'd look it up on Kodi & watch a few more episodes...

I now have 10-16 episodes times 52 years to watch

I may be sometime !!!

 
Sorry JB300
 
You previously said that they both had private practices.
 
Brought over or encouraged by the NHS. Jumped ship and opened Private Practices, made enough money to skip back to Poland and retire to live happily ever after.
 
I will not fault them for doing so. It just highlights how much the system sucks. 

Yes you are right there will be lots of tenants to fill your house so you can get your money. There isn't enough housing in the UK so don't worry. So why actually did these two dentists come to the UK? I will tell you. They  came for a better life and could make more money there than in there own country by far and some. I imagine when they came to the UK, if it was in the early days the free and then good education system was highly appealing. now it is in the gutter (state schools) due to the influx of migrants. The free health service also would have been appealing. Lets not forget, it was not your two Polish tenants doing the UK a favour, it was UK doing them the favour by allowing them in the UK, practicing their business and if working for the NHS getting equal salaries or if private charging whatever price they wanted too.

Not UK specific but a view on the Global Pension position & includes some reference to the UK


The coming Pensions Crisis https://www.citivelocity.com/citigps/CitiGPSVideo.action

Interesting points:-
- Current Pension obligations are roughly 2x the known OECD countries looked at debt
- Pensions were based on people living 12 years in retirement, average is now 20 (which suggests the pension age should be raised to 73)
- Social Security (US Pensions) should be for people in need not an automatic entitlement.

Those builders and plumbers providing a service to ordinary people have been ripping them off for a long time - which is why I have no problem with Polish plumbers staying in the UK .  Incidentally, I feel the same way about private motor mechanics who are also charging far more than justifiable.
 
Presumably there is the equivalent for foreign builder - happy to provide a quality service to ordinary people at a reasonable price?
 
I'm not a 'patriot', and so have no problem with way over-priced self-employed plumbers/builders and the like being forced to reign in their OTT prices.
 
I'm mainly concerned about the unskilled (or employed by companies) labour - as they have been driving wages down for those at the bottom of unskilled wage force, and this has continued upwards to stagnate/reduce the skilled.
 
Meanwhile those at the top of the heap are enjoying ever increasing salaries as they reduce the cost of employees.....
 
Edit - I think it was Cedric Brown (the original fat cat?) who exemplified this.  In his case he had been employed at a very good salary by the nationalised company.  British Gas was then privatised, he sacked numerous workers and awarded himself a HUGE salary increase....

Then gives them to her husband as he's a collector

Just for you Changers

 

BOOM! Deutsche Bank Largest Customer, QATAR, Pulls the plug

https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/2261

That collapse is going to happen even quicker than I thought.

Might not even have to wait until the end of March 2017.

^^^ End of Sgt Rock's Quote^^^

If it does, I can't see anyway the UK can shelter itself from the shockwaves... so the question is, what's going to be left to pick back up

Don't know why the quoted post keeps getting messed up

I understand KH that's what I was getting at it being negative but it certainly should never been said that the issue isn't relevant.

 
I do not believe that that a method of getting Greece out of the EZ was ever even attempted.
 
I believe that the vast sums of money that have been thrown, and continues to be thrown at Greece was a method of keeping Greece in the EZ. 
 
There was no intention of allowing Greece out of the EZ with the potential to start a snowball effect.
 
Just as is happening now with Brexit. All sorts of threats / Court Cases are ongoing in a bid to keep the UK in the EU. 
 
The EU A - Holes know that they are on a hiding to nothing once the 1st starters gun is fired. leaving the EZ or EU is the catalyst for the domino effect.
 
Those with their snouts deeply embedded in the trough are only to aware of this.

 

The EU will exist in one form or another, but the Eurozone and the Euro I doubt for much longer. Likely all go back to separate European currencies, no ECB and a return of the EEC with no further political integration with a vastly reduced EU acting as oversight for the common market.

(Practically) I can't see how the EU countries can leave the Euro to return to their own currencies, it's just not logistically possible

I mean they couldn't work out a way for Greece to do it on their own, can you imagine 27 countries doing it all at once (which they would need to).

Only way the Euro is going to disappear is if it as a whole morphed/merged with some other currency but you'd have the same (if not bigger) problems.

The final salary scheme reducing by the amount of state pension does not seem right, whilst contracted out you are still contributing to the basic state pension. Some schemes when taking benefits from DB pensions give the option of level payment, you take a higher amount from the DB untill reaching state pension age at which point it drops with the state pension making up shortfall.

The contracted out years do count towards the state pension.

I know that the Final Salary scheme drops by the amount I receive from the state pension as it was those guys that estimated it would be around £22k and gave me the before & after estimates of what I would get.

Will do as suggested & drop them an email to confirm / get an updated position.

paying class 2 as voluntary contribution, comes with some hoops - https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions

Thanks for the link, Very interesting.

My situation is that I was in a final salary scheme (contracted out of SERPS) for 20 years, a couple of years in a Defined Contribution scheme (again pretty sure I was contracted out), own business for a couple of years (no contributions, paid myself minimum wage) & have been working overseas for the last 8 years so my state pension estimate is approx £2k per year.

As I'm 50 I could pay 23 years (6 back dated & 17 until I'm 67), type 2 contributions (living & working overseas) but is it worth it & would my previous (contracted out) contributions count towards the 35 years?

Have a seperate question for anybody who's receiving pension from a final salary scheme, mine says it reduces by the state pension when it kicks in so if I were to make additional payments would I just end up with the same amount & the pension company would be pocketing the extra state pension?

 
I am throwing in the towel after 2 episode. Jack Bauer is just not convincing as President, the staff and even the oval office is not of the same quality as House of Cards. Kevin Spacey just set the standard for this kind of TV series very high.
The Idea behind the Designated Survivor however is good.

 

I can imagine that; I had similar experiences.

 

However, standards have dropped dramatically. Have you looked at an A level maths or physics paper recently. University courses are typically 4 years now.

 

The country is being dumbed down [emoji53]

I hear that, my Brother was a couple of years younger than me & ended up in the "higher" (non-grammar) school (he would have aced it)

Fortunately our Mum's (my Dad is an ex-pug faced Rugby League player) genes came through & he's now the managing director of a Danish company...

 

I can imagine that; I had similar experiences.

 

However, standards have dropped dramatically. Have you looked at an A level maths or physics paper recently. University courses are typically 4 years now.

 

The country is being dumbed down [emoji53]

Ironically I dropped out of A-Level Maths (Pure & Applied) & Physics as my career aspiration at 16 (1982) was to be a Maths/Science teacher & as a throw away got an "O-Level" qualification in computer studies (part of the A-level Electronics) which I got hooked on & that's what set my career for the last 30 years.

No "Big Swinging Dicks" stories but I've had an awesome career (without a degree) that puts me where I am today & wish the same luck to everybody else starting out [emoji1303]

To be fair, I gather the Germans have a better educational system.  They sort out those who are better off pursing an educational career and those who are better off pursuing other careers.
 
And it works.  Having worked in a school in a poor neighbourhood - the vast majority of them would have been far better off if they had been given a 'technical' schooling - ie. given the chance to work with cars etc.
 
They had no interest in 'education' as such, but would have appreciated something they enjoyed.