cliveshep

Many thanks to all the members who responded. To address some points or questions:- I made a will, got a Government official plus SIL to sign and date every page as a witness and signed every page myself. There are two copies. I used a modified standard Thai will form, modifications being to simply delete non-applicable clauses, keeping it simple. It is written in both Thai and English and translations have been checked. My wife has both copies and it clearly states that she is the sole beneficiary and that I have instructed her to clear my account on my death. I also clearly state that she has my pin numbers and passwords and has done for the last 10 years and that there are no other beneficiaries except her and my grown adult kids have rejected all claims. I do all my banking on-line, both UK bank which holds very little and my Bangkok Bank account. She has passwords and pin numbers to both accounts and the records will show that all transfers - and there are many every month - are made to her alone, I've told her to carry on the transfers until the account is empty. I make no other payments except one payment to her family monthly, all bills she pays - I transfer money, she pays. The reason is as she explained years ago - little money is ever left in her account, if I were to lose my bank card or an ATM scammed me we'd be stuffed, by only paying her by internet transfers my account is protected. I use a computer, not a mobile phone which I feel cannot be trusted in security terms. I have considered a joint account but feel it is probably better to let her do internet transfers and only after she has done them to call whoever she has to call over my case. My set limits for transfers are daily 0.5 million and 450,000 on internet transfer so she'll only need to do one and if God is gracious and I can still do it before last gasp even better. I think prepaying the company as Sheryl has suggested is a great idea and I copied that excellent post to my (LEGAL) wife (we were married in a UK Church) and will get her to make enquiries. If they were to undertake to do everything that would be great for my wife.

I'm 78, realistically my time is limited. I'm concerned about my wife being in trouble when I die, we got the 400,000 assuming she can get hold of it, she is a signatory on the account - seen under UV light on the book, but not sure if she can transfer the money legally if I'm dead. So does anyone know if she transfers my money to her own account using my laptop as we do all the time is it legal after my death, it's certainly legal when I'm alive. Next advice - she says it will cost most of that amount to dispose of my body and that is exorbitant - all she needs is the cheapest cremation, no monks wailing or chanting, no food, no flowers, we are both Christian but it seems that it is only in a temple that a body can be cremated. So advice please, we live on my UK pension and they are not generous, far from it!

O(k guys - update here. Went in last week with 2 sets of everything just in case. Asked the document checking "lady"(boy) if two sets were needed - answer yes. So got bank letter, two copies of that, two copies of updated bank book's last page, 2 copies of their extra 3 pages of forms about if I over-stayed yabba yabba and for wife asserting yes still married etc, presented these two massive 30 page bundles and were told we would be called. Well, we were not called and in the end thoroughly fed up because we were on-site in plenty of time for our appointment, but now long past that time and found an empty booth with an IO sitting in it and asked her why others were now in front when we were missed out. She looked at our appointment form, took our bundles of docs and said she'd do it for us. First thing she did was hand back one bundle - not need she said. But but but we said - doc checking told us....yes she said but I don't need 2 sets, they are wrong! So whether right or wrong she took one set, yakked and joked with my wife, then called us to go inside to a supervisor who simply handed back my passport and said finished! What says I? No sweetie? (like dentists do for children!) So she laughed and joked could I still chew candies if I had my teeth still when the I.O who did the paper work shushed her saying she'd offend me but as I laughed they laughed and all went good. Also good because the booth we were supposed to to in was staffed by a right miserable I.O my wife remembered from last year as rude so we didn't need to sit in front of her! So go back for extension stamp on 5th April now. All over for another year!

I always scan all documents and print them out in colour producing one legible set for my annual extension but last year they upset my wife by demanding an additional set in black & white at Chang Wattana. She got mad because she is the one to go downstairs to get 25 pages of copies, which by the way, are as usual almost indecipherable with pictures mostly blacked out of details. As we had a booking time this made us late. We were not the only ones caught out by this, lots of disgruntled ex-pats vocalising their thoughts on the Thai Imm Service which were far from complimentary. I did not disagree! So my question is - in order to prepare now and not get caught out again - is this now a requirement of the Imm Bureau as when printing I can always print a legible set in B & W so the I.O's are happy bunnies? I.e two sets, one of which (if not both) must be in black and white?

Why would you pay for a free site when you can download ad-free using Clip Grab? Anyway - confession time - lack of comments button etc is/was my fault as for some reason I must have increased the screen magnification and YouTube retained the setting. Made the magnification less and hey presto I got comments etc back again. I only found this out while accessing the site from Firefox instead of Opera because I wanted to make a comment and deciding the font was too small increased magnification whereupon the comments section and button vanished. Decreasing magnification on Opera restored it too.

I sent the money to my wife, Wise sent it to me instead which is why 12 hours later on the web page my wife's transfer showed "pending" as money not received. I complained to Wise but they are probably Thai as they promptly blamed me in spite of the evidence to the contrary saying I must have clicked my own account - which I did not. I sent all the print-outs and screen grabs off their web site in proof but they ignored them. You cannot win with some banks as no matter what facts and proof you have they got their own "truth", I later deleted my wife's account as she lost her purse with i.d card, bank card and driver's licenses. Took a few hours of driving around to get all three replaced, a lot easier than it would have been in the UK. I told her to get a new account as well as someone put a small amount of money into her old account although she had blocked the card. She did that and a new account in her name was set up on Wise with a new account number. I tested it and money went through fine. The reason for splitting my pension between my account and hers is to avoid a transfer amount that at the end of the year would attract a tax liability for either of us if the venal Thais go ahead with ignoring the double tax agreement with the UK and taxing my pension..

Is anyone else having issues with transferring money from a UK bank via the internet to the UK branch of Wise? Normally it takes seconds to arrive at Wise and seconds for Wise to send it on to a Thai bank but so far a transfer showing up on my Lloyds account as having been paid has not appeared in the Wise account for forwarding. It's a bit worrying especially as, although only a relatively small amount, we need it to stay solvent and in 2 days a larger amount needs to be transferred. Is this exceptional or are there often times when the money takes a long time to get to Wise? First time for me so far! Checked bank - defo states on my statement the money has gone to the Wise account saved in my payee list, nothing changed as far as I know with Wise.

Just tried on Firefox although not signing in - comments are there ok. What has Opera done to me?

It seems to be just me - I am not blocking ads or anything, using Opera so don't know why I am blocked. My son in the UK just checked - he has no problem either. What can I do?

Try this one: And no, not when I use clip grab.

Over the last couple of weeks YouTube has increased the ads to a disproportionate level but that is the price to pay I guess for a free service. If I want to watch something uninterrupted there is a simple solution, using free clip grab app I can download it - no ads! What is really annoying though is that the comments sections and the comments button have entirely disappeared from all the videos. Now that means I can no longer contact many contributors, actually none of them. So not to be overly paranoid but...................is it just me or have all of you encountered the same issue? Asked on Quora but they just babble on about a dislike button so no help. If it is just me for some reason, and as I am never abusive but only comment to ask a question or compliment the creator I am at a loss as to why. What if anything can I do in such a case? You Tube are owned by Google and the Americans have a justifiable opinion that they are just too big and need to be broken up, cannot disagree with that but be that as it may - how to contact them if it is just me and get answers or solutions?

That is dressed pal, it's hot here in case you live in Lapland, in my own home i wear boxers only. Not out to drive anyone mad with desire or make fashion statements - ok? And for the rest of you with better manners than LL - the unit is already charging in my picture., the lead is plugged into the charging port and is from the charger in the wall socket. image modified below for those with a delicate disposition - alright Lou?

Also a cigar-lighter plug adapter and a USB lead as well.

It comes with a mains charger and a charging port - not usb - and it showed 4 light meaning 4/4 full charge, went to 3 after starting the truck and took around 1 1/2 hours to charge up full again so not a problem..

Unlikely - both starter and relay are brand new as of a couple of months ago.

Just right of centre under the dash - bit of a back-breaker getting to contort to see it. I broke it away from the metal bracket to get both hands on the appropriate terminal on the wires and couldn't re-fit it - arthritis - so just zip-tied it back up.

Just want to share this, like the man said I would like to say how tickled I am! Following some possibly dubious advice I connected a 12v live wire to one terminal that was apparently supposed to be live on my Suzuki Carry OBD1 socket. Not totally sure but I think it is responsible for a parasitic draw that recently cost me a new battery. I wasn't worried at the time - I had replaced it 2 or 3 years earlier so when the truck did nothing on the key I bought and fitted a new battery. But we hadn't used the truck for a couple of weeks only so naturally I was suspicious when I tried to start it over Christmas and it was totally flat. I have a 100 amp start-all charger/booster but it kept shutting off after 2 seconds - I thought it was the toc and tweaked it but never tried it again and bought the new battery. So I never tried it. Instead I thought to pay 1256 baht on Lazada for this little magic box (see here: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/paraclete-jump-starter-99800mah-12v-jump-starter-usb-power-bank-battery-booster-clamp-i2234100075-s7471496423.html? I disconnected the wire I'd added and tried my new toy. Amazing! Truck roared into life just like a new battery - I am delighted to say the least. Moreover after driving it round the block a bit I tried my Start-all and it also worked as the battery had some volts in it I suppose. Left it on a controlled charge to top off the battery. So given how tiny these things are and how cheap I totally recommend having one in the car, it is supposed to start up to 6l petrol and 5l diesel engines up to 20 times and that is pretty amazing if true.

Hopefully then Chang Wattana take a 15th to 15th 2 months later because if it is calendar months there would only be a couple of days and if the money doesn't arrive by 1st Jan as in fact it should that will be the scenario.

Not a problem in that sense, I can satisfy financials but guaranteed 2 month date is only 12 days BEFORE extension expiry. But others have said I'm ok if it becomes necessary to apply 12 days before rather than my usual month so that's my answer!

The reason is that it is possible that money needed to put back money spent from my 400,000 baht fund due to emergencies earlier this year might not come in time to top the fund back up the necessary 2 months before my normal application date of 4 weeks before extension expiry. So the money might arrive late giving 2 months in the bank ending only 1 weeks before the previous extension of stay expires. Relevant dates could be as late as 25th January 400,000 in my bank with an extension of stay expiring 5th April, the 2 months maturation ending only 12 days before expiry of the previous extension of stay.

Thanks for that but as I posted on my update the USB speakers work perfectly, no hum, plenty of volume, good clear sound. If only I had known that a reboot would have solved the problem it would have saved me hours of work and pestering everyone on here. Still, now got other problems to worry about, the speakers can go into storage for emergency use if necessary.

Nobody talked about me specifically? You posted your vitriol on a thread in response to my original post yet your comments are supposed to be regarded as unrelated? Are you completely off your meds or is this normal behaviour for you, in which case do please bog-off elsewhere with your anti-expat comments which are unrelated to tax questions but simply put you are just pushing your uninformed personal beliefs. Thank you for your "service", please don't slam the door on your way out. Goodbye!

You are not a very nice person are you? My wife is Thai, we lived in England, we married in England, we both worked in England, she is younger than me by a lot, we've been married for 12 years now and I am in my late 70's and she is the greatest, loving and caring plus at 40 beautiful and sexy. She of course speaks English very well, is a University Graduate, and highly competent. We were married in an English country church we attended regularly, and had our own house. We decided to sell our house and cars and move here when I retired because we love the country and it's lack of intrusion into our lives unlike the UK. Plus it is warm, no ice and snow. We bought a nice detached house, fully air-conditioned although to be fair we limit it's use given how expensive it is and it is free of any financial encumbrances. It is in a quiet walled village, we got 2 old cars, one is a truck actually, and a motorbike so retirement is good for me as my darling spoils me rotten. Frankly nothing you wrote applies to us and you are talking utter garbage, perhaps you have some personal issues here that have made you such a sourpuss?

Well, that is really good info, I already worked out that if I transferred all my pension over based von the tax tables posted earlier I would be liable for 87 baht a month tax IF the Thai Government reneged on the DTA. So for me I guess nothing to worry about, thanks all!

I'll leave things the way they are I think, not stirring anything up with the Dept of Pensions. Just need to figure out how to get Wise to show the transfers come from my UK bank, my UK bank statement will show clearly where payments in come from and go to. Come to that the Statement clearly shows DWP payments in and Transferwise payments out and no other transactions month on month.