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They will convert on-the-fly, so you can keep your balance in GBP but still use it for THB purchases or in ATMs.

Right, China is hardly doing this covertly. And even without plans to invade Taiwan (and risk getting all their USD frozen, as we saw with Russia after their invasion of Ukraine), there is increasing tension between the U.S. and China, so it’s not really that surprising, that China wants less exposure to USD, and for them, gold is probably the second best thing.

Price of water is based on consumption, so there is no fixed price, and building will pay one bill to the provincial water authority for all of the building’s consumption, i.e. including common areas, and it’s then up to the building to try to split this bill. I tried to calculate a “fair price” for our co-owners and ended up with 25 baht per unit.

Some shops may also have additional fees when buying/selling. Granted, I asked about jewellery, and for this there was a design fee when buying and a “melting fee” when selling, though I also asked about the bullions, and apparently the price shown on their digital display was only for members, I didn’t bother asking what it required to become a member because it just seemed like gold in Thailand is a way to extract money from financial illiterate people…

You might get a better rate for higher amounts. I did about 12 million with Bangkok Bank and got a rate 0.75% worse than the ECB rate for the same day, which is the mid-market rate, so no bank (even Revolut) would actually give me the ECB rate. But as others have pointed out, you are in the mercy of Thai financial institutions, because THB cannot be sent abroad, so your best option is to check which Thai bank will give you the best rate.

Here is what Bangkok Bank have told me: If you transfer more than one million abroad, you need to go to the branch with paperwork (source of funds) and those have to be approved centrally (so this may take a few hours to complete because of the central approval step). If you transfer less than one million it is “personal expenses” and you can do this yourself via iBanking (desktop), though not mBanking (phone app). I have the mBanking app and I do not see an option to do international transfers. I also have iBanking and here I do have an option to do a new international transfer, but it require that you first add the account you want to transfer money to, then wait 1-2 days for Bangkok Bank to approve it, and now you can do transfers to this account. I did add my home country bank account and if I select “New Intl. Transfer”. My transfer limit is stated in foreign currency, but it amounts to just short of 1.5 million THB, so that might be the actual limit for what is considered “personal expenses”. I have done one international transfer from Bangkok Bank, the fee was 1,250 baht and they gave me an exchange rate 0.75% below mid-market rate.

I can now confirm that indeed, there is a bell! I was there around 21:45 and it seemed empty, but at the counter there is a hotel-style bell that you can ring, and someone comes out to help you. I also asked about the “VAT Refund for Tourists” app that they advertize, and which I had previously downloaded only to fail at entering my “VAT Invoice ID” — turns out that this only works with a subset of VAT receipts.

I have an international flight departing shortly after midnight from CNX. I also have a few items bought in Thailand under the VAT Refund scheme, so was planning to get back the VAT. But what time does the VAT Refund Office at CNX close? I can’t seem to find any information whatsoever about this office, only a map in the Thailand VRT app.

That video is a bit misleading, as they only put 20 bills in each stack. Normally you put 100 bills in a stack and that makes the stack slightly smaller than my iPhone 15 Pro (regular size). So carrying $20K in cash is roughly the same as carrying two extra mobile phones.

I have been told (by a bank) that it is generally best to select “Shared”. The reason is that if you select to pay all the fees, the receiving bank has to pass back information to the sending bank, and may have to do a second transfer for any fees that might not have initially been covered, so there might be additional expenses associated with this.

I have seen all of the following problems: Dried out P-traps Lack of wax seal under toilet Septic tank not having been cleaned for years Septic tank intake pipes near condo window without any air admittance valves (so fumes would exit from these pipes) Wrongly connected pipes, like bathroom ventilation pipe connected to the septic tank venting pipe system Bad seals on venting pipes (in Thailand plumbing is often just put together with a bit of silicone) It seems to be a common problem. I once had a yoga class where sewage smell made its entry, and the Thai teacher said “like this everywhere in Thailand”.

Most people in Thailand have a handful of accounts with different banks, so it’s not like banks are refusing new customers. They are refusing to give cheap credit, but that’s often for the customer’s own good, unfortunately though the Thais then turn to loan sharks or other dodgy finance options. Is that what you mean by everyone being underserved? I would say it’s really the government underserving the population by not being serious about cracking down on loan sharks and dodgy finance options. This problem will not be solved by virtual banks.

The “trick” is to just put it in the budget, rather than propose some extra expense for something specific. I got several bigger projects approved indirectly via the budget and we now have more service of our equipment plus yearly deep cleaning including windows, etc. Things are fairly cheap in Thailand, but it’s also easy to overpay, especially if you go for companies that have English speaking staff. There are also expenses like electricity consumption that can be looked into, I got our power consumption reduced significantly by switching everything to LED.

You just need to make a proposal, like no short-term rentals, and the penalty for violating this rule. Submit it to the AGM, and if it gets approved, then next step is to get it enforced. As for joining the committee, I have served on many committees, although only one in Thailand, here I served 3 consecutive terms (despite Thai Condo Act setting a term limit) and two of the terms, I was the chairman. One problem with committees is that many members just aren’t that knowledgable when it comes to issues pertaining to running a building. This is a bigger problem in Thailand, because you can’t rely on staff (like a bookkeeper) or contractor (like a mason) having any formal training, so it is extra important that committee members can judge the quality of their work, but if committee members do not know about double entry accounting, inventory tracking, accounts payable, or the pitfalls of laying tiles, building walls, or proper venting of plumbing etc. then they can’t really judge the work. Furthermore, I have found that committee members I have served with are generally just not very good at coming up with solutions to problems. This manifests itself either by issues not getting fixed, or money being wasted trying to pay someone to fix an issue that hasn’t been fully diagnosed. And then there is the “politics”, the two problems I have experienced is 1) other members not understanding their own limitations and thinking “their opinion is just as good”, and 2) autocratic self-serving people. The latter I have only seen in Thailand, and fortunately only very few, but from what I read, it seems to be a widespread issue here. Probably something about Thailand not always attracting the best people… As your committee is actively looking for new members, I would think that they are not infested with self-serving autocrats.

The problem is that majority of these contractors are self-taught, so many mistakes are made because they don’t know any better. My own “high end” building has all the classical mistakes, like lack of reinforcement or flexible material in the right places, so cracks everywhere, incorrect sloping of floors and balconies, so water doesn’t run toward the drains, incorrect venting in the plumbing, so some rooms will get sewage smell, tiles having insufficient bonding with the substrate, so some have popped up, outside metal has not been galvanized, so it is corroding, soft and porous tiles used near the salt water swimming pool, so these are eroding, a.s.o. So he had a foreign partner? A good combination is to have a foreigner (with building experience) oversee things, they should know most of the pitfalls and tend to have higher quality standards. I have come across a few skilled Thai workers, but they worked for companies, so not doing odd jobs for expats.

I think you have misunderstood my post. I was asking for a channel I can use to give away stuff easily in Chiang Mai, whenever I have something I do not need myself. The goal was to find a way to give things away to people who actively wants it, rather than to someone who wants it just in case they might be able to sell it.

As I said, giving it to building staff is my plan B. But many of the items I have are not really something I think a Thai person would be able to sell, I already mentioned ethernet cables, but I also have things like an electric whisk, wine cooler, tea pot, bicycle lights, cheese board with cover, wireless Qi charger, bread knife, a.s.o. I.e. things that most Thai people are probably not using, but many of these things are of good quality, so I’d rather give it to someone that will use it, than someone that has a small chance of selling it for a small amount… I was hoping there was a Facebook group for “giving things away for free in Chiang Mai” as I know from back home. Anyway, I will be shipping most of it to a friend here in Thailand, and then he’ll deal with it.

I have a hard time seeing why the employee who handled your case would be motivated to slow-roll your case or lie to you, they wouldn’t get anything out of it, other than possible complaints and a warning from their supervisor. More likely the employee was just lazy/overworked, and didn’t look thoroughly into your case, or possibly they would need to have escalated your case, if they had to investigate if any amount matching your transaction was unmatched in their omnibus account system, as regular help desk employees probably don’t have direct access to this system (somewhat sensitive information), so first answer is “wait a few days” (to see if the system will self-correct, as probably their omnibus account system can match amounts that lack the proper reference, but they must have been unmatched for some minimum amount of days).

My last transfer was the 20th of February for 518,624.82 baht sent to Kasikorn and it was instant. But I always send money to Wise first, exchange the money, and then withdraw (to Thai bank). I think I have seen a multi-day delay 2-4 times, although at least once they wanted me to submit documents as part of their AML/KYC procedures.

For the money, they must come from abroad and should be sent to a bank account in your name. Then you can just go ask your bank for a FET form, it doesn’t matter who sent the money, when it was sent, what was stated as purpose for sending the money, or that it was multiple transactions. At least that was my experience with Krungthai and the Chiang Mai Land Office. I just want to my bank, asked them to total up all money I have received from abroad over the last 2-3 years, which were actually sent to two different accounts I had with Krungthai, and some funds were sent by my company. They produced a letter that I then gave to the Land Office. Some people will tell you that it must be one transaction with the exact amount, it must have the stated purpose, etc. This is generally when you send the money to a third party, e.g. a lawyer doing the purchase on your behalf, or the developer. This is partly just to make things easier, and partly because of AML. As for the actual purchase, all terms can be negotiated between you and the seller, but the deal is performed at the Land Office with you given the seller a cashier’s cheque and the seller giving you the title deed. There are transfer fee (2% of appraised value) and stamp duty (0.5% of sales value or appraised value, whatever is highest) which is normally split equally between buyer and seller. There might also be some local taxes and minor fees, but probably less than 1,000 baht.

How did you calculate that amount? When you receive more than ~$10,000 worth of money, most banks will give a better exchange rate than what is shown on their website.

You need to go out more! There must be thousands if not tens of thousands of gold shops in Thailand because they literally do go for the gold, that, and photos of wads of cash on Facebook every single day (if you follow anyone from rural Thailand). I have never seen people more obsessed with gold and riches, although again, this is predominantly the poor and uneducated Thais.

Cost of keeping an empty property in Thailand is close to zero, so if they do not need the money, they’d rather just “wait it out”. OP seems to value the property at 460K but seller wants 650K. That is a difference of 190K, so even if it takes ten years before someone comes along willing to pay 650K, it may still be deemed worth the wait. As for rental price, the thinking can be that if I let someone have it for 500 baht less/month, I will get 500 baht less for all of eternity, so better wait until someone is willing to pay the asking price. Alternatively the rental price may have been set based on “is it worth it for me” — for example someone wanted to rent my unit, and I quoted a price that would make it worth it for me, that was probably above the market rate, but anything less, and I’d rather just have the room empty and not worry about wear and tear, being a landlord, chance of non-payment or late payment, etc.

I am selling my unit and have some things that I am not taking with me. I was wondering if there is a Facebook group or similar where I can announce stuff that I am giving away? I know that if I ask the cleaning lady or guard, they will gladly take everything, but this is my plan B, as I don’t really want to give them ethernet cables, laser printer, and such items, which I am sure they have no use for.

Right, let us keep majority of the population uneducated so that we can continue to pay 350 baht/day for their labour, because they are happy doing it their way…