lkn

This is a combination of lousy interface and implementation, for example just opening the KTB app can take upwards of 10 seconds, and then you often have to click through a splash screen before you can activate the scanner. Look instead at how contactless/NFC payments work, this is much much easier and faster. Although here it may also depend on the store, for example in Europe you can mostly just tap the terminal with your phone/watch/fitness tracker the instant the total amount shows on the cash register, and the reader is near instant, but in some supermarkets in Thailand you have to explain you want to pay by card and it takes them a minute or so to “prepare the reader”.

I did this myself by writing my bank. It’s a standard product that every bank offers here. It was then the buyer’s agent who informed my bank that they could release the funds.

In the case of a wallet app (e.g. Apple or Google Pay), what kind of hacking are you talking about? I.e. is this a case of “someone can see your unlock code, steel your phone, and then spend money via your phone’s wallet app”? In which case, cash has a similar problem (someone can steel it). Or are you talking about an attack against the actual contactless payment protocol? If so, are you aware of any proof-of-concept demonstrations?

I sold my condo back home while in Thailand. The process was as follows: My bank created an escrow account in my name Buyer transferred amount to this escrow account I signed over the title deed to the buyer using our digital signature system Buyer got keys from real estate agent and after a few days gave the OK to my bank to release the money I think the delay in the last step was mainly for the new owner to get utilities and such transferred into their name, and making sure there weren’t unpaid bills. Though during this step, the money in escrow was visible to me (through internet banking), I just couldn’t withdraw from that account before buyer gave the green light.

Looking here https://www.ddproperty.com/en/agent-directory/chiang-mai I see 183 agents for Chiang Mai, and that’s only those who have an affiliation with DDProperty.

I am considering selling my penthouse and wondering what agency to go with. It seems the system in Thailand is that the agent gets 3% so one unit might be listed at many different sites, as the incentive is for the agent to just try to get commission on whatever is for sale in the area — similar to the mall where there will always be a sales person watching you like a hawk, and interjecting themselves into the sale, to get their commission, but I digress… So my question is: Is there any agency in Chiang Mai that stands out? I guess what this means is having the broadest reach and getting the unit listed on all those aggregation sites. My unit is in the higher end of the price range (~95K per sq.m.) so I am probably looking for an agent that mainly targets foreigners. For this, Expat Homes would, based on the name, sound like the obvious choice, but I see they only list two units in Chiang Mai (city), that makes me wonder if they are still active? I also found Lazudi which have a lot of high-end properties for sale, but it seems to be more of a listing site with agents signing up for different areas, so their focus is probably on having the largest database, but do they actually have the corresponding traffic to their site to make it worth listing with them? Curious to hear your experience (selling) a condo in Chiang Mai. And no need to informing me how hard it is to sell real estate in Thailand, that information has already been given to me.

Pretty much all jobs I can find for unskilled workers in Thailand pay 9-13,000 baht/month, where the higher end of that range is with overtime. Trying to help a friend, what would be your advice? More education has sort of been ruled out, so I am thinking maybe work where you learn on the job, so at least there is a path to higher pay, even if the starting salary is still low. In my own country, construction would be a good candidate, but from what I have seen in Thailand, there seems to be little interest in specialized construction workers, rather, many of the construction workers I have met was underpaid migrant workers.

I don’t think 7-Eleven accepts Rabbit Pay. As per the image below, they accept TrueWallet because both 7-Eleven and TrueMoney are subsidiaries of the Charoen Pokphand Group. This also seems to be why they do not accept Thai debit cards, even though they do take international cards, and I believe there is one bank in Thailand which cards you can use, because it is also a subsidiary or partner of the CP Group. I personally use my Wise VISA card via ApplePay in 7-Eleven for cashless and contactless payments. It’s a bit ridiculous though, that they do not accept PromptPay or Thai debit cards…

Your bank should have this form, so just go to your bank with your latest bill and they will fill out the form for you, and you then deliver it to your nearest PEA office. At least that is what I did, once with Krungthai and once with Kasikorn.

By remote work, I assume you’re sitting in your condo in front of a computer? I don’t see how anyone in the immigration or labour department would find out about this. Even if you have a bad breakup, what sort of actionable intel can your ex really give the authorities? I know of plenty of people who work online here, but it would be near impossible for me to prove it, even searching their laptops would not necessarily make it clear that work was done while they were in Thailand.

On the ATM screen there is a button to select “Cardless withdrawal” after which you are asked to select channel and then to scan the QR code (using K+), coincidentally I have photos of the two screens:

[…] bank reserve right to charge full card fee of THB 380 for another 3 years card usage. So it is 380 baht every 3rd year (as long as the card is valid), and 100 baht issue fee. Presumably you are on an older scheme, though on their pricing page they do actually show some cards that are no longer issued (one with no fee), but not any with payment only every 5th year. How much do you pay every 5th year?

No issue fee, and no fee the first year. After that, 150 baht/year. As I just wrote above, I do wonder if one can just cancel after 11 months and then create a new card, should work with their current pricing scheme.

The 300 baht probably includes first year issue fee. Though for your card, the cheapest card I see for Krungsri is ~127 baht/year (380 baht every 3rd year) plus issue fee: https://www.krungsri.com/en/personal/card/krungsri-debit-card/all-atms Personally though, I’ve switched to virtual cards, it’s cheaper, but also more convenient, as I don’t need to go to a branch, when they expire. Though I see Kasikorn will start to charge 150 baht/year after first year. I do wonder if I can just cancel the card, and then create a new one, to get another year’s worth of free usage…

I recently cancelled my Kasikorn ATM card, and I did it through the app. This even gave me a partial refund for the yearly fee (as I had prepaid for the next 10 months). Some posters claim that an expired card does not incur a charge, I don’t know about Kasikorn, but I’ve had expired cards with Krungthai, and for these, I still had to pay an annual fee for ATM services, so I would definitely recommend that OP cancel their card (via the app). And as others mention, you can do cashless withdrawals at any Kasikorn ATM (via the app), this even saves you the fee, when you withdraw in another province than where you opened your account. Furthermore, in the app, you can create a virtual debit card, should you need a card to pay for something online (Grab, flight, hotel, etc.), although these days, many online purchases can also be done via PromptPay / QR code.

Where are you getting this from? The term originates from Charles Ponzi and is commonly used about schemes where “investors” think their gains are from some underlying enterprise, but in fact, their money is from new investors. Countless of people do not realize that gains from selling crypto is from new investors, so if it walks like a duck… though if you have some authoritative definition of ponzi, do tell.

There seems to be no shortage of people claiming bitcoin is a great investment, there were even superball ads like “fortune favors the brave [so invest in crypto]”. That said, more commonly, I think ponzi is “defined” as the gains coming from new investors, rather than underlying economic activity, which is true of bitcoin, i.e. if you made $200 in profit from bitcoin, it is only because a new investor bought your coin for $200 more than what you paid, hence your profit is from a new investor, and if that new investor also wants to make a profit, he needs to find a greater fool to buy his coin for more than what he paid… It’s true though that it is not a 1:1 with your typical pyramid or ponzi scheme. It’s much closer to something like the Beanie Babies fad. I think people start to call it a ponzi is because so many claim it is a good investment, not realizing it is (at best) a zero sum game.

Presumably new policy. The menu you found is from 2017 and the text on that menu is not on their current menu (but their current menu also does not mention that there is an additional service charge). If I go to a Coffee Club branch again, I’ll ask them how the customer is supposed to learn the real price, prior to ordering.

The places that do this trickery tends to be the more expensive places, like the 69 baht Singha sparkling water I bought two days ago without VAT and service charge, and probably extra if I had said yes to the ice cubes. As for reading the menu correctly, you can see the menu for The Coffee Club online, I can’t see anywhere where they state, that prices in that menu are subject to 10% service charge, yet that was my experience when I ordered there.

Been paying attention to a few more receipts. and whether they add VAT and/or service is inconsistent to the point of frustrating. For example The Coffee Club will list their prices excluding service charge, except for their airport branches, there the prices do include service charge. And speaking of The Coffee Club, I downloaded their app which had a coupon for a free drink (worth 100 baht), but guess what: I still had to pay service charge on the price of the free drink (so the true cost was 10 baht). That is not really free… Something similar with a seafood buffet: They listed the price with VAT and service charge and then stamped a 10% discount on that price. Turns out the 10% discount was on the price excluding service charge, so we still had to pay service charge on the full amount, meaning the effective discount was only 9.1%. I generally don’t mind high prices, i.e. I assume most stores run at a small profit, and if one shop is more expensive than another, they may pay their staff more, use better ingredients, have higher rent, etc. What I do mind is this “trickery”, because it signals that the shop owner is effectively trying to deceive the customer by padding the bill with “hidden” expenses…

There is the difference that gold does have demand beyond pure speculation, i.e. gold will never drop to $0 because it can be used for electronics, jewelry, and fillings. But as an investment, yes, gold and bitcoin are pretty much the same thing, and I would put neither in my investment portfolio.

What you write is not wrong, but I am talking about creating money, not just simple deposits in a regular bank, which you are correct, would be no different than depositing/lending bitcoins to a third party (which is subject to solvency requirements, i.e. the need to have assets valued at least the same as their liabilities). Money (very simplified) is created when we lend money, for example I want to buy a house, so a mortgage backed security is created, this is (indirectly) “sold” to a central bank that prints the amount of money I need to buy this house, but in return gets security in my house. This increases the money supply, and over the next 20 or so years, I will pay down my mortgage, which in theory decrease the money supply again, and eventually the central bank’s liability (to me) will be zero (the money they issued to pay for my mortgage backed security), and I will be the full owner of the house (so the asset is removed from their balance sheet, but so is the liability, as I paid back the loan). You are right that nobody can go to the central bank and demand a fraction of a house for a 100 dollar bill, even though the dollar bill (amongst others) is backed by real estate. However, you can demand foreign currency for your dollar bill, and also, the Federal Reserve and ECB both have as their goal to keep price stability, so in that sense, a 100 dollar bill does have sort of a fixed value based on their inflation targets and basket of goods that are used to measure inflation (and yes, I know inflation is currently higher than their target). You can’t demand foreign currency for a bitcoin (but if you are lucky, someone will buy your coin for foreign currency), nor does anyone work to ensure price stability. Central banks also buy government bonds, so in the case of the Argentine Peso, this was backed more by the government’s ability to service their debt, i.e. pay the interests associated with these bonds bought by their central bank. But even though some central banks do a terrible job at keeping price stability, or staying solvent for that matter, does not mean that regular fiat money is not backed by anything, it is, just, if your money is backed by bonds issued by a government that doesn’t have enough tax revenue to pay the interests on these bonds, then the value of this money is headed toward zero. Also worth mentioning here that the Peso losing 90% of its value (or whatever it lost), has a good explanation, small currency fluctuations are hard to explain, but larger moves can generally be explained by the actions of the issuing party, or the credit worthiness of those who issued the assets held by the issuing party (and which back the currency). Many crypto proponents think that crypto is the next step in currency, but in many ways, it is really taking us back to a bartering system where the crypto coins you hold are no longer credits, but instead just commodities that you hope to be able to sell in the future.

This is not really true. Banks have balance sheets, when they issue money it is a liability and they need a corresponding asset to balance it. For example if the ECB “prints” 100M euros, what they actually do is buy bonds for 100M and pays with money they “printed”, but this money is now a liability for them, but as they now hold 100M worth of bonds, it is effectively backed by those bonds. These bonds could be mortgage backed securities, so effectively they hold 100M worth of real estate to back the 100M euro they issued. Central banks will hold a mix of assets, such as government bonds, mortgage backed securities, and foreign currencies. Bitcoin on the other hand is nobody’s liability.

Agree, though the banks should also optimize their apps for the QR code payment flow. I just tested KTB Next on WiFi and it shows the splash screens for five full seconds, after this, it shows an ad banner that I have to dismiss. On cellular, I think the splash screen may take even longer, I really don’t get what the app is doing. KPlus is worse in the sense that when I open it, it will often show a dialog asking if I want to continue my session. If I select No, the app is just killed and I have to launch it again. If I select Yes, it will spend a few seconds trying to login, but will often fail, and then I can do what it is, that I want to do in the app. Granted, for both of the apps mentioned, you can select SCAN from their home screen menu, and it will skip some of the above, but with KPlus it will activate camera and let you scan a QR code and then it may show an error, because it tried to continue a session that had timed out, in fact, it shows this error twice, and then you have to go over the entire process again (after you login with biometrics or password). Contactless payments (via NFC) is a much better solution, but there is definitely room for improvements regarding how QR code payments are handled by some banking apps. Another thing that frustrates me is how everyone wants their own system. MRT, BTS, and Airport Link have 3 different contactless payment systems, and same does all the different food courts in Thailand. 7-Eleven accepts Apple Pay, True Wallet, but neither PromptPay QR or Thai debit cards (even those with VISA/MasterCard logo), except for UOB (I think). I understand this is about wanting control and fees, but that is where governments needs to step in.

I don’t know about the “worked in 5-star hotels”, but I do know that there are some contractors that more or less specialize in selling their services to Westerners at high prices, but use the same low skill workers that I would personally avoid.