sandyf

Yes. A few years ago a friend of mine in the UK did an Asian cruise and he was sent a load of immigration forms forwhere the ship was calling and had to complete them if he wanted to disembark. Came over and asked me if it was worth getting off in Thailand. Good job he did, the ship couldn't dock somewhere else and they were in Thailand for a week, put up at the Shangri-La. Those that hadn't done the immigration paperwork had to stay on board.

Quite right. Expats in Thailand do think they are entitled to a different level of service than offered by most other countries. Not only that, instead of being grateful for the service on offer the majority treat the system with contempt.

If there ever is an account number for your THB balance , it will not be IBAN. Thailand does not use IBAN and the number will be Swift and probably relating to a partner bank in Thailand.

You are to a certain extent embelishing the term "account", it is in fact only a currency balance as you have no account number or details, same as mine. I also have a Turkish lira balance and for that I have domestic account details but no international account details. For my USD and Euro balances I have both domestic and international account details which makes them pseudo accounts. The only true account is the home account.

Amlodipine is not normally prescribed on it's own, usual prescription would be a beta blocker or ace inhibitor with amlodipine being added if necessary. There is no silver bullet as such. I have been on BP medication for over 40 years, initially a beta blocker and then an ace inhibitor with amlodipine added some years later. The local ace inhibitor is enalapril and readily available at pharmacies, been taking that for over a decade without any problems. However the best advice is to go and see a cardiologist, I see the one at Bang Saen which is a government hospital and only 100 baht for the consultation.

If you had paid attention you would be aware my original post blamed the UN for not bringing the affected nations together, and the UK like the rest of the EU stuck their head in the sand. As I also said probably down to a lack of interest by the UN with the US being so far from the problem. Had the US been where Europe is things would have gone in a totally different direction.

There is more more to it than illegals but obviously you and others are so fixated the humanitarian issue is kicked to one side. One day you may realise why there is still a need for prisons.

I use Wise quite a lot but not for money to Thailand. I don't see the point in moving the money to Wise and then moving it to Thailand when I can do it in one move from HSBC to Thailand at the same cost. The real benefit of Wise is international purchases and travelling. I was in Laos a few weeks ago and paid the hotel with USD I had on my Wise card. That is convenience, I have had UK cards blocked in the past for not telling them I was in a foreign country, also avoids the non sterling currency surcharge. Each to their own.

Sorry, I must be mistaken. I was under the impression the UK government had suggested sending refugees to Rwanda. Horses and stable door come to mind. The silly people are those that kicked the EU in the teeth, taking back control has become out of control.

The article does not say they are buying a new Airbus aircraft, it says they are buying a replacement for their "airbus", could be a Boeing. If they are actually buying another A340, not going to be new, it was discontinued in 2011.

There is more than one "burden", something the UK government and it's supporters refuse to acknowledge. There has been armed conflict in many of the African states for a long time, currently 15. "In at least 15 armed conflicts, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, and South Sudan, government forces or non-state armed groups have been implicated in abuses against civilians." https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/12/africa-conflicts-violence-threaten-rights#:~:text=In at least 15 armed,implicated in abuses against civilians. Why didn't the UK government, or any other entity, set up a safe haven in somewhere like Rwanda years ago to try and keep the war refugees on the African continent. As usual it was head in the sand which allowed economic migrants from all over to join the flow into Europe. Collective responsibility with other measures could have reduced that to a trickle. To make matters worse the UK kicked the EU in the teeth and now have no voice in the issues in the EU. If asylum seekers want to head to the UK why should the EU be concerned, not their problem. The issue is now out of hand and desperation has set in, on both sides of the fence. Bills alone are no solution, there needs to be wire cutters in the other hand.

You are being too literal, the translation of the Thai on that link says "Supporting documents for a visa" Supporting normally means what can be used, not what must be used. The spouse or parent not having a passport is not grounds for denial. The last line of the Thai notes is the one that get most worked up. All copies of documents must be certified true copies.

Just paid a company in Canada from my UK account and was told the company would be paid in 9 hours. The company wanted paying in USD as opposed to CAD so I am assuming the US Wise facility will come into play.

Yes, not so much the ticket, the name on the boarding card has to match the name in the passport. You can only get away with it if the airline does not use boarding cards.

The title is a bit open ended, superior in what way relative to driving. My brother in law, mid 50s, is without doubt far superior in the handling of his vehicle than the majority of expats are with theirs. If he didn't have that level of skill he wouldn't be alive. Unfortunately when it comes to comes to rules, regulations and etiquette, nothing but alien concepts. When my wife first went to the UK one of the biggest surprises was the standard of driving and how considerate other drivers were, giving way is not in the Thai psyche.

Thanks. That is a fairly plausible explanation and as I suspected payments are not coming from a Wise account in Thailand. This would also explain to a great extent why the variation in transaction time, unlike a fixed account scenario, not all going to happen at the same time every time. When I transfer from UK to Europe, instantaneous every time, that is Wise to Wise.

There seems to be some confusion over how things work work with Wise and I do not know all the answers, I can only go on what I can see and read. I have a Wise Thai baht account and I have no account details and there is no option to get account details which means the account cannot be credited either domestically or internationally. It can only be credited by conversion within my own account. There seems to be an opinion that when someone makes a payment into a Thai account the funds come from an account in Thailand but I cannot see how that would work as the only have financial protection in 3 jurisdictions. When Wise makes a Swift transfer to Thailand they may well use an intermediary bank but that is not the same as local funding. I also have a Turkish Lira account and for that I have domestic account details but no international details, in other words payments can be made to the account from within Turkey but not from outside. Domestically it is an IBAN account number.

What markup? There is no markup unless you choose to have one. I have been transferring from HSBC for over a decade and when Wise came on the scene I cross checked every transaction I made for several months and there was next to no difference. If you want to buy THB from a UK bank and then transfer it you are asking to be ripped off.

How do you think those accounts get funded? It would be either SWIFT or IBAN.

I suspect the pension people want your NI number for tax purposes. I am fairly sure you would have needed the number when you first applied for your UK passport. Guidance on an old number can be found here. https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number

Wise funds are only held in 3 financial jurisdictions. Wise Payments Ltd Wise US Inc Wise Europe SA

That is not quite true. Wise offer interest bearing accounts and those are covered in the same way as any other bank. Non interest bearing accounts have an alternative safeguarding arrangement.

Swift is one of the 2 main interbank messaging services. Payments from Wise UK to places like the US and Thailand would use the SWIFT protocol with 11 character code and payments from Wise UK to Europe and Middle East would use the IBAN protocol with a 16 character code.

For our customers sending money with Wise or holding money in the Wise account in the US, in keeping with US state obligations, we protect our customers’ funds in a mix of cash in leading commercial banks and investments in secure liquid assets, primarily government bonds. We also keep your money separate from the money we use to run our business. If you’ve opted-in to earn interest on your Wise account, you're able to take advantage of FDIC passthrough insurance on your USD balance up to 250,000 USD. https://wise.com/help/articles/5toCJQjm9MkTs8bEKSm30O/how-our-us-entity-wise-us-inc-safeguards-customer-funds

Must have been a very long time ago, over 10 years ago when HSBC reduced their overseas transaction fee to £4, raised to £5 last year.