suzannegoh

23 hours ago, Trujillo said:

It has been pointed out to me that in these ... particular times, naming a Chinese restaurant "Fat Chow" is about as stereo-typically racist as you could come by. 

Not that the Thais give a fig about racism, but there you go. 

By the way, did you just call me fat? 

Thank you for this woke reminder, clearly you are a better person than the rest of us.

2 minutes ago, timkeen08 said:

Thanks for your explanation.  It led me to where I needed to go for more information and clarity.  I never worked in the cellular field but I have been in electronics from the tube/transistor/CD crossover eras.  We did not call 2 such different things by the same name.  So all of this 5G Fiber being promoted so hard is just marketing BS riding on the back of the real 5G cellular standard.  5G WIFI is faster but a lot of people are being duped and think they have 5G.  I see it's being done the same way full blast in many countries.  I'm not going to tell my Thai and US families that they don't have 5G.  They were all so happy but many did upgrade to fiber just to get 5G (WIFI).  Again, thanks for the heads up.

I haven't noticed any ISPs calling their Fiber "5G" but if they are that would be a misnomer.  Fiber Internet is just optical cable, which is an upgrade over copper cables but is still wired internet.

19 minutes ago, timkeen08 said:

Yes, 5G WIFI on both.  So now 5G is not 5G?  Didn't someone ask about phones being able to connect to 5G.  I have 5G Fiber coming into the house.  Do I somehow connect my phone to fiber?  Sorry, I've been out of the field for quite a few years.  Can you give me technical details of the difference and why 5G is not 5G?

"5G" refers to the 5th Generation of cellular technology, not to the frequency of operation.  Most recently produced WiFi routers have a 2.4GHz band and a 5.0GHz band and it's common that the router will be set up such that the SSID corresponding to the 5.0GHz band is named such that it has a suffix of "_5G".  However the 5GHz band on a WiFi router has nothing to do with 5G.  AFIAK AIS's 5G is operating on the 2.6GHz band, which Thailand had previously reserved for some other purpose.  The article at the link below shows a listing of all of the frequency bands that 5G can operate on.  There are a lot of them, and different countries and different carriers have chosen different ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands

4 minutes ago, timkeen08 said:

My Note 4 and 1 year old Samsung Smart TV both work quite well with 5G in our Isaan Mekong village.

Are you sure that your Note 4 and Samsung TV are connecting to 5G rather than to 5GHz WiFi?

On 5/30/2020 at 7:21 PM, jonwilly said:

No memory says one was B91K at the hospital and the other around B25K.

My UOB credit card covered both though I would have prefered to use money from my UK bank.

 

john

The limit must be being imposed by the card issuer then.  I often charge amounts greater than that to an American issued Visa card.

8 hours ago, jonwilly said:

Thank you for a polite sensible answer.

These incidents happened about 3 years ago, I phoned using Skype to my UK bank and they said that it was the Thai end that had refused payment.

From comments by Thai sales staff I have come to understand that they do have a limit, which the staff do not know, on foreign Credit Cards. Probably breaks the Rules that the card companies set.

 

john

Were these transactions for several hundred thousand baht? 

51 minutes ago, graemeaylward said:

In areas where CAT and TOT have not been installed, DES will talk with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to see if a deal can be achieved with the private internet providers.

 

And therein lies the problem of too many cables! In UK, it used to be the case that only one company, usually BT, would provide the cable and any other Internet Service Provider, would rent the line from them. I am not sure whether this is still the case but it would be a good model to follow here in Thailand ????

Yeah, that's the problem with ISPs in Thailand, too much competition.

I've noticed AIS advertising all over the place that they have 5G service now. I think that they are operating on the 2.6GHz band rather than at mmWave frequencies only but I'm not entirely sure of that. I don't have a 5G-capable phone but with all the techies in this forum maybe someone here has experience with Thailand's fledgling 5G and might be able to comment about whether it's living up to its hype and which band it is connecting on. 

I'm well aware that there are a lot of YouTube videos and alternative media reports claiming that 5G makes birds drop dead midflight, causes birth defects, coronavirus, and even that it was the cause of 5G Grenfell Tower fire in London, but I don’t want to get into all that.  What I'm wondering is how well is working in technical terms; speed, ping times, etc. and whether it’s a bonafide upgrade from 4G.
 

On 10/26/2019 at 12:58 PM, racket said:

I somewhat agree but 4K is A massive resolution jump which is awesome. Most people said the same about HD(720p) video but when Full HD(1080p) rolled out it was definitely a huge improvement. 4K will ultimately enhance the experience. 

Personally I'd rather watch 4K video on a large screen TV connected by fibre than on a phone connected by 5G.

Has anyone here tried AIS's 5G?

There may be some ATM machines that use DCC (which you should refuse) but generally the exchange rate will be set by Visa rather than by the ATM machine's owner.  There will be the 220 Baht fee charged by the ATM machine's owner, and your bank at home may apply additional fees for foreign transactions.  The ideal thing is to get a card that refunds ATM fees and applies no foreign transaction charges.  Examples of ones that do that are the ATM cards issued by Schwab and Fidelity in the US.

1 hour ago, jimn said:

Your visa expired years ago. Now if you are refering to an extension of your permission to stay thats something else.

I'm aware of that distinction and I apologize if I used the wrong word in parts of my original post. 

19 hours ago, elviajero said:

My advice was based on the OP's idea to apply for the Non O in Thailand. It is much easier (usually) to get the visa before entering the country.

 

You can't get a Non O-A based on marriage. It's for over 50's and now requires insurance. If the OP can meet the O-A financials and is happy to pay for insurance, I agree that it's a good option.

The insurance issue is secondary - more of an irritant than an actual problem.  I have an excellent health insurance policy underwritten outside of Thailand.  It has high limits and is good worldwide.  It's irritating that the Thais might force me to buy a crappy locally underwritten policy on top of that but if I really had to I would.

The main issue to me is just to be able to stay legally in Thailand after my OA expires.

I have a Non-OA visa that I've extended annually for several years and it needs to be extended again in April of this year.  If I was going to be in-country at the time I’d be able to meet all the requirements to get it extended on the basis or either retirement or marriage.  However I have a need to be in Europe from February to May and it won’t be possible to return to Thailand to do the visa extension.  It occurred to me to just let the OA visa expire while I’m in Europe and then re-enter Thailand as a tourist and then within 2 weeks apply for a Non-O visa at a local immigration office.  Should that work?  I’m thinking that it might solve both the problem of not being in-country to extend the OA and relieve me of the need to buy a Thai Health Insurance Policy.  I need to stay in Thailand at least through the end of 2020 before repatriating to my home country.

On 12/9/2019 at 10:07 PM, henry2109 said:

I am not at all a fan of the orange conman in the WH, but this has really nothing to do with him.

Quite right, this type of problem was going on well before Trump came into office.

It's hard to be green.

On 12/7/2019 at 6:50 AM, PlastikbinLina said:

Sugar Is the number one killer in Thailand.Thais are addicted to sugar. Even in savoury cooked dishes sugar is added along with cillis. Sugar according to the link below is the main food for cancer. 

 

 

https://beatcancer.org/blog-posts/5-reasons-cancer-and-sugar-are-best-friends

The linked between sugar and cancer is part of Alternative Medicine folklore but actual medical researchers seem to not be on board with that, or at least say that the folklore is it's grossly oversimplified.
https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/FOH-sugar-cancer-link.h13-1589835.html

On 12/7/2019 at 2:37 AM, ubonjoe said:

No need to apply early. You get a under consideration stamp that allows you to stay until it is approved.

But can you leave and re-enter Thailand during that period in which your application is "under consideration"?

1 minute ago, Sheryl said:

For an extension of stay it is quite clear foreign policies are not accepted.

 

Are yoy certain your original visa was an O-A and not an O?

It was definitely an OA.

11 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

I very, very much doubt it as these are completely different policies. And different companies (your policy is not with AETNA Thailand and an AETNA Thailand policy would look nothing like what you have).

 

What you need to do assuming yoy are applying for a new OA visa is first ask AETNA US to sign the certificate. When they refuse contact the Thai Embassy/Consulate and explain the problem and ask if you can send a copy of your policy instead.

 

And if this works plan on repeating the process annually with a new OA each time.

I wouldn't be applying for a new OA but for an extension of stay based upon retirement.

You're correct that the Aetna Thailand policies look nothing like the Aetna International policies.  The main differences are that Aetna's International policies will pay out up to US$2M per year, they have competent agents process your claims,  and they pay out without making you jump through hoops.

11 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

It is on the longstay.tgia website. Click on O-A visa then on "companies" and on top of the page is a downliad link.

 

I believe the reason foreign policies are not accepted other than initially comes from Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) regulations which regulate who cab and cannot sell insurance to residents of Thailand. Companies have to go through a process to get "admitted" to provide insurance in Thailand and that pricess seems to require that a Thai company be the actual underwriter. (A protectionist measure presumably). Hence even though there are a few foreign insurance companies licensed to provide insurance in Thailand they can't do their own underwriting and that plys OIC requirements for standard provisions in insurance contracts results in their policies and practices being quite different from the international patent company.

 

The assumption seems to be that people cominh on an OA are goinh to permanently settle in Thailand so to keep their international cover would have to renew the policy in Thailand which then runs afoul of OIC rules on whi can sell insurance to residents of Thailand. (In practice many expats living in Thailand buy foreign policies online).

 

I don't think it occurred to them that people on OA visas mihht periodically return to their home country and could keep buying insurance from thete.

 

As I understand it the Health Ministry was fine with the idea of foreign policies. But would have needed the OIC's cooperation and OIC is very rigid and opposed it.

 

To date no US insurer has signed the "foreign indurance certificate" and I doybt any ever will. You'll understand why when you read it.

Thanks for the tip about where that "Overseas Insurance Certificate" form is.  My insurance policy is sold by Aetna International and is underwritten by Aetna's headquarters in Connecticut.  Now that Bupa is owned by Aetna, do you think that their is any chance than Aetna in Thailand would sign off on that Overseas Insurance Certificate for me?

29 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

It will be accepted for initial visa application IF the insurer will fill out a specified form (which most will not due to how it is worded) OR  the Embassy/Consulate issuing the visa agrees to accept other documentation.

 

Once the period of the insurance (notated by the Embassy on the visa) ends, which will usually be not more than 1 year, only Thai policies in the "list" will be accepted.

 

One possible option for people newly coming here might be to use the OA only for the duration of their foreign insurance then return to their country abd get a new OA visa again applting their foreign insurance (assuming Embassy/Consulate accepts it). This could work for someone who is not seeking to totally settle in Thailand but rather just soend a lot of time here....probided they can find a solution to the "certificate" problem.

 

It is indeed the case that many of us would not be able to get one if the designated Thai policies (cost aside) due to age or pre existing conditions. Majority of the listed companies  do not newly insure past age 65 and also do not renew for life.

 

There are a few  exceptions; as long as not over 75 and having no pre existing conditions some sort of policy can be obtained. And healthy people under 60 have several options. But over 75 or with pre-existing conditions, there are currently  no options.

 

There is a pinned thread in this forum that summarizes these policies.

 

It is true that the regulatory framework for Health Insurance in Thailand is quite weak/unfavorable and allows things that Western insurers would not be allowed to do. It is also true that local  underwriters have poor training/undestanding of medical conditions and are unable to make complex decisions/distinctions so will tend to just reject an applicant or apply sweeping exclusions that make little sense.

 

The health insurance sector in Thailand is quite small since Thais have universal cover through government schemes. Most of the compsnies on the list primarily do motor vehicle, life, accident insurance and health is a tiny sideline; a few have never done health insurance before.

Is there someplace online that I can find that "specified form" that the foreign insurer must fill out? 

Not that I expect Thai bureaucrats to be logical, but I have a worldwide policy written by an American insurer that has limits far above what any Thai policy will pay out and it seems more than a bit bizarre that such a policy would be deemed inadequate.
 

Is it a confirmed fact that Immigration will only accept Thai medical insurance policies and not International medical insurance policies when applying for an extension of an OA visa?

7 minutes ago, kenk24 said:

I think the negativity stems from individual financial issues. All of your positive affirmations are enjoyed by me on a near daily basis. 

 

I think if you were to meet some of the negativos in person then you would understand and see that their life is a reality more distant than Chile winters.. 

 

Come and enjoy. 

I'm not so sure that it correlates to financial issues, I know some affluent farangs who are plenty negative about Thais and Thailand.  I think that it correlates more with personality type, and perhaps with the amount of time that they spent in developing countries prior to moving to Thailand.