That can be a consideration, However if you own your home and are on medicare, expenses for most other items are less than in Thailand. You can live cheap here or in most countries if you really want to? You just have to avoid high cost areas.  I personally spend far more here than in the USA.  

That’s an understandable first reaction but I suspect that most of those who say that they will leave will change their mind when they stop to consider the cost of living in farangland. 

1 hour ago, Skeptic7 said:

Well that totally sux. Glad I haven't experienced any of that. It ranks very high on all the ratings sites. I have used PIA for years here and also USA...Netherlands, France...Japan and Korea...all just last year without any problems. Fast, reliable and cheap. Have never considered changing and will continue to be a loyal customer. 

 

Plenty of other good VPNs out there, but perhaps the problem lies on your end? To test it out, as usually don't connect to the USA servers...just connected to Silicon Valley using 4 mbps mobile hotspot from telephone. Here are the results...FAST. Full 100% speed on the DL and nearly full on the Up!

 

My experience with PIA has been better than that.  I just ran a speedtest.net while connected to a PIA server in Miami and a speed test server in Miami.  I got 36.70 Mbps down and 5.22 Mbps up.  Then I disconnected the VPN and tested to the same speedtest server in Miami and I got 36.76 Mbps down and 7.44 Mbps up.   I’m in Chiang Mai, the Internet connection is AIS’s 200/50 Fibre, and I used the default encryption settings in PIA, and for the speedtest I used a Windows 10 PC connected to Wifi on the 2.4 Ghz band.

Cheers, this is all new to me.

 

On one test I pass 80% only, hmm.

14 minutes ago, guzzi850m2 said:

Matador007 many thanks for the link testing for "leak" and disable WebRTC.

 

My Firefox was leaking so I new followed https://www.privacyend.com/disable-webrtc-in-various-browsers/

 

and Firefox via Express VPN is now "tight" after I did another test with doileak.com

 

As mentioned I normally uses smart VPN connection which is Singapore but I sometimes watch some Danish TV and I have to move my address to DK.

 

Using a proxy sound interesting, I have to look more into this.

 

Cheers for an excellent topic with many good posts.

Two other websites that might turn up slightly different leaks are these:
https://whoer.net/

https://ipleak.net/

1 hour ago, tweedledee2 said:

You don't need a VPN to stream geographically restricted content.  I stream US TV, AUS TV, BBC I-Player, VUDU, Netflix US and other content using a Proxy that costs me less than 35 baht a month. I have never been denied access or experienced any speed or latency issues in the nearly 2 years I've been using it. It has worked flawlessly using 3BB 20/4, 30/10 VDSL and with my current 100/30 Fiber connection.

Sounds interesting, what proxy are you using?

With PIA you can customize the encryption, so you can select no encryption for cases where you want maximum speed, maximum encryption for when you don’t care about speed, or something in between those extremes.

On 1/16/2019 at 12:20 PM, CarlBkk said:

Oh I like the look of those JBL speakers. Get them new in Bangkok?  A relative on my wife's side has offered me a gift of her old Adcom power amps...never heard any before so looking forward to seeing what they can do.

 

My current system is Wilson Watt 5.1 (bought used from a dealer in BKK), Wadia 321 Dac (ebay), Jeff Rowland Concentra (ebay) and Meridian G08 CD player (bought used from ex pat in BKK).  I sold the Meridian DSP5200 speakers in the pic already locally.  Mostly listen to files from the Squeezebox and internet radio.  Fitted the car out with JL Audio amps/sub/speakers.

 

Previous systems in UK (which I sold cos they were too heavy for my suitcase!) included Wilson Sophias, Pass Labs monos, Modwright valve pre amp, Wadia 321 DAC.

 

Prior to that, my lovely Usher speakers with retro Krell amps and Wadia CD/DAC.  I'd have that back in a heartbeat, but the Wilsons thrashed the Ushers in most ways.

 

 

Now that's a real stereo!

Basically you need some sort of internet connected media player to plug into your HDMI port.  The Firestick that someone recommended is probably fine though I prefer to use an Android TV box.  They range from generic Chinese boxes that work adequately and probably start at around 1000 baht to the NVIDIA Shield that is pretty expensive but has enough CPU power to choke a horse.  Lazada offers a good assortment.

5 hours ago, robblok said:

No what he means is that what programs that are available differ per region. I use the Thai version and have absolutely no problems with what is available. Best would be if you have the US version with a VPN that works. However netflix discovers new VPNs all the time and blocks them. I think its just best to accept what they have (huge selection). Besides you can try it for free for 1 month.

Or just stick with the pirates.

NGO CEO compensation seems like quite a divergence from the original topic, which was whether there are NGOs in Thailand that help tourists with medical expenses if they have no insurance.

1 hour ago, jobsworth said:

a big thank you to all of you who are bashing ngo's.

it is being done so diplomatically.

anybody daring to express the whole truth would be banned.

who do you think is financing this forum?

 

It's easy to blast volenteerism from a barstool.

On 12/22/2018 at 12:16 PM, neeray said:

A lock only protects you from your best friends.

They can deter casual thieves though.  Often bike thefts are comes of opportunity and even a cheap chain lock will stop someone from grabbing the bike on a whim and running away with it.  And the U-Lock plus cable lock method that someone mentioned above would require the thief to have two different types of tools to steal the bike. 

21 minutes ago, cardinalblue said:

I am riding today - air and dogs are more of a Hazard than vehicles...

Be careful about saying things like that.  Only missionaries are more hated on ThaiVisa than bicyclists.

2 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

When someone hit at you from behind and at 90 degree angle as in the video, it is the speed of the other driver that will kill or maim you.

 

Inside the moat, I've seen bicycles riding at almost the same speed as motorbikes. 

 

Which would be safer given the same force of impact on you?

 

You inside a car, motorbike or bicycle?

You're cherry picking one type of accident. Try a little honesty.  You made an assertion about bicycle safety and posted a video unrelated to bicycling to support it.  That’s so weak that one might suspect that the real issue is that you have a bug up your butt about bicycles and/or bicyclists. 

5 hours ago, EricTh said:

 

A motorcycle partially absorbs the force of the impact but a bicycle is too light to absorb so the body absorbs most of the impact of an accident. Likewise, sitting in a car is safer than riding a motorcycle given the same force of impact. It's simple physics i.e. Force=mass times acceleration.

What that's neglecting is that the average motorbike crash occurs at higher rate of speed than the average bicycle crash. 

Many craft beers have two or three times as many calories as mass market pale lagers, if that counts as a health concern. 

On 12/14/2018 at 6:10 PM, snowballthecat said:

I wonder why so secretive?

All  other hospitals give you prices on the spot....Maybe this one is particularly expensive?

It might not be secrecy so much as that they don't want to do anything without examining you and learning all the details or your and your family's medical history.  Aside from expense, one reason not to take the test is statistical - if you are in a very low risk category then if you receive a positive result on the test it would be more likely to be a false positive.

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2017-01-05/why-most-women-shouldnt-undergo-brca-testing-for-breast-cancer-risk

On 11/24/2018 at 3:46 PM, Sheryl said:

The leiomyosarcoma is not known to be hereditary.

 

Soemetypes of breast cancer though are (that is, there are hereditary gene mutations that put one at high risk for it).

 

You should find out from the relatives who had breast cancer whether their tests showed BRCA1 pr BRCA2 mutations.

 

You can get BRCA gene screening at Samitivej Hospital rinakarin, maybe other branches too, I'm not sure. It will be very costly. If you can, find out whether your family members had it.

 

https://www.samitivejhospitals.com/en/breast-cancer-screening-and-prevention/

 

And of course even if negative for the BRCA1/2 mutations you should get annual mammogram.

 

 

FWIW, BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing cost 60,000 Baht at Bumrungrad Hospital in BKK last year.  The way that it worked was the hospital drew blood and sent the blood sample to an outside lab in the US. 

There were a couple of different options with that test, with it being cheaper from some labs than others.  If I recall correctly there is some issue with there not being a worldwide database of results and that may cause some labs to interpret your results differently than others.  In my case insurance paid for it despite the fact that I was using an expensive hospital and an expensive lab, but that was not a Thai policy and my insurance would cover BRCA testing only if you fit a certain profile. 

As to whether it's a good idea to get the test, that's a more complicated question than it might initially appear and is something to discuss with your oncologist.
 

1 hour ago, Pib said:

 

Naw...there will not be any class action suit as DCC is already widely used....Visa's decision just expands it.  

 

And the "spin" banksters types have used in press releases just makes my blood boil in how how they spin words to make it sound like consumers are begging for DCC and how it helps them better understand the charge to hit their account. 

 

The only consumers that would be begging for a fee---an DCC is nothing more than a fee--are those consumers which are clueless about fees....easy herded along by banksters.   

 

Take a look at below article form the "National ATM Council".....fancy name for banksters which operate ATMs.   The spin in this article makes DCC sound like pie and ice cream.

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumers-and-us-atm-industry-petition-visa-to-lift-ban-on-dynamic-currency-conversion-services-300603421.html

 

 

We’re not in disagreement about what is right or wrong in the case of DCC.  It might not be known precisely what Visa’s exchange rate would be on a pending transaction but you could come up with a pretty good estimate of the rate based upon the rate from the day before.  Visa has a web page that tells you those rates and machines could easily be programmed to calculate how much you’d be losing because of DCC and print it on the receipt.  If they did that then maybe there would be possible to argue that consumers were being given a choice.  Though possibly there are jurisdiction issues impeding a law to require that.  If a Thai bank imposes DCC on your US issued card and that’s not illegal in Thailand, could the US do anything about it?
 

Not sure this belongs in the present thread though.  The OP was talking about a merchant imposed surcharge not DCC.

What this is driven by is banks wanting to be able to offer their own exchange rate versus having to use the card-network (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, etc) rate.   And typically govt regulators/competition agencies have supported this from a "pure competition" standpoint; not from a standpoint of will it actually result in lower costs to the consumer.   Competition does not always mean lower costs to the consumer.
 
It varies from country to country as to if DCC is allowed.  Visa, Mastercard, etc., have resisted it wherever and whenever they can but have been slowly loosing the battle to the banksters and certain govt agencies who want to be able to use DCC whenever and when ever they like.
 
Here's a link talking Visa to allow DCC worldwide
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/75645/visa-to-allow-dynamic-currency-conversion-at-atms-worldwide
 
Now banks who can or support DCC "spin" DCC as a great thing for the consumer as there is exchange rate competition, allows more flexibility in fees, etc...just "spin" that misleads the customer....trying to make the customer think it's good for the customer which it's not "unless the bank offers a higher exchange rate than the card-network."   
 
As anyone knows from a DCC transaction hitting their account even if their card-issuing bank does not charge a foreign transaction fee the DCC rate is usually around 3% lower than the card-network rate.  I'm still waiting for anyone to identify a DCC exchange rate that is better than the card-network rate.
 
And just because a DCC transaction occurs where the merchant charges you in your card's currency (i.e., USD, GBP, EUR, etc), that does not mean your card-issuing bank will not also charge you whatever foreign currency transaction fee they may apply.  It's like getting charged twice.  Some people think if they accept a DCC then that means their card-issuing bank will not charge a foreign transaction fee.....that thinking is sometimes dead wrong as many banks still apply their foreign transaction fee simply because it was a foreign transaction in whatever currency.  This policy depends on the card-issuing bank.
 
For example, Bank of America offers a dizzying array of cards with different fee structures.  Some cards do not charge a foreign transaction fee; others do.  But for the ones that do, below is a cut and paste from their fee schedule....notice the foreign transaction fee is applied whether the charge is made in foreign currency (e.g., Thai baht) or DCC was used generating a USD charge.   Bottom line if the transaction occurred in a foreign countries, regardless of whether it was a DCC tansaction or not, BoA will charge a foreign transaction fee on some of their cards.
 
 • Foreign Transaction 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each transaction (1) made in a foreign currency, or (2) made in U.S. dollars if the transaction is made or processed outside of the United States. This fee will be in addition to any other applicable fee.  
 
 
 
 
 

22 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

Are there any scenarios under which DCC is beneficial to the customer?  On the surface it appears to be nothing short of consumer fraud.  Banks say that DCC is offered for the "convenience of the customer" hoping that the customer isn't astute enough to know that that imaginary "convenience" is costing them an extra 3 to 5%. 

15 minutes ago, Pib said:

I don't know of any.  The only entities that profit off a DCC transaction (at the customer's expense) is the merchant and his local card-processing bank.  By card-processing bank I mean the bank the merchant has his POS rented from....the bank name that appears on the top of the your receipt for signature.

 

Some banks/ATMs attempt the DCC ripoff also....and the vague, misleading wording associated with a DCC transaction which tries to trick the customer into thinking it's a good deal.  Well, it is a good deal but only for the merchant/local bank.

 

 

Visa just announced that they will start allowing DCC to be used at ATM machines in the US.  If it’s pure ripoff I wonder why regulators allow it.  But in the case of DCC in the US I wondered if there might be some cases where it isn’t a ripoff.  For example, maybe the DCC is allowing non-US card holders to avoid absorbent foreign transaction fees being imposed by the foreign bank who issued the card.

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

Based on my experience with the three HomePro stores I frequent in my Bangkok area, all three will default to using DCC for a foreign card unless you tell them when handing them your card with direct eye contact, "Charge baht, not U.S. Dollars" (or whatever your  home country currency is).  They then happily charge it as baht.   

 

But every once in a while even when telling the checkout clerk to charge Thai baht they still charge in dollars.  When I see the receipt for signature in Thai baht and USD I then know it was a DCC transaction.  I do not sign, tell them to cancel that transaction and rerun as baht.  They happily do it....takes less than 2 minutes to cancel and rerun.   The first transaction usually still shows up on my credit card account in Pending status for a few days and then falls off.

 

And unless something has changed the HomePro DCC rate is 2.75% commission....and then if your card-issuing bank say charges 3% for a foreign transaction then your exchange rate ends up being 5.75% below the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate.   Can't do nothing about the fee your card-issuing bank applies, but a person can about the HomePro (on any Thai merchant) DCC rate/charge.

 

Yeap, based on my experience HomePro defaults to DCC.  Pizza Place and The Villa (grocery store) will also default to DCC unless you tell them charge in baht.  I really don't have a problem with this since these stores do not charge DCC if you tell them not to upfront....but at the same time I think these merchants are just being greedy and I have to actively deflect their greed.

 

Until you find out which merchant may or may not default to DCC with a foreign card, when handing them your card make direct eye contact with the checkout clerk and say "Charge Thai baht not your home country currency."   Has worked for me in 10 years of used of credit cards here in Thailand.

 

I'm sure merchants like this already have card fees built into their pricing just like they have built in pricing for their payroll, rent, electricity, water, insurance, mia noi, etc....etc....etc.    Any merchant that is "hard core" DCC (that is will only use DCC with a foreign card...not like HomePro who will not charge it if you just ask) and/or applies an extra upfront fee of 1 to 3% don't get my business unless I absolutely have to use them which don't occur often.

 

 

 

Are there any scenarios under which DCC is beneficial to the customer?  On the surface it appears to be nothing short of consumer fraud.  Banks say that DCC is offered for the "convenience of the customer" hoping that the customer isn't astute enough to know that that imaginary "convenience" is costing them an extra 3 to 5%.