Dan5

I use Bangkok Bank to move money from the USA since as far as I know its the least expensive and quickest method. I also use that account for showing money for my visa extensions. I  transfer money from that account to my accounts at other banks that I use for my living expenses. So my Bangkok Bank pass book just shows money coming in internationally and going out to other local bank accounts.,  Immigration has never asked me for any information about those other bank accounts.

4 hours ago, mcfish said:

Agreed. And what really put me off was the the relentless humidity. OK above deck during the day if your moving but at night below deck is an oven.

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Unless things are a lot different than in the USA, it doesn't have to cost a lot. Many people who don't have a lot of money live on boats in the USA, but of course it depends on the boat and how much space you want.

I do think that its best to dress reasonably well, rule or no rule.  But I don't know if the sign means much. I've seen that sign and looked around and saw many people who were dressed in a manner that was prohibited and I see them every time I go to immigration.

I'm not sure I understand your post. Are you saying you've been keeping your money in a Thai bank in pounds instead of Baht? And giving immigration a letter to immigration showing both the pound an Baht values?  I'm pretty certain immigration has no interest in pound values. The requirement is in Baht.  And is the bank saying that in the future they cannot give you the letter if your account is in pounds?

14 minutes ago, maewang99 said:

the Thai government reports # customers and coverage types for Thai insurers... on the web and in English.... it's a heavily regulated business everywhere. when you look at that info.... for health cover.. there is really only one company, which is BUPA (Thai regulated).

what I don't like is the requirement for outpatient cover.... which is (1) easy to cover on our own (2) too expensive from my experience and (3) doesn't fit why I have the insurance.... which is so I can get admitted Johnny on the Spot... at any hospital.... inpatient.... not at a clinic for little stuff. but I am going to ask BUPA when I renew this year... I am over 60.. can I even change my policy to meet the 5 or 10 year proposal? I don't know. but I would bet I won't like what it costs.

I also don't like that one extra requirement because it is rather silly and the kind of nonsense that up until now... Thai Immigration... and especially Thai Revenue laws and folks.... are pretty darn reasonable on stuff... but the outpatient cover as one more little hoop you have to jump... in a country where most folks insurance (Thai folks) get dropped once they hit 60 or so... seems petty and annoying as well as all of the above reasons.... the visa is for retired folks in a country where health cover can and is yanked just for being old.... not right.

not right at all.

come on.  somebody In Bangkok take a read or pass this along.
 

n.b. I am complaining about the outpatient requirement... not the requirement for health cover.

 

 

Yeh. The out patient coverage is pretty extreme. Almost no one has it, including Thais. Someone gave me a quote that included out patient. $1000/month compared the the $259/month I'm paying. Should be able to get it for less than $1000/month. I wasn't looking for out patient coverage. But it would be expensive. I'll just stick with the one year extensions.

On 1/31/2017 at 10:28 PM, Flustered said:

Thanks Dan, just what I needed.

 

Some of those quotes look too good to be true so they will need looking into but if they stick at the $500 per month this is more than acceptable.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens on application.

 

Thanks

Well they should be or close since I read them right off the quote I got last November. And I bought the policy.

10 hours ago, Deepinthailand said:

Sorry but it's pretty obvious if you land in a forigner country your passport will be stamped. Regardless he should have got a multi  re entry permit. No drama then

It doesn't appear he landed. Unless his ship docking means everyone on board has landed.

On 2/1/2017 at 0:23 PM, tgeezer said:

a sad story but at least it shows that Immigration is "on the ball". I wonder if the crew had no choice but to report you, if so, they should have given you the opportunity to let you put your case to Immigration. You were probably the only passenger who didn't get a visa exempt entry.


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Duty to report what. It sounds like he never left the ship.

21 hours ago, Flustered said:

If you get the chance, can you link us to your insurer.

 

I have spent many hours/days looking for an affordable health insurance company to cover us in retirement in Thailand but apart from the ones that want an arm and a leg and also will not cover you for existing complaints, I have come up blank.

 

Help would be appreciated by me and many other FMs.

 

Thanks

I got most of my quotes through a company named Pacific Prime which gives you medical insurance quotes from multiple insurers. The best quotes were from MSH AsiaCare, AXA and CIGNA. I bought MSH AsiaCare, though they were all reasonable quotes. The AsiaCare quote was $259/month for me (66 years old), $66/month for my wife age 34 and $32/month for my daughter 10 months old. The coverage per person was about 1 million dollars per year, which I thought was way too much for Thailand, but all I could find was 1 million or 4 million Baht which I thought was too little.  Note that these policies don't cover out patient except for a limited number of procedures.

3 minutes ago, Flustered said:

If you are an OAP in retirement, it will be a waste of time even thinking about it as you need medical coverage which we all know is like finding hens teeth.

 

Aimed at the younger 50 yr old generation, not the 65+.

 

As Sparkles say's, the one year renewal seems they way to continue.

I'm 67 and just bought medical insurance last year. And there were a number to choose from.

6 hours ago, catman20 said:

do you condone overstay ?

God! What a busy body. I certainly don't see how it hurts anyone unless the person gets caught and black listed. 

Of what use is a yellow tabien baan?

Hey. I'm an American and I know that some Americans also struggle with common sense situations. Not fair to single out Thais because of your problem.

And drones seem to be a sensitive issue even in the USA. Read a story about a guy getting a $30k fine from the FAA for flying  drone. It was unclear what the FAA thought he'd done wrong. He'd just used it to  get photos of some kind of show and he got no compensation for it, and he couldn't get them to talk to him For a while the FAA was talking about requiring a pilot's license for flying a drone. And there is some outrageous fine they can assess for just not registering your drone with them before you fly it, more than $10k. Not surprised you are having a problem importing a drone.

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Actually it doesn't seem reasonable at all to me and I've done a lot of shipping over the years.

I had a shipment discarded a couple of years ago and didn't have to pay anything. But that was only customs fees. I get the impression lately that some, maybe all these carriers are tacking on they're own extra fees and passing them off as customs fees. If that's the case, I think you'll have to pay them.

Some advice. You are unlikely to have to pay any fees on delivery if you have it sent EMS or the equivalent (USPS in the USA). I've shipped more than 50 packages EMS over the years and have only had to pay fees on delivery for 2 of them. It seems that customs just doesn't check a large percentage of EMS packages. But with the carriers such as DHL, UPS, etc. every shipment has customs fees, taxes etc. added on. And you can send USPS with tracking just like UPS etc. and at a lower cost. But it will take somewhat longer. 

My guess is that if you looked closely at the charges and maybe questioned DHL, you'd discover that some of the fees are from DHL, not Customs.

18 hours ago, harrry said:

If you refue them they will be sent back eventually and the sender then can recover the charges for handling storage and sending them back from you.

$55 does not seem unreasonable duty and handling and sales tax.  Delaying adds storage at a high rate too.

Importing goods does have customs charges (probably about 50% for that kind of good and you are liable for GST on the total of the Shipping and goods.

Actually it doesn't seem reasonable at all to me and I've done a lot of shipping over the years.

I had a shipment discarded a couple of years ago and didn't have to pay anything. But that was only customs fees. I get the impression lately that some, maybe all these carriers are tacking on they're own extra fees and passing them off as customs fees. If that's the case, I think you'll have to pay them.

Some advice. You are unlikely to have to pay any fees on delivery if you have it sent EMS or the equivalent (USPS in the USA). I've shipped more than 50 packages EMS over the years and have only had to pay fees on delivery for 2 of them. It seems that customs just doesn't check a large percentage of EMS packages. But with the carriers such as DHL, UPS, etc. every shipment has customs fees, taxes etc. added on. And you can send USPS with tracking just like UPS etc. and at a lower cost. But it will take somewhat longer. 

My guess is that they were surprised as hell that someone actually reported.I doubt that many people actually follow this policy.

I do carry my passport, but been here for many years and I've yet to have the police or immigration stop me and ask to see my passport. Doesn't seem like something to worry about.

19 hours ago, ravip said:

2. Foreigner with Long-stay or Tourist Visa

1. Passport and one of the following documents:

2.1 A letter of reference from one of the following:

1. Embassy or international organization
2. An official document from another country, such as a document from the  relevant agency giving evidence of the customer’s right to receive pension funds
3. Customer’s home bank to Bangkok Bank via the SWIFT messaging network
4. Person acceptable to Bangkok Bank e.g. branch officer, customer, government officer or company executive
5. Educational institution located in Thailand and acceptable to the bank
6. Company that is acceptable to the bank, confirming the customer is in the process of getting a work permit

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/Accounts/SavingsAccounts/Pages/Default.aspx

(Click on the Tab "open an account")

But of course no one pays attention to the above. I'm interested in practical knowledge, not useless documents.

 

23 minutes ago, maccraw said:

Dan5--

The certificate of residence from immigration was a requirement at Kasikorn so I got a new one—wait 20 minutes and 300baht

Interestingly enough last year the same branch wanted a minimum deposit of 15,000-- also fees adding up to more than 1100[included atm charges].

It seems like a crap shoot. Luckily I've never been asked for a large deposit or fee. But I'm in Bangkok. Are you in another province perhaps?

And I doubt that it is a case of "flouting" I think that different people at different branches have their own ideas as to what the rules are.

Just now, Dan5 said:

Easy.??? Would cost me nearly a half a day to go down there, wait and then come back. And It would cost me $50. I'll go for flouting the rules any day., Much easier to just go to another branch.

And no, the embassy doesn't require any proof. I've been through that to get a driver's license. All they require is to see your passport and you to swear the information is correct.

21 minutes ago, userabcd said:

I'd say what's required to open a bank account is clearly indicated on banking websites.

 

Some branches and their staff are flouting the banks rules in opening bank accounts without the required proof of address.

 

The proof of address docs are quite easy to get for example a letter from the embassy, however the embassy also requires some form of proof of address to issue such a letter.

Easy.??? Would cost me nearly a half a day to go down there, wait and then come back. And It would cost me $50. I'll go for flouting the rules any day., Much easier to just go to another branch.

13 minutes ago, maccraw said:

3Days ago I went to my local Bangkok bank in order to open a savings account. After an hour or so I was told that as I have a one year visa I could open an account with either an embassy letter or an immigration certificate of residence.As it happened I had both with me but they were not acceptable as they were not recent. If I got a new embassy letter I could open an account with only 1000 baht plus the atm card charge—however if I got a new immigration letter I had to open with a minimum of 7000—BUT only 1000 of that could be withdrawn—the 60000 being held “For insurance”. I demurred and was told that other banks were even stricter.

I have accounts at TMB but I needed a different account for a particular purpose.

Later that day I opened an account at Kasikorn with new immigration letter, 10,000 and atm fee.

Strange. I've never needed anything more than a driver's license to open an account in the past and don't remember ever being charged a fee. Possibly a hundred Baht or so and I don't remember it. And my first deposit has never been more than 1000 Baht. Did Kasikorn ask for the immigration letter or did you just volunteer it since you had it? Actually this is no more than an annoyance for me, since I have accounts at 3 banks. But a second at Bangkok Bank would have been nice since they disabled my ATM card once I started transferring money from the USA. So I've been then transferring money to my other banks when I need cash. Never  a dull moment.

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Well, from the comments so far, it looks like the same old story. Depends who you talk to at what branch of what bank. I thought maybe this was a real change, since I talked to the branch manager. My experience has been that the branch managers generally know what they are doing and will open an account even if the clerk at that branch says no. But given no one (so far) has heard of any change, there likely hasn't been one. Or maybe Bangkok Bank is being difficult now. At any given time, some banks are more difficult than others.

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Well, from the comments so far, it looks like the same old story. Depends who you talk to at what branch of what bank. I thought maybe this was a real change, since I talked to the branch manager. My experience has been that the branch managers generally know what they are doing and will open an account even if the clerk at that branch says no. But given no one (so far) has heard of any change, there likely hasn't been one. Or maybe Bangkok Bank is being difficult now. At any given time, some banks are more difficult than others.

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Well, from the comments so far, it looks like the same old story. Depends who you talk to at what branch of what bank. I thought maybe this was a real change, since I talked to the branch manager. My experience has been that the branch managers generally know what they are doing and will open an account even if the clerk at that branch says no. But given no one (so far) has heard of any change, there likely hasn't been one. Or maybe Bangkok Bank is being difficult now. At any given time, some banks are more difficult than others.

And this was a new one. I've heard the need a work permit story and to open my current account at Bangkok Bank I had to show drivers license, but hadn't needed one to open a Kasikorn account (was on a tourist visa for that one). Didn't need anything special to open an account at SCB. But this this proof of address from the embassy was completely out of the blue. I guess they're just getting creative.

Well, from the comments so far, it looks like the same old story. Depends who you talk to at what branch of what bank. I thought maybe this was a real change, since I talked to the branch manager. My experience has been that the branch managers generally know what they are doing and will open an account even if the clerk at that branch says no. But given no one (so far) has heard of any change, there likely hasn't been one. Or maybe Bangkok Bank is being difficult now. At any given time, some banks are more difficult than others.