NorthernRyland

At least she bought something useful like a house! How did she go through bankruptcy btw? I get the impression here that doesn't exist in Thailand. I forgot to mention, actually my wives only asset is her car which she makes payments on so she'd have to sell that first. It's only a few years old now and she's paid maybe 250k or so on it.

OK now this is helpful. Same thing in the US which I did personally. If you stop making payments and ignore them they'll come begging at the end. My wives situation is she's literally at 90% of her income and needs to rotate cards so she's always effectively bankrupt. Send any links in Thai if you have them. I can read Thai ok enough and if know the language to ask I can search on YouTube and listen instead of reading (which is far slower for me).

Just spoke with my wife and says if you let the debt lapse and you get a summons then they can stop you from leaving the country so you need to leave first before you plan to stop making payments. Horribly predatory laws they have over here. One time 3 years ago or so she needed 50k to avoid this happening if I recall correctly. I could pay off like 150,000 baht for one of the cards and that would give her some space to manage the rest without rotating the balances to pay the other ones off. She has a good job making 50k/month in Chiang Mai and has housing through her employer so she'd be doing really otherwise.

That's where I am and I'm a cyclist so I'm very sensitive to the road condition. This happens on nearly every road. If you pay attention to what they do, they don't make a solid foundation and then the road surface is spread thin like peanut butter. It's a scourge.

I'm not at that point yet, just looking for constructive ideas or experience anyone has.

it's something like 25k USD at todays exchange rates. No way I'm paying that. I may have a job now and can save money but I had basically nothing the majority of the 10 years I've known her and if I lose my job I'm back to where I was.

Nearly 1 million baht. Maybe if she works her whole life until retirement she can pay it off and have nothing to show for all her efforts. This isn't a mortgage btw, just needless foolish spending when she was in in her 20's. This is why household debt is 90% of GDP right now in Thailand.

They make all these treats to in the US. I one time got a credit card when I was 18 for $600. Of course being a stupid kid I ran it up to full and then didn't pay it back. All they did was call and complain. Nothing they can do except report you to credit agencies.

yeah she had all of this before I met her 10 years ago but it's starting to become a problem now. It's not loan sharks but credit card companies. They want you to think there's no risk involved in their business and you can't get out but that's not the true at least in the US. Making a criminal offense to not pay back credit cards is over the top, even for Thailand.

My wives outstanding debt is 90% of her income and she's somehow managing to service it by rotating credit cards and making minimum payments. Stupid thing ever, I know, don't bother to comment on this. If she tries to pay this off it will take her entire working career so I don't see how this is better than filing bankruptcy (if that exists!) and not having any credit at all. If your entire job is pay off debt then why not just quit and abandon the debt, either way you have $0 at the end of the month. 50-60% is some "om sin" loan she got from her work and is deducted directly from her wages so I don't think she can get out of that without quitting but what about the credit cards? Can she stop making payments wait for the threats to roll in and then negotiate it down like you could in the US?

they're making guns?

Prisoners building prisons for free is an excellent idea I must say.

This kind of corruption plagues rural roads also. They build a brand new road and the builder uses less material than they were contracted for and then takes the money saved and keeps it for themselves. 12 months later the brand new road is filled will holes and the crew gets to come back and get paid again to fix the mess. I also bring this up to people and they seem very uninterested or even make excuses "yeah that's so they'll more work next year, it's smart" etc... Corruption is deeply embedded in the minds of the common man so I don't expect you can change this by throwing a few people in jail every so often.

More cushin' for the pushin'

250k is double the US average for programmers but I don't know what people mean when they say "tech" these days. This guy is on the high end of the global labor curve, let alone Thailand. But this has nothing to do with Thailand. It's a foreigner learning foreign currency that just so happens to live in Thailand. Those types should be left out of this analysis since it doesn't actually tell you anything about Thai people living in Thailand.

8 million/month??? Now that's pure corruption, especially given that police in Thailand are nearly worthless.

Sorry I was using a more normal currency rate since it's so high right now and likely to come down.

You're paying ~50k/year USD for a data analyst in Bangkok? That's probably way too much. According to Indeed the average salary in the US is 66k.

Neo-colonialism, the new white mans burden etc..

My wife has 18 years experience at a company in Chiang Mai (quasi-public but technically private) and she makes 50k/month + free housing (not great). Laborers at the same company earn minimum wage which is 7500/month and do side hustles to make extra cash (we hire 2 women to do laundry and cleaning).

Stupid comment. Even motorbike riders need to change lanes at times do they not? Maybe they were going to turn also and they were in the correct lane for that.

I don't understand what the problem is. In Thailand you can drive 50k over the speed limit, drunk, and in a school zone and the police won't even bother to notice. ????????????

Well that's an obviously a mistake and cruel even.. Young Aussie man born in 2000, have fun competing with the rest of the world for limited housing and jobs. You're country doesn't favor you over anyone else in the world so don't complain if you lose out and struggle.

The weed is the garden is the PERSON not the weapon. What about all the law abiding Thai's who lawfully own guns? Taking away their guns doesn't stop a lunatic with a knife.

how much of the Thai police force is like this I wonder? These guys won't even enforce simple things like speed limits so what are they even doing or what their motivations are.