simoh1490

27 minutes ago, Pib said:

Was at McDonalds this morning....paid for my Bt165 breakfast meal with my credit card.  I insert card into their POS machine on the customer's side of the cash register...POS machine immediately begins processing...displays Processing for about a second"....then displays Approved for about a second...the says You'r Are Done...Remove card.....all of this took no more that 5 seconds and I get 1.5% cash back on my purchase done with my no foreign transaction fee, no annual fee credit card.

 

Now a Cash Is King guy would have looked thru his wallet for 5 seconds just to pull out some cash...hasn't even got to the point of handing it to the cashier yet....but in 5 seconds I'm done...plus I get a 1.5% cash back on my credit card account while Mr Cash Is King guy does not get no similar discount.

 

McDonalds already has card usage fees built into their pricing (like many, many merchants).  People who pay with a card to get reward points/cash back end up effectively getting the product for a lower price than Mr Cash is King who usually gets no discount.  Now yes, if you go to some places like a Sizzlers' restaurant and have one of their discount cards when you pay with a credit card you only get a 5% discount compared to 10% for cash.  But without their discount card the Mr Cash is King guy gets no discount but the guy paying with a credit card that say gives 1.5% cash back then he gets his meal 1.5% cheaper. 

 

Now if McDonalds had a policy of only accepting card payment on amounts say of over Bt200 while I wouldn't like being to use my card to pay for my Bt165 meal, I would not feel like Mcdonalds is trying to cheat me.  Quite common here in Thailand for some merchants to only accept debit/credit cards if the purchase exceeds the approx Bt200-500 range.  I understand they are concerned about the interchange fee on smaller amounts.   And I think they feel that this policy does not piss-off the customer like how a policy of wanting to charge an extra 3% fee or so to have the privilege of purchasing their product.

 

Actually I appreciate all the Cash Is King guys because many merchants...and more everyday....just build card fees into their produce/service pricing (just another cost of doing business) because they don't want to piss of any customers by tacking on a fee if using a card.  And those who pay by card who have rewards/cash back cards effectively end up getting the product cheaper than the guy paying with cash.  And end up spending less on money transfer fees to replenish/top-up their bank account in Thailand.

 

Thank you Cash is King guys.  Don't get me wrong paying with cash definitely has it's places, but fewer every day as cashless type payment methods of cards, QR Code Payment, cybercurrency, PromptPay, etc., continue to increase increase as cash sales continue to decrease.   Payment by cash still has a long life ahead of it...but a less active life.

 

 

I'm retired, I can afford an extra 15 seconds in McD to pay for my breakfast, it won't break my schedule and the 1.5% cashback I have lost....2 baht, are you serious!

5 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Many, many airlines operate that policy. They quote a minimum fare which is all some need to pay (ie no luggage), and fees are added for bags, choosing a seat etc. Emirates do, and the budget airlines do. It's common policy.
I'd be interested to know who you booked with as an alternative, and how competitive the fare was with the (hidden, rather up-front) add-ons included.

Prior to that flight I had always booked my flights online from Thailand using Momomdo and I'd never run into that scenario before, even my outbound flight in July was booked (from Thailand) that way with Thai and it was a straight forward booking with no add ons - Ethihad, Thai. and Emirate flights previously, booked online from Thailand were all without add-ons. So it came as a shock to book my first flight from within the UK to fly LHR/BKK and to experience flight costs that I thought were ridiculously high, plus all the add ons - one way on BA was quoted at £1,400, seven weeks in advance and using an independent agent, round trip was much better at £710 which was £600 plus $45 each way for baggage....as it turns out I bought that flight return because my wife was booked on it although I didn't really want to buy a return. 

4 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

All i can say is the thai banks charges are very expensive for the merchants. When i inquired with bangkok bank and they wanted 100,000 deposit and 5%. 

Many retailers in Thailand used to routinely charge an additional 3% for paying by credit card, it was pretty much the norm for a long time as they tried to recoup bank fees.

The Chinese ancestry thing is a double-edged sword, most of the hill tribes were originally from China but were driven out by the Samurai before drifting from country to country and then settling on the Thai borders. So when somebody says they have Chinese ancestry I am certain they are doing so to impress although they may well be saying they are hill tribe.http://www.itdpinternational.org/village-life/from-far-to-near-how-6-hill-tribes-made-it-to-the-mountains-of-thailand/

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

Each year when I submit my bank letter with passbook for my retirement extension of stay renewal the IO spends about one second looking at the letter and then spends 30 seconds or so looking at the passbook transactions going back at least 3 months to ensure the balance never dropped below Bt800K.  It's the passbook that's key.  

 

I've always wondered why they even want a bank letter since the passbook is the most important document.  Probably to help confirm the passbook is not fake, having a banking relationship of X-amount of time (i.e., the account is at least 3 months old in order to season funds at least 3 months), etc.  Help reduce the possibly of fraudulent documents as the letter will have a bank POC and phone number the immigration officer could call to confirm the letter/passbook is genuine.  

Belt and braces.

1 minute ago, Pib said:

The bank letter does "not" address seasoning of money....like saying Bt800K has been in the account for at least 3 months.  The bank letter just confirms there is an account in your name, account number XYZ, branch the account is at, the balance as of the letter date, how long you have had a banking relationship with the bank, etc.   

 

It does "not" say the money has been seasoned for X-months.  It's really just certification you indeed have an account with the bank....apparently just producing a passbook is not proof enough for immigration.  

 

The immigration officer confirms you have met the seasoning requirement from review of the passbook entries/transactions.

 

Any and every letter I have asked my bank to produce for Immigration has always shown the total relationship balance as at the last day of the past three months, as well as the balance as of the date of the letter.

Sorry MMCM, the dragon lady was correct.

24 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I am only repeating what the I was told by the Bank Rep, 100k baht to open the account, next time I will record the conversation as you don’t appear to believe me.

The story changes based on who you speak to, when and where, it's part of the landscape and always has been.

2 hours ago, bearsamui said:

I understand Stat Decs wont be accepted anymore as evidence of funds but what about letters from employers? I have provided a letter from my employer verifiying my salary for the last 3 yrs for my Non O extension which I have had stamped by the Aust Embassy. I earn triple the monthly amount required but don't have the required funds in my thai account.

The letter from my company is proof of funds, its not a stat dec. Will this still suffice?

Looking at the current requirements requested by immigration it just says proof of funds of 40000bht a month. A letter from my employer and pay slips are proof of funds.

A letter from an employer carries less weight than a stat dec and is more easily forged, the answer therefore is, I doubt it very much.

I think this push by Thailand to get income letters approved by Western home governments and their obvious refusal to do so is part of a picture about alliances, it's an East versus West issue, which countries Thailand does want to align with and which ones they don't and the China/Thailand relationship is at the core. 

15 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

Exactly.. Chiang Mai would NOT let me file the TM30 on the landlords behalf.. But failed to go further as the landlord was some hi so bangkok judge who brushed them off on the phone and left them red faced and impotent. 

They then accepted to do a TM28 by me, partly because I made a pain in the ass of myself of going and reporting EVERY time I was away from home (almost weekly) with a smile until they said ok stop. 

I like this approach.

3 minutes ago, Mac98 said:

If it's such a small number and so trivial, why bother doing it?

Post 35 clarifies.

44 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Might be worth bringing up with the Junta they could buy more subs if they had more farang here , no matter their income ! be giving out visas left right and centre. 

That's not my quote, it belongs to another poster, please change it.

32 minutes ago, Mansell said:

 

There is supposedly 2.5 million foreigners in this country. 1.8 are from Laos and other surrounding Asia countries....that leaves 700,000 other expats, a far cry from your 50,000. Let's say on average they spend $2000 a month, 24,000 dollars a year, that comes to $16,800,000,000 per year.....not small change. Even if you half it, which I don't think is realistic, it is still a large amount of money. 

My post was about British expats although I apologise that I didn't make that wholly clear. I don't think however that counting Asian expats on the same financial basis as western expats is valid.

The subject of how many expats in Thailand is often debated here, estimates range up to 5 million and here are some of the inputs, Burmese and Cambodians seem to top the list: http://www.dougsrepublic.com/thailand/foreigners.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Thailand

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I don't think there is any way to know the percentage but since you're obviously guessing my guess is about 35 percent. As meaningless as your guess.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

1

Fine, make it 35%, even at that level the impact of the loss on GDP is nada, niet, nothing.

3 hours ago, JackThompson said:

 

 

Where did you get the 10% figure?  Based on those I've talked to, I'd guess 80% use either income-letters or agents - and more will now go the agent-route.  Some of those may have the money, but don't want to tie it up here.  Cambodia, Vietnam, and the PI will benefit from those who don't switch to agents. 

 

.

1

10% is my finger in the air guess of the number of western expats who are nor prepared/don/t have 800k into a Thai bank, the number is certainly no higher than that, the rest will have the funds and will bite the bullet and deposit the money into an account here.

Cambodia and the PI will benefit you say, hmm, perhaps from those expats who are prepared to live in the wild west with no infrastructure, no decent medical facilities and the law of the gun!

19 minutes ago, markaoffy said:

It’s fact killed in air crash, the billionaire kingpower owner

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

The BBC and the UK papers are saying, "It is not known if Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was in the helicopter at the time".

UK papers are reporting this morning that the helicopter carrying the Thai owner of Leicester City has crashed and burned after the match, fears are that he has died but this has yet to be confirmed. Doubtless, the TVF news team will pick up on this story.https://www.mirror.co.uk/

45 minutes ago, moe666 said:

Not sure about that last year went to Laos for a week didn't do a report and no problem with immigration as I went back to my old address. Unless what is required has changed I guess I will find out next month

As I understand it the problem surfaces when it's time to renew/extend the visa. My agent emailed me when I was in the UK recently to remind me to drop off my passport when I returned so that he could update the TM30, for which there was no charge from the agent.

Apparently, Chiang Mai is the odd one out here, we have to report after every trip!