SCOTT FITZGERSLD

3 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

She fully expected the agency he worked for had more sophisticated equipment

indeed it is true, but the kind of equipment and manpower needed for such accurate tracking is only

available to top agencies, and propably will not be used in thailand.

interesting to mention what was used in israel until few months ago, which used the secret services to track peoples location very accurately, and tell if they walked in the street besides someone who turned covid positive. than an SMS was sent to that person, commanding him to get immidiately into 14 days quarantine. there was a heated debate about the legality and accuracy of this tracking, and aventually

they stopped it because 40% of the popultation got those urgent SMSss.

the solution is simple: just leave your phone at home, or tied to your cat, or take out the battery.

the chinese vaccine has 50% efficiancy, according to chinese sources as well...so i guess it

will confuse the virus so much, that it will get desperate and will leave thailand, just like it left china so quick.

21 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Banks fee is usually fixed whatever the size of transfer

THAT IS NOT TRUE. bank fees are changing with the size of transfer, but of course not all banks

are made the same.

2 hours ago, ben2talk said:

I'm curious if anyone in the world isn't laughing their socks off

i heard of a few countries who created various covid apps - all do not work.

apparently it is not so simple to create an app that works.

2 hours ago, MrKFC said:

it's not a good idea to buy the ticket till the visa is approved, because it might not be and the airlines are not required to refund for the ticket

there are many web sites and airlines where you can book a ticket without paying the full amount, or pay anything at all.

for example KLM and TURKISH allow you to reserve a ticket for 3 days for just 20-30 USD.

so you canbook it, show it to the embassy, than cancell it.

25 minutes ago, andy said:

the bank is basically only concerned if the actual transaction for the ticket purchase was fraud. 

i got money back from the credit card company for two flight, in the pre-covid era, that did not allow

me check in because i did not have a return ticket from the destination country.

i proved to them that i had a return ticket from the region to my country, and claimed that

i was not notified in advance about such a new strict tule, and they did refund my money.

On 2/20/2021 at 4:24 AM, millymoopoo said:

I have a multi leg business class ticket with Thai, was for April 2020, we all know what happened then.

So after contacting them then I was offered refund or credit for later, was told credit would be good for at least 2 years
with option to extend for another year, so I selected credit, but now I'm thinking maybe better try for refund, incase they fold.!.

As we know they've gone into bankruptcy and of course covid has messed with them big time too.

Certainly we won't be able to travel unrestricted this year, maybe not next year either (or part thereof),
that will probably  bring it past 3 years (booked/paid Oct 2019).
Would members like to share their advice on what to do, keep the credit or go for refund.?

Are they even processing refunds.?
It is a lot of money to loose if they go bust and I join a long list of unsecured creditors.

Advice based on first hand knowledge or experience rather than mere speculation please.

Thank you

i do not know what will happan with thai airways, but can tell you what happaned to me with two other airlines which i had tickets from march 2020. in both cases i chose a refund over a voucher, and in both cases i did not get my money until now. in one case, i spent allmost 70 hours on phone calls and emails, and still did not get any money. it became so redicilous that i was calling them just for fun. i asked the agents there how much they earn, and calculated for them that the amount the airline spent on the time spent answering the calls, is much more than the amount they owe me.

On 2/17/2021 at 8:04 AM, durhamboy said:

I am also looking to do a similar transfer via transferwise. I get the same message from transferwise about there being a B2m limit on transfers into a Thai bank. However when I look into my Thai bank's (Bangkok Bank) rules they say under FAQ :-

 

 

What is the largest amount I can transfer into a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand?

There is no limit to the amount of funds that can be transferred from abroad into a Bangkok Bank account.

 

However, senders must specify the purpose of the money transfer for every transfer, as commercial banks are required to report this to the Bank of Thailand on the client’s behalf.

 

So will the Transferwise system allow me to transfer over THB 2 million? 

 

Btw, I don't agree with the previous poster that it is crazy to transfer now "whilst the baht is still pretty much ballistic" The rate is the rate and always will be. Anyone who can forecast future rates is either kidding themselves or should be making a fortune by trading currencies. The best thing to look at is recent history of the baht v sterling. Sterling has appreciated since the post Brexit trade deal was done and the baht has depreciated due to the effect of covid on tourism. I would hardly call that ballistic.

when trasfering such large amount, what you have to worry about is weather the transaction

will be approved by both banks and will not be blocked for investigation.

such block might take weeks and cuase much stress.

so why are you so worried about the 2M baht limit? it is propably the transfer wise limit.

if you need to transfer , say, 6 M baht, than better do it in 3 TW payments, and if the amount is larger, than better use the BANKS swift system.

anyway fees are not the main worry here.

acctually sad news. proof of what a strict and hard place Thailand has become in the

past few years. Most touristic countries will wellcome such casual musicians and will not

arrest them for illegal working. i understand the current pandemic situation requires policing

illegal gatherings, but why to arrest people why? this kind of attitude will hurt thai tourism in the end, news fly fast and most יHIPPIES -some of them are veru good spenders - will avoid thailand all together.

On 2/18/2021 at 3:30 PM, ianguygil said:

about Transferwise, WU etc. the way to tell what is best is simple

WESTERN UNION gives the worst rate, simple does not worth it to even think about them.

TRASFERWISE usually gives better rate than the banks.

On 2/16/2021 at 4:04 PM, mjakob007 said:

foreign exchange transfer certificate.

requirement to prove forex was imported for purchase of condo.

FETC will come handy should you wish to sell condo and export forex in future.

WON'T IT  be enough to have the banks records? any transfer is recorded in both banks

records and can be kept as proof of the transfer...makes me wonder why i want to transfer

funds to a country that does not make it easy on me to transfer funds back outside.

2 minutes ago, mjakob007 said:

but for condo purcahse, are we not supposed to bring in forex to thai banks to obtain FETC?

what means? what is FETC?

8 hours ago, Estrada said:

If you are not currently in Thailand you will have the same problem as I had due to the amount of transfer (AMLO regulations). Whether you are in Thailand or not, you also will need to visit Bangkok Bank Silom head office to fill out the AMLO declarations.

can you elaborate on that? what is the AMLO declarations and for what amount is it needed?

and is it only bangkok bank that requires visit to the branch and signing those declarations?

and what if you declare one thing on the form, and than it is found to be untrue? will it give the bank

an easy way to block your account or fine you?

24 minutes ago, surreybloke said:

Would anyone care to comment.    The lady went out to from the UK to BKK last year on one of the last   Thai flights March time .     A few weeks later the return was cancelled.       She eventually came back  on an Eva flight.    Thai has obviously gone bankrupt.     Will what remains of Thai ever honour another return flight I wonder.    I bought the ticket via  Travel Trolley(aka Southall travel ???)     . The ticket was bought with a credit card.   

 

The agency insist it is nothing to do with them.       Is it worth challenging the airline or the agency or do I give up and attempt a credit card refund.              

your best chance is to try and cancell the deal with the credit card.

most air companies, especially in 3rd world, do not return the money but do not say so, they

just pull you in endless emails and phone calls with different excuses until you give up.

so than you lose also your precious time and nerves.

1 hour ago, Shocked farang said:

Really? I never knew that the Pattaya Hilton was built from pussies! Strange world! Every day we learn new things!

so now you know !!!

and if you still think that hilton is a brand of moral investment - look at PARIS HILTON

I was reading an article about a bank manager who was cheating his customers for years

by updating their old passboks, while hiding from them the real balances - and his withdrawls - by hiding from them

the new passbooks.

my question is - how it is possible? didnt they check their balance online? is there

a difference between the balance online and the balance in old / new passbook?

is it possible that while i am verifying my account balance for years, one day i will come

to the bank and they will tell me  - NO IT IS WRONG ???

i do not understand why europe could not make their own virus?

if russia and china could, why europe cannot? with all the money that is rolling there,

those europeans does not seem to know how to save themselves.

evidence shows that the vaccination, while efficient in giving personal protection, is not good for general protection of the whole population.

one reason is that children up to 16 years old are not allowed to get the vaccine. so they can keep on spreading the virus, allthough not getting so much sick (this is also changing with the new mutations).

anoter reason might be that the vaccines are just not good enough, and do not cover all the new kinds

of mutations and variations. the whole proccess is accttually under investigation now, and the experts

simply do not know if the vaccines are any good. some say loud that the only solution is herd immunity, which means open everything and let as many people as possible to get infected.

21 hours ago, wasabi said:

I would consider renting out the Thai condo while I am away with Airbnb (I already have someone who can manage it) on a monthly basis to comply with Thai hoteling laws

 well, consider this: the condo will propably stand empty for the next year or two.

than, if you are really lucky, you can rent it for 2-3 months in a year.

the person you have to look after will propably mass things in an unimaginable way.

and the thai hoteling laws - forget about it, you will never even know what they are.

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

My worry is getting a Covid infection at the hospital

first thing you need to do is to buy a new blood presure checking machine, and

this time NOT made in china.

this, i am sure, will improve your results immidiately.

23 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

That way the funds have continually remained in a Thai bank account.

are yuo sure about it? or do you just think so?

because in thailand what counts is not what makes sense, but what the

immigration rule are.

they might have a new rule that says: since you transfered the money from another account

yuo need to blah blah blah

well, first you have to save the money to buy one property.

than, when the money is saved, you need to look for an appropriate property

and sign the purchasing  aggreements.

than, you need to save the moeny to buy the second property.

by the time you will do it, you will propably too old and tired of flying between the two

countries, and you will stay and get stucked in one of them for the rest of your life, and

that will solve your problem.

On 1/7/2021 at 11:49 AM, zoza said:

i changed my transfer receiving bank to Bangkok Bank

so if i use the 800K method, and want to change from one bank to the other, will the IO want

to see again international transfers going into the new account? or will they be happy with just

seeing 800K on the new bank account?