Mike Teavee

3 hours ago, Isaanbiker said:

And reading that people wanna go to the Philippines seems to be a better joke.

 

A very poor country with a hell lot of crime, drugs and problems.  

 

And the food is absolutely not eatable in my eyes. No thank you. 

Apart from the Crime (I have no Idea) I could guess the same about Issan (never visited), very poor area, lots of drugs/problems & the food is <deleted> (I have eaten Isaan food, clearly you've never eaten Adobo or crispy lechon)...  How many times have you been to the Philippines or do you always believe everything you read online. 

As I said in my post above, I like the Visayas & Davao in particular, Davao City is one of the safest cities in Asia (D30 was in charge there for years & IIRC his daughter is in charge there now, you won't even find people smoking in restaurants or throwing litter on the streets).

Fortunately (through hard work) I have a choice of where I go to live & Visayas is up there with the rest of them (Don't get me started on beaches, Thailand hang your head in shame)... 

3 hours ago, madmen said:

Its always ALWAYS about the money. I don't buy in to the "I'm wealthy but gonna go to Cambo to live cause of immigration "  That's just anonymous keyboard nonsense

Lol,, it's honestly not... & I didn't say Cambodia, I said Philippines (& in particular Cebu or Davao).

I genuinely do like the Philippines & used to have a house in Kapalong (about 2 hour drive north of Davao city) with my Filipina at that time (NB I didn't live there & couldn't but was nice to visit every month or so for 8 years) .

Have an open door at work to move to BGC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonifacio_Global_City) which is beautiful place, but I don't like Manila, even the Ex didn't want to move there when I was 1st asked. 

As for the finance side of things, short of showing you my bank statements (which I'm obviously not going to do) I'll just say that I've worked in Finance (IT not Business) for > 30 years, the last 11 of which in Singapore, so that at least suggests that I would have earned a reasonable salary, these cards (photo to follow) suggest that I have a reasonable amount of disposable assets...

So again, it's NOT ALWAYS about the money... 

24 minutes ago, nauseus said:

It was the EEC. Things have changed. There should have been a referendum pre 1992 (Maastricht) but no.

 

The linked article makes the case including this remark: There is a clear constitutional rationale for requiring a referendum in such circumstances. MPs are entrusted by the electorate with legislative power, but they are given no authority to transfer that power. That authority requires a specific mandate from the people.

 

Elected MPs are lent the power to govern but they not entitled to pass on that power to anyone else.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-the-people-should-have-a-vote-on-maastricht-the-house-of-lords-must-uphold-democracy-and-insist-1490346.html

I'm still confused... 

Was there or was there not a referendum on joining a European Community??? 

How that community has changed since then may be due a vote of should we stay but was there or was there not a vote of whether we should join in the 1st place... 

31 minutes ago, nauseus said:

You don't want to rerun the referendum. You want a different one entirely. Just because you lost. And now you are suddenly in favour of losers consent. Away with you!

Again... Will you accept leaving with the "Deal" PM May agreed?

If so, then I accept, no need for a referendum... any claims of BRINO means you're disagreeing with yourself... 

So you're ok to leave with May's Dea?

I am if you are

5 minutes ago, nauseus said:

Wrong. There was never a referendum on EU membership. There should have been one but there wasn't.

Confused... what was this then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_United_Kingdom_European_Communities_membership_referendum 

51 minutes ago, transam said:

I will be the only one left soon, and I'm only here for the beer.........Listening too ....

I would put you on ignore but occasionally you come up with some (music) classics that I'd forgotten about that makes it worth it... 

Just joshing about the ignore, but serious about the old time music fella ????  

42 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

What is GFC and ASIC?

Global Financial Crisis & Australian Securities & Investments Commission 

Barclays have no problem with me banking in the UK whilst living in Singapore & they certainly know about it seeing as they were the ones that put me here 11 years ago!!! (even though I stopped working for them 5 years ago, my account still says "Staff Account") 

I use my parents address as the correspondence address but all statements/documents etc... are put into the Barclays "Cloud" where I can access them from anywhere.

Only problems I've had are:-

• Cards - I'm not sure whether they'll ship them overseas or not, I have them sent to my parents house & pick them up when I visit, funny enough I'm expecting a new Barclaycard in the next week or so & will be there on the 30th Sept to pick it up :)) - I never use them unless I'm in the UK anyway, especially not with sterling down the toilet, I'm better off spending on my SG cards...
• Need a UK Mobile number to Register for Mobile Banking & Barclaycard online - I got a new phone & wasn't able to set-up the mobile banking or Barclaycard apps, ended up using Mums mobile number & a bit of coordination over Whatsapp to sort out the One Time Pin to get them activated.
• One Time Pin - As I didn't have Mobile Banking & the battery had gone on the "Calculator" device they give you, I wasn't able to set-up a new payee, sorted the problem out by getting Mobile Banking working as above, then on my next trip to UK mentioned it in the branch and they gave me a new device there & then.

Also have no problems with my One Account (was Virgin, now RBS) Mortgage, again they know I'm living overseas & renting the place out and they don't bother to send me any cards as I never use it, I just leave enough money in the account so the Mortgage is in credit (they pay me a few pennies interest each month)

Edit to add: Barclays have no problem with me having a share portfolio & ISA with them either, though I do need to remind them every year when they tell me I haven't used my ISA allowance for this year that I'm not eligible for an allowance as I live OS

35 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Must be a non legally binding referendum though .

 

A referendum can be legally binding if legislation is put in place to make it so BEFORE it is held... 

From the Guardian article previously posted https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-legally-binding-brexit-lisbon-cameron-sovereign-parliament 

Is the EU referendum legally binding?

The simple answer to the question as to whether the EU referendum is legally binding is “no”. In theory, in the event of a vote to leave the EU, David Cameron, who opposes Brexit, could decide to ignore the will of the people and put the question to MPs banking on a majority deciding to remain.

This is because parliament is sovereign and referendums are generally not binding in the UK.

An exception was the 2011 referendum on changing the electoral system to alternative vote, where the relevant legislation obligated the government to change the law to reflect a “yes” vote had that occurred. No such provision was contained within the EU referendum legislation.

10 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

An Interbank Transfer does not show up as a foreign transfer = FTT in the bankbook. They should show up as SMT in your BBL bankbook. 

I'm stuck in Singapore until 26th Sept & my Passbook is in Bangkok so I can't check but all the earlier transfers I did showed up as FTT so was assuming this one would (I only transfer every 2-3 months so obviously don't use the income method & don't pay too much attention save the correct amount arrives).

Hmmm... I've just been back to a Transfer I did in May & that shows up as "International Transfer AUTO DEBIT/CREDIT" in Mobile Banking so I'm willing to bet you're correct and these 2 more recent ones won't show as FTT.

Scary stuff if you're using the Income Method & I can only recommend to anybody that does that they speak to transferwise to ask them to ensure all transfers "Land" as FTT and keep at least a months payment ready to be sent should 1 not "Land" correctly... 

1 hour ago, Max69xl said:

Many agents are not doing marriage visas unless we are talking about CW Immigration. It's because marriage visas are not approved locally. Immigration in BKK has to approve them, hence,who to pay at Immigration? 

My extension was "Above Board" so I had to provide exactly the same documents/proof & jump though exactly the same hoops as anybody doing it themselves so I'm sure the Agent would also do an extension based on Marriage (in fact, when I was waiting to present my docs to the IO I saw a lot of Married Couples/Families there being guided by Agents), but this was at CW so you maybe right that there could be problems doing it elsewhere (though I doubt an Agent would refuse money to help you complete the documents / go through the process if everything was kosher).

If you were getting a "Dodgy" extension without showing proof of funds or having to turn up at the Immigration office then I guess it would make no difference whether it was Retirement or Marriage as long as you are over 50, but I take your point that Married guys under 50 would struggle.

Apologies OP for straying off topic... Back to(wards) Topic, my ad hoc transfers from Citibank in Singapore show up as "Interbank Transfer via SMART" on Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking, I'm pretty sure they show up as FTT in my Passbook though.

On 9/12/2019 at 12:14 PM, spornb said:

At 75 in poor health, I find immigration on marriage extension way too stressful

 

Even after ten yrs they always find something wrong, and also an immaterial item, my cash is always as required, we play the game and dress respectfully as well

 

All too often we are told if you do not like it leave, by some junior civil servant

 

I would willingly pay a reasonable amount to get rid of all this, like 5000 pa to an agent for renewal and 90 day reports,

 

anyone know of anyone needs to be KhonKaen

Sorry, I can't help you with an agent in Khon Kaen, but for what it's worth I used an Agent to assist me when doing my last extension in Bangkog (CW), as I only had a few days to get it done before I had to be back in Singapore for work so didn't have the luxury of there being anything missing/wrong.

• Cost was 8,900 THB (Includes the 1,900 Visa extension charge)
• Did not include 90 day reports (would be an additional 1,000 THB or 250 THB a time, I work permanently in Singapore so am in & out every 2 weeks & never spend more than 10 days in-country)
• Did not include the Multi Re-entry Permit (This was another 5,000 THB which included the 3,500 immigration charge, this is the same price as doing it separately from the Extension as I'd previously got them to do one for me on the last 90 day entry of my Non-O ME Visa, I didn't need to go to Immigration that time)
• I needed to provide Passport, Passbook showing 800K in bank (which they did the photocopies for) & 2 photos
• On the day I had to go to immigration with them, they did all the getting queue numbers etc. while I had a coffee
• On the day they took me to the Bank to get my passbook updated & the letter of proof of 800K in the account (I had to pay the 100 THB)

Only way to completely avoid having to go to Immigration is to get a "Dodgy" extension, for which I believe the going rate is around 25,000 THB, but at least having an agent with you when you go helps to make sure that you have all your documentation in order (having said that one of the forms they'd got me to sign was apparently out of date, no problem, Agent explained, IO handed me a new one with a smile & once I'd signed it, was swapped out - I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd have been there on my own).

Good luck ???? 

If you're British (or at least following Brexit) you might appreciate this one... Taken from an HYS (Have Your Say) comment on a BBC News Brexit article... 

I wasn't born British, and despite living here for many a year sometimes still struggle with British humour. So I hope you don't mind me asking: When it comes to Brexit, is this some real world adaptation of the Muppets show?!

I mean first there was Kermit Cameron and Animal Farage, then some ABBA-dancing Miss Piggy, now it's Fozzie Boris backed by Rizzo-The-Mogg, and I still don't get it...

It would be funny if it wasn't so true!!!

30 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

From what I understand Transferwise doesn't actually physically do any overseas transfers at all. They do internal national transfers from their own accounts only even though it appears to the end user that an international transfer has occurred. That's what my Aussie bank told me anyway.

No doubt they do some international transfers in their own accounts from time to time but for the end user it is a virtual transfer.

Happy to be proven wrong.

 

Edit to add cut and paste from TW which helps explain why immigration may have a problem.

 

If you want to convert your pounds to euros, you send the money in pounds to TransferWise’s UK-based account. The equivalent amount is then sent from TransferWise’s euro account to the recipient.

This smart system means that the money never actually moves across borders, and the currency conversion is done using the real mid-market exchange rate (as you would find in a newspaper or at xe.com). Doing things this way means that customers can avoid traditional banking fees altogether and they don’t lose money by transferring at an unfair rate (visit TransferWise).

 

Pretty well the same system the Knights Templar used over a thousand years ago.

Yes, but sometimes (seems to happen more often than not with Bangkok bank) it does show up in your Passbook as an FTT (think it stands for Foreign Telext Transfer)

Seems to be a little hit or miss, hence my warning to the OP to be careful with the Xfe.rs, there have been people who have had no problem & others that have had the odd payment that didn't have the correct code in their Passbook.  

OP: There have been a couple of threads on here about this very point, I tried searching for them but couldn't find any might be worth you starting a new thread asking this specific point (at worse somebody will point you to the existing thread(s)).

48 minutes ago, Jockey said:

Thank you so much for your replies. I use Transferwise and this is what it looks like on my bank statement: 

11 Sep 2019 14:00

Interbank Transfer via SMART

75,145.91

1,040,450.32

AUTO

So you don't think this will be accepted because it doesn't state "International Transfer"? How about I also show them my UK Bank account statement which looks like this:

10 Sep 19

TRANSFERWISE

FPO

2,000.00

8,182.93

I can also take along the receipt of each transfer from Transferwise. So for each transaction I would have proof of the money going out of my UK bank account, receipt from Transferwise of the transfer from UK into the Bangkok Bank, and my Bangkok Bank bankbook statement, together with a letter from my bank.

 

My Immigration office is Hua Hin and I can show proof of a pension, but my pension only covers about 80% of the payment. If I can do this it will save me a load of money!

All of my overseas transfers show up as "Intrabank Transfer via Smart" whereas in-country ones just show up as "Transfer" so I think you're ok, just make sure you check it every month and if anything looks strange be ready to send another payment via Swift or something.

The reason I say this is Transferwise will sometimes send you money from one of their other Bank accounts in Thailand so it will look like an internal (Thailand) transfer rather than an overseas one.

5 hours ago, giddyup said:

Too far from computer to TV.

Chrome cast (or similar)