Mike Teavee

On 8/18/2023 at 11:58 AM, bbi1 said:

Thanks. Would Udon Thani airport to the Nong Khai border by car to be roughly around the same rate, or would you expect something like around 800 baht?

I paid 900b in Feb, I did check on Bolt (or was it Grab) afterwards & think it can be done for 600b

Same 900b coming back NK-UT Airport but you have to walk past the initial touts who were asking up to 1,500b 
 

IIRC NK-Vientiane was 400b. 
 

19 hours ago, Negita43 said:

My understanding is that joint accounts are frozen until the will is processed (probate in the UK) so she will need some money in her own account whilst that happens.

I don't think that's correct, as Joint Bank Accounts are normally passed by "Survivorship" so the money automatically goes to the surviving holder.

This can be challenged but I believe the Banks will allow the surviving holder to take the money so they would need to be sued for it's return. 

Edit: Example Case... 

https://www.gadlegal.co.uk/news/elder-law/the-inherent-dangers-of-joint-bank-accounts#:~:text=Joint accounts are ordinarily subject,of great convenience to all.

Guy was allowed to take out the money after his mum's death but had to repay it to the estate when it was proven that she put all of the money into the account so rather than being treated as a Joint Account it was treated as a Trust and so part of her estate.

Underbelly: Vanishing Act

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15428452/

The true story of Melissa Caddick, a woman who disappeared after swindling over $40 million from her most trusted clients.

14 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Various regional offices having their own special requirements is such BS. I used to use my savings account, but was always in fear of not updating the book for a while, then you would get a consolidated entry... that would not specifically prove you had retained the 800/400kbaht as stipulated.. and I just feared getting grief over that. Now I use an agent, they seem more liberal of things when one does! 

Exactly the same here & fortunately my Bangkok Agent spotted the consolidated entries and took me to the Bank to get the necessary statements to prove I hadn't gone below the 400/800K limits. 

Would be great if Thailand had an option to stick 800K somewhere "Official" (say a Government Bank/Bond) & if you didn't dip into it you get a simple letter saying "Yep, all good", no need for statements or copies of Bank Book etc... If you did go below the limits then you could revert to showing certificates/bank balances/bank books from elsewhere. 

15 hours ago, jacko45k said:

I do not understand why that is necessary..... (he mentioned Bangkok Bank)..... I have accounts with BB and  I can update the books without a transaction, and an update line is printed. This occurs with my savings and my fixed deposit books. I accept this is not the case with some other banks.

You can update the Bank Book on the Day but the Immigration Office (at least Jomtien & CW in my experience) seem to want to see a transaction on the day you get your "Certificate" from the Bank confirming your Balance, makes no sense to me as an updated Bank Book confirms the balance, but it's just another one of those little "Hoops" that we seem to need to jump through each year.    

11 hours ago, blackshadow said:

look at THE BASE ????

The requirement was for a 1BR 60SQM Unit, no idea how big the Units are at the Base but it wouldn't surprise me if the 1BRs there were < 40SQM. 

And a quick check on Hipflat suggests most are around 30SQM

 https://www.hipflat.com/projects/the-base-central-pattaya-zuiltg

On 8/13/2023 at 11:13 AM, giddyup said:

I have a dedicated term deposit purely for the 800K, so that money never changes except to increase slightly when interest gets added. So proving it's still there after 90 days is absolutely pointless.

I used a Fixed Deposit account for the 1st time this year and was told that I needed to make a small Deposit (100B was mentioned but Bangkok Bank Mobile App wouldn't let me Xfer less than 10,000B) before getting the Book updated & photocopied for Immigration, did you not have to do this? 

Also, just curious to know whether doing a transfer the other way (FD-2-Savings account) would do the job, I don't see why not as it seems Immigration just want to see some movement on the account around about the time your doing your extension. 

1 hour ago, Negita43 said:

To all those suggesting Singapore as a place for a bank account (I am waiting for a call from Standard Chartered at the moment)

In todays BBC news. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66529632

I guess things might tighten up for a time - from my point of view Murphy's Law!!

When I worked in SG I needed to have an Employment Pass & condo lease agreement to open my Citibank account, IIRC I just needed the EP when I was opening a POSB account, am pretty sure you wouldn't be able to open an account there if you didn't have a longterm permission to stay (EP, PR etc...). 

On the other hand I left SG 3.5 years ago & cannot get Citi to close my account, seems they're happy for me to have a Thai address (Sent my new Debit Card here) & Thai Phone number (Which I use for OTP via SMS) so I just leave it ticking over with a few SGD in it. 

On 8/16/2023 at 11:10 AM, Eff1n2ret said:

I opened an account with Skipton International in Guernsey

If you don't mind me asking, what are the monthly fees & minimum credit balance for an account like that.

36 minutes ago, TheLaughingMan said:

Theres a paper in the passport that had the 3 month check in date on it, and below that mentions the 2k-5k penalty plus 200 a day if you are late reporting in.  I already know Pattaya does things very differently from the rest of Thailand but its frustrating anyway.  Its our own fault for not understanding when the 3 month check in started.

Pretty sure the larger fine (5,000B & 200B per day) is if you are "caught" not doing your 90 Day report (Though I can't think how you could be), if you voluntarily go into Immigration and do it you should get a 2,000B fine & that's the end of it, No "naughty" stamp in your passport or anything like that. 

Am sure if you went with your mother they'd be very sympathetic to her forgetting to do it. 

Alternatively you could go to an Agent and ask them to do it for you, I've no idea how much it would cost but a normal 90 Day Report is usually 1-200B. 

Have seen a few condos advertised in Pattaya Tower Apartment on Soi 4which I think is one of the quieter Sois near Beach Road.

3 hours ago, proton said:

Another one excusing corruption. No, not anyone of us can find ourselves dipping bellow the financial levels, only the foolhardy, those not planning properly or those who just should not be here anyway. Stick to the rules or clear off and stop making things harder for the rest of us.

No I didn't excuse corruption, I said that there were reasons why somebody could go below the 400/800K limits & there should be a process whereby they can still get their extension if this happens. 

OK so somebody letting a small unforeseen transaction take them under their limit or giving somebody else access to their Bank account could be considered stupid, but what about somebody who has to pre-pay for medical care before getting the money back from their insurance OR somebody who's victim of a bank mistake/fraud, shouldn't these guys have a legitimate channel for getting their Extension?

I know there must be a process for "legitimately" getting an Extension if your account falls below limits as Senior IO Officers have the "Power" to approve it, but I've never heard of anybody saying they went through that process & am sure we'd all appreciate it if somebody could share their experience or at least explain the process. 

Feels a bit schadenfreude to want to clamp down on people using "Agent Assisted Finance" extensions but if I'm honest, the ones that probably annoy me (slightly) are the ones who gloat that they get 5% on their 800K in their home country so it's better for them to keep the money there... No denying the maths but feels like it is taking the p155 somewhat - But they are probably the guys that according to you "Should be Here"... 

I truly hope you don't have a Medical/Bank Issue that sees your account go below the level and need to revert to an "Agent Assisted Finance" extension despite it not being your fault.

33 minutes ago, bbko said:

Why would Thai banks pay winning lottery tickets? What's in it for them?

I thought it was only the Government Banks (GF goes to the “Pink” bank to cash her winnings) & seem to recall their commission is 2.5% (100b on 4,000 winnings) which gives them a decent margin over the government rate of 0.5% 

41 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Last couple years photos outside the office at soi5,bit different! 

Funny you should say that as she asked me to meet their representatives just inside the door to the side of the main office (IIRC it's labelled for the Elite Visa extensions)

10 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Has been so last 3 yrs at least,Im exp.

My 1st Extension at Jomtien was last year & I had my photo taken at the Agents so didn't need to attend in person. 

On 8/7/2023 at 12:51 PM, mokwit said:

It says at the bottom of both forms "attendance is requited in person" They added the "unless incapacitated" shortly after someone was pushed 'round CW in a hospital bed complete with IV drip. It was surreal seeing that.

 

Jomtien I hear you can do both without attending.

 

I don't think you can do standard PoA on an extension other than for a handful of cases, or maybe just medical - presumably the agent submits some questionable paperwork. CW without attendance is long gone. PoA can be done for other things e.g. TM30.

 

Re entry permit attendance enforcement seems to have tightened up at CW - taking your photo now.

Quick update, went to see my Agent yesterday & they’ve told me I need to meet them at Jomtien Immigration today (Office was closed yesterday) to have my photo taken so it does look like they’re tightening up the rules around attending in person this year.
 

Would be interesting to know whether guys who use “Agent Assisted Finances” also have to attend. 

12 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

The minimum deposit for most banks FD a/c is 1000baht..

I was transferring from my other BKK account using their Mobile App & it didn’t seem to like 1,136.03 THB (was trying to get my FD account to a nice round number) so I tried 10,134.03 (messed up the nice round number by 2b!) & it worked. 
 

Maybe different amounts when depositing in person to the mobile app?

Just a quick update, I went in to see my Agent today to arrange for my extension (completely forgot it was a Public Holiday & Immigration was closed today) & they said that they cannot help with the conversion from Non-IMM O to Nom-IMM OX but suggested that I should speak to immigration if I was interested in doing it & they felt it would be possible to do it there. 

And on that note, they also told me that I need to attend Jomtien Immigration tomorrow to have my photo taken there (last year I didn't need to attend but had the photo taken in the Agents office). 

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

Others are mostly in disagreement with my opinion on this, and Immigration may not applying the rules as I think they were intended.

 

My view is that, for any retirement extension after the first, you should be able to qualify for the next extension based on money in the bank or income. You qualify based on income, by having 12 monthly transfers from abroad or by using an income letter. To qualify based on money in the bank, you must have complied with minimum balances in your account since the previous extension.

As you know I am one of those people who have in the past been adamant that you need to maintain the T&Cs of your current extension (i.e. keep 800K for 3 months, 400K for 7 months & then 800K for 2 months) to get a new one BUT I am just back from my agents to arrange for my next extension (I keep 800K in the bank all year around but use an Agent to do the paperwork & stay on top of any changes to requirements) & they told me I only had to show a 3 month bank statement (Plus usual certificate that you have X amount in the account as at today) so I am starting to believe that you might be right & they don't really care what you do after you get your extension & up to the point where you need to have the 800K again, & an immediate switch to the Income Method might be possible as long as you religiously put the 65K in the bank for 12 months beforehand.

I guess somebody who was planning to use the Income method could test it out, if worse comes to the worse they could always fall back on an Agent assisted extension (or in @DrJack54case use the 800K he has in the Bank)

NB, I was also told that I need to visit Jomtien IO in person to have the Photo taken, last year I was able to do the photo at the Agents office so would be interested in hearing if guys using "Agent Assisted Financed" extensions are also required to attend Immigration (I guess not if these are done up-country). 

1 final point, I was able to use a Fixed Deposit account BUT I had to make a small! (Minimum transfer in value seemed to be 10K) deposit & get the book updated before getting the statement/certificate.

43 minutes ago, ravip said:

Or he watched the "Poisoned" documentary on Netflix & realised the least thing healthy thing for him to eat is Leafy Greens... 

2 minutes ago, BritTim said:

That can be validly argued if your last extension was based on money in the bank. They want to be sure that the 800k baht was your money, and not from some kind of short-term loan. it is certainly more valid than saying you must qualify based on money in the bank for the entire year while simultaneously qualifying based on income That said, I would still say that qualifying by 12 consecutive monthly deposits from abroad meets the cumulative 800k requirement for an extension based on income. In the past, when income letters from the embassy were accepted, I do not recall them ever saying that they would not accept the income letter because you did not met the requirement for 800k baht in the bank.

 

So, do you believe that would now also be true if using an income letter from your embassy?

 

I think you may be correct on actual practice, but I think it is completely illogical. The intent of the current rules, I believe, is that you must qualify for an extension by showing you have met the requirements for your last extension, either by keeping the requisite bank balances, or by depositing a minimum level of income into your account from abroad every month during the term of the last extension. I do not think using money in the bank for one extension should prevent you from using income to qualify for the next one (though you must be able to show proof of retrospective income, not just a promise to do it going forward). Interesting enough, when monthly deposits were first introduced, you were allowed to qualify the first time based on only two or three monthly deposits as it was felt unreasonable to require 12 deposits when this was not previously necessary. Now, apparently, 24 months of transfers are required.

 

Similarly, I think if you have previously been using income, you should be able to switch to money in the bank by simply having 800k baht in the bank during the previous year. I do not think a failure to continue 65k+ deposits should disqualify you for the next extension as long as you qualify based on money in the bank.

We'll agree to disagree... & I look forward to the day somebody comes along to say they used an Agent for the 800K in the bank & were able to switch to Income the next year & I'll be proven totally wrong.  I won't be holding my breath. 

Your last point about people previously Using Income then switching to "Money in the Bank" is not valid as the "Income" method is solely based on your previous 12 months transfers & has no requirements for future transfers, whereas the "Deposit" in the bank has rules for what needs to happen over the following (at least) 3 to 12 months. 

You could get an extension based on "Income", then do nothing until 2-3 months (Depending on IO) before your Extension was due, stick 800K in the bank & then follow the deposit rules...