Mike Teavee

On 7/10/2023 at 11:53 PM, cnmltd said:

What does he need to do to get a 1 year retirement visa in Pattaya?

Go to see Maneerat (Soi Post Office / Soi 13/2) & they will handle it all for him for approx. 23,500THB at the end of which he'll have his initial 90 Day Non-IMM O Visa + next 12 months extension (so will be good for 15 months). 

I know a lot of people will say to do it himself (2,000THB) but at 74 & with (I'm assuming) little knowledge about how to get a Non-Imm O Visa I'd recommend just spending the money & taking all of the hassle/stress out of it. 

20 minutes ago, Felton Jarvis said:

Miracid works for me. I struggle with acid reflux, especially when I eat anything spicy.

Over the years I’ve found myself taking more & more beers of my drinking list as they seem to cause bad reflux the next day (San Miguel Lights is probably the worse but just recently Singha has been causing me grief).

Generally, Miracid (1 tablet in the morning) works for me but I keep a box of Gaviston Tablets (find they work better than the pouches) handy in case it flares up. 

13 minutes ago, chalawaan said:

I cannot believe this! 

So basically, nothing changes apart from you're giving them more money? 

 

I thought they would leave me the hell alone after I bought my visa. 

 

THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT. 

 

What a waste of time and money, where are the actual benefits? 

 

Still annual extensions and still a charge. 

 

Do they make us get a re-entry permit too? 

 

I'll take my chances with the retirement cost going up. 

 

So angry about this! ????

It’s a Multi Re-Entry Visa so no need for a Re-Entry permit & if you leave the country at least once every 12 months you don’t need to worry about extensions. 
 

If you do have to do an extension is an absolute doddle (especially if you live somewhere where TE will do it for you). 

90 Day reports are very easy online nowadays (assuming your IMM Office accepts them) 

Other perks are Fast-Track & lounge access at the airport + if you get the 5 year (600K) version you get certain number of airport transfers + other perks (Golf, Spa etc… Not 100% sure as it’s been a while since I looked at it) 
 

The smart approach seems to be to pay the 600K for the 5 year visa for the additional perks & then pay the extra 400K for the extra 15 years towards the end of it. 
 

2 hours ago, chalawaan said:

It is unlimited residency for 20 years, and only 90 day reports needed, correct?

Each time you enter Thailand on an Elite Visa you will be given a 12 month permission to stay so if you don’t leave Thailand during those 12 months you will need to do the annual extension (TE can help facilitate this, no need to show financials, usual 1,900b Immigration Fee applies).

Also note that the 20 year visa is actually a 5 Year Visa which you/they renew 3 times. 
 

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

I was wrong once in 1980, I corrected that 25 years ago when I divorced. never been wrong since.

The only time I’m wrong is when I think I am… 

Wait, that’s the GF, I’m wrong all the time apparently. 
 

Joking aside I do get things wrong & am grateful to people when they point this out so I can learn from it. 

On 5/23/2023 at 1:21 PM, kingstonkid said:

OK silly question time.

 

How do you handle things if you get a pension form another country or have investments in the country.  Do you need both a thai and Canadian will can the same executor action it?

   

I don’t know about Canada but UK & US allow you to specify international assets in your domestic will

HOWEVER I can only imagine how hard this would be to get through the Thai courts so would recommend having a separate Will for your Thai assets. 
 

I don’t see why you couldn’t have the same Executor in both wills but unless the Executor is willing to travel between the 2 to deal with banks/courts etc… Might be better to have separate (local) Execs. 

11 minutes ago, DrJoy said:

There is an excellent thread about Thai citizenship, post your concerns there.

 

@KUGS

 

 

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/121353-story-of-my-thai-citizenship-application/page/270/

 

Main concern for us retirees is that there doesn’t seem to be a route to PR unless we work & pay Tax for >2 years thus making PR an impossible dream for us. 
 

Had one from Virgin One (Now NatWest) who told me if I didn’t provide one they might have to notify the Thailand Tax authority of the approx £2 interest they pay me per year for keeping my mortgage in credit. 
 

As an aside my mate got a call from them, they’re closing his account in September (he closed his mortgage out with them when he sold his house but maintained a current account)  & have he needs to make alternative banking arrangements

A lot of reports of UK banks closing Expats accounts & I’d be concerned that providing them with a TIN is confirming to them that I am an Expat (use my parents address for all correspondence). 

21 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Unless under 50, boggles the mind why anyone would even consider this TOTAL ripoff. I could buy one today and not even notice the money gone....but WHY would I, or anyone❗❓ 

I consider this every extension renewal time & My thinking is, I keep 800K in the bank all year around & if I get the 5 year visa I would immediately free up 200K.

I don’t need the money but if I did then it’s a good way of freeing up some cash until my Pensions start in 2.5 years at which point I could either move to the income method or top up to 800K or (most likely) spend 400K & get an extra 15 years.

My main reason for not getting one isn’t so much the cost, more the I don’t want to get off of the Non-IMM O “Treadmill” & find at some point in the future the rules change & existing holders are Grandfathered in (E.G Increase in money in the bank, compulsory health insurance etc…) 

10 hours ago, The Old Bull said:

I went from an Asus zenphone 3 to a zenphone 8, just hit the transfer feature and all my apps came accross.  The only problem was the phone ,only half my contacts came so I had to do the rest manually. However they came the next day so I had a pile of double entries to delete.

Which Banks Mobile App moved from Phone-2-Phone without having to re-register it?

I went from IPhone X to IPhone 14 & whilst all my apps/contact/data etc... went across I still needed to re-register the Bangkok Bank App & I would be concerned if I hadn't had to. 

36 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

No, it´s free in my home country as well. However, start to save up for safety and all eventualities is still a normal thing for me. You never know where you will end up. Even if you stay in your home country, savings will not be a waste to have. That´s the point. Meaning what you know need for self-insurance, would have another place in another country.

Agree 100% but you can’t blame a young guy for not including Health Insurance in that.
 

I honestly did not even think about Private Health Insurance ( Except for the tax I paid on my BUPA insurance from 26) until I was 53

Even working in Singapore my company gave me Health Insurance so it was only when I retired that it came on my radar (& even then only because they were making it compulsory for Non-IMM OA holders, I’m No -IMM O).

Call me Stupid (you wouldn’t be the 1st) but I bought my 1st Health Insurance at 54 & at that time it was very Alien to me…

12 hours ago, oxo1947 said:

9 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Strange, you say that you did all that, and still you do not know that saving up money for self insurance is a part of the goals in life and a part of planning.

You clearly don’t have a clue about Health Care in the UK.

 It’s “Free” (won’t go into how it’s funded or how I had to pay additional tax for it as my company gave me Private Health Insurance as a “Benefit in Kind”, never used it but thanks for taking the 40% tax from me for having it)

So none of us (myself included) thought about it until we came to not live there.

Is your Country that much different (Not that I would comment on your countries Health provisos as, I wouldn’t have a clue)

Am thinking maybe I should take a more "Grown Up" (None of us wants to think about our deaths) approach to what happens when I die...  So would appreciate any recommendations for a Thai Lawyer (Pattaya) who can help me put a Will together for my Thai Assets...

Season 2 of Before We Die has dropped… 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt13125694/

22 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

and in the meantime explore options.

I find Mister Prakan https://misterprakan.com/th/health/main?lg=en to be a good site for comparing different Health Insurance Polices/providers. 

Can purchase the policy through them (I did & found their service very good, E.g. When I needed the Covid Insurance certificate for the Thailand Pass to return to Thailand they emailed it me within minutes of asking) or through another Broker, chances are the prices will be the same. 

14 hours ago, scorecard said:

I have joint savings account with my Thai adult son at K Bank and at BBL, they all have the VISA logo on the ATM/DEBIT plastic card. 

 

They are all listed on my will with photos of the cards all showing the VISA logo. All prepared by a famour hghly credible lawyer and  2 of his senior staff.

I'm pretty sure that by "Visa Account" he meant the money in the bank to support his Extension (to his permission to stay in Thailand, not the one he's added to his house)

As an aside I have heard that some banks will allow your partner to be a "Silent" Joint Account holder on your "Extension" account, their name does not appear in the paperwork for Immigration but they are added to the account as a signatory so can withdraw money.

I decided to get Health Insurance around the time they made it mandatory for the Non-IMM OA holders as I felt that there was a high risk of them applying it to Non-IMM O holders at that time.

Figured it would be sensible to get on the ladder "Early" so took the (Pacific Cross "Visa Friendly") policy out the day before my 55th birthday & this year (day before my 57th) the renewal was <30,600 for $100K cover (excluding out-patient & has a 100K deductible). 

I keep 2 years spends (updated a few times per year depending on dividend income/fx rates) in the bank anyway so am sort of also self-insured should something bad happen & the Insurance doesn't pay out. 

End of the day we all have our own levels of risk, for me the risk in being forced to get Health Insurance later in life (as happened to the Non-IMM OA holders) was the nudge I needed to get Health Insurance whilst I could. 

Edit: I appreciate this doesn't answer the OP question so for that I would just say that as with any long term savings, you're always already too late so best start catching up now. 

I'm using a (10 year old) MacBook Pro which cost me the same as my previous laptop (Alienware) & the one before that (an 18" HP Media thing that doubled as a TV) - Neither of which lasted longer than 18 months. 

However, I am noticing that the screen is getting dimmer at the corners & am obviously have a problem between the Graphics card & Windows (use BootCamp with Win10) as it refuses to boot if I don't disable it (MacOS works fine though)...  So am thinking of having a change. 

I spent my career in IT Dev/Architecture so am used to buying the most expensive/powerful machine that would enable me to run a bunch of VM Servers/Clients but now I'm retired I only use it for Internet Browsing & Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Visio (still help mates out putting presentations/pitches together).

So after very cursory research, I came up with this

https://www.asus.com/th/laptops/for-home/vivobook/asus-vivobook-14-s413/

Which looks like it would do the job (though Instinctively I would like a faster processor & more RAM) and for < 16K it looks like a good deal to me (+ I did have an Asus Chromebook for 3-4 years & loved it so am happy with the brand).

Apologies I haven't read the full thread so don't know if this has already been mentioned but somebody was recommending getting a Mac & somebody pointed out that the OP needed MS Office - OP, You do know that you can get MS Office for MAC

 https://msofficestore.us/product-category/ms-office/mac-microsoft-office/?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1_SkBhDwARIsANbGpFsLCwolm1Dm0egj5DfiB31iZ2A1y1CI_4ttrSDa6t6g2caYXerfIFwaAqmSEALw_wcB

6 hours ago, couchpotato said:

With Thai banking apps you will need to physically go to the Bank with your new phone, and they will set it up for you. This is a pain but the only way to do it.

With Bangkok Bank you can do yourself with a Pin number from an ATM if you don't know yours (It's a 4 digit number that was used to set-up mobile banking not the 6 digit pin you use with it).

I couldn't remember mine (wasn't sure if I ever knew it as the girl in the Bank set it up for me when I opened the account) but had no problem resetting it at an ATM and getting the App to work on my new phone. 

2 hours ago, Pattaya57 said:

Or you could just go without an onward ticket which is free

 

Depends on airline apparently but I know for a fact that Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines don't check for onward flight 

Which Airport were you flying from because I've flown with SIA from Changi & not been asked for an onward ticket (though I was PPS at the time) but have been asked by them for an onward flight when travelling back from Manchester (UK), at that time I showed them my Singapore Employment Pass & all was OK. 

Completely different story for a Mate of mine who was travelling back with Emirates from Birmingham & had to buy a return ticket from Singapore even though he had an EP to show he worked there. 

Edit: Just remembered, I have been asked by Silk Air (SIA's budget carrier) for an onward ticket when flying to Davao, at that time I was coming back via Kalibo/Boracay on (I think) Tiger (Could have been Air Asia) so was able to show them the return ticket albeit with a different airline & from a different airport in the Philippines.

Have also been asked by Scoot (Another SIA Budget carrier) for a return ticket when travelling to KL But at that time I'd quit my job & was leaving Singapore so showed them my Exit letter from IRAS (Singapore Tax Authority) & they couldn't really stop me from leaving.