Mike Teavee

Cardless Withdrawals are great but what if you need cash & are somewhere that doesn't have one of your Bank's ATMs (My closest Bangkok Bank one is a 20 minute walk from where I live & I've never been able to find one in Terminal 21, Pattaya) or need to buy something online (assuming you don't have a Thai Credit Card). For the sake of 3-400b pa it makes sense to me to keep the card. Re: Reclaiming Tax, I gave up on mine after:- Visiting the office 3 times (3rd time sent to a different office) Completing a form detailing my pension by answering "Not Applicable" a dozen times as I'm too young to draw my pension Providing photocopies of every page of my 2 bank books & passport. The final straw came when they asked me for photocopies of every statement of my overseas accounts, it would probably cost me more in photocopying/paper than the 4,331b they owe me in withholding tax.

Fully Flexible/Refundable tickets are more expensive than a restricted ticket so it does cost you when you purchase the ticket but I get some guys want the flexibility so are willing to pay more.

For getting arrested (i.e. not going into immigration to sort it out voluntarily) you get a 5 year ban for any overstay less than 1 year & a 10 year ban for over 1 year overstay.

As he’s too young to get a Pension & doesn’t have any other income I’m assuming he’ll get housing benefit so council will be paying.

I plan on doing it on my next trip (either October or May depending on whether my parents visit us in Oct/Nov), will be getting my extension in September & wasn't going to bother getting the stamp transferred as I thought most people just travelled with 2 passports until they're next extension. If it is going to be a problem for travelling outside of Thailand during that period then I'll probably get it done at Jomtien IO as I tend to use the Fast Track Channel as BKK & don't recall seeing an Immigration Desk 3 whilst going through.

https://onwardticket.com/

No it's an Imperial measurement & equates to 14lbs or approx. 6.35 KG

Is your Pension frozen in Laos Simon? I know it is in Thailand & it's not in Philippines but have no idea when it comes to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia etc...

Another vote for Black Mirror but for me the best Episode of Season 1 was the 1st one especially as Rory Kinnear came across as a lot like David Cameron at that time.

Am sure I’ve read reports of guys having their bank account set-up so their wife is a Joint Holder on the account but their name doesn’t appear as part of the account name so it looks like a solo account.

I believe it's supposed to be a relatively short (8 hours?) trip but they have an extra few days of oxygen onboard in case something does go wrong. It should certainly have re-surfaced by now.

There's a story in the UK Papers about a friend of Hamish Harding who was booked to go on it but pulled out due to safety concerns... You would think that at $1 Million (4 x $250,000) a trip they would have some form of rescue vessel (like the unmanned vessels they've used to explore the Titanic) that shadowed the craft in case of emergencies.

Yet again, using the correct terminology is essential… The OP states that he applied for a Marriage Visa in Thailand, then that gets him a Non-IMM O visa & 90 days permission to stay. If in fact he applied for an extension to his current visa/extension then he should be given 1 year or till the date his passport expires whichever comes 1st. OP did your friend apply for a Visa or an Extension & are you applying for a Visa or Extension.

The M1 walked into a bar. He goes to the barman and says "Give me a pint". He gets his drink and starts angrily drinking. In walks the A9 & tries to order a pint. The M1 shouts "OY, sling your hook, who do you think you are? I'm the M1, the biggest hardest road in the country, 6 lanes, 2 hard shoulders, I'm not drinking with a sh1tty A road like you. What do you have 4 lanes? Pathetic, F' off". The A9 leaves the bar sheepishly. Next, in walks the B768, who walks up to the bar and tries to order a drink. The M1 kicks off again.. "Who the hell are you?! Two lanes? No hard shoulder? I'm not drinking with you, F' off!" The B768 walks out sheepishly as the barman watches on worried. Next, in walks an unnamed road, single lane, dirt track. Hardly even a road at all. He walks to the bar, orders a drink, sits quietly and drinks up undisturbed. He eventually leaves. The barman says to the M1 "I thought you were the biggest hardest road in the country? What about that little weedy road? Why didn't you say anything to him?" The M1 says "Who him?! No chance. He's a bl@@dy cycle path"

How recent is "Recent" only reports from Bangkok & Pattaya say that since March's changes to Banking Regulations, Banks will not open an account unless you have... Visa (I note you said you had a Tourist Visa) with at least 30 days left on the permission to stay TM30 Certificate of Residence from Immigration (am assuming CM IO accepted your Yellow Book as proof, obviously most Tourists don't have one of these). We all know that different Branches/Branch staff have different "Rules" on different days & so it might be that what worked for you with that member of staff in that Branch in Chiang Mai might not work for the guy who was at the next counter (or a guy who came in the next day & spoke to the same member of staff), but it does seem that the perceived wisdom of trying another Branch or go back on another day no longer seems sensible in Bangkok/Pattaya. NB The OP reported that he was able to open an account in Hua Hin, so maybe worth trying different cities where they might not be as stringent about following the new rules.

Thanks for this, looks like they offer a larger car to the Airport for 1,000b + only charge 1,000b to get to to Ban Phe (for Koh Samet) Nam charges 1,300b for this which I can sort of understand as unlike an airport run, the driver is unlikely to have a fare coming back. We will probably stick with Nam for the airport runs (though when my family visits we might use PT for a Minibus) but will definitely try them out on our next Koh Samet trip.

looks like they used the mid market price…

Yep, should have something like… in the bottom left hand corner

Good point... can check on the online site & you should see something like...

I don't think I've ever had an online report where the "Written At" was filled in ... and they've removed the Arrival Card (TM6) number as these are no longer required when arriving by air. Sounds like you're good to go for another 90 days, enjoy your travels ????

I agree that #4 should be a condition of your next extension but in this case it seems the IO is interpreting it to mean that it applies to the current extension & you can see how somebody could argue that is the case. As an aside, I don't believe if you fail to put the 800K in the bank 2 months before extending (or fail to keep 400K in the bank for the 7 months in between) would result in you being on an overstay, at worse I think they would cancel your extension & give you 7 days to leave the country. I've never heard of this happening, guys who have dipped below the 400K just report that they weren't able to get a new extension (Which adds to the argument that the 400K / 800K is more about your next extension than your current one). Re: the last part about the 800K in the bank prior to getting your new extension, is it the case that you have to top your account up 2 months before applying (e.g. Mine is due Sept 26th, If I wanted to extend August 26th I would have to top-up by June 26th) or is it 2 months before it expires (e.g. July 26th in my case) - I've never thought about it before as I leave the 800K untouched all year round but had always assumed it needed to be there 2 months before the current extension expires irrespective of how early you did you extension.

Do you have a Visa or did you enter Visa Exempt? I've heard from a couple of agents that since March 2023 they are no longer able to open a bank account unless you have a Visa (any sort) & have at least 30 days permission to stay remaining on it. One (https://bio.link/majesty - In Pattaya) did say that if you had a Tourist Visa they could help you extend it (and so get an extra 30 days) and open a Bank account the same day . There's a thread on opening bank accounts here... BM @Dghart001did report that he was able to open an account in Hua Hin in the end... In Bangkok, I used Siam Legal (3K) to open mine years ago BUT in the thread above the OP reports they would only open an account for him as part of the Non-IMM O Conversion package (38K).

Technically the financial terms of an extension based on keeping 800K in the bank are:- 800K in the bank for a minimum of 2 months before extension date 800K in the bank for a minimum of 3 months after extension date 400K in the bank for a minimum of a further 7 months 800K in the bank for a minimum of 2 months before next extension date Therefore it's not (Technically) unreasonable for the IO to ask for 800K to be in the account 2 months prior to your next extension even if you plan on using the income method for your next extension. I say "Technically" because those are the rules but you would hope that the IO would use their discretion to forgo point 4 if you can show > 12 months xfers of 65K+

I agree with that but in my mind there are some Red Lines that would mean even if we had more than we have now, the price is not worth paying - The obvious one is the loss of our own currency which would mean that we wouldn't have the same "Tools" to use in times of financial crisis (You only need to look at what happened with Greece, if they'd have still had the Drachma they would have been better equipped to respond their financial crisis) Totally agree with the last part... But I think it was an ill-conceived / defined idea which when happened nobody had a clue as to how to implement it... It's all well & good to talk about a "Hard Brexit" but the 1st question that should have been asked, even before having the vote, should have been "What do we do about Northern Ireland" & a "Hard Brexit" wouldn't answer it. IMHO, they've still not come up with a sensible solution to NI & i don't believe they can as there isn't one that would satisfy all of the interested parties.

No you misunderstood me... I would like things to (sort of be) the way they were before Brexit BUT I believe that if we were to go back into the EU, the UK's position would be weaker than it was before Brexit so if people weren't happy with how things were before 2016, then they're certainly not going to be happy with how things would be if we were to rejoin - E.g. I wouldn't want to rejoin the EU if it meant we had to adopt the Euro. I think the EU "Project" is hampered more by the inclusion of (financially) weaker nations & will never be fully integrated whilst you have smaller countries like Hungary able to veto the plans of the other countries despite being a drain on the EU as a whole.