Mike Teavee

And that's why I asked if he'd made a typo & lent her $12,000 OR if she'd paid it back at $10,000 pm. Not that it's any of my business so will leave it at that ????

It's like Citibank Gold where some branches have a dedicated desk/manager so you don't need to queue up. In EQ there's a dedicated Bualuang Office but my mate uses them all the time & I know he's not BE (Though he does park in the reserved BE spaces at some shopping malls as I give him the car park pass they give me every 2 years). Criteria is > 4Million Baht in Assets with them https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Bualuang-Exclusive Not really worth having but membership is free & if you can find a Branch that has a BE desk, it can save a lot of queueing.

Sorry I don't understand your maths, did you loan her $12,000 or did she pay the loan back at $10,000 pm? In August 2021 I loaned my GF 1Million Baht to buy some land & told her she can pay me back at 10k pm (+ I knock off 20K as 1/2 of her Xmas/Birthday presents so she's paying it back at 160K pa), I didn't feel like a loan contract was needed as we'd been together for 2/1 years already & besides, if she ran away with the money it would save me a fortune in the long run!

Yep, last Wednesday I got a text from Bangkok Bank saying I had to go in to do Facial Biometrics so popped into the Jomtien Branch whilst I was at the Tax Office & it was full of Farangs who obviously got the same text. I got queue number #19, sat there for 10 minutes & the screen didn't move from #7 so gave it up as a bad joke & will go back in a few weeks once the initial rush has calmed down. On a semi-related note, does anybody know of any of the Bangkok Bank Branches in Pattaya that have Bualang Exclusive service? In Bangkok I would go to the BE branch in Emporium to avoid queuing but I can't seem to find a branch in Pattaya that has a BE desk/office.

I don’t know if it makes a difference (it obviously hasn’t in the past) but I do mine the other way around with 285 being the building number (I know this as all the mailboxes start with 285) & 866 is my condo.

Submitted at 7:09am & received the approval email 08:25am (My Immigration Office is Jomtien). Definitely worth submitting yours again to see if it’s approved on the 2nd try.

BahtNet is an internal (Thai Bank - Thai Bank) Transfer coding so I wouldn't have thought it would be acceptable to Immigration as they want to see the money coming in from Overseas (for Bangkok Bank these would be shown as "FTT"). You might be able to overcome this by showing 12 month statements of your pensions being paid from the UK to Bangkok Bank but I'd recommend having your pensions paid into a UK Bank account then use Wise & the "Reason" for Transfer "Funds for Long Term Living in Thailand" to ensure it shows up as an International Transfer. One other thing to note is that if you're bringing your pension into Thailand in the same calendar year it was earned then (technically) you are liable for Tax on it here (Double Taxation Agreements may mean you don't need to pay any but why take the risk).

Just submitted my latest 90 Day report & like you I used autofill to complete my address details, Address format I used looks exactly the same as yours... ... and like you, never had a problem using this format in the past... Will be interesting to see if it is accepted. TBH I have until (Friday) 13th May & am heading to the UK on (Monday) 15th May so if it doesn't work I probably won't bother doing a report this time & start again on my return.

Deleted as I see the OP has resolved his Visa/Extension problems.

I'm assuming the OP's pensions alone will take them over the £12,570 personal allowance with any additional income attracting more tax so there are a couple of good reasons to be Non-UK Resident for Tax Purposes... No Capital Gains Tax on assets (excluding Property) sales, the CGT limit was reduced from £12,300 to £6,000 this year so a basic rate taxpayer will pay 10% on any gains over £6,000... Expect this limit to continue to reduce each year. Dividends, again limit was reduced from £2,000 to £1,000 this year (& will be £500 next) so a Basic Rate Tax payer will pay an additional 20% on their dividends (Higher Rate Tax payer will pay 33.75% & 39.35% if you're in the Higher rate additional bracket)

Yes you are still eligible to a UK Personal Tax Allowance but under certain circumstances (I doubt they apply here as the OP hasn't mentioned any other kind of Investment income apart from Rent) it can be beneficial to not take the Personal Tax Allowance and have other income considered as "Excluded/Disregarded" https://www.iris.co.uk/support/knowledgebase/kb/ias-10608/#:~:text='Excluded income'%2C also known,and you cannot override this. Once you have your Non-Resident for Tax Purposes status you can ask the company who manages your property to not withhold tax (NRL1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-resident-landlord-application-to-have-uk-rental-income-without-deduction-of-uk-tax-individuals-nrl1) You will need to complete a Self Assessment form for at least a couple of years, notes/guidelines here... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-residents-and-investment-income-hs300-self-assessment-helpsheet

Interesting, I was one of the early takers of the Virgin one mortgage (got mine in Jan 2000) & as you mentioned, the “current account” mortgage approach really helps to pay it off quickly. I’ve kept an approx £500 credit balance for the past 18 years as it means they’re paying me a tiny bit of interest but more importantly keeping my mortgage deeds safe for me + technically I have access to a 6 figure credit line any time I need it (though have no cards or cheques that I can use it with). Was a bit annoyed that I had to pay then £100 for a letter to confirm they were happy for me to rent my house out (had been in credit for 4 years at the time) but that is the only thing I’ve ever paid them since getting my account in credit. As an aside, my mate sold the house that he had a mortgage on with Virgin/RBS/NatWest approx 8 years ago & still uses that account for his banking needs in the UK.

Barclays moved me to Singapore (was working for them at the time) so knew that I was no longer UK resident... No problems keeping my Bank, Credit Card, Investment, ISA accounts open though I do use my parents UK Address for any correspondence / new cards. Up until a couple of weeks back, the only time I have used my Barclaycard since 2019 is for annual House Insurance renewal, & as it had expired last August I did have some problems getting the new one to work (not least the fact that it's not in my possession so I couldn't use it in the PinSentry reader), but managed to get it working using the Barclays Mobile Banking app (for which I had to have a UK Mobile number (GiffGaff) to get working though as far as I can tell they've never sent me any messages to it). My Mortgage is with Natwest (Was Virgin then RBS now Natwest I believe) and they are fully aware that I'm not living in the UK (& chasing me for my Thailand Tax Identification Number for the £2 pa they pay me in interest) again, I use my parents house for any correspondence. I think the OPs real question is which UK Bank will allow you to open a UK account if you're not UK resident & excluding Offshore / Channel Island type accounts, I don't believe any of the larger banks will.

I have 2 very attractive & kind lesbians living next to me, so kind that they bought me a Rolex for my birthday. I think they misunderstood me when I said... "I wanna watch" [Now that's a joke ???? ]

I'm all for making life as easy as possible & if it's easier to pay more but do it locally then I'd have probably have done the same thing (as it was, at the time of getting my Non O I was working in SG & only able to spend 3-5 days at a time in Thailand so did a long weekend in Penang & used an agent there to get mine). I do pay an agent (in Pattaya) 8K to do my extensions (have 800K in the bank) so the price quoted for same in Phuket isn't unreasonable, 12.5K would get you an extension without the finances here. Yeah I could do it myself but I value time/stress free processes more than money so get an agent to do it plus get me my multi-reentry permit at the same time, this adds 4K to the cost so 12K all in, 1K pm, approx. 35b per day.

I think you quoted the wrong post but you are correct, with no finances in place, (In Pattaya) it's 23,500b to convert a Visa Exempt to Non-Imm O add in another 3-3,500b to open a Bank Account. @Lokiemight have mixed-up doing the conversion yourself & just getting the 90 day Non-Imm O Visa (after which you have to do the 1st extension in the same place that you got the Visa) with using an agent to do the conversion (which gets you the 90 day Non-Imm O Visa + the 1st year extension, so 15 months) after which you're free to do your extensions anywhere.

A guy I know does exactly this & it adds 2,500b to the normal cost for extending a visa without having the finances in place (i.e. it costs 15,000b in stead of 12,500b). One point to note is that he does have the finances in place (brings in >65K every month so qualifies on income grounds) BUT the agent won't (or is unable) to just "smooth over" the Insurance part so it's all or nothing.

If he can go out on 28th May he can get a direct flight on Thai Airways for the same cost as a Scoot flight (via SG) on the 2nd Bell can be booked online https://belltravelservice.com/ Roong Reung https://airportpattayabus.com/ can probably be booked via sites like 12go but you typically pay a premium for this that will probably make it more expensive than Bell. Should be no problem finding a decent room < 600baht for 17 nights e.g.https://www.agoda.com/sawasdee-siam-hotel/hotel/pattaya-th.html?finalPriceView=2&isShowMobileAppPrice=false&cid=-1&numberOfBedrooms=&familyMode=false&adults=2&children=0&rooms=1&maxRooms=0&checkIn=2023-05-28&isCalendarCallout=false&childAges=&numberOfGuest=0&missingChildAges=false&travellerType=1&showReviewSubmissionEntry=false&currencyCode=THB&isFreeOccSearch=false&isCityHaveAsq=true&tspTypes=3&los=17&searchrequestid=126c44e9-3e29-4186-846b-d5c327a41a66

I did a quick search on Mister Prakan for Health Insurance for a 76 year old and it looks like there are some companies that offer policies but as you would expect you will need to chat to them about the specific costs / coverage... https://misterprakan.com/th/health/main?lg=en You can put any email address in on the front page to see the providers, one thing I did note is that a deductible seems to be compulsory on all products & this ranges from 100K - 1Million THB.

I couldn’t agree more on both points & it’s especially galling when somebody in Philippines gets the annual rises but somebody in Thailand doesn’t (I know this is because of reciprocal social benefits agreements). I’m fortunate in that, through this forum, I learned that this would be the case & so had time to tweak my pension plans (still 10 years away from State Pension age) but can only imagine the shock for somebody who didn’t know & moved over here, did the “Right Thing” by advising DWP that they’d moved & after a couple of years it dawns on them that costs are going up but their pensions are staying the same.

Thanks for this, I was trying to point out that the often quoted >183 days wasn’t the be all & end all when it came to being Resident in UK for Tax/NHS/Benefits/Pension basis…

There’s nothing wrong with that, the Statutory Residence Test is not just spending > 183 days in the UK, in fact you can spend as few as 16 days in the UK & still be considered Resident… https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt/guidance-note-for-statutory-residence-test-srt-rdr3

Way too low, my last renewal (Age 56) for 3.5Million cover with 100k deductible & no outpatients was 30K, I can only dread thinking what it will be when o hit 60.

Bad form replying to my own post, but I should have added that the TM30 (Notification of an "Alien" staying at an address) which is what hotels (should) do when you check-in is completely separate from TM47 (90 Day Notification of Address). So you can find yourself in the (ridiculous) situation where you move home so go to your new Immigration Office & do a TM30 & then have to go back a week later to do your TM47!

I stayed in 6 different hotels on that trip, 1 in Chiang Rai, 2 in Chiang Mai, 2 in Udon Thani & 1 in Pai (which was the 3rd hotel we checked in ( + ended up doing a spur of the moment 3 night trip trip to Vientiane so as it turned out I didn’t need to do the 90 days) & all took photo copies of my passport, current permission to stay stamp & last TM6 so I’m assuming they registered me. But I’ve stayed in places like Hilton, Dusit, Centeras before & it’s never impacted doing my next 90 day report online. Nor have I ever needed to do a new TM30 when I eventually get back home (even after a trip Overseas).