dave s

"except for the birth date, which doesn't allow manual input nor scrolling through years, so you have to manually click back through every month of every year until you reach your birth year"

No, there is a trick to this user interface with its winning 1.2 user rating. But the Thai idiot who "designed" it has cleverly disguised that shortcut, whereby if you were born in say, 1950, you only have to click about 75 times rather than more than 820.

Before making the posting above, I tried, unsuccessfully, to locate a neat set of rules for Thai nationals and for foreigners. I remember such a pair of lists, but it may have been on one of the forms I was filling out that got yanked away from me and chucked when the respective bank went into "no no no no no cannot" mode. Down near the bottom of this link are pairs of acceptable reason and the paperwork necessary to attach if you claim that reason:

    https://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/what-is-the-best-way-to-transfer-funds-from-thailand-t21757.html

This link:

    https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Digital-Banking/Bualuang-iBanking

has a kind of vague list for Thai nationals, and only one acceptable reason for foreigners (that is of course not true).  This discussion in ThaiVisa is the best I found this time around, especially the remarks by the member named "chiang mai":

What he says corresponds well to my experiences running around trying to send money back home. Response #2 there is the only reference I could find to the 80% rule: neither the human resources staff nor those who took care of paperwork for the international employees at the place I worked had ever heard of any restrictions at all on moving money around. It is a fact of life around here that every tin-horn "authority" interprets rules (when they even exist) their own way, or makes them up. So again I would advise that you shop around as much as possible, and hopefully you will randomly happen upon a bank, a branch office, a manager, a clerk, a personal mood, a phase of the moon, that will allow you to do the reasonable task you're looking for. As always, TIT. ????

The Bank of Thailand has a short list of reasons for which foreigners may send money out of Thailand, such as repatriation of funds (sending back money you can verify that you earlier brought into Thailand) or sending money you earned here to your home country. There is a different short list of acceptable reasons for Thai citizens, such as paying for education expenses in a foreign country, or paying medical expenses of a close family member. You have to convince your bank that you have a good reason, and then they must file papers to convince Bank of Thailand. If you are paying a bill, you have to document this by attaching the invoice for the charge. There can be many other restrictions. For example, it at least used to be that you could send no more than 80% of your Thai salary home in no more than 10 of the 12 months of the year, and you had to do that at the time you earned it, and there is still a fixation on work permits, tax records and similar documentation. As with all things in Thailand, the rules may be indefinitely hazy in Thai language, may be badly translated into English, and of course are subject to (mis)interpretation all along the line, just like at immigration.  Go to the biggest bank branch in the biggest city you can, to minimize your chance of being spuriously denied by a bank clerk or even bank manager who has no idea what you're asking, but must "save face" at all costs. Be prepared for every person you talk to at every branch of every bank telling you a different story, sometimes differently on different days. So every person who tries to send money home may well have a different experience. Some banks are much more picky about "covering their a**" than others: in my experience, for example, one particular bank was vastly more likely to give a huge hassle about a work permit than another, so shop around. You're supposed to turn in your work permit the instant you quit, but that may strand your funds in Thailand. Buy a waterproof, fireproof safe, because when the roof collapses in your company apartment and destroys your bankbook, your bank may deny that it is possible to provide statements older than 12 months, and so you cannot document that money was brought into Thailand in the first place. Talk to your Thai friends, especially students who have gone abroad: they will suggest many elaborate ways to smuggle cash out of Thailand.

Bangkok Bank form for outbound SWIFT transfer (note particularly item 70): https://www.bangkokbank.com/-/media/files/personal/other-services/transfers/outwardremittance_app_feb2019.pdf?la=en&hash=876272C518D06C925D4B7E1E322B3FB9B8626971

Another recent discussion on ThaiVisa with more information:

On 6/21/2019 at 6:52 PM, CaptainJack said:

Well, it might not be very important considering.......

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30362171

From the article:

    “There were serious concerns that students may not be able to graduate” if the English mastery requirement was set to high, he said.

As opposed to being set to "medium", or to "low", or to "defrost"? Or perhaps set to "deep fat fry", like they do with scorpions and cockroaches? Nice of the article author to give us an example, however.

from another item on Thai Visa:

"You may wonder how much can a person send. Well, I asked at the branch I signed-up at and later asked their Support Center and below is their answer….a partial quote.  Basically it’s $15,000 USD per transaction (the Bt475K mentioned below) when sending to the USA….I didn’t ask about other countries/currencies…I expect it may vary from country-to-country/currency-to-currency….notice the max amount per month depends on whether you are sending via online of visiting a branch:

Quote

 

For USA we have a transfer limit per transaction at 475,000THB and you can send up to 800,000THB per day.

Note : Via mobile application customer can send only 690,000THB per month, but via branches of DeeMoney no limit.

"

Got SMS notice at 16:44 on June 4 for social security payment at 31.17 exchange rate, minus the usual B200 fee locally and USD5 in New York. But I just retired late last year and my payment normally comes mid morning on the 4th, not the 3rd, so I wasn't concerned about the new holiday. xe.com right now says 31.3239 exchange rate.

32 minutes ago, Dillpickles98 said:

The teller that changed my address said I had nothing further to do, as she is the one who prints out the IAT ACH data sheets, I request at every transfer to check what the exchange rate was at the time of the transfer.

They can just look at the screen and tell you the exchange rate, or print all the data on the screen. I did that once. But you can ask for a free service that sends you an SMS on every foreign transfer (not the one that sends an SMS every single time you do something!), for example in April:

   SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRA

   has transferred THB***** (USD*****@31.56 - THB200.00

   from abroad into *****.

I am 69 this month. I retired last September, and started social security pension and Medicare A. Since I had the medical benefits of the Thai social security program while I worked here 15 years, I asked my former employer to fill out the USA form for a special enrollment period, and SSA started deducting Medicare B from my monthly check right away at the ordinary price, no problem or question whatsoever. I plan to stay in Thailand for a while and see how it goes, but if I got really sick I would go home to a USA hospital. The regular Medicare B payment seems worth it to me as a backup.

I had thought I could continue with the Thai social security medical benefit by paying the premium myself (I cannot find the Thaivisa discussion that talked about this ????), but the Thai office in this province says no and has told me (or a Thai coworker accompanying me

) a different story every time I have gone there.

5 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Yeah, I'm with you on that, isn't Part B worthless?

 

In general Medicare is useless outside of the US, but as we all know you need to sign up for Part A at 65 just in case.

But Part B, can't you opt in at any time?

https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/part-b-costs/part-b-late-enrollment-penalty

The 10% per year not covered increase in premiums appears to be like the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, so you can't wait until you get sick to sign up. US$135 a month is $1620 per year. If you pay this while living in Thailand and do not have other insurance, and get very sick but can still get on a plane, you are ready to be treated at a hospital in USA.

42 minutes ago, Pib said:

SSA pension payments for folks having a Thailand address made on the 3rd of the month

I retired and set up USA social security through Bangkok Bank NYC at the end of last year, so I may be way down at the end of their list, because I have consistently gotten paid on the 4th rather than on the 3rd like Pib. Note that in January it was 1 a.m. in NYC and 1 p.m. in BKK, both on the 4th, so it's not just a side effect of the EST/ICT time zone difference.

Nov 5 11:01 (November 4 was a Sunday, the rest are weekdays)

Dec 4 09:36

Jan 4 13:02

Feb 4 09:52

Mar 4 12:44

Be sure and ask your local Bangkok Bank office to set up foreign transfer notification, so you get an SMS with the exchange rate and stuff.

Pib's article 1067993 noted in the previous response says "Now DeeMoney’s prefers in-person sign-up, but I’ve seen a few posts were folks were apparently able to sign-up by emailing/faxing the signup info…but those folks apparently got advance approval from DeeMoney to use that method. ". This is probably the reference I was thinking of, that a trip to Bangkok may not be strictly necessary.

9 hours ago, Traubert said:

On a joy ride to Bangkok, you would seek out Taco Bell?

 

You never really left America did you?

 

I'd be seeking out Dirty Momu. You have wasted 20 years in Thailand. Shame on you.

I apologize for not putting a smiley face on that to indicate a joke. C'mon, go all the way to BKK for a taco? When the local Makro has all the stuff to make it yourself? But, the information about Dee Money might be quite valuable to someone considering an evacuation from Thailand, and also the caution that Dee$ only deals with some USA banks, also SDFCU or Google "How to Join a Military Credit Union" (from the N26 discussion) if you need to set up a bank account at the USA end. Trying to do SWIFT transfers from here back to USA has left me feeling quite negative about a local commercial bank, and if Dee$ could help it really would be worth a trip up north (if necessary: at least 1 report of someone being allowed to sign up over chat).

17 hours ago, david555 said:

Can you not keep USA bank account with your Thai address ? My 2 E.U. bank accounts had no problem to accept my Thai address for now 7 years , this for a already existing account with before E.U. address.

The trouble is, I made the mistake of not having kept USA accounts open for the last 20 years. Since the World Trade Center attacks (plus drugs, tax evasion, money laundering ... ), "know your customer" laws make it difficult or impossible to open a new account for a USA citizen living abroad with no remaining physical link to the homeland. After much searching I managed to open a credit union account, and it is fine for ordinary things, but unfortunately it is not on the list of places that Dee Money can send to, otherwise a joy ride to Bangkok (no, honest, it has absolutely nothing to do with trying the new Taco Bell) would be worth it to me just to open an account with them.

You might also need to set up something like a USA prepaid SIM with roaming to Thailand, if a USA bank wants to send a one time password by SMS and requires an internal USA phone number to do so.

On the Dee Money web site, there is a list of banks in each country that you can transfer money to from Thailand. If you have been in Thailand for a long time and no longer have a current legal residence / phone number in USA, you may find it impossible to open an account at one of these banks.  If someone has found an easy way to do so, I would love to hear about it.

3 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

No.

If you have no Thai person/friend in the household, you can try an arbitrary sequence of 13 digits.

If this gives an error message: come back to the thread.

 

The national ID consists of 12 digits, plus a check digit that helps prevent input errors. The 12 digits are each multiplied by a fixed constant number, and summed, together with the check digit. Reject if the sum does not end in zero. Thus there is one and only one possibility for the check digit in a valid ID. Make up a 12 digit number, and the little Windows program in the zip download noted above tells you the check digit, saving you brute force trying all 10 possibilities. The PEA app may check with the government to see if a valid ID is registered to an actual Thai citizen, and PEA may check if the ID is already registered in use with them. If you find the national ID of a 7 year old Thai child, chances are you can impersonate the child with PEA for 11 or more years (until the child buys a residence with an electric meter, and complains). Once you register an ID + phone number + e-mail credential with PEA, you can add multiple meters to it: I rent a condo in Phuket from a Thai who owns multiple condos in Phuket and Pattaya, and once I added my meter, it started showing me all his properties, with his nicknames for each condo -- I have to click the checkbox on my entry to see more information for my place. When I was trying to figure this out, a Thai friend added my meter, and the app now shows him his house and all my owner's condos on his cell phone. Got a bill printed on paper? You can add a meter by scanning the QR or bar codes on it. Or fill in the "CA/Ref. No.1" and "PEA No." input fields with the numbers under the words "(CA/Ref. No.1)" and "(PEA No.)", the third and first columns of the seventh line of the bill. I use the "Screenshot touch" app to capture the "Payment Successful" screen at the end, after SCB charges me 10 baht for the transaction. If you are determined to use your desktop machine, Google Translate https://th.pcmac.download/app/1063710354/pea-smart-plus tells you how to install a cell phone emulator and load the Android or iOS app into it. Disclaimer: things may be slightly different in your province, and I have no idea about MEA in BKK.

"It has also drawn foreign tourists to the country’s famous attractions being featured in these films." Ironically, one of the other topics featured in the right hand column when I read this item was

Thai authorities don’t know if Maya Bay will re-open to tourists

"The bay, made famous by the movie The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has been closed to visitors since 2018, after mass tourism destroyed bay’s coral ecosystem. ... The ecosystem is starting to recover, but it could be decades before it fully recovers, experts have said."

"

An example: I sent the following message yesterday morning (9 a.m. here is 9 p.m. of the previous day in NYC):

       Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2019 9:26 PM
       To: New York Branch Help Desk <[email protected]>
       Subject: IAT transfer of USA Social Secirity direct deposit

       Could you please tell me if the direct deposit of my USA
       Social Security pension payment is sent in IAT format, so
       that there will be no problem in April? My NYC account
       with Bangkok Bank is XXX-X-X-X. The last transfer
       was February 4: XX,XXX.X baht, or US$X,XXX at a
       31.14 exchange minus 200 baht charge. Thank you.

I have foreign deposit notification on my account, which sends me an SMS to my cell phone when the monthly deposit clears. Te information above is redacted from one such SMS. The US$ amount in the SMS is $5 less than what the SSA pays, a quietly deducted fee in NYC. This morning I had the reply:

       From: New York Branch Help Desk <[email protected]>
       Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 1:13 PM
       Subject: RE: IAT transfer of USA Social Secirity direct deposit

       Your Social Security deposit is already in the correct IAT format.
       Your full address is stated in the payment.
       Regards

Last year I took a printout of the Bangkok Bank web page about NYC deposits to the downtown Phuket branch on Phang Nga Road to show them what I wanted, and they filled out a form; they sent in a copy, and I also sent a copy to the benefits office in Manila, just to be sure.

I went, by myself, to the Phuket office on the east side of town. THe clerk at least pretended not to speak any English at all. One of the Thai ajarn went with me, and got nowhere in Thai. Ditto someone from HR. The most recent excuse was that a foreigner has to be married to a Thai, or own his own business, to extend and pay for Thai social security himself (you cannot, of course, be working, in your own company or elsewhere, without a work permit, which you can't get on a retirement extension of stay -- lots of obvious nonsense from this office).

I have two accounts with Bangkok Bank. One is a special account with their New York City branch, that USA social security is (currently, at least) willing to do direct deposit into. Each time the money arrives, you need to physically go to the bank with your passport to prove you are still alive and thus entitled to the benefit money. Then they will move it to your ordinary savings account and you can do what you want with it. This is why you cannot get an ATM card for the NYC account. This restriction may only apply to pension deposits, but other kinds of transfer probably do not have the right kind of automated clearing house packet.

I live in Kathu. All of the offices except the one in downtown Phuket on Phang Nga Road are "microbanks" and will refuse to do anything to help out with anything. At the end of September, I opened the two accounts downtown, and deposited the first paper benefit checks, which were marked as foreign funds in the passbook. Baltimore takes up to 10 days to activate direct deposit, so I got one more paper check from October 3, and deposited that as foreign funds. Since November 3 the deposits have shown up automatically as "FFT".

In October I got a tourist visa in Laos, and converted that at the main immigration office on Phuket Road to start the retirement process. I used TransferWise to send enough from my USA credit union to the BB savings account so the monthly pension plus the initial checks plus the TransferWise amount added up to 800,00 baht. TransferWise showed up as a foreign funds transfer. The immigration officer had no complaints.

I had a passport, work permit and a police department address letter when I went to the main BB office. There is an instruction manual in Thai that the bank manager refers to, which has 11 year old dates in the examples, and is apparently wrong in several ways; she will need to call the Bangkok headquarters several times. When you are first approved by social security, you get a letter about your benefits, and again when something changes, e.g. when I got Medicare B, and a couple weeks ago about a 2.8% cost of living increase; BB eventually accepted this letter instead of a social security card (you cannot get a replacement SS card without a "mysocialsecurity" online account, and you cannot sign up for that without a valid USA address).

Ask for the foreign transfer alert on your NYC account, and each month you will get an SMS with an amount US$5 less than what the SSA deposited in the New York branch, the exchange rate by which that amount was converted to baht, and a local fee for posting the baht to you account (a percentage of the funds transferred, minimum B200, maximum B500). The exchange rate is close to what the xe.com web site reports. You need these numbers to make sense of the final amount you see in your passbook or online banking. So far the foreign funds alert SMS has agreed exactly. There is an activity alert which sends you an information-less SMS every time you do something on your ordinary savings account, and initially they set this up instead of the foreign funds transfer alert, so I did not get one for November 3. But they can print out this information at the Phang Nga branch, if you insist.

This is Thailand: your mileage WILL vary.

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

Be aware that the queue is in the open sun and it can get rather hot, evening at that time in the morning

I went on the Monday of the first week of October, to turn my papers in. I had planned to go very early, but then I couldn't get to the embassy until about 10:30. Just inside the door of the first embassy building on the left they have a camera and photocopy machine set up. You may at least need a photocopy of the stamp in your passport from Laos immigration. For 80 baht they will take your photograph, make the copies you need, type in the application form to the computer, and neatly print it for you. When I came out of the leftt building and got in line, it was about 11:00 and the guard had closed the front gate. There is a patio on the right side with white benches and blue chairs that the line snakes through. In the morning, the embassy staff sit at a long white table at the front, where they take your papers and give you a three digit number. Then you sit and wait while people inside the back room do a quick check, and may call you up to window #2 if they see a problem. Otherwise you just leave -- note on the clock that the end of the line cleared out about 2:30. Take something to read, and a spare battery for your cell phone, if you go on Monday. The numbers are not handed out in order, but the next afternoon they will call your number in the order that you turned your papers in. So again I was almost last, and left for the airport around 3:30; take your bathing suit, it's about 45 degrees inside the Wattay terminal. The second day they call people mostly to window #2, a few people to window #3, rarely to window #1. The line turns just before the patio, after coming straight up from the entrance gate. It was mobbed on Monday morning, but I arrived around noon on Tuesday and no one was left from that morning.

On 12/4/2018 at 9:59 AM, tifino said:

 Asian FreeSize tshirts fit all...

Saw a display in the store at breakfast today, both male and female sample T-shirts were marked "F". Can someone please explain what this Asian FreeSize is? How can it fit both my little sister, and XXF (F is for "fat") me? Thanks.

2 hours ago, Pib said:

You can also sign-up for the free SMS Remittance Alert from Bangkok Bank that shows amount received Thailand, exchange rate, local fee, and posting amount/date/time.   The dollar amount shown as rec'd will be lite the NY branch fee.  

Looks like I did the wrong thing at first. I had originally signed up for "account alerts", like:

    https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Digital-Banking/SMS-Services/SMS-Account-Alert

Resulting SMS from "BANGKOKBANK: "Thank you for your SMS Acocunt Alert registration for account *****. It is free for the first 2 months. After that, the fee is 15 Bt/month."  US SSA typically pays foreign residents on the third of the month. SMS on November 5: "Deposit/transfer to your account ***** of Bt ***** via AUTO; the available balance is Bt *****." Not what Pib has suggested. Seems you have to call 1333, or go to an ATM, or the bank, to turn it off. Apparently, what I should have done instead:

    https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Digital-Banking/SMS-Services/SMS-Remittance-Alert

which advertises a free "foreign remittance alert". Seems you need to go to the bank or an ATM to sign up.

11 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

I am registered with the Nasa website that sends me notifications when the Space Station is coming over. Always good info, tells me the time, length of visibility, where in the sky it appears and where it disappears.

 

sign up for e-mail or phone alerts at:

https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

location of Chiang Mai, Bankgkok or Songkla, whichever is closest to you, showing the brightest passes; Android apps "ISS Live" and "ISS onLive" show even low angle passes

8 hours ago, amse said:

For at least 5 years now I have seen primarily in the northern sky here in Phuket a large yellowish light, at least 3 times larger than any star. Also has been seen in the southern sky. Does anyone know what this is? 

try installing the free program Stellarium on your desktop computer, or Android app Heavens-Above (sometimewoodworker suggests Night Sky for iPhone, up above); then next time you see the yellowish light, start up your planetarium program  and scroll it to that part of the sky

https://stellarium.org/

When I was young, my grandfather would take me outside at night to watch the Projecr Echo satellites creep across the sky. A big deal then, crossing times listed in the newspapers. Yes, take the kids out to watch, they should long remember it. From Wikipedia:

Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, was a metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off them from one point on Earth to another.

21 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

When you back they will do a visa stamp and a 90 entry stamp your passport dated the date you applied for the change of visa status.

Then during the last 30 days of the 90 day entry you can apply for the extension. They should pull your original income affidavit out of the file for the application you did before. You will need a new bank letter and a statement showing the money has been in the bank for 60 days on the date you apply.

So a week from now I just need to take my passport with me? As I understand it, will be as if I entered Thailand on November 2 with a non-immigrant O visa and got permission to stay for 90 days, November, December and January. Then around January 1 I can apply for a 1 year retirement extension of stay, for February 2019 through January 2020, 3+12=15 months. I do not need a new embassy letter then for the income part of the combined method, but the deposit method part requires the same balance and foreign origin letters from Bangkok bank, newly minted on dead trees. Passport sized photo, passport page copies, proof of address? Then relax until I need a whole fresh stack of paper to apply for another annual extension around 1/1/2020? This all sound good? Well, except the tree-killing part.

On 11/23/2018 at 8:40 PM, Sheryl said:

Again, depends on your bank. They cannot tell from my passbook if a transfer was international. Apparently with some banks you can.

 

Doesn't matter unless they decide to require proof that funds came from abroad.

I am trying to get set up for retirement in Thailand.

At the end of September I opened an account at Bangkok Bank for direct deposits through their New York City commercial branch, and also a regular, retail savings account in Phuket. It was necessary to go to the main office on Phangnga Road to do this: every other branch in the province is a "microbank".

Initially, US Social Security sent me 3 paper benefit checks, which the bank put into my NYC account the day the accounts were opened. It shows in my passbook as "FDD" (a check is technically a "demand deposit").

The November 3 check arrived automatically into my NYC account, where my passbook shows it as "FTT". You can't touch this money yourself, you must go to any branch and ask a bank manager to move it into your regular savings. Then I can do whatever I want with it, and have an ATM card. I haven't asked them to do this yet.

One more paper check was issued before I could get the bank number of NYC and the account number of my regular savings registered with SSA (it always takes at least a month to get mail here from USA or PI). It was necessary to go to Phangnga branch again: the microbanks refused to deposit it, "because we aren't set up to handle money". Again, it lists as "FDD" in my passbook.

As an experiment, I sent some money from a USA credit union to my regular Bangkok Bank savings account with TransferWise. They told me a Wells Fargo address to send to, and it quickly arrived in my savings account marked "FFT". No problems, helpful customer service at both SDFCU and TW. You do not need a USA address to get set up with TransferWise, but they must follow the "know your customer" rules, and will ask you to upload a scan or photo of your passport, and a foreign address verification such as a lease or utility bill.

I have also been able to make SWIFT transfers from an SCB savings account to SDFCU in USA.

So I think I will be able to move money back and forth OK, even after April next year. Note that Bangkok Bank set up my accounts successfully after most of the recent discussion on ThaiVisa about IAT versus ACH, but the transfer was a direct deposit, and from US SSA rather than an ordinary bank.

What is the deal on "proof that funds came from abroad"? With an embassy letter, do they usually not check any further, unless make the IO suspicious? With the deposit method, or the combined letter and deposit method, when do they check that the deposited funds are foreign? Is it just when you do your marriage or retirement application for the first time? Or do they want you to prove it on every renewal? I had bank letters for balance and for foreign origin for both accounts (B400) , showed the passbooks and gave them photocopies; will this always be necessary? A response on another discussion here suggested a kind of account (not at Bangkok Bank) that pays (somewhat) better interest, but wouldn't moving the money back and forth around the 3 month "seasoning" destroy the evidence it originally came from abroad?