Etaoin Shrdlu

Yes, the condition for which treatment was sought pre-dated the inception of the policy. An insurer would expect this type of condition to be declared.

I have no idea what may be motivating Pita to have so much tied up in life insurance. Estate planning comes to mind, but I suppose there may be other reasons.

It would depend upon several things. Did you declare spinal stenosis as an existing medical condition when you took out the policy? If so, did the insurer exclude all treatments of the spine, or only spinal stenosis or related conditions? Is your policy issued by a Thai insurance company or one from overseas? Depending upon the jurisdiction, there may be limits on an insurer's ability to cite non-disclosure as a means for denying a claim. Under the Thai Civil and Commercial Code, an insurer can void a policy or deny a claim for material non-disclosure. There is a five year time bar for insurers to cite non-disclosure, but I'm not sure whether the time bar is absolute or pertains only to unintentional non-disclosure. Insurers in other countries may be subject to differing time bars or none at all. The time bar would apply from the date of inception of the first policy issued by the insurer, not the date of treatment.

Returns on the cash value of a whole life insurance policy may be greater than interest paid on a savings account or term deposit. If the returns are guaranteed by the insurance company, this would be a safer bet than the stock market in terms of potential downside. But returns on the cash value of life insurance policies are often secondary to estate planning issues.

Our daughter visited for a few weeks recently. While here, she was able to use her iPhone with the AT&T SIM by enabling wifi calling. She also swapped out the AT&T SIM and used a Thai SIM for a while. She did not have international roaming on her AT&T account. Upon returning to the US and putting the AT&T SIM card back into her phone she is able to use the phone normally except she is not receiving any bank verification SMS messages. She was receiving them prior to her trip to Thailand. She has gone to an AT&T shop and asked them to help, but they were not able to fix this. I know that there have been issues receiving bank verification SMS messages when in Thailand, but has anyone encountered issues receiving them in the US after a visit here?

This just received from SCB:

At Suvarnabhumi Airport. The immigration police process autochannel applications at a facility in the departure area just past where departing passengers clear immigration.

No, I haven't. Perhaps worth a try next time I fly out.

There are manned Thai channel gates upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi. I've used those since my autochannel registration expired some years ago.

If you have permanent residency in Thailand, you can use the Thai channel for entry with or without your Thai wife. Ability to use the Thai channel at immigration is one of the benefits of having PR.

Chubb's purchase of Cigna's life and health companies in Asia did not include Cigna's operation in Singapore. Cigna Singapore has offered medical insurance to expatriates in Thailand in the past. You may wish to contact Cigna Singapore directly to see if they will offer a solution. You may or may not be able to find a broker in Thailand that is willing to work with offshore insurers.

That's certainly possible.

I admit that I don't have any specific knowledge of the contract between Hitachi and AOT and whether ownership of the moving walk resides with Hitachi or AOT. The article mentions that Hitachi supplied the walk and had a contract to provide maintenance, but does not address ownership. In at least some instances, ownership of items affixed permanently to a structure become the property of the structure's owner. AOT owns the premises, so I'm not sure that AOT would be able to sidestep liability under the Thai CCC. This seems similar to the German law that you cite. AOT may be able to recover from Hitachi under the supply and maintenance contract for damages awarded if Hitachi is negligent, but likely won't be able to avoid being involved in any suits and claims. If I were the plaintiff, I would not omit AOT from my suit for damages.

The Thai Civil and Commercial Code makes property owners strictly liable for property damage and bodily injury that is caused by their property. AOT, under the CCC, is liable if they own the moving walk. To sue only Hitachi would bypass this and potentially open an avenue for Hitachi to say they aren't liable since the property owner is. Need to sue both and any other party that may have been involved. AOT's contracts with Hitachi will likely pass liability for Hitachi's negligence and for defects on to Hitachi, but it is yet to be determined whether Hitachi is liable. It is possible that there are factors beyond Hitachi's control that are in play.

Is it age alone that causes this, or is it also aggravated by living for decades in countries where English isn't the main language and often dumbing down our speech to ensure that we are understood?

If you only set aside an amount equal to what you would pay in premiums each year, you would be seriously underfunded. You'd need several million baht from day one in order to address a catastrophic accident or illness, assuming you'd wish to be treated at a private hospital. Less, but still significant amounts, if treatment is sought at a government hospital. We just never know when we will fall ill or have an accident, even if we are otherwise healthy. I would suggest looking into health insurance from insurers located outside Thailand. Coverage is often better as is claims-paying attitude and consumer protection laws.

My son said that the last time he went to the local barber, who charges 100 baht, he got a bad haircut. My experience is quite different: I get a bad haircut there every time.

Sheryl is correct. Best to get health insurance from an insurer domiciled outside Thailand. Cover will likely be better and claims handling will be more professional. April's office in Thailand can only give you quotes and cover from Thai insurers due to insurance regulations here. You'll need to contact April's office in Europe to get proper international cover.

You will probably be better served sticking with an international plan. Local policies are usually less broad in cover and local insurers may not always be as professional when it comes to paying claims.

April is an insurance broker. Which insurance company had they placed your cover with?

Roojai is an insurance broker. I believe they place their cleints' auto business with Krungthai Panich Insurance. The OP's broker is actually asking if the OP would like to switch from AXA to Krungthai Panich.

I have the 2020 13.3 inch model with 256GB storage and 8GB RAM with Retina display. Model number is Z124000BVTH/A. Here's a link to the Apple Store Thailand for the 13 inch M1 Macbook Air currently on offer directly from Apple: https://www.apple.com/th-en/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/13-inch-m1 I'm only aware of the M1 Macbook Air being a 2020 model, but I think there are retina and non-retina versions with the MGN models being non-retina. Here's a link that may explain: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201862#:~:text=Find the serial number printed,page to find your model.

I switched from PC to Mac about fifteen years ago. I have a Macbook Pro from 2012 that still runs just fine, albeit on obsolete software. My experience is that Macs can't run the newer OS releases very well after about six or seven years and it is necessary to upgrade, but I haven't yet had a Mac of any description conk out for no reason. Even when my kids abused their Macbooks (broken keyboards, cracked screens) we simply hooked up external peripherals and they chugged on. I would also recommend a Macbook Air with the M1 chip. It is inexpensive (for a Mac) and it should last a long time.

My Bangkok Bank account was restricted to transfers of under 50k by the new BoT regulations, so I went to the Bangkok Bank branch at Seacon Square today and submitted my passport, bankbook, signed the form and got my photo taken. All very efficient. Went upstairs to do the same at SCB. Equally efficient and polite, but was turned away and advised that the photo requirement was only applicable to Thai nationals. I was shown something on the staff's mobile phone that I assume was an internal document stating this. Has anyone had a similar experience with SCB?

Selling insurance through banks is a big deal for insurance companies. It is a somewhat new distribution channel and insurers have been falling over themselves trying to exploit banks' relationships with their customers to sell their insurance products. Banks are under pressure to increase profitability and they see this as additional revenue on top of their traditional banking services. If I remember correctly, laws were changed some years back to allow banks to sell insurance products. Before that, they couldn't. Banks have been lukewarm on this as it has traditionally been outside their area of expertise, and I suspect it still is. Most of the products sold through banks are fairly plain vanilla ones so that they can be sold by bank employees with little insurance knowledge.