Etaoin Shrdlu

It does not look like PP will be closing existing accounts, but rather moving them onshore to PP Thailand. As an onshore entity, PP Thailand will have to comply with Thai VAT, AMLO and financial institution regulations. I'm not sure which set of regulations is driving the prohibition on individual accounts maintaining a balance or payment to individual bank accounts. It could be banking regulations, AMLO regulations, PP Thailand not wanting to go through the KYC process for individuals or something else.

The AXA rep's words are not consistent with the FAQ page of the AXA travel policy that clearly states that only medically necessary expenses are covered. The issue is whether expenses incurred for treatment or services mandated by Thai public health policy in the absence of actual medical need means they are "medically necessary" under the terms of the policy. Perhaps it is AXA's intent to cover such expenses, but I would prefer clearer language from the AXA rep, or better yet an endorsement to the policy clearly stating this.

The old Covid-only policies were mostly personal accident products that had been amended to provide cover for mandatory quarantine expenses including those not strictly medically necessary. I think this was possible under these policies because the cover is quite narrow. It may be similar in concept to the "hospital cash" benefits that some PA policies will pay for each day spent in hospital and which is not linked to expenses incurred. The new AXA product is a standard travel accident policy not limited to Covid-related medical expenses. As such, it provides broader cover for medical expenses and underwriters will have additional considerations when they price the product and may also impose limits and restrictions to try to keep the risk within their appetite. We will have to see what local insurers end up offering. Perhaps the Thai government will lean on them to cover all mandatory quarantine costs. Working against this may be the local insurers' reinsurance agreements that would not cover this, but I'm not sure.

The above clearly states "based upon medical necessity". Few expenses related to asymptomatic Covid are considered medically necessary by the insurance industry. Asymptomatic Covid cases are quarantined due to public health policy, not the necessity of medical treatment for the quarantined person.

This is from AXA's FAQ page for this policy. AXA goes to great lengths to explain that it only covers medically necessary expenses.

I think that approach was specific to the old Covid-only policies. It appears AXA's coverage for Covid under this policy is limited to "medically necessary" treatment. In the case of asymptomatic Covid, little, if anything, would be medically necessary including the cost of a hospital or hospitel stay. I think the old Covid-only policies addressed this issue better.

Yes, "effective date" means the day the coverage under the policy starts.

I think this FAQ item is trying to address whether one needs to take out a separate Covid-specific policy on top of one's standard medical insurance in order to satisfy Thailand Pass. It seems that the answer to this narrow question is "no", however in my opinion it does not address whether Covid-specific insurance by itself would satisfy the Thailand Pass requirements. From what I've read elsewhere, I don't think it would. I have not yet seen any updates to the TGIA members' offerings that would bring them into line with the new requirements, but I suspect they will roll something out shortly. I would not be surprised to see age limits on the new products in line with travel insurance standards, but I don't know this for a fact.

Thank you for posting this. My son is looking to come home from university in the US during winter break and will be applying for the Thailand Pass using his Thai passport. He has been vaccinated twice with Pfizer three weeks apart. The first vaccination was given here in Thailand at a major hospital. The second was at a CVS pharmacy in the US. He has a certificate from the hospital, duly signed and stamped, and a hand-written CDC card from CVS. Neither contain passport number or QR code. Based upon your experience, I'm now more hopeful he will also get the TP without issue in spite of rudimentary and mixed documentation. Longer term, we're going to have to get him a yellow international booklet, but whether it will be problematic getting one issued here using the CDC card as proof of the second vaccination remains an open question.

Leftover goods from celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day Or perhaps adherents of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster stocking up on supplies? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/18/pasta-strainers-and-pirates-how-the-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster-was-born

I know it is not a long term solution, but if you call the True call center and ask them to stop throttling your download, they will, at least temporarily. I'm not sure what they would do if you asked them to permanently disable the throttling or whether they even allowed to throttle your connection at all under their terms of service. Might be worth having a try at asking for a permanent stop to throttling.

A helmet gives up its life to save yours. The lining deforms to absorb the energy of the blow. Time for a new skid lid if it has served its purpose once.

Mrs. Shrdlu was asked to update her registration details and answer questions regarding prior Covid vaccination and some medical info for the Moderna vaccine by Medpark Hospital recently. The document did not provide a queue number but did have a "vaccination number" on it. Not sure what this signifies in terms of position in a queue. It also did not indicate a date for vaccination.

Certain financial assets held outside the US need to be reported on form 8938 as part of your annual income tax return. The threshold for taxpayers living overseas and filing as single persons or married persons filing separately is when the aggregate balances of all accounts exceeds $300,000 at any time during the tax year or if it is over $200,000 at the end of the tax year. These limits are doubled for married taxpayers filing jointly. The threshold for US-resident taxpayers are lower. These obligations are in addition to any FBAR reporting requirements the taxpayer may have. Instructions from the IRS website here: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8938

A tenant can be held legally liable for damages he causes, both intentionally or by negligence, to the landlord's and/or the juristic entity's property. Check your lease to see what it says about your liability to the landlord for damage to his property. It should hold you harmless for damages to the landlord's property which are not caused by you. Renters' insurance is available that would cover both loss or damage to the tenant's own property as well as the tenant's legal liability to the landlord or juristic entity for damage to property owned by them. Renters' insurance can get expensive when insuring valuable items or items that are taken outside the premises, such as jewelry and electronics. It might be worth your while to ask an insurance broker to get you a quote for renters' insurance. If you leave off the expensive options, cover can be reasonably affordable.

Directors of Thai companies can be held personally liable for their actions or omissions. This can include criminal liability. Some revenue statutes probably carry criminal penalties for non-compliance, so it would make sense to get the books in order and close the company properly.

I've just taken a look at the Berkeley website and it mentions that there are restrictions on the discount for international families, but does not give any details. My kids received the discount when they attended Berkeley some years ago and I recall we used their US passports to register them. Probably best to email the registrar and explain your situation and ask how the discount might apply. Back when my kids attended, they were keen to enroll dual nationals as international students and to give the discount.

When registering the children at Berkeley, do so with their foreign passports as their ID.

Our daughter's school is giving the option to use either the nasal swab kits or saliva kits. The nasal swab kits are being provided by the school. If we wish to use the saliva kits, we need to purchase them ourselves.

Insurance policies sold via banks tend to be stripped-down products. If it is relevant to you, check to see whether the FWD policy covers motorcycling and assault risks, something that is frequently offered as optional cover for additional premium under personal accident policies, but which may be left off of a bare bones policy sold via bancassurance channels.

The OP does not state in what capacity he finds himself in Thailand. This can make a difference. US multinational companies that send their employees to work abroad will usually have a separate medical insurance program for such employees. It is often with the same carrier that provides health insurance for the company's US-based employees, but with coverage modifications to make it respond to medical expenses incurred outside the US. If the OP is here in a personal capacity as visitor, then the provisions of the US-based health insurance likely apply and there may be a number of limitation as the OP has discovered. Expenses incurred for medical tourism are usually paid out of pocket.

TG: Tomorrow Go

Thailand Pass seems to require basically the same documents as the COE with the addition of evidence of vaccination. More paperwork, not less. If the volume of applicants increases in a meaningful way, I don't think the Thai consulates will be able to keep up with the workload. Perhaps in addition to re-branding, the MFA has outsourced this to VFS or other third-party processor, hence the new website. Covid cases seem to be picking up again, including in the north, south and in Prachuap, so this may all come to nought.

Need to state in the title that this article is about schools in Cambodia.

You're correct. My iPad Air 2 shows the iPadOS as being 14.8 and states "your iPad software is up to date". Automatic update is turned on and it is connected to our home wifi. But now I see at the bottom of the screen that I can upgrade to iPadOS 15. Thank you for pointing this out. I would probably have missed this.