zig

I can only describe my experience, having rented a few condos over the years here.

It has always been a two months deposit for me and I have always managed to get it back, though I have heard of cases when some have not been so lucky.

I have negotiated some conditions in the contracts or added some statements that I have found missing a number of times and the landlords have always been accommodative enough to change them.

Similarly, I could always negotiate lower rent than initially quoted and also negotiate for adding or removal of some furniture or household items. I think the key is to be reasonable in your requests and understand that this is a negotiation and both sides might need to compromise. 

Anyway, this is just my experience. I hope it helps.

1 hour ago, petermik said:

The beach is being kept in pristine condition in preparation for our Chinese visitors at the end of the month....????

Which month? I read that international travel to Thailand is banned till end of June.

3 hours ago, HHTel said:

Of course, all this depends upon your governor.  They don't have to accept the restrictions and can order more restrictions if they feel it's necessary.

For example, the governor of Prachuab will not allow restaurants to open in the province, despite government 'guidelines' allowing it.

From the government press conference I understood that the provincial governors are allowed to order more strict rules if they feel that such are justified, but not less strict.

1 hour ago, Davedub said:

Thailand is ahead of Europe on this issue - well done Thailand for not caving in to corporate lobbying and pressure (and shame on Europe for doing the opposite in the face of overwhelming evidence for the harm these chemicals do)

I recall reading that paraquat and chlorpyrifos are banned all over EU. Only glyphosate is still allowed.

I have always wondered how does the government decide which shops or which types of eggs should be price controlled. There are many supermarket chains in Bangkok that sell their eggs for 70-90 baht or so for 10-pack, i.e. 7-9 baht per egg. 

On 1/9/2020 at 2:08 AM, sirineou said:

I don't meant to be argumentative just a small point, 

I think the above might be a bit exaggerated, I have being coming to Thailand for over  13 years and for the most part fot the past 10 years, except for a short time between 2015 and 2016 where it hit 36   bht it has being bouncing between 33 bht and 29 bht those are 10% at their extremes. The most extreme move from its highest of 34.6 sept 14 2014 to the lowest is about 15% . 

Is my math correct or am I missing something?

PS: July 4 2005 for a brief time it hit 41 bht in case you are using that as your standard. 

Well, it was mostly over 40 between 1998 and 2005, but then again - it was fluctuating around 25 back in 1987 - 1996. Anyone's choice as to what to compare to. 

Last time when I suspended subscription True had the below policy:

True Online customers can request to suspend service twice a year (calendar) and the suspension duration should be less than 90 days, generally suspension period is 30, 60 or 90 days. It is free of charge for the suspension for hi speed Internet in the first month of that year and will be charged 150 Baht/ month from the 2nd month onwards to maintain customer status  (excluded VAT).

You can also add the accounts to which you usually transfer to a predefined 3rd party account list.  In SCB they do not require the SMS authorization when transferring money to an account from this list.

5 hours ago, Advocate said:

I have lived and worked in 12+ countries and I have never experienced a process like TM30 or the 90 day reporting in any other country.

 

Indeed, there is no such requirement in most countries. However, there are similar requirements in China and Russia. 

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

When a government pumps billions of baht into the economy as a stimulus for GDP growth but refuses to lower the value of the baht - it's currency manipulation.

Whether it makes any economic sense is a different question.

The accusation actually is that the CB is manipulating the currency to weaken it, i.e. it would be stronger if they did not do it. 

Some random favorite authors and books:

Terry Pratchett

Frank Herbert - Dune series

Herman Hesse

Axel Munthe

Stephen King

Jorge Luis Borges

55 minutes ago, candide said:

Well, figures just don't fit.

Tax cuts are expected to cost much more than $100 billion per year (in 2018, tax revenues fell $183 billion) and tariffs revenues on Chinese goods are expected to reach $32 billion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/business/trump-tax-cuts-revenue.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-tariffs-explainer/explainer-who-pays-trumps-tariffs-china-and-other-exporters-or-u-s-customers-idUSKCN1SB0UF

 

It does not have to fit but it helps. By the way, the tax of 32 billion is the one calculated on the current tariffs. If it is raised to 25% for 200 billion more worth of goods then it shall become 60 billion or so.

23 hours ago, candide said:

The problem is not the fairness (or unfairness) of tariff sanctions. The problem is that it is completely inefficient. Imports from China have steadily increased in 2018 and the trade deficit has never been so high than in 2018.

For Trump and his fan base it looks good, because that's something easy to understand, but it's inefficient. The only outrage is about his moronic policy.

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

 

I think it is actually very efficient - just not in the way Trump is trying to present it. Due to the his cuts in corporate taxes and increases in military spending the US is now having huge budget deficit that keeps getting bigger. What better way to fix it than by applying tariffs to imported goods and making all american people to pay for it... and yet somehow still keeping his voters happy?

> The best I saw was TMB and UOB at 3.5% interest.

Where did you find such rates? I just looked and they seemed to offer 1.5% and 1.45% respectively and that was on 24 months fixed deposits. 

6 hours ago, robblok said:

I thought so to however he is totally right in his calculation. The first year it might be cheaper but it compounds. So his math is correct in year 6 you got 6 x 700.000 kids. So yes its correct. I could write it all out for you but I think if you look at it again you will see he is right for the cost per 6 from year 6 on.

Furthermore, if the policy is to pay for any children that are under the age of six which I think would be only fair then it would cost the full amount already from the first year.

I do not understand this - why the driver was sentenced to '15 days in prison, but the court reduced it to a year of probation because she had no previous convictions'? Is this for illegal parking? Is that not kind of disproportionate? There are literally tens of thousands of people parking illegally every day.

52 minutes ago, HooHaa said:

Printing this without providing a list of the countries proposed is little more than click bait. The article is utterly pointless. 

There are only 21 countries that can get visa on arrival in Thailand so it sounds like all of them are considered for the waiver.

1 hour ago, thailand49 said:

I'm a fighter too but this is a good one!  must be one heck of a vehicle that you are willing to go to such a distant.  In my experience trying to get the government to change the rule maybe you can contact the Trumpee and let him in on your secret?  

 

Indeed, there is more chance of this to work if Fox News would tell that Thailand charges outrageous import duties on many items from US. Perhaps Trump would start another trade war ????...  and perhaps we could get cheaper imported goodies... Just dreaming ????

>>Some shops pretend to offer a payment at 0% interest over 10 months or so, but this a fake credit which is offered to the very few Thai people who have a credit card...fake because the whole amount is immediately deducted from their credit card.

Well, it is deducted immediately from your card's limit, however you indeed can pay the amount in ten monthly installments and no interest is charged, as long as you pay in time. 

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

And now Iran is warning NK not to believe Trump and the U.S., because of course, Trump wants to reneg on the international (including U.S.) agreement with Iran on its nuclear weapons program.

 

Well... Ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons back in 1994 and signed an agreement with security assurances with Russia, US and UK. We all know what happened later.

I wonder why the court case is only about eight devices. Some years ago it was reported that more than 1,500 of these devices were bought by Thai army over a number of years.

7 hours ago, ELVIS123456 said:

1. The Baht is historically higher than average as compared to the past 20 years (given some big fluctuations), and

Well, one could as well consider the period before the Asian financial crisis in 1997 when the Baht was averaging 25-26 Baht per USD for quite many years. I would not wonder if it reaches that level, given the pace at which the US federal spending and debt keeps growing.

21 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Didn't realise there was a discounted price ?

Is it like the secret McDonalds menu?

Happened to me once. I showed the work permit and spoke some Thai. They still refused to sell me tickets for Thai price but compromised on one Foreigner ticket for three persons... :-)