wn78

This is a good approach, thanks! I assume this additional package will kick in when the main one expires, to prevent "baht leakage" I was talking about

555, putting scam in quotations not to sound too accusatory did not save me from the wrath of the Righteous Police here who consider it every citizen's sacred life duty to watch for their package expiration dates ???? The point is, with so many SMS notification capabilities and notifications in their mobile app they already have, it costs the providers nothing to add expiration alerts, or allow a setting to disable pay-per use... I bet they don't do it on purpose to fleece you off a few baht with expensive pay per use every time you don't renew in time. Call it a scam or whatever, it's annoying to be taken advantage of like that. Well, someone did provide a helpful suggestions, so this thread is not entirely in vain

I'm not aware of any way to set up an alert when your prepaid data package is soon to expire. I do get the text when it's already expired, but by the time I catch it, 10-20 baht of my balance already eaten by pay per use data.... Same story with True, AIS, and Dtac... I wonder how many billions of baht they rake up by not letting people set up advance expiration alerts...

Thanks for the tip on auto-renew, I don't intend to pay this extortion fee annually...one time is enough

I think it was some kind of accident insurance, don't remember for sure..... I had no need for it, but that was their deal. But if it relieves me from dealing with immigration certificates, I will take it.

I hear you. Basically they charge for letting you skip the immigration paperwork. They did not ask for any immigration papers when they offered me an account, just the passport, the insurance fee, and the card fee.

Thanks, maybe I will do that too. 3000b better than 5000b if the outcome is the same. Did the agent handle opening all by herself, or did you go to the branch together with her?

Ok, thanks. This makes me think about ways making outgoing international transfers in case if I ever want out, and not being in Thailand physically. Probably need a separate topic for that. Do I need to go to the bank in person to make an international wire transfer, meaning I cannot take the money out unless I am in Thailand?

Can you elaborate? Are restrictions related to the savings account, like the number of withdrawals per month? The bank account I was offered came with a debit card (at 500 b annual fee for that). So I assumed it would be a checking account not savings

Just recently I was in Thailand on tourist visa and I walked into a Bangkok bank branch and asked to open an account. They said OK, just a passport and pay 5000 b for some insurance. I passed at that time, but now thinking it was probably a good deal reading about others having to jump through hoops with letters from immigration etc.... Question: will it be a "normal" account with no strings attached? What I don't want is to have this account flagged as "temporary/tourist account" or something like that and then being harassed down the road for more documentation for additional verifications, or have my transactions being put on hold pending more verifications, and not being able to comply in time because not living in Thailand, and then get my account frozen. Mostly concerned about money being wired in/out internationally with no hiccups. I have not seen any reports of this, so I assume once my account is open, it will be managed for a tourist in the same way as for a retirement visa same as for a good Thai citizen.....right?....right?....

Well....if my socks lined up every time I walked past the drawer yelling "take a sock mister", gave me dirty sock stink if I tried to change them in the middle of the day, had their Boss Sock collecting 300b from me after I took them off, and expected a tip, then yeah....I might use some advice on changing socks. Well...I'd say you got it the other way around.... way less concern changing a lady in a beer bar. Although between your personal growth advice, and the previous guy's comparison of changing massage ladies to changing socks, the socks guy wins the motivational speaker award of the day ???? Agree on physiotherapists, those are the way to go if you got a specific body issue.

Sorry I wasn't clear in my post. This was in LOS, in a major tourist area, and my entire post is about LOS experience only.

Recently I had a really uncomfortable foot massage session. I generally don’t like to be massaged hard, so I would often tell the lady to adjust it to a more comfortable level, and it works well for me. This last time I must have told her 5 times to go easy, and yet even when she was no longer pressing too hard, somehow her fingers felt like they were made from hardwood, and every couple of minutes she would make me uncomfortable. The shop was actually premium with higher prices, advertised “traditional Thai massage”, and well rated on Google. Only after it was over, and I was walking away feeling quite unsatisfied, it occurred to me that next time in that kind of situation I would just ask to change the lady. I’ve never done that before, and never seen it done by others. I assume it would make the lady lose face, and I would certainly not enjoy doing it, but I can’t pay for 1 hour of feeling unrelaxed just to spare her feelings. In my moderate experience of a few dozen massages, I find that only a small percentage of ladies are really good, and have a good sense how to adjust to each particular person to do a good penetrating massage without making it uncomfortable. The majority are average, just ok, either too strong, too weak, or just not a great feeling overall. Recently someone who went to a massage school explained to me that it’s not just the amount of pressure, but the angle and the motion of the fingers, and they teach those nuances in a massage school. The majority of ladies at street massage shops never go to any real training and just learn on the job, and the result is general mediocrity, even at “premium” places. I am yet to figure out how to locate shops that employ well trained staff. Thoughts?

Yes I see your point. Yes the prepaid SIM card package specifically says 5G supported. The phone is Pixel 5 and it supports all 5G frequencies local in TH. I purchase packages from within the AIS mobile app, and the package does say 5G. So I have no idea why I was getting LTE only. Maybe I was not in the right area at the time. Next time I will bring the phone back to the store and let them figure it out once and for all.

Yes, they are listed as 5G on-top packages. But when you purchase a package, you get LTE in the status bar, not 5G. It looks they downgrade you to the LTE speed on prepaid.

Sorry I will hijack your nutrition debate and steer back to the purchasing topic for a moment. I cannot wait for 2+ week delivery from iHerb when I am in TH since I move around a lot. I know I can get faster delivery on Lazada. Any tips on distinguishing reputable sellers from fakes? Is Lazada just a marketplace of 3rd party sellers, or can I order directly from Lazada itself, same like I prefer to order "sold by Amazon" from Amazon? Any advise on locally sold brands? I remember seeing in Boots a couple of Thai brands (Mega, Vistra). In the US I prefer brands that have independent testing by labs to ensure the pills actually contain the ingredients and quantities stated on the label, since the supplements industry is not well regulated. I assume it's even less regulated in Thailand.... Would it be naive to assume that if Boots sells it then the quality is guaranteed? They also carry Blackmores from Australia... would it be naive to assume Australian brands are better regulated than Thai brands...?

It didn't work for me adding a US card. Grab gives an error saying the credit card needs to support OTP security, which of course US credit cards do. So after a few emails with Grab support, they finally explained that US cards use "3D Secure version 2, while here in TH it's is still on version 1" or something to that end.... I tried adding 3 different cards, none worked. Anyone had better luck? When I first started using Grab a few years ago, I had no problem adding a US card. So this is a recent development.

Well it looks like 5G is not to be for me - at the Dtac and AIS shops I was told 5G is not available on prepaid accounts, only on post-paid, which is something I cannot have being here as a tourist since it requires local employment information....(not that I would want post-paid in the first place)...haven't checked with True, but would expect the same answer. Can anyone confirm that above is indeed accurate?

Did you see an opthalmologist? Might be bacteria on your eyelids, not allergy. Try eyelid scrubs and see if it helps, I think I saw OcuSoft brand sold at Boots.

Is there any way to check if my US phone will work with 5G in Thailand (without currently being in Thailand). It seems just having a 5G phone is no guarantee because it depends on particular frequencies that each carrier supports. Either True/AIS/Dtac have a list of 5G phones they support, or do they list their 5G frequencies that I can check against my phone specs....?