Sup3rfarang

Did you tell her this before or after the rogering?

Actually, that's not too far from what the geniuses are doing in Jomtien right now!

Blood on textiles is not a problem. Hydrogen Peroxide is your friend. Available at any 7-11 in Thailand. Works like magic and way cheaper than paying off the maid.

I'm sorry Mike, but this is Thailand. If they are outed, instead of humiliation, they will be subjected to jealous envy. There is no western-style justice being served here. This is simply a power struggle with winners and losers. Thaksin is cleaning house from behind the scenes to make room for his loyalists and consolidate his return to power. As they say, sit back and enjoy the show. 🍿

make 3 transactions a month from the UK using Wise and transferring funds to my BBK account. I usually make the transfer between 5 and 6 pm Thi time. It is in my BBK account the following day, just after 2 pm, UNLESS I transfer on a Friday when it arrives on a Monday. So are you saying that you are satisfied with slow service? ???? People want to believe these small nouveau financial outfits are as reliable as banks. As many people in the crypto space recently found out, they are until they aren't. I, personally, don't think its a good idea to leave a transaction open with them over the weekend. If you must do business with them wait until Monday to make the transaction. Just in case it happens to be the weekend they go out of business and all the money disappears.

The delays are not from bank holidays or time changes. They simply can't handle the load on payday Fridays. So they punt and leave transactions sitting in the drawer until Monday. It's still possible to have transfers happen in seconds on off-peak days as many posters still report. However, this still constitutes false advertising. "Transfer in seconds!" needs to be changed to "Transfer in seconds, maybe. More likely, when you really need it, transfer in DAYS, MANY DAYS!". I used to be able to get around this by breaking up my transaction into several smaller transactions. But today not even 100 baht will fly. Interesting that, as their service rapidly deteriorates, they raise their fees so we can pay more for less. Worthless.

"Surely you can plan ahead?" "Who's fault is it that you can't read a calendar?" You meet some of the nicest people on aseannow. Let's work on reading comprehension, shall we? I stated this same thing happened the last time I tried two weeks ago. Was that also a Thai bank holiday? And seeing that I have since been able to send smaller transactions it looks like a bank holiday (i.e. not being able to process transactions until after the holiday) is not the barrier. Is it at all possible for some forum members to provide helpful suggestions rather then opening with condescending attacks? Does being so condescending help you feel so much better about your selves?

I just got the transfer to go through by breaking it up into many smaller transactions. This cost a little more but not too bad. "Yes they can.. My 6 transfers last month all took less than 10 seconds. " Looks like they can still do smaller transactions of a few thousand baht in size at that speed (at least on a payday Friday, maybe its better on other days).

Every other Friday I receive money into my US bank account that I then send to my Kasikorn bank account. I have been using Wise for this purpose for months with the transfer taking only seconds. Two weeks ago, for the first time, it was delayed until Monday. Today I'm being told it will take until Tuesday. This is a massive degradation in service and it looks like Wise, for whatever reasons, can no longer be relied upon. What other International Transfer services are available that don't take too long? I don't need seconds. Hours or even a day is OK. Multi-days is not acceptable. Thank you for your recommendations.

I am happy to report our trip to the Denmark embassy was a success. The embassy staff were very kind and helpful to us. The paperwork was completed in about 20 minutes and Penny will receive her renewed Denmark passport in 2 to 3 weeks. Once she has it Penny will decide if she will return to Denmark or resume the battle to get her Thai citizenship back. But at least now she has options. Back when Penny applied for Denmark citizenship Denmark did not allow dual citizenship. As part of the process she had to surrender her Thai passport to the Denmark government which would have notified Thailand that she is renouncing. Only a few years later Denmark passed a law allowing dual citizenship.

Update: I've made an appointment for Penny for this Tuesday at the Denmark embassy for passport renewal. I let her know and she will get her paperwork together Monday to prepare. She showed me her expired passport and it expired in 2019. So its not too old. It should be a straightforward matter to renew it. unblocktheplanet: I haven't asked her if she can speak Danish yet (I suspect she can at least speak some) but I plan to next time I see her. FriendlyFarang and Neeranam: When I talk to her I try to not make it into an interrogation so I haven't pushed too hard on this. I agree she most likely just lost her Thai ID and passport in Denmark and entered Thailand with her Danish passport. perconrad: Thank you so much for this info! This could be quite valuable for her. She's not quite 65 yet but we will still make the call to find out what she can expect at 65. Also, in this most recent conversation with her I discovered that Penny buys candy and snacks and sells them to tourists on the beach all afternoon and evening. This is how she has enough money to eat. She walks many miles up and down the beach in the heat every day. Previously, before Covid, she worked as a cook and barkeep at a bar on Soi Buakhao.

Thank you everyone for the great info above. Jonnit, your experience is very helpful indeed. So last night I went back to see her at her small camp in front of the shop and get more details. Her husband was well off and tried to provide for her future before he died. But apparently his family were able to divert the funds and leave her living on a small allowance doled out to her monthly on a credit card. She felt betrayed, all alone, and that she couldn't trust anyone over there so she decided she wanted to "go home" to Thailand and did so. Over the years she made multiple attempts to re-establish her Thai credentials in her home province in Lop Buri and, later, here in Jomtien. But the bureaucrats weren't very helpful. She tried the process of getting her family to vouch for her to no avail and now, over the years, her parents have died. And she lost contact with her brother who moved away. I suspect the reason why some of the efforts in Lop Buri failed is maybe the right "donations" weren't applied? Before she would rent a room and eat with the funds from the credit card but, after many years, the card has stopped working. Now she is homeless and stateless. She is getting older and needs medical care. She is in a precarious position living near the beach. As the tourists are coming back the city wants to clean up the area and clear out the homeless. At one point the city tried to place her in an elder care facility. I can testify that this lady is intelligent and has all her faculties. She is fluent in English, obviously Thai, and probably Danish as well. And she is physically strong enough, though thin, to walk all over the beach area daily. Despite being homeless she keeps herself clean and fresh and her living area is well maintained. She is in her sixties and not ready for the old folks home. Earlier I didn't understand why she wanted to talk to the Danish embassy to solve a Thai bureaucracy problem but now I do. Her Danish passport is expired and so not acceptable as identification when talking to the Thai government. Jomtien has told her she needs this first before they can work with her. So I think the first step in all this is I will take her on a day trip to the Danish embassy in Bangkok to get her Danish passport renewed. I have sent an email to the Danish embassy requesting their procedures/requirements and an appointment. Is there anyone with experience with such a quest that can give pointers on how I should prepare and what to do while at the Danish embassy? This is a trek and I don't want to have to make multiple trips over simple mistakes.

Fair point there. I will add to my questions list. If something like this is the case then I could end up wasting a lot of time and energy. Thanks for that.

Thank you eisfeld! So questions to ask her: Did she renounce her Thai Citizenship? If so, when and where? Does she have a copy of her birth certificate? If not, where in Thailand was she born? Does she have other forms of ID? Does anyone have more questions/ideas?

I don't know if this is the correct forum. Please move if needed. I was on Beach Road when I observed an old thin Thai woman crossing the road while pushing a little trolley with her belongings in it. I decided I wanted to give her some money. She headed down a soi and I followed. And I found that, halfway down the soi, she was homeless and living in front of an abandoned shop. So I gave her a donation. To my surprise, she thanked me and asked my name in perfect English. Her name is Penny and she was very nice to talk to. She was married for a long time to a man from Denmark and lived there with him. And she obtained Danish citizenship. After her husband died she returned to Thailand. But there is something wrong with her Thai citizenship status. And this means she is ineligible for Thai medical benefits. She seems to think that she needs to go to the Danish embassy and they can help her clear things up. I am wondering if the experts in this forum could help me to help her with her Thai citizenship problem. I know that the information I've provided is not much to go on. So I want to go back and ask her more questions. But I don't know what to ask, exactly. Please give me a list of questions that you would ask her about her situation and I will carry them to her. Thanks!