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Everything posted by Polar Bear
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Santander is closing my UK current account
Polar Bear replied to somo's topic in UK & Europe Topics and Events
I love my Skype-in number, but it's not so useful for receiving OTP. -
Santander is closing my UK current account
Polar Bear replied to somo's topic in UK & Europe Topics and Events
If you have a UK phone number, try Starling or Monzo. If you don't have a UK phone number, giffgaff will send a SIM to Thailand for you. If your Play Store (or whatever equivalent you use) is geolocked and you can't see the app, use a VPN. Zoog has a free monthly allowance and you can install it on a phone. It's not a great VPN, but it'll do for this if you don't want to pay for one. -
Thai universities shine in Times Higher Education World Rankings 2024
Polar Bear replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
This is the only information available to the reporter or anyone else. Only the first 200 get individual ranks. The next 200 get ranked in a block of 50, the next 200 in a block of 100 and so on. -
This is how most of the pet-friendly malls operate. You can take them into the building (some say they have to be in a stroller/bag, some let say they can walk on leash.) Once you are inside, it's up to the individual stores whether they can go in. We go to K-village quite often, as it has a small dog park as well. You can take a dog into the mall, but not into most of the shops. The restaurants with outdoor seating are all fine with you having a dog there. (I'm not sure if they would let you go inside a restaurant, I've never asked.)
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Barclays Bank to close UK accounts for British expats
Polar Bear replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Natwest closed mine years ago for being non-resident. I wouldn't tell any UK bank I was non-resident now. Just because they are fine with it today, doesn't mean they will be fine with it tomorrow, and once they have that info, you can't take it back. I have backup accounts with Starling and Wise, just in case. -
Russell Brand and why the allegations took so long to surface
Polar Bear replied to Social Media's topic in World News
That's a curious argument. Some women lie about sexual assault, therefore they have no credibility and we should assume all women are lying when they say they've been assaulted and not believe any of their accusations. But equally, some men do rape/sexually assault women, and they almost always lie about it. So by the same argument, they have no credibility and we should assume all men are lying when they say they haven't raped anyone and not believe any of their denials. So by your logic, we should assume that all men are rapists, but that no woman has ever been raped. Are you basing this on first-hand prison experience by any chance? -
Russell Brand and why the allegations took so long to surface
Polar Bear replied to Social Media's topic in World News
That's a pretty gross misrepresentation. The actual allegation: A receptionist from a company that happened to be based in the same building as the BBC went into a bathroom to get a first aid kit, she was kneeling down to reach into the cupboard. Brand followed her into the bathroom, got his d*ick out and started playing with himself. When she closed the cupboard, he was right next to her with his groin in her face and told her he was going to <deleted> her. Luckily for her, he got his call for his recording session right then, so he left. She reported him to BBC staff and was told they already knew because he was boasting about it on air. The BBC did nothing about it. As far as I'm aware, it's still only an allegation, even though they have the audio footage of him laughing and boasting about it on the radio. But it's hardly the same as her intentionally going into a bathroom with him. -
Barclays Bank to close UK accounts for British expats
Polar Bear replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Not the original commentor, but Natwest closed my account years ago (8? I'm not sure exactly) when I stupidly told them I was living overseas. -
You suspect wrong, I opened it overseas and I dislike you accusing me of lying when you have absolutely no basis for it. You are always extremely confident that you are correct, even though you have little to no information about people and just invent scenarios based solely on your own biased assumptions. I have a UK phone number. I am not sure what Thai details you think I would need to include. You don't even need to provide an address for Starling unless you want a card. And I was specifically talking about Wise in the post you chose to 'correct' me about. You are being incredibly rude, and I'm not interested in discussing anything with someone who cannot be civil, so I won't be replying to you again.
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I still have a UK correspondence address, and I've opened accounts with Starling and Wise as an expat. Neither required any proof that I lived in the UK, only that I was British (passport). If my main bank started poking around they would very quickly realise I'm not resident anymore. I'm not on the electoral roll and I've been non-dom for years. There's nothing I can do about that, other than keep my head down and not draw attention to myself so they have no reason to look.
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I've been worried about this since the Natwest closed my account. Now I have a 'main' account, that money gets paid into, and which I pay things like UK credit cards out of. I have another account with Starling (but Monzo, Revolut, Wise, would probably work just as well.) I transfer money into there, and any overseas spending or international transfers comes out of that account. There are few if any foreign transactions on my main account. If Starling decide they aren't happy about it and close the account, it will be inconvenient, but not a major hassle. I'll just switch to another one. It's also more secure if my spending account gets compromised. (My card was cloned here not long ago.)
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Sorry I forgot passport & copy was also on the list, but they didn't ask for it on the day.
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Did this in Bangkok recently. This is the list DLT said they wanted: Police report Residence certificate Details of lost licence (photocopy, or other info) What they actually wanted: To see the digital copy on the phone A couple of hundred Baht for the replacement (200? 300? I can't remember). The whole thing took about 5 minutes and most of that was waiting for it to print.
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Moderators, where is the report 'button' now please?
Polar Bear replied to scorecard's topic in Forum Support Desk
Click on the 3 dots to the right of the post. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
The dengue infection cycle is primarily mosquito>human>mosquito>human etc. It is zoonotic, but as far as I know, bats are the only other animals to get acute infections. We are the main hosts. https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dengue-transmission-22399758/ Also, first infections with dengue are often mild. A lot of people don't even know they had it (which is why you need a blood test before getting Dengvaxia). The vast majority will not end up in hospital. Subsequent infections are a different matter. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
The Qdenga vaccine was developed here in Thailand at Mahidol. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
Perhaps we are just talking past each other ???? Malaria and dengue are both transmitted by mosquitoes. You get malaria after being bitten by a parasite infected female Anopheles mosquito. While they are biting you, they also transmit the parasite (Plasmodium) into your blood. You get dengue after being bitten by a virus infected Aedes mosquito. The dengue virus is present in the mosquitoes saliva, and gets injected into your blood when they bite you. It's a two-way street. If you are infected with either malaria or dengue and the right species of mosquito bites you, you can infect the mosquito, allowing it to infect other people later on. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
Malaria is a parasite not a virus. Dengue is a virus. They are not related, and it's possible to be infected with both, even simultaneously. There's no real treatment for dengue, just treating the symptoms while you suffer through it. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
I'm not sure what you mean. There are 5 (or 6 depending how you split them) strains of malaria parasites, and 2 of them are responsible for most of the infections in humans. There are 4 strains of the dengue virus (DenV-1 to DenV-4). DenV-2 used to be the most common and also the most serious, but 3 & 4 infections have been increasing. Infection with one strain of dengue offers little or no protection against the others, so you can catch it naturally 4 times. Subsequent infections are always a higher risk than the first, regardless of which strains are mixed. The Qdenga was initially based on DenV-2. It offers the best protection against that strain, but has reasonable protection against the others as well. -
Is this Dengue vaccination a good idea?
Polar Bear replied to scubascuba3's topic in Health and Medicine
Reinfection with a different strain significantly increases the risk of the most serious effects (haemorrhagic fever, organ failure, death). If I'd had it before, I'd get the vaccine.