Polar Bear

If you have funds in your Wise account, you can withdraw cash from an ATM with a Wise debit card. You can make 2 withdrawals a month, at a max of £200 each, without a fee. More than that, and they start charging you. As far as I remember, they don't charge you for overseas spending on it. (By free, I mean they don't charge a specific fee there will still be a markup on the exchange rate.)

I think you are talking about different things. Cash back, when the bank gives you a small (usually 1% ish) amount back of everything you spend. A bit like loyalty points, but it goes back into your bank account. And cash back, where you add a cash withdrawal (usually up to £50 or £100) on to a shopping transaction, where the cashier gives you money like an ATM would.

I have another account with a regular UK bank, and I have physical card for that. But I avoid using it for overseas transactions so it doesn't attract any unwanted attention. If I need to spend GBP here, I transfer it to my Starling account and use that instead. (Starling doesn't charge a fee for overseas spending, only for ATM withdrawals). I also only transfer to Wise from Starling, never from my other UK account. You can have a physical card as well as virtual cards with Starling. It's not an either/or thing.

With Starling, create a 'Space' in the app and then you can create a virtual card for it. I have UK Spending and TH Spending spaces, and they each have their own Virtual card as well.

We were able to renew a 2 year licence after 14 months in Phra Khanong, Bangkok to get an international driving permit. You can't get an IDP on a 2 year licence only a 5. We paid an agent from Fatboy's to help with it, on account of the early renewal. I don't know if that was necessary or not, but I felt it was worth it to have someone to explain what was needed in Thai. If you are fluent, it probably doesn't matter. You will have to get the IDP at the same time, so you need to tell them which country it is for. You might as well choose one that accepts the 3 year IDP rather than 1 year, if you don't have anywhere in mind, or get both if you think you might need them. The information says you need a separate residence certificate for each one, but in practice, they accepted the same certificate for the renewal and IDP. We didn't actually need IDPs but the UK car rental companies didn't like the 2 year temporary licence, so we needed the 5 year. DM me if you want the number for Fatboy's. They've split the company up now, so it's harder to track down the right people.

I have a virtual card with Starling as well. Obviously, it's no use at an ATM, but I use it here online with Grab and Lazada sometimes. (I actually have 2 virtual cards with them, one for here, one for the UK because that works better for me.) It's convenient to have the debit card functionality without having to deal with the hassle of arranging a physical card delivery in the UK.

I love my Skype-in number, but it's not so useful for receiving OTP.

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.

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.

The entrances don't have doors, but other than that it's enclosed. Habito Mall, 101 True Digital Park, Central Festival Eastville, all allow dogs, but I don't know them well. We only go to K-Village because we specifically go to use their dog park.

According to the original post, they have to be in a bag or stroller, so they can't walk around anywhere.

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.)

The information on their website says dogs won't be able to go in the supermarket zone, so it sounds like they can only be in the mall part of the building, not around the food.

I'm not on the electoral register at my correspondence address. I am listed elsewhere as an overseas voter. My husband is not on the electoral roll anywhere in the UK. If my bank started looking, they would immediately see that I'm not resident, so I make sure I don't give them reasons to look.

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.

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?

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.

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.

My husband opened his Starling account (from Thailand, with a UK phone number), last year. He's not on the electoral roll anywhere in the UK, so whatever checks they are running, that's not a critical one.

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.

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.

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.)

Sorry I forgot passport & copy was also on the list, but they didn't ask for it on the day.

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.

Click on the 3 dots to the right of the post.