nigelforbes

It's a very very common Americanism that has spread far and wide and been in use since the 1980's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_wild-ass_guess

Narawate Road has a bunch of them, closer to ring road end of the road than the bridge end, you will be spoilt for choice.

Hmm, no, I wasn't going down that road. This is purely about foreign currency accumulation, not banks asset management or liabilities. I think the debits and credit from these transactions may pyramid upwards to the Central Bank in each country and then on to the BIS where they are finally settled. BIS holds the Foreign currency reserves of each (most) country and those reserves are held in various currencies. It is a simple matter to debit and credit amounts by currency at the BIS hence no physical currency is involved, only accounted for by the central banks.

WAG = wild ar se guess. ????

Excellent, you're elected, I look forward to never meeting you. :))

Easy, the club sends everyone an invitation to the next club meeting but each one shows a different location and time. The quarterly news letter will be a breeze, "last months meeting was a huge success, nobody showed up". I like this concept, it could have legs.

Jeeze guys, this is not rocket science! Buy a new vehicle for 1 mill. cash, keep it and drive it for 4 years and sell it. I've done that twice now over 6 and 7 years, both times I recouped at least 65% of my initial outlay, if I factor in the exchange rate gain on the first one (CRV) I recovered almost 85%. I have a third new vehicle that I've now had for 10 years (Vigo), I paid 900k for it and was offered 425k last month, an even better deal, plus there will be an ex. rate gain. That's circa 7k baht a month, plus insurance, tax and maintenance, there's no way leasing can compare favorably. Parts and labor and cheap here, that's why used prices are so high.

Sorry if you think it's an unduly difficult or complex question, one possible answer might be, "I don't know" and to move on or to even read something else! The question again, is: "When an overseas tourist visits Thailand and pays for something electronically, either a cash withdrawal from their home bank at an ATM or a purchase using an overseas credit or debit card, how do those transactions increase the BOT Foreign Currency Reserves?" I mean, we're told repeatedly that foreign tourism is important to the Thai economy and to the Foreign Currency Reserves. Even though it's accepted that the influence on those reserves is only minor, compared to other influences such as exports and FDI, I want to try and understand how that works. The vast majority of Exports are paid for in USD, which is then sold for Baht, so that's easy to see how the Baht strengthens as a result. But foreign tourist spending? And before anyone asks, yes it does, even Chartchai in his most recent Post column confirmed that it does. If anyone does understand this, it will be interesting to know.

Totally disagree. Lease costs are sunk costs, there's nothing at the end, zero. New cars here retain their value much much more than in the West. Buy the new car when the exchange rate is favorable and you can almost make the car pay for itself over five years, plus you've got very high resale value. OP don't stop your overseas pension payments, that should be a priority.

Please go back and read the first post again, you have not understood the purpose of the thread or the question being asked.

Yes, absolutely agreed. The banks in Thailand are agents of BOT so they enforce policy, BOT is merely the settlement agent, the external interface and the holder of foreign currencies (actually BIS holds them but that';s good enough for here)..

Yes thanks, we know about that level, what we are less clear about is the lowest level of detail. For example, Fernando lives in Mexico, he banks with Banko Banko in Tijuana. Fernando travels to Thailand for a weeks holiday, he visits a Bank Thai ATM and withdraws 5k baht from his Banko Banko account which is authorised and he's paid. That means Bank Banko now owes Bank Thai the equivalent of 5k baht, how does that money get paid? Bank Thai doesn't want Peso's from Banko Banko, at least I don't think they do, but they would take USD which Bank Thai then must sell to the BOT. If that's the answer, that means all cash withdrawals from foreign accounts are converted to USD offshore Thailand for settlement, presumably at Central Banks and BIS (?) which seems just not quite right.

I couldn't agree more. The only time I ever see any is at the opera or the ballet, sometimes at garden parties but that's it.

As part of a debate with a chum elsewhere, I am trying to understand a particular economic scenario but nobody seems to be 100% certain of their answer, I'm sure that somewhere out there one of you do know. Here's the scenario: When an overseas tourist visits Thailand and pays for something electronically, either a cash withdrawal from their home bank at an ATM or a purchase using an overseas credit card, how do those transactions increase the BOT Foreign Currency Reserves? Does anyone understand international settlements in sufficient detail to know the answer? One possible answer is that cash withdrawal and purchases from merchants are treated slightly differently. Another possible answer is that credit card networks such as visa play a significant role, yet another is that the BIS manages the process via the central banks. No WAG's please and no plausible guesses based only on logic, if you don't know, you don't know. TIA

@spidermike007 So tell me, what part of the argument is so wrong that the best you can do is to laugh? I know from these pages that, unlike so many posters here, you are capable of forming arguments based on data and fact. What part of my data and fact do you think is wrong and why? If you want to prove me wrong, do it?

My point was that Thailand is not unique in employing bank staff who steal, but I think you probably knew that!

I'm truly sorry to hear that, I hope you fully recover soon,

Residence Certificate and passport with long stay visa, I think that was all. Bangkok Bank, Narawat, left side, when travelling East, one long block after the bridge. It's a commercial office primarily so there's no messing around the smaller branches have, they know what they're doing.

My deductible is 5 times that amount. Despite that, if the insurer can avoid paying the claim, I am certain they will.

A klong is an irrigation channel containing water, anything from a stream to a river, they are owned by the government/amphur. Any borrowings against the land must be recorded on the back of the chanotte, take a look and see if anything is there. Every chanot contains a drawing of the shape of the lot, if they are adjacent those shapes will all fit together. Time to do some sketching and cutting of shapes. If they do'nt fit together, walk away. And I hate to say it but today is a buyers market, if you're being rushed into the purchase, beware, something is not right. And if you are emotionally attached to buying the land, I'd wait a week or so to really see if it's a good deal.

K

We have four channottes and Mrs NF asked the LO to combine them. They said they would but the land must be surveyed first, to confirm the marker locations. On said day, the survey team came out but they stopped mid survey and went into a deep huddle with the Mrs. It seems that one of the plots of land used to have a klong running through it and according to their records it should still be there. The klong in question was a short branch from the main klong which is still there, which ran for about 15 meters and then terminated. So who stole the klong! The survey team comprised a private contractor, he said that if he could keep the 2k baht we paid for the survey he would say nothing and that we had decided not to proceed. We did that. It seems the owner/builder of our house did but he isn't admitting to the fact. We asked our Solicitor about this because she handled the sale and she went very very quiet, never to be heard from again. We are reliably told that if we wait a few more years, by which time memories and minds will have unimaginably dimmed further, the previous owner/builder will fix things with his, ahem, contact at the LO. Given that he is a very very very senior rank retired, we have no doubt about this. My advice to the OP is to pay the 2k baht and get the lots surveyed.

I also think much hinges on the office and the location, I agree.

We lived in Phuket for a few years and there were times when the smoke from Indonesia and Malaysia was almost as bad as it is here in the North currently. It's a luck of the draw thingy.

The South still looks healthy, most of the coastal towns are OK everywhere, even East of Bangkok towards Koh Chang. West of Bangkok from Hua Hin South also looks good. Just don't go inland and dont go North. https://aqicn.org/map/thailand/