nigelforbes

How old are you and what pre-existing conditions do you have?

"Global funds have poured $1.5 billion into Thai bonds in the first nine days of January, the largest inflows in Asia, amid optimism China’s reopening will mean more mainland travelers visiting Thailand. The baht has also been buoyed by bets that cooling wage pressures in the US will prompt the Federal Reserve to slow the pace of its interest-rate hikes. Morgan Stanley maintained its short dollar-baht recommendation, and lowered the target level for the trade to 32. The pair was at 33.456 on Tuesday". https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/global-inflows-during-china-reopening-put-baht-in-a-sweet-spot-1.1867905

If I were you I might ask again, somewhere else. And if you get the same answer, ask them how they handle Power of Attorney signatures on bank accounts.

AA Insurance Brokers, they have offices in Hua Hin and Pattaya. Please note, the quote is for a 10 year old pickup, named driver, max no claims. Roojai.com came in cheaper and better using Krung Thai (Bank) Panich as the underwirters. Just to compare with the above, insured value 450k, not 350k, max liability in case of death, 5 mill, not 1 or 2, Cost of policy using their own repair shops, 8,900 or 9,900 using dealerships.

Beware hidden charges and fees on loans, registration etc. Also, understand the penalties for being even a little bit late with a payment.

Any bank will allow a second signatory to a bank account, although withdrawing funds from the account of somebody who has died is illegal, unless the dead persons estate has been through probate court.

No, not even a ten baht loan, even if you've been here for ten years, where do you think you are! If you want to build up your credit history, not that it will serve any purpose, unless you become a PR, get a Thai credit card and make the repayments on time, and/or buy an investment fund from your bank, or even life insurance.

Lack of scheduled flights apparently

I am currently renewing insurance on a 2013 Vigo 4 door, I just received this: We are pleased to make you the following offer: MSIG ECO 1 MSIG ECO 2 AIG Happy Choice TKMS AXA Allianz Coverages: Third Parties; Bodily Injury 1.000.000 2.000.000 500.000 500.000 1.000.000 500.000 per Accident 10.000.000 10.000.000 10.000.000 10.000.000 10.000.000 10.000.000 Property Damage 5.000.000 5.000.000 1.500.000 1.500.000 5.000.000 2.500.000 Own Damage 350.000 350.000 400.000 450.000 400.000 400.000 Deductible 5.000 Applied when cannot identify third party of accident 5.000 Applied when cannot identify third party of accident 3.000 Applied both at fault and unknown 0 5.000 Applied both at fault and unknown 5.000 Applied both at fault and unknown Fire and Theft 350.000 350.000 400.000 450.000 400.000 400.000 Personal Accident 100.000 100.000 200.000 100.000 100.000 100.000 Medical expenses 100.000 100.000 200.000 100.000 100.000 100.000 Bail Bond 300.000 300.000 200.000 200.000 200.000 200.000 Premium Contact garage 9.500 10.500 12.000 13.500 10.300.89 9.128.17 Maximum age of the car 15 Years 15 Years 20 Years 15 Years 15 Years 15 Years Roadside Service Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Policy in English Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

It's not just you, all fixed deposits for everyone are treated the same way. Be aware that when you complete a Thai tax return to reclaim the tax paid in the FD, you will be obliged to declare any other income in Thailand, including pensions received during the year they were earned and any rental income. If you don't declare those things, you will have filed a false or invalid tax return and are liable under Thai law. (Note: US SSc pension payments do not need to be declared). This is the downside of reclaiming tax paid on savings, the alternative being not to file and to forgo the tax paid.

Roojai sells car insurance online, KrungThai Panich is the underwriter and the only company I have found in Thailand that offers 5 mill. liability, all the other insurers moved to 1 or 2 mill., about two years ago..

Sorry I missed that post. "i noticed that I'm no expert but thought when dollars 1.14 to £ the baht was say 43 and the dollar today is 1.20 to £ the baht is at 40.???" There are four classes of FOREX currency pairs, Major, Minor, Cross and Exotic. There is no fixed relationship or scale whereby if one currency has a value of X to USD, then another currency must equal Y to USD. Both sides of a currency pair move independently, unless a fixed rate of exchange exists. USD is the very top of the FOREX tree, SOME other currencies have a direct relationship with USD, currencies such as GBP, EURO, YEN etc which are also lesser reserve currencies, those are the major pairs, USD/GBP, USD/YEN, USD/EURO etc. Minor pairs are those that involve other reserve currencies such as the YEN or EURO, paired against lesser currencies. These lesser currencies do not have a direct relationship with USD. Then we have cross currency pairs, an example of which is GBP/THB. THB does not have a direct FOREX relationship with GBP, instead its value is determined by USD/THB and USD/GBP, the calculation is USD/THB x GBP/USD. Finally we get to THB which is an exotic or boutique currency, it has a direct relationship with USD but it is so small as to not be of consequence in FOREX terms. Soooo, Dollar/Pound is subject to movements in either the Dollar or the Pound whilst Dollar/Baht is subject to movements in either Dollar or the Baht. But Pound/Baht is subject to movements in either Dollar, Pound or Baht. There's a link below in this forum where FOREX is explained is greater detail, if that helps.

And the Gold for flipfloping, a new world record, goes to Thailand...yeah

I'm so flopped my flipp flopped out.

Of course they can't set their own rates, the value of the Baht is determined solely by the global FOREX system of buying and selling against other currencies. An interesting point though, indeed BOT has no control over the rates used by banks in Thailand, once again, this is determined solely by the FOREX and market forces. If any one bank was substantially higher than the others, nobody would buy or sell through it, apart from the occasional tourist perhaps.

And yet another: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/emerging-markets-thai-baht-7-073931053.html "The Thai baht firmed on Wednesday on hopes of a tourism boost after the easing of COVID restrictions in China, while most other Asian currencies remained muted ahead of the release of U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes. The baht rose for the fourth session in a row, up 0.8% to its highest since May 31".

A helpful read here from BOT that confirms many of the things I wrote earlier: https://www.bot.or.th/English/BOTStoryTelling/Pages/FinancialMarkets_StoryTelling_Press.aspx

Why does it make no sense, is it because you don't understand or do you have reasons why? The facts are that Baht strength makes perfect sense to Markets, to FOREX players, to economists and to anyone else who understands the reasons why.

I have no difficulty if you or anyone else either doesn't believe or don't want to believe and want to continue hiding behind the notion of manipulation. Personally, I'd feel pretty stupid if I walked around all day telling everyone the earth was flat but each to their own.. At least those who genuinely don't understand, have an alternate basis to explore. As I've said repeatedly, BOT is obliged, under IMF rules, to intervene to smooth out peaks and valley's in the baht's vale. That is their job, to aid exporters and they will never say they don't do that. But currency manipulation and intervention under IMF rules are very different things. BOT was buying Baht when USD was at 38 and they acknowledge that was fool hardy but once again, that's their mission under IMF's Managed Float. A 2 or 3% change in value in intraday trading is not unusual, big sales happen, big purchases happen. As also said previously, a 5% swing at the start of the month when US SSc payments are issued sounds reasonable, not that the swing is permanent. Intraday values are typically very volatile, that's the nature and design of the FOREX, there's no story to be had on 2 or 3%, move along. Perhaps one thing that escapes most people is that because THB is such a small currency, it doesn't take much to move it one way or the other. In terms of size, THB is a boutique currency that represents less than 1% of the FOREX. If you want to believe the real story is currency manipulation, my questions are, why and how? BOT's numbers are there for all to see, show me us where and how. .

Thanks, that's useful.

The way you wrote that is unclear. Private Hospitals are more expensive than government hospitals. Pharmacies in private hospitals are more expensive than pharmacies elsewhere, on the high street, in the mall etc. The cheapest place to buy pharmacy is at high street pharmacies.

Using the term, currency manipulation to account for Baht strength is the lazy persons way of avoiding thinking about the issue and failing to understand the problem! Roger Bootle, Chairman of Capital Economics. wrote a seriously good article in the Telegraph this morning about the UK's debt problems. The article is an excellent example of why Thailand's economy is stronger and why the Baht continues to strengthen. I can't link to it because it is behind a paywall, but you may be able to find it bye searching for "Foreign rivals have bought up Britain – now we are at their mercy". In it he refers to the UK's National Debt which is 90% of GDP, this compares to Thailand's which is about 61%. He goes on to talk about the UK, prior to WWII, having a stock of overseas assets equal to 170% of GDP whereas today it is persistently negative. In 1997, that stock of assets was worth 20% of GDP, today it is -18%! Thailand's history is the opposite, prior to 1997 their stock of overseas assets was almost zero, today it is substantial, as the following graph from the World Bank demonstrates. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FM.AST.NFRG.CN?locations=TH The UK's net position is determined by the current account of the balance of payments. In the UK’s case, the UK has persistently run current account deficits which have undermined their net international asset position. The UK has only managed to hold their own by a combination of a tendency to invest in assets abroad with higher returns than their liabilities to foreigners, and the tendency of the pound to fall on the exchanges, thereby reducing the international value of our liabilities. Thailand on the other hand almost continuously operates a current account surplus (covid era notwithstanding) because the country's overseas liabilities in foreign currency is less than 4% of GDP. As a consequence the Baht has a tendency to rise or strengthen. "The fact that we (the UK) are a significant net debtor means that unless we are peculiarly clever in our overseas investments, or take extra risks, there will be a persistent net outflow of interest payments and dividends abroad. For any given level of national output, this reduces the amount of resources available for domestic use. Interest payments on gilts held by foreigners are just a component of this. And if our net international asset position worsens, it is the equivalent of negative net investment. This might not matter if investment in the domestic economy was strong. But investment in the UK economy is pathetically weak". Again, compare this situation with Thailand's cash flow overseas which are almost non-existent plus the endless stream of companies wanting to invest in the country via the BOI scheme. In summary, low public debt, consistent current account surplus from exports/tourism, overseas investment and assets, and, retained earnings in the country, all strongly favor Baht strength. Unless things change substantially, which they haven't really since the turn of the century, the long term trend of THB continues upwards, as it has been more or less has been since 2000, and that of the Pound is downwards, as it has since WWII. https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/currency

No, is the short answer! The longer answer is that dealerships receive incentives from the finance company for generating loan business so you will need to understand that when it comes to price negotiations. Secondly, banks have MLR or Minimum Loan Rate, and, MRR or Minimum Retail Rate. MRR is the minimum rate they will charge their prime, most credit worthy customers. Everyone else pays MRR+. based on credit worthiness, credit history and the loan details. If for example, the bank base rate is 1.5%, MLR is likely to be 7% of even higher, the average car loan rate taken this way is likely to be 12% or more.

Says he, posting his request in the pub. 555