5davidhen1

Wearing your seatbelt is supposed to prevent you from hitting your head (on the ceiling) 555.

I spent 4 months in Na Trang in 2019. I always used gold shops and always achieved an excellent rate.

I have no interest in US politics but.... it is impossible to not see bits of it when it gets plastered all over the news. What I will say is this: If I had been found guilty of a crime and was aware that on the 11th July the judge would be handing down my sentence, based partly on my demeanour. e.g. Have I been showing any remorse for my crimes? The last thing I would be doing is claiming that the trial was rigged, and calling the judge corrupt!!! The man is deranged.

Staying in Jomtien, as I am, would anyone care to recommend any alternatives to ASEANOW?

All sorted now, Thanks.

OK, thank you, It's OK now. You were correct. There must have been something corrupt with my ASEANOW bookmark as I've now scrapped it, created a new one and all is fine.

I've just logged on again and your reply isn't there!

As an addendum my to recent post, I've just logged back onto the site and my post is not there. I think that I must be logging on to a different part of the site? Help!

What's happened to this site? I used to log on and read many interesting threads, but now most of the threads are quite old, suggesting that contributors have left the forum. I live in Jomtien, enjoy reading Pattaya-related news and views as well as Thailand news in general. I did have a pc problem recently and lost some data. Is it possible that I am logging in to a different part of ASEANOW or, have members simply left?

Thanks Wordchild, I can see that you are quite correct

I am considering buying some shares in LSEG listed company PHNX --- who are paying an excellent dividend. Upon researching this company, I find that many sites are showing yesterday's bid price as 488p and an offer price of 550p --- a spread of 62p! Surely this cannot be correct, am I misreading the sites' data? N.B. The figures quoted are not stated as the day's --- or the year's lows/highs, but the enormous spread suggests such.

Hear hear!

Appropriately, and judiciously used power and speed (acceleration) can get one out of trouble, sometimes better than brake application. "Speed" per se does not kill --- it is INAPROPRIATE speed which kills.

Thanks to all. My landlady has now sent an LG TV round which, I think she retrieved from another of her condos. Smart, or dumb, I don't know but I'm getting 59 channels on it and it didn't need my hotspot. It just needed to be plugged into the mains elec' and the co-axial aerial socket.

Many thanks to all the respondents. brianthainess, I don't believe that my landlady doesn't want to replace the TV, I think it's just that she doesn't fully understand current technology, as indeed, neither do I, hence my appeal on this forum. As a 73yr old fart, I do try to keep up with IT but, I think it is starting to outpace me. 555.

Jomtien, Digbeth --- and thanks.

Quite a few channels --- English and Thai, but not subscription channels like Netflix etc. They are broadcast via a normal co-axial aerial socket in the wall. Also -- forgot to mention --- included in my monthly utility bill is THB 300 for cable TV. Is that what I was getting via the ariel, or am I paying for a service which I do not use?

Hi folks, The TV in my rented condo has died and my landlady is telling me that she is having difficulty sourcing a new one which doesn't require Wi-Fi. Her son came round last week with another TV which, unfortunately was too big. Had it fitted the location, he was suggesting that we try to connect to my Wi-Fi just to "set it up." The only Wi-Fi which I have is via AIS on my phone. I pay THB 2,500 pa and use it as a hotspot with which to operate my laptop. It is more than adequate for my laptop's requirements but, the son explained that if I used it as a vehicle with which to watch TV programmes, my phone data (not sure if that's the correct word) would run out very quickly. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance. David.

I strongly suspect (and sincerely hope) that if this becomes law, the DWP (and the banks) will have enough on their hands targeting benefit fraud, long before they start looking at expats pensions. By having access to recipients' bank a/c info', Benefit fraud, particularly with those on means tested benefits, should be relatively easy to detect --- then would start (possibly) lengthy investigations and prosecutions. However, finding expats who fail to inform DWP of their whereabouts would not be so easy. Also, there is the (not so) small matter of proving domicility. Many of us expats go "home" from time to time --- who's to say how long for, and exactly where in the UK they are residing? The DWP "knows" that I am living with my daughter and the banks and HMRC etc "know" that I am residing at her address. DWP will, in my estimation, go for the "low-hanging fruit" of means-tested benefit claimants long before looking at state pension-receiving expats, which, I'm sure, will prove too onerous a task.

Currently, I use the well known agent in Soi Post office for my extensions. However, during the height of the pandemic, I was a strandee here with a rapidly expiring UK passport. It was about August/September of 2020 when I used Thai Visa Express in Soi 15, off of Soi Buakhao. The cost was THB 10,000 and my new (and old) passports were returned to me in just shy of 4 weeks.

To return to the OP's original question, and not taking into account anything regarding new/old, freezing or not, I would add the following: If a person redeemed a pension (I'm not talking state here) at age 65, and opted for an escalating payment plan, i.e. one which increased as years go by, rather than a "flat line" example, he/she would need to survive many years for it to be a viable option. I conducted an exercise some years back and discovered that the "break-even point" would have been 82 years of age. Also, this example doesn't take into account the potential investment value of receiving the higher amount during those first 17 years. To sum up, whilst deferment remains a personal choice, I believe there good reasons for NOT doing so.... "A bird in the hand?"

I live in Jomtien and for the last 3 years have been using an agent in Soi Post Office, Pattaya. I recently renewed and, for just over the previous 2 months, had over THB 800,000 in my bank a/c. I explained this to my agent whereupon she gave me a small list (2 or 3 items) of documents to obtain from my bank, before bringing them to her. The bank charged me THB 200 for the docs and my agent charged me THB 8,000 for the extension, a discount of THB 4,500. All I had to do then was to go to immigration (no waiting) for a photocall --- straight in and out. I collected my passport from the agent 2 days later. Now, I intend to leave the money (more than THB 1m for the duration, which my lady can access in case of my demise) in my a/c. I kept the small list which my agent gave me and, armed with more up-to-date information, I will attempt the renewal myself next year.

555. Yes, I noticed him just after posting.

Irrelevant? It's not irrelevant, it's a hippopotamus!