Mike Lister

Ironically they do the opposite, a discount price on hotel rooms for Thais and a higher price for foreigners, or so it is claimed by many here.

International Tourism is worth 12% of GDP, on a good day, Domestic Tourism is worth about 8%. International Tourism is valuable to the country not because of the foreign currency they bring, most foreign currency comes to Thailand by way of Customs Exports which are 56% of GDP. It's valuable because International Tourism spending stimulates Consumer Spending, it seems that the plan now is make Domestic Tourism replace external money which is doable, if it actually exists and if locals are willing to spend, albeit at a lower rate than international tourists. Reducing reliance on international tourism has got to be a smart move and long overdue. And the exchange rate favors tourists right now, 35 to USD and 44 to the Pound is attractive by recent history. The Chinese definitely think Thailand is a cheap destination, they all tell us that, the exchange rate is not the reason the Chinese aren't visiting, that's down to other reasons.

Me too, don't self medicate where your eyes are concerned, it's not worth the risk.

I cannot disagree more! Car insurance for example operates a no-claims bonus system that is based on the vehicle rather than on the driver. The longer the vehicle isn't involved in an accident and there's no claim, the longer the no claims policy remains in place. BUT, if the driver changes his vehicle, the no claims bonus is voided and because the vehicle is new, no-claims has to start from scratch once again. No other country in the world operates a system like that. House insurance insures against storm damage, UNLESS the storm was announced in advance by the weather office.....say what! Health insurers can cancel their policies for any reason they want, you're too old, you've claimed too much, we don't like you. You've claimed so we're going o increase the cost of your policy by 25% because we want our money back! Western insurers group similarly aged people into pools and increase premiums according to the profile of claims made by that pool, bot based on what an individual has claimed.

An excellent question, I don't know the answer for certain but I doubt it. I think this is just something that slipped through the cracks. Whilst it may be OK for Immi/visa purposes, it may not be OK for RD purposes.

I think that's probably OK for everyone because the objective of transfering money is to buy baht in exchange for foreign currency. The fact the physical transfer was made last year shouldn't mean much, it's when you actually sell it and buy baht that counts.

Maybe that poster was lucky and got a special farang price. :)))

And when he says, "funny", he doesn't mean haha funny!

I think so, its a very useful test.

I do, always

There is no evidence that I've ever come across to even remotely suggest that older expats who reside here are a drain on the economy or leave unpaid hospital bills. There is however plenty of evidence to confirm that workers from neighbouring countries who are insured, are a massive drain, particularly in Phuket. There have been various news articles on this subject over many years, the problem is that the government can't do much to enforce health insurance on manual labourers from Myanmar and Cambodia and Laos, On the one hand they need the labour, on the other, those workers can't afford insurance. Hence the target has always been, more wealthy western expats, none of whom are the problem. The other point to make here is that 3 mill. is a lot of money to spend on medical care here, unless a person wants to be treated exclusively in the private hospitals. I've very recently had an operation which I costed at different institutions. The cost at a large well known hospital chain was 300k, at the private arm of the university hospital it was 170k, at the main university hospital it would have cost 75k and at the government District hospital the cost would have been around 24k but with a wait and no choice of surgeon. So yes, 3 mill is not much at a [private hospital but that cost can be reduced easily.

That's what two sources say, do you have a link that says differently, or is it just you?

The Bangkok Post article entitled, "Focussing on Foreigners". dated 25 September, 2023, says that in the first quarter of this year, the expat community totalled 156, 596, half of whom live in Bangkok. The top three nationalities are Japanese, Chinese and Indians.

I posted a link to support my claim, where's yours?

Unfortunately yes. It's odd how different people like to use different apps for communication, my niece uses Line to send messages and photo's from Uni so I can't get rid of it.

Probably easier for the younger crowd to accept, as an oldie I have great difficulty with this.

Ah, silly me, I'm using Line for access, no wonder we see different things. Thanks for posting that, I'll download the app! Duh.....!

Passenger, my wife's a great driver.

The worlds gone mad.

Regrettably, I can only do one of those three.

Yes, technically my wife is supposed to report my return home, following a trip in country, but she never has. I pay a legit agent to manage all my interfaces with Immi., I give them my passport to do the 90 day report and have never done anything about TM30 updates for years......my visa still gets extended without hassle or questions.

Aint that the truth!

And I could win the lottery tomorrow.....stop hypothesising and second guessing, it helps nobody..

Nobody is tearing up anything, calm down and stop reacting to comments that have no basis in fact. Do you not think that if Thailand were going to tear up all its DTA that the likes of Sherrings or Mazars would be over that news like a rash, the internet would be on fire with the news.

You said it yourself, it's definitely older money hence there will not be an issue. All of this is date driven at the moment so taking a snapshot or valuation at 31 December 2023 should solve any problems.