anthos

He’s literally shouting about feeling happiness, love, joy and grace 

Hello friends,

I've been visiting a second hand jeans shop on the first floor of MBK for many years to shop for vintage Levi's.
They had good choice, every time I managed to pick up a pair I liked.
However they've moved away from there about 3 years ago and I couldn't find out where did they go.
Does anyone knows anything about them or suggest another good place for that?
Thank you!

????

By these statements Lavrov only provokes outrage, he may actually achieve the opposite by drawing extra attention to Thailand's neutral stance.
He'd rather keep quiet if he's interested to keep the status quo.
But looks like he's willing to poke around instead as usual. 

7 minutes ago, BonMot said:

If I had to guess this is just a post looking for hotels to shoot porn. But hey, that's me..

For porn I'd chose a building with at least running water )
 

4 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

How decrepit? Why doesn't  your company have its own location  researched?

End of Soi 6 Pratumnak

Well, this thread is a part of the research.
The building can be in ruins actually or anything better than that.

Dear friends,

I'm looking for an abandoned picturesque building (ideally a hotel or a similar facility) for filming a TV show.
If you ever came across such a facility please feel free to pm or advise here.

Seems like there might be closed hotels after covid that may be suitable and owners could rent it out to make some money.

Thanks!

On 2/25/2022 at 9:19 AM, NanLaew said:

At the very same time as he was 'arming Ukraine' and 'banning Nordstream', Trump was denouncing the importance of NATO and constantly disparaged the EU thus weakening both entities which only served to embolden Putin.

Yeah,
So Putin didn't invade Ukraine while "Russian agent who weakened NATO" was in charge.
He had to wait until "strong leader" Biden took the office.

17 minutes ago, AndresSP said:

The US angle makes sense but i still believe that the speech was just an airing of grievances for plebs to chew on and a bit of posturing for the West coming from a place of weakness. 

I wish you were right.
To me the speech sounded like it was prepared for a full scale invasion and they only changed the last bit to this "recognition" announcement at the very last moment.
I can't see him stop at where he is now.
Today he already announced that the "republics" are recognized by Russia in their original regional borders that are 3 times bigger than they currently are.
 

5 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Well, he would make that case, wouldn't he? You think he's really unaware of the deterrent power of nuclear weapons?

He argues that the deterrent power of his nuclear weapons may be diminished by having NATO missiles within 5 minutes flight from his residence. 
If they can get rid of him and his military headquarters in a few minutes there will be no one to order a retaliation strike.
He just doesn't want to move to Siberia just because of that, you know. Easier to take Ukraine back and he definitely sees more glory in that.

2 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Now, if Russia only had nuclear weapons, that wouldn't be a serious concern but since...oh wait a minute...

I personally agree but apparently Putin doesn't seem to rely ,on his nuclear weapons enough.
He keeps arguing that having NATO bases as close as Ukraine minimizes any military advantage Russia may have. 

Who would've expected Moldova to become a leader in pandemic management.

4 hours ago, Saanim said:

Why not to have the payment transferred T/T to your Thai Baht account, as almost all foreign buyers do to Thai supplying companies. Of course, there is certain fee involved, usually $30 or less (that should be covered by the payer), depends on the transferring bank.  Or zero sometimes from Europe. In addition, the Thai bank kindly deducts another 500 Baht, sometimes less if smaller amounts.

      

That's what we've been doing for the last 15 years. It's cheap, safe, the exchange rate is great, the bank staff kindly calls me to confirm the exchange rate every time we have incoming transfer and I got used to their fee (normally THB 700 or 800 in my case).
Would love to go on this way but lately there's a demand for CC payments, I'm being asked about it more often (everyone likes cashbacks and miles at someone else's expense, I can't blame them, I do it myself), so I wouldn't mind to offer another payment channel, so studying the feasibility now. My market is rather competitive and I earn 5-10% of what I receive so every 2-3% is sensible. Can't afford to give 20-30% of my profit to a bank for credit card processing,
I case of PayPal for example it's even more - 4.5% + ridiculous exchange rate.

2 hours ago, lkn said:

In the past it was common for Thai merchants to require 3% extra, if paying with foreign credit card, to cover their fee. This made me think that the rate was 3% in Thailand, so I wonder why you got quoted 4%. I say in the past, mainly because I have not tried to pay for anything with a foreign card in ages.

 

I am curious about your setup though, if you mainly cater to people abroad who pay you large amounts in USD, would it not make sense to incorporate in e.g. Delaware and setup card processing for this subsidiary? The rate you can get via a U.S. merchant account is probably closer to 2%, but it has been years since I last worked with credit card processing, and it all depends on your revenue, whether this is really worth the trouble and added expenses of having a U.S. subsidiary.

I think 3% is some sort of average. I've seen offers from 2 to 4% depending on transaction volumes. An entry merchant package is definitely around 3.5-4%. 
But there may be people out there who know more about it hence I'm asking here.

Yes, in other jurisdictions there may be lower merchant fees.
I get most payments from Russia where setting up a company to collect credit card payments would be too difficult and expensive (taxes, licensing etc.). Even though some Russian banks offer 2% and even smaller merchant fees.
I also wonder if any offshore banks can collect cc payments at 2% and I'd be able to send SWIFT transfers from there to Thailand. Looks a bit tricky though.

I just need a payment link solution, most simple. Still looks like 3%+ rates for SMEs are there to stay for a while.
My Thai suppliers accept credit cards without extra fees which is very handy and a get plenty of miles. But their volumes are huge so I believe they get 2% or less from their banks.

 

8 hours ago, fceligoj said:

I would imagine any transfer of more than $10,000 would come under the scrutiny of the US Treasury Dept as being possibly money laundering no matter if by cash, bank transfer, or credit card.

Why? Let's say you book a stay at Four Seasons Samui for 10 nights and send them 20000 USD or buy teak wood furniture from Chiang Mai for the same amount. What interest US government would have in that?
Krungsri bank only asked me a few times in the last 10 years to supply a copy of invoice for incoming payments exceeding I think 50 000 USD.. That's all the money laundering control I've seen so far. And my business is absolutely legitimate.

13 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

What I wrote is true for EVERY business and EVERY payment option that businesses offer to their customers. You offer services or goods to your customers and your website shows a price for that. As a customer, I will pay that price AND NOT A CENT MORE with a payment method that your website says that you accept. Having to cover YOUR cost for this payment option will drive customers away, plain and simple. If you think that accepting credit card payments costs you too much, then don't offer that payment option, plain and simple. 

I don't do any online sales. 
It's all about the costs of transferring a certain amount of money to a Thai bank account from abroad.

Also my clients a 100% ok to have a choice of different payment options.
And my competitors also have the same choice for their clients.
So I don't see why I would want to offer only one more expensive payment channel.


 

7 hours ago, Phulublub said:

If it is worthwhile of you to expand the business, offer a 2% reduction for CC payments...customer pays the same, gets the conveninece and you get more turnover.

I was thinking about it.
I'm trying to find a more affordable merchant solution first.
If 4% is the best that Thai banking market can offer then I might go with that.

5 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

No, I would not consider paying YOUR credit card fees for YOUR business.... And I can tell you from experience in Switzerland, that the roll-over of merchant fees to customer did in fact lead to REDUCED sales. Customers dropped the wares in the shop, because they did not accept that additional fee and did not have enough cash in their pockets.

What you're saying is absolutely true for large companies like Swiss Air or retail chains.
In my case it's not the choice between cash and credit card.
It's a choice between SWIFT bank transfer and credit card.

 

For 30 000 USD it doesn't but for smaller amounts it does.
I have a good amount of invoices around 5-10 thousand USD where my clients would consider paying 2% for credit card transaction instead if SWIFT.

Dear Swiss friend.

What you're saying is good for retail business - a Family mart, gas station etc.

But if you have to send let's say a 30 000 USD payment - you have a choice between a USD 50-100 flat fee for a SWIFT transfer or a 3.5% credit card charge (which is USD 1050 in this case). I don't think you'd choose to pay an extra 1000 USD just for using a credit card.

But at 2% or less it would work for smaller payments where it is comparable to SWIT transfer rates.
 

Dear friends,

I'm looking for a solution to acquire credit and debit card payments into my company's Thai bank account.
Via a payment link or other online form.
The annual volume will depend on the costs of the transactions but I guess if I can make in at around 2% then I can expect up to 300 000 USD per year to start with.
At the moment the rates offered by my bank (Krungsri) are around 3.5% which is not feasible for my clients. Also requires some paperwork which I don't think I can provide right away.

Any ideas, advice or personal experience to share please?
Thank you!

Krungsri bank has always allowed to make online SWIFT transfers abroad.
I don't think I ever applied for it with or without my work permit.
Surely never had to visit their branch to do it.
However I think I've never sent more than 10000 USD.

Thai boxing in a mask is a lot of fun! Can’t wait for it.

Meanwhile Turkey is open to foreign tourists as if nothing happened. They know they wouldn’t survive an empty high season.

Maldives are also welcoming tourists now.

Italy, Greece, Spain allow EU customers. UK allow even non EU travelers.

Can also go to Egypt, Tanzania.

We shall have to live with the virus for quite a while now.

Cant efficiently isolate a whole country anyway, need to adapt somehow.
Thailand had plenty of time to prepare - build an efficient testing and tracking systems, build new hospitals, develop all necessary protocols etc. Nothing has been done unfortunately.

Now facing a difficult choice - to lose the whole tourism industry or lose a supposedly virus free status.

Also sounds quite weird that everyone is talking about Phuket only as if Samui and other destinations don’t exist.