bluesofa

Just now, Youbloodybeauty said:

I don't live fulltime here (yet) but wondering about paying bills here.

Can you pay stuff like water, power, internet, car insurance, rego, home telephone etc online?

It seems crazy that my in-laws drive to place to pay bills and this week 1.5hr drive to pay the car rego. Surely some of these bills can be paid online ...or next best thing are most paid at 7-11?

A lot of bills I do pay online - AIS, DTAC, TOT.

However, for the PEA & PWA to be paid online, I need to get the person named on the bill to submit some details. As it's the father-in-law, paperwork isn't exactly the thing he's keen on. (Although he loves it when he can pop round and I can print off a copy if his ID card & house reg, having scanned them once before.)

Unless the system has changed in the past couple of years? Perhaps I should look into it again.

11 minutes ago, longball53098 said:

I would say it may depend on how the hand held devices upload their data to the host system. If the device is online all the time then it would dump its data in almost real time to the mother computer so that account that was just read would be in the system almost immediately if they take some time like 30 minutes or more than a host system would not update as fast.

 

Just my thought and opine on this one

Yes, I agree that would be a good idea to get the data uploaded instantly.

However, what we don't know is if the meter reader unit is even online with 3G/4G.

I think the original system required them to upload manually at the end of the day. Whether there's a more updated system I wouldn't know.

As the OP, my point about convenience stores accepting payment as soon as the bill has been issued still stands.

As blackcab said:

"Because one is a government agency that has no interest in customer service or efficiency and the other is an extremely switched on company that is ruthlessly efficient. "

9 minutes ago, Black arab said:

I am sat outside my house now and some of the village locals have come around and dont want me to cycle out of our village.The parents of some of these boys want to pay some money to the falang apparently so no police action will be taken

At the risk of going slightly OT, it seems the parents want to pay 'some' compensation, rather than the boys accept responsibility for demanding money, followed by assault.

I know this is easy to say having no involvement with this, but my thinking would be the assaulted guy should either say no outright, or whatever is offered multiply it by ten - to make the parents suffer financially, thereby the parents would give their kids a hard time that way.

6 minutes ago, Black arab said:

Well i havent been accosted yet but these teenagers are probably the same ones that have been breaking into people homes  in this village where this other incident happened.Ask the thais in my village and they alledge they are on yaba

OK, that's a fair comment, but worrying if that's the sort of situation that may arise.

That's an odd story?

I cycle around in town and also out in the sticks, never having felt threatened before.

The most that happens to me is people wanting to say hello or wanting to know where I'm going.

I can understand there might be a few undesirables occasionally, usually in built-up areas where Thais are used to dealing with falangs, but not so much in more rural locations?

Having said that, I was accosted by a kid (perhaps ten or twelve?) 'demanding' in appalling English that I give him money to top-up his phone.

To pay our water bill I usually go to the local PWA office with the bill and pay there.

On one occasion in the past I went to pay a few hours after the water bill had arrived in the mailbox.

I was told that I would have to come back “a couple of days later”, as the bill was not yet on their system and they couldn’t access it to accept payment.

By chance I went into a 7 Eleven half-an-hour later and paid it there without it being queried at all.

IIRC, I think the meter reader is the person who prints out the bill when he reads the meter?

How can it need the PWA to wait for these details to be uploaded, when it’s their own system and they have all the customer’s account history and details already (apart from the very latest bill)?

7 Eleven, despite not having all these details reads the barcode (including in there must be the account details) and accepts the balance outstanding by default. Obviously too difficult for the PWA to do the same.

17 minutes ago, NilSS said:

[Therefore it's an 'foreigner' ID card. Not a 'Thai ID' card.]

I suppose you call your Thai driver's license a foreigner license too. 

 

Pink ID is also issued to stateless people. This is where forum posters like yourself are getting confused. 

 

To be pedantic, it's a Thai issued ID card for people without Thai nationality.

Is this the same card as issued to stateless people now?

The last time I saw one, it was almost white, with a thick pink diagonal line running from top left to bottom right across the card.

57 minutes ago, inThailand said:

Isn't that the age the govt cuts you off... dead or alive?

When we the statistic that Thai males live to seventy, we now know the government must be trying to keep the figures looking tidy...

3 minutes ago, pearciderman said:

Did you even read my post?

 

"The move is in response to the 2011 National Identification Card Act, which requires that Thais aged between seven and 70 years carry the cards."

 

 

Not wishing to be dragged into the slanging match regarding the lower age limit, why would the government impose an upper age limit for carrying an ID card?

So on your seventy-first birthday you no longer have to prove your identity?

31 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

Grey area i expect. I check in with Pinko its never been questioned anywhere in Thailand (even though it clearly states valid in province of issue only). Thats my part done if the hotel or guest house doesnt register me there problem not mine.

As house master i would say thats a diffrent matter if a friend from say Chiang Mai comes to stay with us who has a pinko.

1. Do we bother going to immigration and telling them ? (Letter of law says yes we so no way hosah). If we did surley pinko would be no good as it clearly states valid in province of issue?

So as a housmaster if you registered them you would need there passports.

I understand you managed guest houses

Which you rented the answer to your question is If you accept pinko do you register them is there a way of inputing them on the register on the web site? GREY AREA.

Regarding the grey area of inputting pink ID cards on the immigration system, I wouldn't know if the system has been improved.

A few years back it was only interesting in passport details, TM6, etc, - plus the fact all the passports are written in Latin script (if only secondary). It wasn't an option to enter anything in Thai script (as per the pink ID).

Plus the fact it has your Thai ID number and not passport number, with your name transliterated into Thai. I would guess it would make it an uphill struggle for immigration to cross-reference any of that.

Still, it would be interesting if there's someone with direct knowledge of this.

8 hours ago, NilSS said:

Contrary to popular myth, a Thai driver's license is not a substitute for your passport. It's a driver's license. It's states your entitlement to drive. It does not represent any evidence of your lawful presence in Thailand. It just says you can drive.

The pink ID card is a different matter. There's a lot of crap on here about it. There is a translation gaffe, where everyone thinks it states it's not an ID card. What they mean is it doesn't mean you're Thai. It IS a form of national identification however. It is a resident alien card. Perversely it actually hindered my Work Permit renewal. The staff at the Ministry of Labour seemed to be using it as some kind of training exercise. I should have left it at home!

 

I'm a hotel manager and I instruct my staff to accept it as identification, which is what I believe we're allowed to do, it has your permanent address. I also stay in a lot of hotels myself and my own pink ID card has ALWAYS been accepted for check in, but then I never stay in no-star $#!t holes where the staff are only trained to smile. If anyone has substantial evidence to the contrary I'm happy to listen, but I'm not interested to argue with some pompous twerp that can't see the value of something you're legally obliged to get anyway if you're on a Tabien Baan.

In the past I managed some houses we rented out to tourists. We, like you, were required to register all aliens staying in our properties within 24 hours.

I don't know the form number needed, because after a lot of hassle we managed get approval to do the registering online, by logging in to the immigration system directly, having been issued with a user ID and password.

Now I have no hidden agenda here, but there is a question I would be interested in knowing the answer to: Does possession if the pink ID card cancel requirement by the "housemaster" to register the alien?

If it does fine (I have a pink ID too), but if not, then the passport details will still be required if checking in under your own name.

1 minute ago, Tanoshi said:

What information isn't on a Thai ID card, that's on a passport.

Passport number, TM6 (arrival card) number, date of expiration of stay, type of visa. All required by immigration when registering aliens.

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I had the website set to Thai and did everything in Thai. I was not about to change my PC to Thai to do a test.

I buy my wife's tickets at the same time I do mine in English. No reason to do it in Thai.

 

Just tried the Air Asia site (in Thai) and I am able to enter the name in Thai. Everything was the same as when I tried Nok and Thai Lion air where I was not able to do it.

Just the same as you, UJ. I've tried Air Asia and Nok Air in Thai language to select a flight.

Air Asia allowed me to enter a name in Thai, Nok Air would not. If I changed to English, only then could I type in the name & surname boxes for Nok Air.

7 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

For internal flights within Thailand, yes.

Nok Air, Air Asia etc all accept online bookings in Thai or English script.

The Thai ID card for foreigners is only a local identity card for use, and accepted as such within Thailand's borders.

 

For International flights, passport and name as detailed in the passport.

OK.

There must have been something up with the website at the time (January this year). It was a Nok Air internal flight.

2 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

That's because you tried to use your Thai ID card with your name in Thai script, when you booked the flight using English script.

Try booking in with your name in Thai script the same as on your ID card and you won't have any problems using your Thai ID card as your ID, just as Thais do.

Can you do that?

When I booked a flight for my sister-in-law, I'm sure the website told me I could only enter it in English after I tried Thai script first.

Or maybe you need to book it at an agent or airline office for it to be entered in Thai?

I went into AIS (Telewiz) yesterday to buy a new phone. They wanted some ID for the purchase and guarantee. I used my pink ID with no problem.

I have had a postpaid monthly account with AIS for thirteen years. When I applied, the staff used my passport as my ID number for the account.

It became a bit of a pain in the proverbial, as when I logged into my account online, I needed to use the passport number for verification, even though that one expired years ago. A few  months ago I got AIS to change my ID to the pink card, as that's a number for life.

I wish DTAC would get their act together, in our local shop they refuse to accept it for anything, seeming baffled by the card, insisting on only accepting a passport.

5 minutes ago, Patanawet said:

I was given a receipt which was all in Thai. I dicovered that the numbers on it ending in TH was the tracking number.

It seems to track it only to Suvarnabhumi and not to it's foreign destination.

Thanks again.

I wouldn't panic, it does get tracked to the final destination on the Thai postal tracking website.

Everything I have sent to Finland or the UK has seemed "stuck" in Suvanabhumi for anything from three to ten days. Then it will suddenly move on the Thai tracking system, appearing at the remote destination.

I once phoned the Post Office helpline about this. They told me, "sometimes the item has to wait for a suitable flight to get it to the destination". I was told they couldn't do anything until two weeks had past.

That does seem like rubbish, but I've never lost a parcel, it's always started moving again after it's little sleep at the airport mail centre.

12 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

You need to include a stamped envelope for return - did you just send stamps?

I'm sorry, I didn't write that too clearly. Yes, I did enclose a stamped envelope, as per the instructions.

I'll post a very short report of my only attempt of 90 day reporting by post, even though it was more than five years ago.

Sent my details to my local immigration office (not BKK) by EMS, included stamps for return postage (not EMS) and all the correct documents.

I didn't receive anything back, even after more than a month. I had to go to immigration for another matter, so went to the 90 day desk as well to inform them I hadn't received the acknowledgement back in the post.

The girl on the desk, without looking at my passport, or asking any details, said that they hadn't received it!

I had tracked it on the postal tracking website and knew it had been listed as delivered. I showed the IO a copy of the EMS receipt and the tracking printout.

She said that she would need to see who signed for it, and we would have to go to the post office to find out. Luckily, my wife managed to phone the post office, who over the phone gave her the name of the recipient.

Five minutes later, went back to the 90 day desk, told the IO the name. She just looked disdainfully in the direction of another staff member saying, "Oh, that's her."

Without any further hassle she did my 90 day report for me, backdating it to the date on the tracking report.

No mention of any fine (not that there should have been anyway).

6 minutes ago, Anthony Loh said:

I stay in chiang mai, the IO told me that they don't interested in my yellow house book and pink ID. I have two children born in Thailand also but still need to provide witness at the immigration office.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info. I don't know if Udon will be the same, but I'd more than likely guess so.

1 minute ago, jeab1980 said:

So your wife kept her Thai surname then.

Yes, a good point there.

My wife thought it seemed better for her to keep her Thai surname as she felt it could put her at a disadvantage when she buys and sells land, as other Thais would see her as a 'rich ferang wife', inhibiting her chance to get a good deal.

32 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

Jomtien told me the opposite, relations were OK my three extension have all been witnessed by my wife's aunt each time, with no problems! and no home visits

It seems to hinge on whether they have the same surname.

As I posted earlier, if my wife's sister-in-law hadn't changed her surname when she married my wife's brother, she would be OK as a witness.

6 hours ago, Moonlover said:

 

Read again. I said ''visit''. I am aware we need a witness when we apply thank you.

I misunderstood your post. There was a space after mentioning the visit you had, saying you thought it would be the only one.  Then it said you would know for sure in September.

I assumed you meant about the need for a witness at immigration, as that was the heading of the thread.

Sorry.

18 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

This is interesting, as I just changed from an extension based on retirement to an extension based on marriage, so the 2nd extension based on marriage will be due end January.

 

Since I got the extension based on marriage and them coming out to take a photo with us in it and the house in the background, I have obtained the Tabien Bann (yellow book), yes went jumped through all of the hoola-hoops, and also got pink ID, just wondering if that has any weight, the immigration office in Sakon Nahkon is relatively small and the guys there are familiar with us. 

 

If the Tabien Bann doesn't have any weight and I require a witness, will take the neighbour as she is good value for the 200 baht plus lunch that we give her for the 3 hour round trip.

 

Its just come to mind that I am going there early August to do my 90 day reporting, so will ask the question then and update the reply to this post for any others who go to Sakon Nakhon, that is unless someone who goes there is reading this and can answer the question for me. 

I'd be interested to know what the outcome is regarding the tablien ban and pink ID, if immigration are interested in it, or give you any brownie points for it? i.e. not requiring a witness as you have the same registered address?

I have both docs, but haven't bothered to mention them, as at the moment they (along with my wife's house reg &  ID) are for a different address in the same village. Depending on the outcome, it may be worth changing them all to where we actually live, not just registered as living.

I know it's a while before your extension is due, but if you could reply on this thread it would be great, thanks.

1 minute ago, kannot said:

And in Hua  Hin they told us they couldnt come out to see us as we  lived to far away (35km) and they didnt get money for fuel etc so instead they walked us down the  road to a hotel and took some photos  outside of us.

Ive never had them visit our home....................herein lies  the Thai problem of consistency

'Thai consistency' a bit of an oxymoron.