jfchandler

I'm in the USA and no one ask for identification or checks the signature or the card. Anyone could be using it.. Never let the card out of your sight.

The difference is in the U.S., under federal laws, you're liable for little or none of anything that occurs with fraudulent charges to your credit cards and debit cards... The laws are a bit different for the two... But as long as you report any fraud as soon as discovering it, you'll be liable for little or none.

In Thailand, I've yet to find any reference to any consumer protection laws relating to fraudulent bank card use, whether due to loss, theft or fraud. The general policy of Thai banks seems to be you're responsible for everything and anything that occurs with your card until FIVE MINUTES AFTER you report something to the bank--up to whatever the daily limit is on the card for ATM and POS use and/or the account balance.

And, although I doubt this is the norm, there have been member posts here on TV in the past saying that some Thai bank or banks wouldn't accept the report over the phone on a weekend and instead required the person to show up in-person on Monday morning with a Thai police report--with the bill running up the entire time.

A year or so back, I had my wallet stolen by the Skytrain by Thais, and within one hour (the time it took me to get home and call my bank after discovering the theft) they had rung up about $1,000 in various purchases at different stores in the Silom complex using a U.S. debit card that was in my wallet.

Now, I don't look remotely Thai, and my name on the card isn't remotely Thai... Yet that didn't stop the thieves from doing 7 or 8 different transactions in one mall in less than an hour.

Clearly, no one in the shops cared about the name on the card, the signature on the back or bothering to check anything.

Because it was a U.S. card covered by U.S. laws and I promptly reported the loss, I had all the funds restored to my account by my bank within two weeks--though I did have to fax them a copy of the Thai police report involved.

Had it been a Thai bank and Thai bank card, I'm pretty certain I would have been out for the entire loss.

The PACC investigation found that Bangkok gambling dens had been told to close temporarily before the July 3 election so that customers would turn to those in a neighbouring country - especially those with Thai politicians as shareholders who wanted to get money for vote-buying.

This above seems like a pretty novel approach that's deserving of more comment and recognition...

Fleece upcountry Thais at the cross-the-border gambling tables, and then use their own money to buy their votes in the national election.

And that's not farangs speculating on this... That's the Thais themselves via the PACC saying so...

Let's see...which political faction again is reported to have cross border gambling interests... And which part of the law enforcement community here is deeply involved in gambling (and other vice) operations and who are they aligned with???

Glad to see that both democracy and capitalism are thriving in Thailand.

Thiis is what an MP should be doing. Amazing that Mr. Abhisit's Democrat party couldn't take time away from the obsession with Thaksin to get some action against the gambling dens that flourished during their rule. I note how the PTP led administration acted quickly. Nice change from the previous administration.

You're surely taking some mind-altering medication, right? Otherwise, you couldn't possibly have written what you say above...

PTP had absolutely nothing to do with this.... The issue was raised by Chuwit and dumped in the government's lap, which at least had to (like ANY government would) look like it was doing something about it.

Had Chuwit not shoved the issue right into the PTP government's face, we wouldn't be talking about it, and the government wouldn't be doing yet another (including under the Democrats too) one of their false crackdowns on the social ill of the week that like always, will lead to absolutely nothing changing.

BTW, while the PTP government is cracking down, maybe they'll crack down on this kind of stuff too...

This was in the news just a few months ago....

Pretty well sums up where the police are on the issue of gambling...

Yes, by all means, let's have ANOTHER investigation....

Audacity is free and works well as a general purpose recording software, but it's a bit technical and really is probably better suited as an audio file editor. To save as MP3 files. you first have to save as a WAV file and then manually export to an MP3 file.

Audiograbber is also free, more suited to ripping CDs to MP3s, but also has a line in feature that allows recording of whatever's coming thru your soundcard. Much friendlier settings and built in controls for automatically splitting streams into tracks, as well as file tagging functions. It also automatically converts the initial WAV file recording into MP3s, if you want it to, behind the scenes without any user involvement.

Depending on what country IP address a person is using or has access to, Spotify is a terrific service, huge music library and even their free plan (at least for U.S. IP holders) has high quality MP3 streams. The advantage there is you can pick the individual songs or albums you want to hear from their library of 15 or 18 million songs, whereas services like Pandora choose the music for you based on your general preferences.

For a REALLY simple and uncomplicated free MP3 recording software, which again records whatever's coming thru your soundcard, I like Free Sound Recorder 9.2.7.

http://download.cnet.com/Free-Sound-Recorder/3000-2168_4-10698910.html?tag=dropDownForm;productListing

I have and use all of the above...

Maestro, I thought the poster below was indicating he is an employed teacher... not a student....

Mystery solved. Some people, like those studying Thai at a private school, need an extension of stay costing 1,900 Baht every 90 days.

As a teacher in a University Satit school , I recently went to Immigration in Khon Kaen for what was supposed to be a 90 day report. As it happened , due to the policy of the University I work in, to get all the contracts of their farang employees renewed at the same time ( september/ october), my contract is due for renewal at the end of September, therefore i was only given 50 days on my visa, as opposed to 90 days, 1900 bht khop khun krap sir.

Must admit since joining the Uni as an employee, I have had to go to KK Immigration on two occasions now...

Welcome to the LOS Sir and thank you for teaching our kids.

wow... **jaw-dropped** That saves 6 hours.

The Immigration staff are supposed to be showing up there on the designated Saturday at 9 am... but at least lately since members here have been using and reporting on their experiences there, Immigration regularly has been showing up late...

Last Saturday, both Immigration and the hospital confirmed earlier in the week they were supposed to be there and open starting at 9 am... Perhaps predictably, no one from Immigration showed up until 10 am.... Though the supervisor there told me their ongoing starting time still is supposed to be 9. (They apparently were late the month before as well, based on reports from members who were there that day).

Once Immigration arrived at 10 am... I was done and out by 11 am with my annual extension of stay, re-entry permit and 90-day report all under my belt.

Curiously, Immigration appears to be doing absolutely nothing to publicize or promote these mobile services in the farang community that would use them. Perhaps that's because they're not planning to continue them anyway.

Immigration is there one day a month (maybe - until December) for general use. Believe hospital will handle 90 day reports at normal 500 baht per trip fee at other times but not sure on that.

Regarding the question above on this, there's a separate TV thread here on Bangkok Mobile Immigration services started by TV member Todd Daniels... It includes the details on the two mobile locations currently available in Bangkok, a place in the KSRoad area on the second Saturdays of each month and Bumrungrad Hospital on the third Saturday of each month...

My full report on my recent visit to Bumrungrad last Sat. is posted in that thread, including the conversation with the Immigration supervisor of the mobile unit saying that those two services are only slated to continue thru December... After that... who knows... She said they have no plans at present to continue beyond December....

As for fees, from my experience, if you prepare all your documents yourself and don't ask the hospital staff to get involved, then the only fees you pay at Bumrungrad are the regular Immigration dictated fees you'd pay at Chaeng Wattana or anywhere else.

The Bumrungrad clinic is open to anyone...not just Bumrungrad patients. But as you can read from my report in the other thread, apparently sometimes, it takes some convincing to remind certain Immigration staff of that.

In case of application for extension of

temporary stay in the Kingdom by TM7 you have

notified your place of residence the first time.

The highlighted part in the above-quoted 90-Day Report receipt notice is a good reminder to everyone...

I had a longtime resident friend the other day bemoaning his thinking that the process of doing one's annual extension of stay ought to be automatically counted by Immigration as a valid 90-Day Report.

Unfortunately, Immigration doesn't see it that way, and only counts a person's FIRST extension of stay as a 90 Day Report. Thus for all subsequent reporting, separate 90 Day Reports are required on their own schedule, regardless of the timing of one's annual extensions.

Nicely the other day, Immigration at Bumrungrad Hospital's special 3rd Saturday of the month clinic allowed me to submit my TM47 form (along with extension of stay and re-entry permit applications) about three weeks ahead of my 90 Day Report due date... whereas the normal advance lead time allowed is 15 days. I was, however, within the 30 day advance period of my final permission to stay date.

Daiwill above appears to be confusing 90 day reports with visa extensions of stay...

There is no 1900 baht charge for 90 day reports, no charge at all, of course.

There is a 1900 baht charge for extensions of stay, which presumably was what he was doing.

That report from HH is a quite refreshing change from the usual reports of bureaucratic pig-headedness and paper shuffling.

there was a thread where immigration now demand bank statements to back up the income verification affidavit...what will they now demand to back up residence location declarations?

and the embassy document cost USD85 and all...

Tutsi, that past thread and report you reference re requiring copies of bank statements for people using consulate affidavits for retirement extensions was pretty well proven false... And my trip to BKK Immigration the other day where they, as usual, accepted the Consulate income affidavit solo further confirms that...

As for the price of the U.S. Consulate affidavit, my receipt from the U.S. Consulate in BKK the other day was an even $50 fee, the same as their posted price for such things, as seemingly high as it may be.

SR, really, it doesn't much matter what Barry is saying...

What matters is what people actually going to the offices are being told they need to have right now....

It seems pretty clear some change is coming to Pattaya at least.. The only thing at issue seems to be while they have posted notice of the change based on the reports above, whether or not they're actually enforcing it as yet...right now...

So far, member reports here aren't confirming that they are. I'm more interested in what people who are actually going to the office find themselves encountering...

I must say, I always find it VERY odd when we hear about these supposed policy/procedure changes arising at upcountry Immigration offices that supposedly have originated on instruction from Immigration HQ in BKK... And yet, there's been absolutely no sign as yet that this is anywhere in the works for BKK itself...

One might think, if such things were originating from HQ, that HQ would be the first to implement them... Really not sure what to make of these kinds of things.

It also makes me wonder about what must be a very odd relationship between Bangkok Immigration HQ and the upcountry offices, when the upcountry offices, at least some of them, pretty regularly go their own way with things that are clearly different from what Bangkok is doing and what the posted rules/regs say... and yet they continue to do so over time... with no correction or bringing into line with what presumably is departmental policy.

Maybe being the commanding general of Immigration is a bit like being the president of Afghanistan... Your control extends just about as far as your eyesight.

It would certainly be helpful if more TV members who are going to Pattaya report here on just what the CURRENT status of enforcement of this is... so everyone can be clear on what they need to bring. Right now, it seems to be a bit muddled. Though of course, it never hurts to bring extra documents, even if they may not be required as yet.

SR, I acknowledge your comments above...and I'm sure the sources involved do admirable work... My comments were only directed at the Pattaya Immigration office, and had nothing to do with BKK.

But if you'll notice, in the post prior to yours, a member who just went to do the 90 day report there at Pattaya said they're NOT enforcing the new rules yet and didn't require them of him -- although they have posted them in the office and are warning a change is coming.

That's what my prior post was directed at... what TV members who've gone to Pattaya lately for their 90 day report have encountered vs. what the media and others say is coming or has already arrived.

I think what's actually occurring behind the scenes, and this is not at all uncommon, is that the actual international exchange is being done at the VISA or MC network rate, and then your bank is piling on by taking their own cut of the proceeds.

Your bank likely never reports to you what the card network rate was... They just show you what your end result rate was, reflecting the underlying card network exchange rate and then your bank's take on top of it.

That's why it's important for consumers, regardless of the country, to be aware of what the foreign currency fee policies and surcharges are of their individual banks and cards. That's where the variations in exchange rate are going to occur... not in the MC or VISA card network rates.

Generally speaking, the two big card networks charge up to about a 1% processing fee on foreign exchanges that they reflect in their exchange rate behind the scenes. Some banks don't pass that charge along to their customers. Some banks do pass that charge along, but don't add any additional take of their own. And some banks, the worst, pass along the card networks fee and then add on their own local fee/cut on top of it.

Ideally, you want a bank that absorbs the card networks' fee and then doesn't charge any mark-up of their own. Those kinds of accounts are getting increasingly harder to find, though there are some... But I can't speak to whether any such opportunities exist in the Australian banking realm.

SR... as you know, I'm not in Pattaya/Chonburi... But as to your comment about the new requirements "definitely" being in effect there....

I see the reference to the newspaper article reports in this thread... But, at least in this thread, I'm not seeing any member reports confirming that your local Immigration office has begun requiring the key passport page photocopies as part of the in-person 90-day reporting process.... Most of the member comments here have pertained to other Immigration offices.

Have there been verified TV member reports from Pattaya/Chonburi confirming that on the basis of their recent visits to Immigration? Or are we just going on the basis of newspaper reports that, as we all know, aren't always quite correct in their info?

You know, I was thinking again about my experience yesterday in BKK, and about how sometimes it's difficult to sort these things out correctly.

In my case, I submitted a big pile of paperwork for three things all at once, with a paperclipped set for each of the three -- my retirement extension, re-entry permit and 90 day report... For the extension and reentry permit, I had photocopies of my key passport pages included with those sets.

I didn't submit passport page photocopies in the clip of paperwork relating to my 90 day report, and they didn't ask me for an additional set of passport photocopies...although I had a third set in my folder..just in case...

Did they not ask me for the passport photocopies for my 90 day report because the same officers handling it had already seen my paperwork in connection with my other two things... Or... if I had just been doing the 90 day report alone, they still wouldn't have asked for those in BKK? As I think more about it, in retrospect, no clear way for me to know.

Has there been any changes for reporting in Chiang Mai?

I reported for my 90 day 2 weeks ago in C-Mai, Photocopy's of Passport which included my Visa,T.M. Card,Entry Stamp, no additional requirments as of then.

Did CM Immigration ask you for the passport photocopies, or have a known policy of asking for them beforehand?

Or did you just voluntarily include the photocopies in your submission?

Three comments re the above post...

1. The Thai banks' fee for foreign card ATM withdrawals does not vary. It's uniformly 150 baht per withdrawal, regardless of the withdrawal amount. AEON is not a Thai bank, thus that's why it's ATM machines in Thailand are fee-free.

2. If you're getting reamed by your home country bank, the solution isn't to start using traveler's cheques...but rather....to get a new home country bank and bank card that doesn't charge exhorbitant fees for foreign ATM withdrawals. And at least use that card and account when outside Aus.

3. If you don't like paying the 150 baht Thai bank ATM withdrawal fee, find and use an AEON ATM and pay absolutely no fee (on the Thai end).

From what I've seen lately, the various NFL games typically are posted on the My site you mentioned...available for download as multi-part files that the user then needs to splice together in order to play.... And the files are pretty good sized, so they'll take some time to download.... We're not talking about streaming there...

Elsewhere, a lot of the games are available live via StreamTorrent if you install and setup that free software, and have a bit of technical understanding to get it working... But you're always at the mercy of what games anybody out there decides to stream. And of course those are only shown live...there's no playback or VOD...

The NFL GamePass subscription for non-U.S. residents ($250 for the season) includes streaming access to all the games live and on demand after the fact....as well as including streaming access to the NFL Channel... Not sure if the Red Zone channel is included with that....

For my tastes, I'd rather spend $40 or so on the Game Rewind package to watch the games on my schedule after the fact... and then use ST or another means to catch the NFL channel when it suits me.

Paul and Kirk... had anyone advised beforehand that Nonthaburi was starting to require photocopies of the passport face page?

Or you guys just went there and got hit with a new requirement, and had to go out and find a place to get your passport photocopied?

Loma, you're skipping ahead to the reg season, while I'm still watching (after the fact) VOD preseason games from Week 1..

WOW, there have been A LOT of personnel changes around the league.... Last night watched the Chargers v the Seahawks, to discover that Matt Hasselbeck is gone as the Seahawks QB and now replaced by Tavaris Jackson (formerly from the Vikings). Huh???

And Chargers running back Darren Sproles is gone to the Saints.

TE Zack Miller from the Raiders has now gone to the Seahawks as well...along with former coach Tom Cable, now an O line coach.

LB Takeo Spikes from the 49ers has gone to San Diego.

Troy Smith is gone as one of the 49ers QBs and Alex Smith is back (again!), not to mention Mike Singletary being gone as the head coach and replaced by Jim Harbaugh from Stanford.

CB Nnamdi Asomugha from the Raiders has gone to the Eagles... and on and on and on....

I need the preseason just to figure out who's on what teams anymore...

Ohh... who's Brett Favre playing for this year, BTW???

As for the timing of the Consulate letters, Bangkok Immigration has never seemed to be particularly sensitive about that... I've usually had mine issued a week or so ahead of my visit to Immigration, and that's never been a problem. And as Lopburi said, even longer time frames ahead most of the time haven't created any problems.

However, the Thai bank letters and such verifying 800,000 baht in one's Thai bank account, one of the other means of satisfying the income requirement, are an entirely different matter. For the bank letter, depending on the Immigration office, they seem to want those no more than the day before.... It seems from reports here there've often been problems raised about the timing of the bank letters...

Whereas, we almost never hear about any Immigration office raising a fuss about the timing of a Consulate income letter, as best as I recall.

Ditto that... WEP has been cracked and is no longer considered secure...

WPA2 is considered today's preferred means of wireless security...assuming your hardware devices will all support it.