jfchandler

Just noticed, Pib had run a San Jose CA test as well... So here's mine at 3.45 Mbps

And I re-ran my Seattle test a second time, but a little, but not much better result... Unusually slow for some reason at 1.39 Mbps

Well, I just got my cable back shortly before 5 pm while I was on the line with True CSR...finally.... Curious the timing about that...after being dead out for the prior 5 hours.

So I was able to run my speed tests comparable to Pib's at about 5 pm, a bit later than Pib's last set...but using mostly the same test site and cities.

BKK and Singapore predictable clocked at a bit over 10 Mbps...

London was next best at 4.7 Mbps

Los Angeles and San Fran at 3.65 and 3.14 respectively

Then Wash DC and Seattle at 1.56 and 0.92 respectively

I think the Seattle test may be off for some reason, because it took a very long time to start and run...

BTW, I was looking at some maps the other day showing the main Internet transmission lines... Not sure how up to date they are...

But basically, they showed Thailand with a strong direct connection to Singapore... And then from Singapore the main routes to the U.S. landing in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Whenever I'm doing U.S. things, I'm always trying to make a direct connection via Los Angeles, which seems to work out pretty well most of the time.

For my purposes, I'd be pretty happy if I can get a reliable service that gets me 3 Mbps to the U.S. Lately, however, my True cable has been anything BUT reliable...

sorry Pib. My True cable has been out most of the day, and when Ive been online, it's been either using my mobile or tethering with it.

Ive been having a recurring problem the past few weeks, but havent been able to get True to identify, address or solve it. BAD!!!

And every time I call their Cust Serv Center lately, I get only the recording saying theyre unavailable, and then someone from True will call me out of the blue 24 to 48 hours later...

The weird part is, there's been no discernable pattern to the outages - sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, mornings, afternoons, good weather and bad.... GRRRRR......

Pib, those out of country numbers are about what I'd expect from True's cable service...

What would be interesting, would be for you and I to coordinate our speed tests... same measuring site... same time....same test destinations.

And then see how their 10 and 20 Mbps plans compare in terms of those results...apples to apples.

I have had 800,000 sitting in the bank for 5 years here now. At best it would draw me $1250 a year interest before taxes. After tax who know maybe $1000, That is about 30000 baht. I donot get any interest at my bank because the banker says foreigners donot get interest.

I live out of Bkk so to get an Embassy letter for my pensions I have to travel to Bkk ,get a hotel,pay the embassy for a letter at my costs. This is usually a few thousand baht uasually over 10,000 baht to get it finished and be home.

So I feel what i lose in interest with just using a bank letter I save in a trip to Bkk and inconvience. I look at the 800,000 as the door fee, for entry.

"I donot get any interest at my bank because the banker says foreigners donot get interest."

Sounds like the banker is yet another upcountry bumpkin suffering from the face trait.

If I were you I would change banks, my banks pays me as a farang interest.

For the fans of Thai banks, here's the latest news from the Pattaya Daily News...

Three Frenchmen were arrested for stealing ATM cards and withdrew millions of Baht at many ATM machines around Pattaya.

Pattaya, 10 June 2011 [PDN]: Pol. Lt. Col. Suktad Pumpangmuan (Foreign Criminal Suppression of Pattaya) was informed that three Frenchmen had stolen several ATM cards and withdrew more than five millions Baht from many ATM machines around Pattaya, placing many people in distress over the loss of their money.

The article doesn't explain how these guys managed to access people's accounts with the cards, i.e., how they presumably were able to obtain their PINs... But obviously they did.... One forum member posted, "They had some gadget in the ATM's that scanned the card and they were looking over shoulders to get the pin I believe or has some camera."

Also no mention of how or whether the stolen funds would be returned to the accountholders...

http://www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum/topic/79784-frenchmen-withdraw-millions-baht-with-stolen-atm-cards/

I won't and don't fly Thai Air....

But I do have a bit under 10,000 miles with them from a past flight years ago that are expiring soon...

Too little for even a domestic flight, and the options for buying more miles from them are ridiculously overpriced.

Any serious suggestions on something useful and productive that I can use the ROP miles for other than magazines?

central BKK...anywhere along any of the SkyTrain routes.

There was a mention above of some location near Victory Monument and the Century Movie center...and also around the Big C Ratchadamri.

I can't recall ever noticing anything there...but then again, I probably wasn't looking.

This may not reflect the varying promotions... But here's the Bank of Thailand's daily recap of savings account and fixed term deposit account interest rates for the various Thai banks...

http://www.bot.or.th/english/statistics/financialmarkets/interestrate/_layouts/application/interest_rate/IN_Rate.aspx

Can someone provide some info on the Export Outlets locations around BKK?

The Export Outlets carries limited large size clothes (not trousers) which is all around town, in the suburbs.. I am not sure in the city because I seldom see them in MBK and, I don't know Sukhumvit well. I seen them near Victory Monument BTS where they have big signs of XXXXXXL size available (which should be beside the movie mall place towards the city).

Foodland Soi 5 is closed for the next few months for remodeling, so no joy there...

I haven't seen the Hormel canned variety myself...and I'm usually at least taking a glance around the chili and beans sections in the different markets to see what's on hand...

I'll keep an eye out....and report if I spot anything...

The Hormel thing is actually an interesting prospect... Hadn't thought of those in years!

The Thai commercial banks' interest rates in the marketplace are pretty closely linked to the Bank of Thailand's stated rate...which they have been increasing lately...

It's pretty unusual for any one Thai bank to stray too far from the national target rate... Usually, they're nibbling around the edges, and making their terms or conditions a bit different from the others.... There's usually not much meaningful competition on the rate itself.

Thus, as the posts illustrate, TMB isn't alone... BKK Bank has something different, a time deposit, with a better rate... Standard has something similar with a slightly better rate. I'm assuming the others have other things too in the same general neighborhood..

I was doing a cash deposit the other day at a BKK Bank branch, and saw a big banner about the 3% offer...though I didn't stop to inquire about the details.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they all also have a standard 15% tax withholding cut taken out.... And, frankly, I'm not a big fan of the accounts that want to pay interest twice a year... much prefer the steady stream of monthly credits.

Living anywhere near Phuket is doing far from "playing it safe" -- unless you're partial to over-inflated prices and an endless variety of scams and local ripoffs.

Here's the prior post by Mamasun relating to the post above....

Other thing, I have post 2 months ago something about the immigration in Nakhon si Thammarat... I was in stress because went there for my 90 days and saw a paper who was asking the people with retirement visa to show prove of pension in bank and also pictures of family here in Thailand...well for the second part sound that they mixte with the marriage extension...but after reding this post I thinck that the first one asking for prove are going to be ask next time...well since april i have make transfert of my pension into my Thai bank...to be sure if they ask me or not ( 500 bahts every transfert ! )

I need to make my 90 days again in july (will see if the paper still there ! ) and then 3 weeks later my retirement extension...!...

a friend of mine (German) got this formless paper from the Immigration Office at NAKHON SI THAMMARAT just a few days ago.

What does it mean exactly for the proof of income ? (exc 800.000 rule)

What's about the pictures ?

Moreover it would be very interesting if this sheet (shit?) means a new general practice for the retirement visa or if it is an autocratic and maybe undue treatment by this branch.

Please can anyone proof it, maybe at the Immigration Center in BANGKOK ?

The document attached to this original post above is an odd one... I'm not sure what to make of it...

There's no letterhead or identifying information on the sheet, no date, no nothing.

Its headline refers to "retirement visa", when in fact it would be retirement extension of stay.

It presumes the applicant has a Thai family, when of course, that's not required and many retirement stay applicants don't.

The member posting it is doing so as their first post on ThaiVisa... And, curiously, the info spelled out in the document seems to correspond to the report that TV member Mamasun made earlier in this thread also re Nakhon Si Thammarat....which no one else anywhere has ever encountered....

Anyway, JFC, bet you a cold Chang that there will be an amended police order in the next 18 months -- to include a change something along the lines we've been discussing in this thread.

I'm not a prophet, Jim. So I wouldn't be one to be betting on the future in any direction, especially one and a half years out.

Right now, I'd imagine, the Immigration brass are more worried about who's going to get promoted and demoted after the upcoming national election....

If and when something changes in the future, I'm sure we'll hear about it here and have another 30 pages of posts discussing it.

We have a report from Lopburi3 about his visa extension and how well it went and no additional info asked for. Very few commits or views. I guess most people like conjucture and confusion.

And likewise a similar report from another American in the north...extension issued with no changes....

Sometimes smoke doesn't mean a fire... Sometimes it just means, smoke and mirrors.

The only substantive info to come out of this thread is the info on the Dutch and British embassies pushing-back from income verification.

That part quoted above, I agree about...

Everything else is pure conjecture and speculation...

There's already been enough confusion and misinformation spread by the original post in this thread.

Now, 30+ thread pages later, why not just say as the real evidence and members reports suggest:

At least for now, applicant's traditional consular income letter alone should be fine. But as always, be prepared with backup documentation, because Immigration has the right to ask for it, and sometimes does.

Thanks for your cheerful contribution, but your analysis doesn't even fit with the detail of original post here..

In you actually go back and read post #1 in all its glory, you'll see the author saying Immigration supposedly had been asking for the new documents for THE PAST MONTH....

Not only did no posts from TV members give any credence to that during the month prior to the posting here, but none have given any credence to it in the nearly two weeks since.

It's not like the OP was reporting some leak of confidential info from Immigration or reporting some supposed upcoming change. The OP said Immigration had been dealing differently with applicants for the past month prior...

Only problem is.... there's been absolutely no confirmation from TV members of any such broad policy changes being applied to applicants who have visited Chaeng Wattana and other offices in the past month.

Not on a retirement visa so it doesn't affect me, but George posted this on 2011-06-06,

Do people really think that when something trickles through from above it will take only 12 days.

I think change will be noticable in another month, and I bet there is more in store for more then 1 kind of visa. (but that is speculative)

Edit: 19:06 Changed 1 word

Jing, I agree about Thai Immigration... But let's not put the cart ahead of the horse, so to speak...

If and when any change comes, we'll all start hearing about it here from fellow TV members with real first-person reports.

It's good to be vigilant. But excessive alarmism isn't helpful either.

If something broad was ensuing from the March reports, don't you think there'd have been enough time by now for substantive, recurring reports of that to have surfaced here. It hasn't happened.

Jing, Lopburi's post above, re no change, was from Chaeng Wattana in Bangkok...

Thus far, the available evidence in terms of clear direct reports is weighing toward no visible change on the part of Immigration.

If/when actual first-person, current reports start surfacing here to the contrary, then I'll be the first to acknowledge those.

But thus far, it's all the concocted scheme of an OP that's never been substantiated and the author of which seems to be MIA re their claims.

Jing, if you'd hold your water a bit, you'd see a second "no change" example from an American was already forthcoming...as posted above.

I don't have anything to prove here... I'm not the one making announcements or warnings of supposed changes... The shoe really is on the other foot. Where's the evidence of any broad policy change on the part of Immigration? There can always be limited or one-off examples. But if there's any trend of change going on, it's not being documented here.

And by the way, since the time of the OP in this thread, there's not been a single post here by any American, Canadian or Aussie talking about being told by Immigration they'd have to show imported income into Thailand.

Yes, I read that. One report and you are convinced? Amazing. I am sorry but you are BIASED and not being objective about this. You said several. Why not just back off from that obvious exaggeration?

Jing, Example No. 2

Third (3rd) Extension of Stay for an Amercan Citizen using Income only method @ Immigration Office in Northern Thailand. Monday, 13 June, 2011.

No Comments or Warning given to have a Thai Bank Account now or in the future.

If have a Bank Statement and Letter from the Bank, or a Letter of Income from Home Country Embassy/Consulate, no additional supporting documents are wanted or required of persons from any Country.

Supervisor said if any changes occur in the future, the Requirements will be in the form of a Police Order and updated on the Immigration Web Site and at ALL Immigration Offices.

Jing, example No. 1.

Today at Chiang Watanna.

Passport/arrival card/copies signed

US Embassy letter of income

Normal downloaded TM7 signed with phone number top page 2 and photo

1,900 baht

Fill out two forms (bio/guarantee and notice loss of reason for extension subject to Thai law)

No questions, one photo taken but no finger prints and finished in about 10 minutes.

There has been NO change "announced" in regards to requirements or procedures for retirement extensions....

There was the post that started this thread ostensibly written by a private company that makes money off of visa consulting claiming some change was occurring...

But after 28+ pages of posts here, there's been no confirmation of anything in the OP. And to the contrary, several posts by TV members, including ThaiVisa's resident expert on these matters, who have renewed their retirement extensions lately in exactly the same manner as has always occurred in the past.

As I've said previously, could something change in the future? Certainly... Is there any evidence of any broad policy or procedure change by Thai Immigration as yet? None.