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Pib

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  1. About an hour ago (around 9pm Thailand time) both the wife and I were able to logon to our acct as normal via the legacy acct method. The 2FA code is sent to our email addresses. Since your application has been referred to Manila that means Manila plans to schedule a telephone interview...will probably do nothing more than ask you some questions that you already answered on your application...ask to confirm certain data.....probably take 10 minutes. I have been involved in three such interviews over the last half dozen years.....mine, my wife's and a neighbor. And right now I'm hand-walking another neighbor thru the application process...a dual Thai-US citizen who has very low smartphone/computer use skills. Anyway it was back in early July when we started his application by asking Manila to accomplish the application via telephone interview. You can do an application via telephone interview or online application....Manila confirmed that in one of their email responses. Well, in years past when you submitted a request to Manila for application via phone interview which works very well as they take all required data to build an electronic application, Manila process it and forwards it to Baltimore for final review/approval, and also tells you during the interview what docs you may have to mail Manila. Like for a dual citizen you typically must mail a certified copy of your US passport and/or Naturalization Certificate (can get at US Embassy for free by in-person appt or by mail) unless you are brave enough to mail the originals and hope they find their way back to you when going thru the Thailand and Philippines mail systems...or DHL/FedEx. OK, Manila has been asked in early July. and then over the next few months there were a couple of back and forth emails/enquires separate by 2 to 3 weeks with Manila which made a person feel like Manila was very understaffed, had trainees doing all the work, etc. After a few months of back and forth with Manila finally saying there are no available telephone appts right now (they are full up), but they will hopefully get back with the applicant in 60 days with a telephone interview date. I convince my neighbor to submit and online application vs waiting any longer for a telephone interview date/time....or said another way, me and him set down in front of my computer and submitted it. OK, come the last few days of Sep the neighbor gets an email from Manila saying Baltimore had asked Manila for assistance in reviewing his application (i.e., Baltimore had passed it to Manila) and Manila gave a telephone interview date for a specific date/time during the first week of Nov. So, the neighbor is now marching in place awaiting the scheduled phone call from Manila...but he's happy he now at least has a interview date...knows the application has been received and "slowly" being processed. Summary: application which require Manila involvement now take a LOT longer than 3 to 4 years ago....why?....I don't know. Thank goodness a SS pension application is only a once in a lifetime event. Your application taking months and months and months is not uncommon when Manila involvement is required. They are just much slower now for whatever reason(s). And my neighbor who has a sister in California who is also applying for her SS pension said she is 3 months into her application still being reviewed/processed by the SSA...now she is a dual citizen also so that probably has something to do with the slow processing even with the U.S....no Manila involvement. Regarding the residence and mailing address thing, I expect for "application processing purposes" they may only want to use your residence/physical address but may use your U.S. mailing address "after" the application is approved. Expect that is a question you need to ask Manila "whenever they get around to setting up a telephone interview with you. Watch our email inbox (and spam box) closely...that is how Manila will most likely contract you regarding the interview date/time. As mentioned that's how they contacted my neighbor....I thought he would probably get something via snail mail also but so far nothing and its been about a month since Manila emailed him with the interview date/time. Good luck with your application. You might want to send Manila an email/inquiry regarding your application...when are they going to call? Once your application is approved you are "officially" an ol' Geezer. 😉
  2. These two Youtubes show what I literally did within the first 10 minutes of arriving home with my Atto to get rid of the space ship sound (i.e., noise for pedestrians, soi dogs, etc.) Took about 30 seconds to unplug...I'm silent running now. You can not deactivate the sound in the infotainment center...only change the sound of the space ship...so, I opted to implement a silent running solution instead. I'll just blow my horn when I get close to a pedestrian or soi dog. 😜
  3. Below is my total knowledge of the BYD Free Charger and Installation....my knowledge consists of a couple of snapshots from the BYD Rever website, a picture of the wall charger given to me today when picking up my Atto, and what the sales people told me. I was also given the "granny" charger which I'm using right now to top up...it plugs into a regular 16/20A three prong outlet...has a 220V/10A (2.2KW) rating and according to my main circuit box ammeter it's pulling exactly 10A right now as I top-up from 96% to 100% The 7.4KW wall charger given to me today was a ZHIDA part number ZDA4-DC1-C12E. I figured the installer would bring the charger, but no it was given to me today to hold for the installer. I was told the installer will call in around 3 days to start the process but the installation would probably be a few weeks down the road...need to wait for the installer call for more details. Picture of wall charger below. Also below are are few snapshots from the BYD Rever website talking the free wall charger and installation. Wall Charger From Rever Website
  4. Houston, Tranquility base here...Pib's Atto has landed in his driveway. Pib is now accomplishing Infotainment system checks....trying to figure out how to use all the possible settings....he's hoping he doesn't accidently trigger some type of James Bond injection seat. Arrived home from the dealership with a 99% charge remaining and the "granny" charger is now hooked-up....correction, granny charger has topped the charge back up to 100%....granny charger just unplugged. All systems are a Go. Tranquility base out.
  5. I just completed my morning dog walk and briefly talked to a Thai neighbor that lives a couples of blocks away from me....he speaks very good English as he was some type of engineer before retiring. We probably have a couple hundred words of conversation every year since I walk by his house almost everyday...and sometimes he's outside as I walk by which usually results in a few minutes of conversation. Today he stopped me to give me some fruit from one of his trees as we stood in his driveway. Anyway, he's the kind of person who keeps his cars for a "long" time....buys them new and just hangs onto to them. He has some kind of 2000 Honda model and some Nissan model around 20 years old. I told him I've always admired him as someone who keeps and maintains his cars for a long time---the same thing I do. Heck, before I moved to Thailand I had a Pontiac Firebird for 25 years (only sold it because of moving to Thailand).and now my Toyota Fortuner for 15 years. He then said he is seriously thinking about getting a new car...."a BEV"...a Nissan Leaf. He likes Nissan. I said, Gosh, I'm getting a BEV also...in fact picking up a BYD Atto today. I then asked him why he's going straight to a BEV vs maybe a Hybrid. He said he didn't want to have a mixed drive system....combustion and electric...just more to go wrong with multiple drive systems and generally a Hybrid didn't increase fuel efficiency a big amount. He expressed the same feeling I have about Hybrids. Don't me wrong Hybrids are nice vehicles...it's just I would prefer to go straight to BEV technology vs Hybrid technology.....just have an "electric" drive system to worry about vs a Hybrid electric and combustion system....and of course the much increase fuel efficiency. We also talked the ongoing BEV subsidy. It didn't seem that the subsidy make a big difference to him in preferring to got with a BEV vs Hybrid. I think a lot of people are seriously considering jumping over the Hybrid generation for their next car and just going all the way to a BEV...make the reason for visiting a fossil fuel station the need to buy some food/take a bathroom break vs pumping some fossil fuel into their vehicle. This thinking is one reason I thing BEV growth/sales is so rapid right now (in addition to the subsidy).
  6. Yea...the govt pretty much has always focused on reducing diesel price with little to no relief for petrol users although there are LOTS and LOTS of petrol cars on the roads...practically every small to mid size car. My wife's sister called today happy about the 2.5 baht/liter reduction because she drives a petrol car.
  7. OK, I pickup my Atto at 1pm tomorrow/25 Oct....took a little over a month to get primarily because I switched from wanting a white Atto to a red Atto about a week after booking. Rounding-up a red Atto took almost a month; I could have got a white/blue/gray/green Atto in less than a week. And I'm proud to announce I have just competed reading the entire 202 page Atto 3 Users Manual...a day before vehicle pickup. I've also watched about a thousand (it seems like) Youtube videos talking the Atto. I'm now pretty sure I will be able to open the door by myself, position the driver's seat, start the car, and drive home (slowly) without hitting any Grab motorcyclist. Wish me luck.
  8. BYD can't seem to do anything wrong right now in terms of popularity of the models it offers in Thailand right now: the Atto, Dolphin, and Seal. The Atto and Dolphin comprised 53% of all registered sales for September....3231 of the 6,099 total Sep BEV registered sales. Since it takes a month or two for a sales to be registered with the Dept of Land Transportation it will probably take until Nov registered stats come out that the full strength of Seal sales can be seen....Oct registered stats for the Seal will probably be suppressed somewhat. Kinda like when the Dolphin first went on sale in July with Aug registration stats being suppressed but full strength showing by Sep. It wouldn't surprise me to see BYD capturing 60% of total sales come Nov stats...and maybe for Oct stats. See below chart I stole from KhunLA post a little earlier. And with concern the current BEV govt subsidy will be reduced come Jan 2024 or maybe even a slight chance of it going away I expect sales for Oct thru Dec to spike. Plus with the Revenue Dept rule change to tax funds remitted to Thailand beginning Jan this may motivate some farangs to transfer money in this year to buy a BEV this year. But farang buys probably only represent 5% of total BEV vehicle buys if even that much. Yeap, expect BEV sales to spike Oct - Dec.
  9. For me on 22 Sep which is when I initially booked an Atto 3 here in Bankgok I was offered the following 5 insurance companies: Tipaya, Bangkok, LMG, KSK, and Navakit. Now I have been with LMG for many years for my Fortuner but I called my insurance broker of many years to ask which of the 5 companies is probably best for the Atto 3 buy. The broker said Bangkok followed by LMG in terms of ease of dealing with, claims, etc. So I told my BYD dealership I choose Bangkok Insurance Co. And just the other day I reconfirmed that the one they are lined-up for me....I pickup the Atto tomorrow afternoon.
  10. No doubt that for l....o......n.....g trips such as Phuket-Bangkok the drive time is going to be longer due to the required recharging....simply can't compare a 5 minute fossil fueling to a 1 hour hour electric DC Fast Charge fueling. Now while some people have no problem/prefer to drive non-stop if possible...even if it means 6 or more hours setting behind the steering wheel I'm not sure most people (especially families) drive that way. Instead, breaks/stops every 2-3 hours is probably more the norm. I sure know my Thai family/friends seem to take much longer to get where they are going on a long trip and when I inquiry as to why it took so long rarely don't they say heavy traffic but say it was due to a good amount of bathroom and eating stops along the way. I have some family members that simply can't go 2 hours without a bathroom stop But yea, long trips are going to take longer with an BEV compared to an ICEV for anyone who has been use to few and brief stops along the way in their ICEV. One positive of long drives using a BEV is the bigtime fuel savings....around half to two-thirds. Fuel cost for my 3.0L diesel Fortuner round trip Phuket-Bangkok (1,700Km) would be apprxo Bt4,900 compared to approxBt2,000-2,500 for an EV (assumes higher DC Fast charging station cost/KWH). And then when back home and able to use my wall charger for day-to-day driving around 1,700Km of driving would only cost around Bt1,600...a two-thirds fuel savings which really adds up over time. Regarding the recharging...as to how much to recharge to...up to 80, 90, 100%. Recharging up to 80-90% is indeed going to occur faster due to the nature of battery recharging...and that final 10-20% is going to be slower/take longer....probably twice as long per each 1 percent charge per unit of time. However, if you have a BEV with "LFP" lithium type batteries such as BYD vehicles you can charge them to 100% with no negative short or long term effects...gives more range between stops on long trips.. However, "NCA/NMC" lithium type batteries which many EVs use routinely charging to only around 90% is considered a good thing for extended battery life purposes....but more and more studies are beginning to show that even NCA/NMC type batteries show little negative effect from "frequent" DC Fast Charging and no negative effect from occasional DC Fast Charging. So, all lithium batteries are not created equal. https://zecar.com/resources/what-are-lfp-nmc-nca-batteries-in-electric-cars I don't think there is a BEV on the Thai market that can do 850Km non-stop....maybe a few in other countries but they would cost a LOT of money for the BIG battery. Now over the near term (next couple of years) I expect average BEV battery range will probably go up around 20% because bigger batteries in BEVs will become the norm as customers demand more range....not a huge jump but still very significant. And when "solid state" batteries start coming to market in mass probably in around 5-7 years that's going to offer at least 20% increases in range while reducing charge time by a lot. https://electrek.co/2023/06/13/toyota-claims-solid-state-ev-battery-tech-breakthrough/
  11. Not an issue for trips....PLENTY of chargers in Thailand already...at fuel stations, malls, just lots of places, etc. Just go to any website/use any app that shows charging locations...like the "plugshare.com" which is a crowd-based website to show charging locations. Or use some of the charging station apps used to operate charging stations to see where chargers in that network are located. Now this is not to imply you may not have to wait a little while to use a charger if it's already in use...or drive a few kilometers to another charger....but the apps used with chargers typically show whether a charger is in use or broke before you arrive which allows to to detour to another available charger. And yes, with "some" of the charging apps you will need a Thai ID 13 digit number to register (farang Pink ID OK or even 13 digit number issued to document COVD jabs is fine) and need a "Thai" debit/credit as a charging payment option....but the majority of apps are happy with a passport number...and you can also pay via QR code with most apps, etc. After getting registered with the key apps which only takes around 5 minutes and maybe another 5 minutes to setup a debit/credit card payment option....you are good to go. I registered with four charging apps (PEA Volta, PTT EV Station Pluz, EA Anywhere, and EGAT Elexa) which gives me access to 91% of the DC Fast Chargers around Thailand (i.e., can fully charge in around 1 hour) which are typically located located along roads people take for long trips. If I remember right I had to use my Thai debit card as a payment option for two of the four apps as QR payment was not supported (yet)...but the other two apps were fine with QR payment....no absolute need to also setup Thai debit/credit card payment. At first I thought getting registered and setting up a payment option would be a major issue for me---one each farang---but it turned out to be a non-issue. But what can be an issue for a person is "day-to-day driving/keeping you EV charged" if you do not have easy access to a charger at/close to your residence like maybe living in a highrise and that highrise's parking area does not have any (or few) chargers forcing you to go visit a paid charger away from your residence for at least an hour or more periodically...possibly multiple times per week depending on how much you drive. Then you have to dedicate some time each week to go spend time at a charging location which does take effort and time. But if you have a residence where you can install a Type II Wallcharger in your parking area then keeping your EV charged for day-to-day driving is a non-issue. BYD (and others) provides and install a free 7KWH wallcharger which is worth around Bt10-20K. A Type II charger is typically a 7KWH charger (but can be a higher power) which can fully charge from 0 to 100% in approx 7 to 10 hours depending on your EV's battery size. In the unlikely event you arrive home with 0% charge left say at 9:30pm....plug the wall charger into the EV and by around sunrise the EV is fully charged...all done while you sleep. Now what is more likely say you are drive a BYD Atto 3 Extended Range (just for example) which has a 60KWH battery with 480Km advertised range (but more like 400Km in real world driving) which equates to 6.67Km per 1 KWH using 400Km range as your reference. So, say on the average you drive 50Km/day...that would use a little less than 13% of charge each day....after a week/7 days of average driving you have used 91% of your charge...you have approx 9% remaining...getting close to empty. To get the EV back to 100% full charge you plug-in your 7KWH wallcharger and about 8 hours later you are fully charged again....good for another week of average driving. But why chance getting down to around 9% after a full week of driving with no charging?....why not just plug the wallcharger in every night or every other night to stay close to be being fully charge....only takes about 15 seconds to plug the charger to the EV....not much longer than plugging a USB charging cable into your smartphone. Heck, if only plugging in every 3 days your charge would have only dropped to around 60% of full charge...still have over a half tank of electric fuel. Yes, if you have easy access to a charger....like a wallcharger at home....charging is a non-issue for day to day driving. And for long trips where you have to recharge along the way, then there are already a lot of DC Fast Charger (i.e., fully charge your EV in one hour or less) and also plenty of Type II chargers which can give you around 15% charge/hour--not to imply it's as easy & fast as a 5 minutes fill-up of diesel/petrol into a ICEV. But being to charge during a long trip is not even remotely close to be a show-stopper....just requires an hour or so time being mated with a DC Fast Charger typically at fuel stations and other locations. Getting very common for fuel stations along road to also have a big EV logo sign just under their main sign like how PTT station do it...and other fuel stations. EV charging will not be an issue for many people. But an EV is not for everyone as it depends on how they use their vehicle, charging access, etc. In closing, I currently have a 2009 Fortuner which costs me 2.88 baht per kilometer in fuel cost....when I get my Atto 3 (hopefully tomorrow) my electric full cost per kilometer with be 0.92 baht....as 68% savings and I will do my Atto fueling from the wallcharger in my home carport vs a fuel station. But I'll still be visiting fuel station some as I'm keeping my Fortuner which still looks and runs great...it will just be used a lot less....become my 2nd vehicle. Gotta go...need to go to the bank to get a cashier's check cut to pay for my Atto tomorrow afternoon.
  12. You don't have any other money in a US bank you could transfer to your Wise acct in order to make a Nov transfer for 65K baht?
  13. Thanks....that's good to hear IMO.
  14. We've talked a little bit about ground clearance in relation to driving thru water/flooded area. As I read my 200 page Atto 3 manual in prep of getting my car this week the manual gives some conflicting info on the depth of water to avoid. On page 98 is says water depth must not exceed the vehicle's lower edge. The Atto has a ground clearance level of 175mm. But then just a few paragraphs later on page 99 it says do not drive thru areas where the water level exceeds half the tire height. I'm assuming where they say "tire" they mean the rubber tire "and" steel rim as if it's the rubber tire portion only then that would only be around 50mm. Today I measured the halfway height of an Atto setting in a parking lot (hope the owner didn't see me) and it was 330mm from pavement to center of the rim. Seems to me half way up the wheel...which is 330mm on the Atto should be the safe limit assuming it was a short distance and you keep moving. In the perfect world where it never rains hard causing standing water on roads the possibly of driving thru water is close to zero, but in the real world and especially in the tropics such as Thailand where rain can quickly cause unavoidable road flooding and big mudpuddles hopefully BEVs with their traction battery on the bottom of the car can handle driving thru water half way up the wheel for short distances especially since the traction battery and high voltage components are suppose to waterproof per IP67 which means waterproof for short periods in up to 1m of water. See three snapshots below.
  15. And now I have no rank...not even Newbie. Even those folks with made-up ranks no longer reflect anything. Just see the person's handle, profile picture and a post count. That's one way to get rid of the rank issue.
  16. Well, I'm glad Wise had such a durn explanation of why they had to change so fast it provided little to inadequate lead time for its customers. I expect Wise needed to dump Evolve fast for some reason(s)....or it was the other way around in Evolve deciding to dump Wise quickly. See below 15 Oct 2023 FinTech News article where Evolve is mentioned several times in having falling-outs with several business partners to include Wise. Even talks possible illegal transfers to Hamas-linked Gaza Now new site. Fintech companies starting to sue each other. https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/solid-claps-back-at-ftv-in-countersuit
  17. And at least now thanks to pmarlin we know the 2nd mailing is out.
  18. Wow....unbelievably fast. Was there any visible mailing date on the envelope....possibly in small print? Maybe the SSA actually generated/printed the form with a different later date than the actual printing date to compensate for mailing time. Yea...6 days from US to Thailand is like expensive FedEx/DHL priority mail time.
  19. Was the 16 Oct date actually "on the 7162 form" OR at you referring to a date mailed on the envelope? Either way for mail to arrive from US to Thailand in only 6 days sounds way, way too fast since you said earlier you received the form 22 Oct. What part of Thailand are you in?
  20. Yea..it's a 3 day weekend. Today/Monday is King Chulalongkorn Day. You know if you have not accepted the blue Seal you can change colors without loss of deposit. I did such in switching from a white to red Atto....but it added almost a month delay since red is kinda hard to get.
  21. Update: yesterday morning I noticed I was now at Ruby....stayed there all day...but this morning I see I'm up another notch to Diamond. Re-indexing is indeed working. One more notch for me to go based on my understanding of the system and assuming "points" required for a certain rank really means "number of posts."
  22. Ditto to what Ohyesuare said. If/when the Nov payment is rejected back to SSA then SSA should look and see you updated your direct deposit info and then resend the payment to the new acct. This process will probably take a couple of weeks. Yea, SSA actually locks in next payment details and sends it to the US Treasury weeks before actual payment is made. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to follow-up with the SSA again "after" you are sure the Nov payment was rejected back just to make SSA is resending the payment to the new acct. It's a durn shame Wise did not give customers at least 60 days notice. I too got the notice about Wise dumping Evolve...switching back to CFSB...and I also was given an 18 Oct date after which any payments sent to the Evolve acct would be rejected back to sender. Now I don't have any direct deposits going to Wise but if I was you I would definitely let them know the amount of notice given (only about 35 days for me) is not long enough lead time to get direct deposit iinfo changed with some payers....like U.S. govt agencies which normally require about a 3 week advance notice to ensure the upcoming monthly payment goes to the new acct. About 2.5 years ago when Wise switched from Evolve from CFSB they gave approx 90 days notice...but as mentioned this time they only gave around 35 days (at least for me). Expect Wise needs to transition from Evolve quickly due to whatever reasons....they must have had a fallen-out, problems in using Evolve, etc. Or maybe it's as simple as Wise re-competes their contracts for partner banks every few years, awarded the new contract to CFSB, and it's just Wise that set the quick change over....not Evolve. Wise webpage talking the changing USD acct details: https://wise.com/help/articles/2G69Jf6EEvf5TvYSlA8XjQ/were-changing-your-usd-account-details Edit: just found this SSA POMS (instruction/regulation) that takes how they handle rejected payments...open the webpage for full details...I also included a partial quote from it. Bottomline if they see new direct deposit info in the system that replaced the old info causing the rejection they will resend to the new acct info. Process will take 2 to 3 weeks. https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202402100
  23. What date is in the upper right hand corner? If 2 Jun it's the 1st one. If much later like around Sep/Oct it's your 2nd notice and also should say you have 45 days vs 60 days to respond for the 1st one.
  24. I expect the BYD Dolphin and Atto 3 to lead the pack again by big margins again come Oct registration stats (belated sales stats). I expect Seal sales will have very respectable Oct stats but since the Seal was only released in late Sep the Oct stats based "registrations" probably will not show full strength until Nov registration stats. Probably follow the same ramp-up like the Dolphin which was released in July I think...showed several hundred registrations for Aug....then by Sep the registrations had went thru the roof. Takes a while for the registration process (belated sales stats) to complete the process.
  25. Correction...I'm now at Platinum. The re-indexing is definitely working.
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