TallGuyJohninBKK

Even if you don't take advantage of airline miles benefits, it's not that hard to gratefully accept 2% cash back on my travel expenses, or in the case of the actual U.S. credit card I use, 3% back on travel up to $1500 in charges per month. No annual fee and no foreign currency fee. It's correct that those kinds of perks are paid for by the interest charged to card holders who run balances and accrue interest on credit card balances. But I don't ever do that, so it's all gravy for me.

Correct. But that still doesn't mean the Thai system interfaces with the U.S. credit reporting system.

What it "costs" is investing the personal time and commitment to keep U.S. credit cards in active/valid status over a period of potentially many years living abroad, and not have them expire for lack of use or being unable to show a U.S. residence address of some type. After long periods of living abroad, some folks over time just let their links to the home country gradually lapse.

There is... But, I've never heard anything to suggest that the Thai credit reporting system is somehow linked to or interfaces with its U.S. counterpart.... It's primarily a domestic Thai system for Thai nationals.

I think the credit rating situations involving older Americans living in the U.S. vs older Americans living abroad are likely to be different. If you're older and living domestically, the odds are greater that you're settled into something and not likely making big future purchases / commitments. But if you're older and living as an expat abroad, there's always the possibility that at some point in the future, you might need or have to relocate back to the states, and doing so could involve a lot of credit-reliant actions to get resettled.

And further from the same article that you decided not to quote: 'The developer and the state agencies involved will be held responsible for the damages caused, and have been given a 14-day deadline to provide remedies without having to demolish the building." https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40029765 In all likelihood, that building isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I don't keep and use my credit cards for the main purpose of maintaining a high U.S. credit score, but instead, for the reasons mentioned above. However, I'm also cognizant of the fact that keeping a good/high credit score means that IF I ever did decide or have to go back to the home country, I'd be in good shape in terms of my ability to execute housing rentals or purchases, car loans, etc etc.

Having and using credit cards doesn't necessarily mean the holder is carrying an debt. Many people use them and then pay off the balance at the next payment period with no interest accrued. They're just a financial tool...that can be used wisely, or poorly, depending on the person. And, a lot of credit cards have good benefits included such as cash back or airline mileage earnings that don't typically come with debit card use. So if the holder is a traveler, credit cards can have significant benefits over debit cards. I use debit cards for daily / routine expenses. And credit cards for big ticket items to earn cash back, airline mileage, etc.

Now there's an interesting statistic.... though presumably the Russians will be giving the Chinese a run for their money, in TE terms. I wonder how many of the cards still end up being given out under the table as freebies to VIPs, as occurred at the outset of the program?

Who said anything about "tearing down" this condo project? That's not mentioned in either of the news reports above. Somehow, I think it highly unlikely that the legal fight here is going to result in the demolition of an already completed and occupied 6 BILLION baht high-rise condo project in the heart of BKK built by one of Thailand's largest and most prominent developers. There's been a similar long-running case on Soi Ruamrudee where local residents sued over a large condo-hotel project that allegedly was built far over-height on a relatively narrow street, supposedly in violation of BMA construction rules. The case went on in the courts for years, before finally a final ruling that the upper floors of the project had to be removed. That was about seven years ago. And AFAIK, absolutely nothing in the way of demolition has occurred with the project. From 2016: "THE Central Administrative Court issued an execution order Friday for Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and Pathumwan District Office to demolish illegal parts of the 24-storey luxury Aetas Bangkok hotel on Soi Ruamrudee." "The court Friday instructed the BMA governor and Pathumwan director to exercise their power under Article 42-a43 of the Buildings Control Act BE 2522 (1979) to order a building owner or occupant to demolish the building fully or partially within a given timeframe (at least 30 days) and via legal means. The law stated that a failure to demolish the building as ordered could result in arrest and officials’ tearing down the place at the owner’s expense." https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30296590 The last I can find after that was a 2019 BKK Post article saying the BMA was preparing to award demolition contract to totally remove (not just the upper floors as ordered by the court) the two high-rises involved in that dispute - Aetas Bangkok and Aetas Residence. But after that, I can't find any report of anything actually happening. Google Maps has user reviews for the Aetas Residence project up until one or two years ago, and then a recent report saying the hotel had been closed...but still there. The Aetas company website still shows both projects, but lists them as "temporarily closed." So apparently, 15 years after the original lawsuit was filed, no demolition. That's the way it goes here... As would be the case with the Asoke project, I'm guessing the BMA folks involved will try to do everything possible, including dragging their feet to the utmost, to avoid any demolition. Because if they were to actually demolish either project, at that point, they'd be looking at huge potential legal liabilities from both developers for their "lost" projects/investments. Since in both cases, the BMA officials involved formally permitted and allowed both projects prior to their construction.

Spotify Premium in Thailand for now 139b per month, previously 129b per month, is a great deal for a great service... And the ad-free version provides a lot of other benefits, such as being able to listen to full albums intact instead of in shuffle mode. The new rate works out to about $4 per month USD for Thailand-based accounts. The same ad-free account based in the U.S. is priced at $10.99 per month now. And yet all the same western music is available for TH accounts as is available in Spotify accounts based elsewhere, in my experience. The Thai Spotify premium account for a month is basically the same cost as a single Starbucks fancy coffee drink. Hard to argue with that. I'm not gonna lose sleep over a 10 baht per month price increase, the first one of its kind in some time. https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/

Sheryl, do you have an official source for that claim above regarding Pacific Cross? I've been a policy holder of theirs for years, and don't believe I've ever heard or read anything about that kind of reaction to chronic conditions (adding new exclusions for existing policy holders) in their health policies, other than that policy holder claims experience CAN (but does not automatically) lead to rate increases. In a memo from my broker last year on the divergence between their original Maxima policy and their newer version, they included the following regarding the policies' coverage for cancer treatments: If they were automatically adding blanket exclusions due to the emergence of chronic conditions for ongoing policy holders, I don't think they could be making the coverage explanations shown above. In short, I've read my entire Pacific Cross policy word by word at various points, and I don't believe I've ever seen anything in the Maxima policy that would allow for that kind of response relating to blanket exclusions.

I had this from them back in 2019: PS - Pacific Cross starting last year, I think, also began offering an enhanced version of their Maxima policies at higher premium rates that they called "new normal" policies. The above rate charts apply to their original Maxima policies and coverages that existing policy holders had the option to continue with, or switch over to the enhanced coverage and higher premium new version. I don't have a full premiums chart for their newer "new normal" policy versions. Also, keep in mind, by opting for higher per year claims deductibles, you can cut the annual premiums for their Maxima policies by up to 50%, as detailed in the chart in my prior post. The 50% discount rate involves a 300,000 baht annual policy deductible, which equals a maximum of about $8500 USD.

Pacific Cross's normal published rates chart for health insurance seems to top out at age 65, even though they do offer to continue coverage for existing policy holders basically for life... I have received info for older age group premiums from them in the past. Let me look around for that. Here's their standard rates chart for Maxima policies, along with their no claims and deductible discount options... Maxima-Plan_Edit-1.pdf

Also, for those who either don't want to take the time or don't want to buy a food processor.... Tops Online for sometime now has been offering jars of Cole's organic natural peanut butter from Australia, either smooth or crunchy varieties, for typically 129 to 149 baht per 375g jar. https://www.tops.co.th/en/coles-organic-smooth-peanut-butter-375g-9310645099835 According to the labels, 100% organic peanuts with no other added ingredients. Their peanut butter is good, and the price when on sale for 129 baht per jar is a bargain for an organic, imported peanut butter product. https://www.coles.com.au/product/coles-organic-smooth-peanut-butter-375g-2080124

TMB (Thai Military Bank) ATMs used to dispense a maximum of 30K per withdrawal also... But I haven't tried theirs lately since they merged into TTB.

I've been making homemade peanut butter from scratch for years using electric food processors. After my U.S. sourced processor finally died after many years, I ended up buying a combo blender / food processor unit made by Tefal from Lazada.... Price was about 4,300b. Tefal เครื่องเตรียมอาหาร DOUBLEFORCE MULTIFUNCTION FOOD PROCESSOR รุ่น DO821838 https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i2291063941-s7700149663.html Works just fine for grinding roasted peanuts to make peanut butter. I don't use any additives in my PB (no salt and no oil), and the consistency comes out thick and just to my liking... My PB spreads easily, but doesn't drip or run.

I think you might consider the fact that a lot of expats move to Thailand because they have limited funds/savings available for various reasons, and because Thailand can be more affordable than their original home countries... Thus many don't have extra 800,000Ks lying around...

Taco Bell Thailand already imports a lot of their materials from outside of Thailand... So it would be no problem for them to source beans, if they actually wanted to... But beyond that, bags of imported dry pinto beans ARE readily available here in Thailand....at supermarkets such as Villa and Foodland. And have been for many years. Taco Bell, though, in other places/countries, uses a dry beans mix combined with boiling water. They don't make their frijoles/beans from scratch.

All of that assumes, as I know you understand, that the OP has another 400K or 800K baht available to him to cover replinishing his drained Immigration account. For a lot of folks here, if they lost their 800K Immigration account due to a scheming wife, many would not have the funds to replace it. Just a comment for the various posters here trying to excuse the wife's behavior.

A better spouse would have gone to her husband, explained the situation and asked if they could manage the finances as necessary. Not steal his funds behind his back and potentially jeopardize his ability to continue to live in Thailand.

For the OP's wife to pull a stunt like that, and literally endanger her husband's right to remain in Thailand by jeopardizing his Immigration status, is a pretty serious violation of spousal respect and trust. I made no comment here on what the OP should do about his wife... But, if my wife pulled a stunt like that with me (and did so despite plenty of opportunity to discuss or inform me of the situation ahead of time), I'd be pretty seriously considering the state of our future together.

Just for starters, I ended up ordering these burger buns to give them a try... Because they're a kind of special order item, the hamburger buns from Nine Pastry are not available apparently via walk-in or even the Grab delivery app... But you can contact them via LINE or their FB messenger app, place an order, and then pay them for the item(s) and next day delivery via a bank transfer, which is what I did.

Woooops!!! Where did that one come from? " after the ombudsmen decided today to ask the Constitutional Court to consider a petition challenging parliament’s majority vote on July 19th to reject Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s renomination as a prime ministerial candidate." "The ombudsman also asked the Charter Court to order parliament to suspend the prime ministerial selection process, until it rules on Pita’s renomination." And further: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-ombudsman-asks-the-charter-court-to-suspend-pm-selection-process/ So he may not be politically dead just yet???

I see Villa Online has the following offering: https://shop.villamarket.com/product/213731