TallGuyJohninBKK

Just now, trademarkedTM said:

 

Oh sweet, you may have just solved my problem, thanks!

That what Schwab customer service informed me a few months back in a chat conversation that I kept a printout of. So I'm hoping / presuming the info is correct.

I've never done a wire thru Schwab, but their process as described sounds do-able. And if I recall, the first time you want to do a wire with them to some account, they're going to call you on the phone to verbally confirm your instructions.

2 minutes ago, trademarkedTM said:

yeah it's basically a flat percentage so two transfers doesn't make any difference.  I think I will try to get a domestic wire transfer to go through at $30 or just do schwab atm withdrawls every other day. 

See my added info above about the pricing for Schwab intl wire transfers.

19 minutes ago, trademarkedTM said:

Thanks, maybe ill pay the transferwise fee for now, and perhaps give a call a call to bangkok bank NYC for a straight answer. 

In some comparisons that Pib and I have run lately, Transferwise actually can be a better value than the BKK Bank NY route for transfer amounts up to $4000 or so.  Once the amounts start getting larger beyond that, TFW starts getting relatively more expensive because they charge a flat % commission on the entire amount you transfer.

So you might trying pricing out two back to back $5000 transfers via Transferwise, and see how those would compare to your other options.

Schwab would normally give you $1000 U.S. per day. But you might well raise some eyebrows there if you were to do 10 consecutive Thai ATM withdrawals and incur 2200 baht in ATM fee refunds in a matter of days.

BTW, Schwab also has relatively modest fees for their wire transfers, including international ones. And even better rates if you happen to have a large balance with them.

Specifically, $25 fee for either domestic or intl wire transfers. And, if you have a $100,000+ account balance with them, you get three free wires per quarter, domestic or intl.

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

Finally the name of Tran Lee is mentioned, took a while. As I said earlier, Lazy Cat is a big player, at least 5 boats every day, and took over the contracts of the now defunct Tran Lee.

Same guy as involved before. But just operating under a new company name?

The Thai authorities are really on the ball -- NOT!!!

The hammer falls?  I know what I'd like to do with that hammer!!!

Just now, trademarkedTM said:

 

Hrmm, that doesnt sound good...   Maybe I need to do a formal wire transfer?

If you don't have an already established account link between your U.S. account and your BKK Bank account in Thailand, the NY branch route may not be viable for the time being.

You could contact BKKB and try to get a straight answer from them as to what's going on, and when/how you'll be able to establish new account linking thru their New York branch.  Or, look to other options like Transferwise or a traditional wire transfer.

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

I think that is the problem. As far as I know only transfers can only be done to here.

Tell Wells Fargo to skip the the debits.

The two small trial deposits method is a common banking measure used in the U.S. for verifying/confirming the receiving account for ACH transfers. By requiring the recipient to answer back with the correct amounts for the two small trial deposits, the sending bank is confirming that the correct transfer link has been established.

BKK Bank lately has been having some kind of problem with the setting up of NEW U.S. account links to their New York branch, as a transit point for U.S. ACH transfers making it to BKK Bank in Thailand. If you look thru recent banking threads, you'll find others lately have been having similar problems.

Right now, people with EXISTING account links with BKK Bank NY appear to still be able to do ACH transfers from the U.S. thru BKKB New York and have them successfully arrive in Thailand. But not the same for setting up new account links.

The BKK Bank NY transit system has ALWAYS been a ONE WAY route, U.S. to Thailand, and it's never been Thailand to U.S.  So that's not the issue. Apparently, and I stress for now apparently, the current problem is something to do with tightened U.S. banking regulations relating to more information being required when funds are being transferred outside the U.S.

But BKK Bank thus far hasn't been very communicative or clear about just what's going on, and, on what the result of all this is going to be.

5 minutes ago, The Theory said:

True

3% of $24000 = 2000b per month. 

But having 800,000 in Bank here is the easiest way to get an extension. 

 

Yep, that works out to about $60 a month in total interest based on the full amount in a 3% U.S. account. So the increased earnings over the typical 1.5%+ Thai account, in the alternative, would be about half or $30 or so per month or $300+ per year, after deducting the cost of the $50 U.S. income affidavit.

I won't sneeze at saving (or earning) an extra $300 per year.

BTW, re the Villa Suk Soi 33 online ordering and delivery service, I was successful the past few days in getting them to add to their online site several items I regularly buy at Villa stores that for some reason were missing from their online ordering site.

My Villa contact advised that if other folks have any similar requests, they can email them to the Villa Soi 33 online ordering staff at customerservice at villamarket dot com.

On 6/14/2018 at 3:56 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Was out and around today, and noticed this interesting banner from Villa at the mouth to Suk Soi 7...

 

Anyone know more about the details of these and how they work -- Soi 11 shuttle and free local delivery?:

 

 

 

Now that the new Suk Soi 11 branch of Villa Market is open, I wanted to update on the mention above of the Soi 11 branch having its own free delivery service within a 3 KM radius, as per the banner posted above.

My contact at Villa advised the following regarding the Soi 11 branch's delivery service (so it won't save you an in-person trip to the store, but might make the trip home a bit easier, especially for those without cars):

"It's a Shop & Drop service - once you've finished your shopping in our store, you can let our staff know that you'd like your items delivered and they will take care of that for you."

24 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Sorry BKK -but I have never stated that the USA and Russia are the same.

 

I never said you made that statement. But others here posting in this thread have been making that particular argument, which I consider totally fallacious, despite the U.S.'s transgressions thru the years.

1 hour ago, Thaidream said:

In addition to the proof I already mentioned most Americans file a US tax return showing all their income  which would match any Embassy Affidavit.

No, that's not correct. I have tax-deferred and tax exempt retirement accounts that both produce substantial income, and none of that is required to be reported or is reported as part of my federal tax returns.

Just now, Odysseus123 said:

Sorry BKK but history is against you.The U.S has been happy to create,control and maintain authoritarian regimes-as long as they are ON THEIR SIDE.

 

However,I would agree with you that prior to the present presidential incumbent foreign policy was,at least generally predictable in it's usual "Leave it to Beaver" style.

That's why I specifically said, "more often than not" promote local democracies. Yes, through the decades, different U.S. governments have supported authoritarian regimes, mainly as bullwarks against local communist movements. Such is the legacy of the Cold War.

But, at its heart, that's not what the American system is about, not what it aspires to be, and that's not what the American people generally stand for. Russia, on the other hand, makes no pretense of even trying to promote and create democracies. And the Russian system and government itself are not democracies and don't try to be under the current regime.

For all their various, respective faults, Russia and the U.S. are not even remotely the same. And anyone suggesting they are isn't living in the real world of facts and truth.

Just now, Odysseus123 said:

The curious thing is how much goodwill that they have squandered since WW2.

 

Apparently gorging oneself on Crispy Creme Donuts post Vietnam to become the planets most obese nation has not made up for the shortfall...

Prior to Trump, I don't know that the U.S. had particularly squandered much good will in places like Europe or Asia. Germany and Japan are the major countries they are today in part because the U.S. helped establish them as democracies in the wake of WW II.

And that is the core difference between the U.S. and Russia in today's world. Russia stands for and is looking to export authoritarian regimes that they control in one way or another.  The U.S., more often than not, is looking to promote independent democracies where local peoples choose their own governments, not fake elections like in Russia where it's only possible for the incumbent to win.

Putin and his government are blatant liars, plain and simple. As is often the case with autocratic dictators.

They plotted to take over by force Crimea, an adjoining territory that was legally part of Ukraine. They invaded the country with their own military and supplied arms and other support to Russian or other insurgents to wrest Crimea away from Ukraine.

The record is replete with Putin and other Russian leaders repeatedly and categorically denying Russian military was involved -- and yet Russian military forces were captured in Ukraine, Russian military hardware was seen traveling into and out of Ukraine, and more to the point, the bodies of Russian soldiers killed and injured in the fighting were piling up. There were mountains of evidence that the Russian military was directly and substantially involved.

Most U.N. nations condemned the Russian invasion as illegal, and the only thing that stopped a U.N. Security Council resolution against the invasion was the fact that Russia, as a Security Council member, would have vetoed it anyway.

There's a good reason the other independent states (former Soviet states) in Eastern Europe are worried about Putin and Russia, and that's that they fear they could be next. They're not worried about aggression from Western Europe or the U.S., by the way, but they most certainly are with Russia. And there's very good reason for that.

Perhaps they wanted a Thai Miss Universe contestant who could speak reasonably well in English and not get washed out of the international contest because of required a Thai translator to answer the on-camera questions.

Personally, I like the looks of the Miss Valentina... She and her last name would have been an interesting entry for a Thai Miss Universe!

32 minutes ago, grin said:

About a month ago I was asked for documents at Promenada to supplement my US affidavit of income for my retirement extension. I just printed copies of US bank statements and circled the deposits. The officer accepted that but did not inspect them closely.
 

How many past months of statements did they ask for and/or did you present?

That's exactly the kind of backup documents I've been carrying with me to Bangkok CW Immigration for many years in connections with my retirement extensions based on U.S. Consulate income affidavits. I've usually brought the prior three months, just in case. But at least thru last year, never once asked to show any of them.

13 minutes ago, grin said:

About a month ago I was asked for documents at Promenada to supplement my US affidavit of income for my retirement extension. I just printed copies of US bank statements and circled the deposits. The officer accepted that but did not inspect them closely.
 

Did you get any feel for whether the same request was being made of everyone else/others?

Note that there's a new thread in the Chiang Mai forum with one poster claiming Immigration there has just begun demanding that Americans show proof of their income, apart from the consulate letter.

No explanation in the thread as yet of whether they mean proof of the income back home or proof of the incoming being received in Thailand into a Thai bank.  And, no word that I've seen of such a policy change, if accurate, being implemented elsewhere.

I should add, Immigration has always had the ability to ask for that kind of proof on a case by case basis. But AFAIK, they've never had a policy to demand such proof from everyone (all U.S. applicants).  Not much confirmation of the report in that CM thread as yet.

Thai law enforcement -- seize assets first and ask questions/prove your case later.... maybe....

Freeze I would understand. You don't want the operators hiding away/moving all their assets during the investigation. But seizing prior to the authorities proving anything????

However, right or wrong, that is the way they operate here.

Someone correct me here if I'm wrong... but...

I'd be very surprised if ANY forecast or warning issued by the TMD has any legal/regulatory bearing on whether boats here can leave port.

I'd imagine, rather, that jurisdiction falls to the harbor officers or marine police or similar. And indeed in the wake of these sinkings, they did ban certain smaller boat departures for a short period of time.

I think the Thai authorities here are making up stories about the boats violating some kind of ban on leaving port, because there almost certainly wasn't any such ban.

However, I also think once the boats were faced with making the return trip and the weather was getting/had gotten bad, the captains of those two boats and their operators are legally responsible for the decisions they made to depart and perhaps also of failing to properly manage their boats in the storm -- both of which led to the deaths and injuries.

And that's apart from a whole series of other issues, including:

--were the companies behind these boats illegal operations?

--were the boats themselves properly licensed for their runs?

--were the boats overloaded at the time vs. their permits/specifications?

--were the boats maintained in safe condition with the required life safety equipment?