cblunt

I just read that Bx.in.th is closing down.

 

I've very glad now that they didn't accept my application to sign-up.

 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/thai-cryptocurrency-exchange-bitcoin-co-ltd-closing-down-operations

 

Thailand’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin Co. Ltd. (BX.in.th) is closing down all of its trading operations.

The exchange announced its decision to discontinue trading on Sept. 2. The official website of the exchange states:

 

“Bitcoin Co. Ltd. has decided to discontinue offering digital exchange services and wallet services at our BX.in.th website in order to focus on other business opportunities.”

 

Customers need to withdraw their funds before Nov. 1, 2019.

 

The five-year-old exchange, which was regulated by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, will not seek to hold a Digital Asset Exchange license for the year 2020 and has therefore asked its customers to withdraw their funds before Nov. 1, 2019.

 

The exchange has assured its users that support and guidance will be available during the fund withdrawal process and thanked its customers for their loyalty over the past five years. 

 

The website further stated that all deposits will be disabled after Sept. 6 and trading will be halted as of Sept. 30.

 

 

I'm guessing he wants to stick his overseas debit card into a Thai ATM and deposit funds into a Thai bank account electronically rather than withdrawing cash and depositing it into an account

You can usually transfer money from one account to another using an ATM, but that's normally only possible to a person who has an account with the same bank as yours.

In some cases you can transfer to accounts with other banks in the same country, but I've never seen anywhere that you can do it internationally.

I guess theoretically it should be possible as you can use an ATM to withdraw cash from an account overseas and then deposit that cash into a person's local account. It's just a question of whether the banks want to make it possible to do those two things in a single transaction on the ATM.

3 hours ago, DoktorC said:

Curious... If you don't live in Thailand, why do you need to trade bitcoin here?  Something wrong in Philippines?

 

That's a good question.

 

My main objective is to find a better way to fund my Thai bank account for when I visit Thailand. It's difficult to remit money internationally from a Peso bank account in the Philippines, and anyway the charges are quite high. The exchange rate on converting Pesos to Baht is appalling, so I'm exploring the possibility of doing it with Bitcoin.

 

I've given up on bx.in.th, but have had more success with Coins.co.th. Coins.co.th appears to be a sister company of Coins.ph which I've been using in Manila for a few years already. They had no problem opening an account with a non-Thai address, and I'm just waiting for them to confirm the ID verification which I submitted.

 

Hopefully this will allow me to transfer Bitcoin to Coins.co.th and withdraw it to my account at Bangkok Bank.

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, uli65 said:

I think you have thai bank account?  you can ask for bank statement and send to bx in th. they will accept this for proof.

 

Unfortunately, my bank account has an overseas address on record.

 

bx.in.th responded as follows:

 

"Our team has posted a response to your support ticket, the reply is below:
Thank you for contacting us.
If you don't have a permanent address in Thailand.You are not qualified to be our members.
You cannot use our website. "

 

I'll see if I can find another way around this, but looks like they're not interested in operating account for anyone who doesn't live in Thailand.

 

 

I just opened an account with Bx.in.th but I see that they require an address in Thailand in order to become verified.

 

Sorry, I didn't mention before that I wasn't living in Thailand so I guess I'll have to keep looking.

 

 

I'm looking for a reliable Bitcoin exchange in Thailand to trade BTC on.

 

A Google search has thrown up Bitcoin Co. Ltd. and Coins.co.th.

 

I believe Coins.co.th is related to Coins.ph in Manila which I have had an account with for a while now.

 

Does anyone use a Bitcoin exchange that they can recommend? I'd want to be able to withdraw funds to a local Thai bank account.

 

 

I guess you would also need to factor in the very high rental prices that the airport authorities charge retailers there. Much higher than they would normally pay in town I believe.

6 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Some things at DF here are more expensive; that champers is usually on sale in the U.S. for $35 (1,200 THB) and in shops here for ~ 4,000 THB, while other stuff - especially when you move up in price - is a lot less. Especially when you factor in getting 1 L for 25% less than the price for 70 cl (single malts).

 

Duty-free is just that, fee of duty. Unfortunately, Thailand has a ton of other ad valorem taxes, tariffs, fees and surcharges which can contribute to higher DF prices.

 

I checked the prices at TOPS supermarket here in Ko Samui and a bottle of Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial is 4,299 Baht. That's US$130!!! Totally outrageous.

 

Thanks for that.

 

I actually ended up buying a couple of bottles in Manila before I left. That was just as well as even duty-paid in a supermarket there it was about 20% cheaper than the duty-free shops in Suvarnabhumi.

 

Would anyone know about how much a bottle of Champagne such as Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial would cost on arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport? Is there are reasonable selection of Champagne there?

 

I'm flying tomorrow evening and not sure whether it would be better to buy it in Manila before I leave.

 

Also, if you buy on arrival in Bangkok is there still a limit on how much you can take into the country?

 

 

Nothing comes even close to TheBoz/ZXCV for the sheer range of stuff available. Very sad that they closed down.

x speeds does.....

XSpeeds is still asking for an invite code for new registrations, so I haven't been able to get in yet. I'm still looking for a code if anybody has one please.

Does anyone still have any invite codes left for either XSpeeds or TorrentDay? Both of those sites need invites for new signups.

By the way, TV Chaos is currently open for new registrations. I joined a couple of days ago.

I'd also recommend Torrenting for UK TV programs.

Nothing comes even close to TheBoz/ZXCV for the sheer range of stuff available. Very sad that they closed down.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

It will be after midnight by the time I get through customs at Suvarnabhumi and I'll then be heading straight to Pattaya. If the True shop is closed at that time I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that I can find a micro-SIM version of the Net-SIM somewhere in Pattaya.

Chris

Truemove will be your only possible option for 3G in Pattaya. Not sure on exact areas of coverage. http://www.truemove....ea_pattaya.html

Truemove operates on 850 Mhz, so in theory your iPhone (3G, 3GS, 4) should support that; the N97 may if it is the USA version 850/1900/2100, but not if it is the WW version, 90/1900/2100.

You can get a True NetSIM, then layer a data package on top of it. They have uSIMs http://www.truemove....y-microsim.html

http://www.thaivisa....-service-plans/

Thanks for the information. I don't think I could use my Nokia N97 because its the international version sold in Asia, not the US version.

That's not a problem if I can use my iPhone 4 instead. I hope TrueMove would allow me to connect my laptop via the iPhone using the "Personal Hotspot" tethering function of the iPhone. If I understand the web site correctly, I could buy a TrueMove "hi-speed micro SIM" and then get a pre-pay package for 900 Baht which would give me an additional 5GB of data volume.

I will be staying in the central/south area of Pattaya, so I hope I'm lucky and that will be covered by 3G.

One more question if you don't mind. Is it possible to by a TrueMove SIM in Suvarnabhumi Airport when I arrive, or is it easy to find when I get to Pattaya?

Chris

I'm planning to spend a couple of weeks in Pattaya next month and need a SIM card to use in my Nokia N97. This will mainly be used tethered to my laptop for internet access so I'm not too bothered about voice calls or SMS. On previous visits I've always used either a DTAC/Happy or AIS/One-2-Call pre-paid SIM, but I've found the quality of the data connections are variable and often one network gives better performance than the other.

Could anyone tell me which network is likely to be best to use for this? I'm not necessarily looking for the cheapest, I just want something that works reliably and offers the best data connection. Apart from DTAC or AIS are there any other options there now?

I have an iPhone as well, and I'm also wondering if any of the networks sell micro-SIM cards for use in that.

Chris

Thanks again for the info and good luck for your own lumbar issues, I've started swimming crawl and backstroke and will try and visit Dr Nanthadej next week .

Would you mind giving an update on this? Did you get to see Dr. Nanthadej?

I have a pinched nerve in my neck and may need spinal surgery to fix it. I'd like to find the best place in Thailand to have this done.

Chris

It simply can't go anywhere if there isn't an organized system for giving these stacks of papers to someone, somewhere, that is actually going to use them for something.

Its the same with all those immigration arrival forms that most countries require you to complete while on the aircraft. I always wonder what actually happens to all those pieces of paper. Every passenger spends time filling them in but I wonder if anybody ever makes any use of all that information they are gathering. Most of the details they ask you for is already available in machine-readable form on your passport anyway, so why ask the passenger to duplicate it in writing in the first place? Even if they did have a need to retrieve some information later on, the sheer volume of paper would make it almost impossible to identify and retrieve what they wanted anyway.

Chris

When do we get our yellow stars?

this is what we should do , make yellow stars with "farang" written on them and go into the streets with it , at the same time we should have people distributing them at the arrivals at the airports ....... but not sure the Thai authorities will have enough brain or culture to understand the message .........

You mean like these?

all guest houses/hotels in the uk should complete a registration card, details to include passport details of any overseas visitor,.. but the details are not passed on .

How is the hotel expected to know which of its guests are locals and which are overseas visitors?

Chris

I think any measures to counter terrorism have to be good

Only if you can be confident that those measures will only be used for the counter-terrorism purposes they were originally intended for. Are you sure you can you really trust governments to stick to that promise?

The UK government recently used newly introduced anti-terror laws to seize control of one of the Icelandic banks operating in the UK. The Icelandic government were quite offended that they were in effect being labeled as terrorists. They also used a similar law to bug the phone of a family who they suspected of trying to get their kid enrolled in a local school, which according to the rules he was not really entitled to attend.

I really have my doubts that once governments have got all this power to watch every aspect of our lives they will be able to resist the temptation to use it for whatever purposes they want.

The Thai government say they need to keep a close track on foreigners for security reasons. The next step could be CCTV cameras inside hotel rooms to make sure you're not constructing a bomb in there. Just how far are you happy for all this to go?

Chris

Are hotels required to routinely record and report details of their Thai guest's identity cards when they check in?

Yes th

ey are and every day an officer on a motorbike comes by to collect the Thai girls (boys) name !

Fair enough. I don't feel comfortable with the ever more intrusive surveillance society that seems to be appearing just about everywhere now, but at least in Thailand it doesn't appear to be as discriminatory as some people are making out, at least as far as this law is concerned.

Chris

As I have said many times in the past, visa runs should be terminated, all those applying to stay in Thailand long term should be imposed to use the non Immigrant visa process with a requirement that each applicant has a police letter from their home country confirming what is and what is not on file about them.

If by "home country" you mean "country of birth", that could be a fairly meaningless piece of paper. I left my country of birth when I was 19 years old and have lived in various other parts of the world ever since. I'm now 50 years old.

Chris

Don't the Thais have the right to ensure those who come into and stay in the country are ligitimate? Many countries in the world have registration systems to provide information on who is living where and for how long. What's the problem?

It's no hardship for the foreigner, it's the guesthouse or hotel that has to provide the info and like i say many other countries do the same.

With the security situation in Thailand and the world the way it is ithink it's well over due!

As far as the issue of security is concerned, this policy would make more sense if hotels/guesthouses were required to report all guests staying with them, including Thai nationals. Why would someone be considered a possible security threat for no other reason than them being a "foreigner"? Are hotels required to routinely record and report details of their Thai guest's identity cards when they check in?

Chris

I'm not sure why the police needed to get involved anyway, unless they were acting on a complaint by the bar owners. This is a private matter between the bar and the customers concerned. The police certainly shouldn't have gone so far as making an arrest unless the bar had made a complaint to them about a theft taking place.

Chris

I always have the correct visa but if I do come in on a 30 days stamp, I normally don't stay longer then one week and use Thailand only for shopping and to buy cheap tickets.

There was I time when I used Thailand as a hub to buy cheap tickets when I was planning a long-haul flight somewhere. I stopped doing that after they began more strictly enforcing the rule about needing an onward or return ticket on arrival, so now I fly via another country instead. I think Thailand has lost out as a result of that because I visit far less often now.

Chris