Nomad97

What about 3BB full wireless service, have you checked the details?

I used it before in Bkk and now in Chiang Mai, signal strength not too bad, price (for Thailand) not too bad.

I live in the provinces (Surin) and I thoroughly recommend 3BB. Their customer service is good and they deliver what you pay for. If there is a problem they will fix it straight away. I have the 15MBPS package for just under 1000 Baht/month and that feeds my computer, house WIFI for 2 Tablets and Internet TV without interruptions. One satisfied customer.

555!

As someone said earlier, you should be aware of the additional costs associated with the mortgage. These are:

1. 2,500 Baht to lodge an application for a mortgage.

2. 1% of amount of mortgage to the Land Office to endorse the land deed for the bank, e.g. a 1.5 million baht loan would cost 15,000 baht - payable to the Land Office.

3. A further admin fee levied by the bank after loan approval - 890 Baht.

4. Life insurance for mortgagee and house insurance against fire - somewhere in the order of 35,000 baht on a 1.5 million Baht loan over 10 years.

5. Government tax imposed by the land office, usually shared 50 -50 between the seller and the buyer. This is dependent on purchase price of the house and land.

NB. These costs are based on a recently approved 1.5 million Baht mortgage from the Bangkok Bank. Total additional cost on 1.5M mortgage can easily top 70,000 Baht.

I have gone one step further than you. I have gone really green, permanently too. I have cancelled my subscription with effect from the end of this month and asked them to remove the dish and decoder accordingly. Can't get greener than that!

The Department of Works and Pension is unable to deduct tax on your 'Old Age' State Pension so that pension will be paid free of tax. Between the age of 65 and 74 your personal allowance will be £10,500 provided your total UK income is less than £25,400 per year. If your income is greater than this your personal allowance will reduce by £1 for every £2 that your income is in excess of the limit. The balance remaining will be applied to your second private pension and any other UK based income. You will pay UK Income Tax at the standard rate of 20% on the first £34370 in excess of your Personal Allowance. The rate of tax rises to 40% on income over £34370 but less than £150000, and 50% on income in excess of £150000.

The previous poster has provided the address for the Pension Service. There are many tax offices in the UK and I do not know which one(s) will be responsible for your tax affairs.

P.S. I am not a tax and pensions expert. I turned 65 at the beginning of this year and have just had my tax sorted out very efficiently, quickly and correctly by HM Revenue and Customs (the Taxman) over the past 6 months.

P.P.S. The only downside to the process is that the department use 'Priority' mail service in an A5 brown envelope. Unfortunately, this takes anywhere between 5 to 8 weeks to reach Thailand. Be patient! The letter(s) will arrive in time.

As I understand the case to be, the additional premium channels are subject to a fee of about 300 Baht per month. Just pop along to any 7-11 store and buy the premium package.

I am waiting with interest to see what the new company intends doing, the one that bought the rights to the English Premier League (EPL) Football. My wife tells me they have yet to announce how they intend to screen the EPL. However, they have said that they want it to be affordable for everyone to watch and would be pricing their product at around 300 to 400 Baht per month.

Yes, you missed a very god turn-out. Love to post some pictures but I do not understand this URL business.

You were lucky. While visiting Kap Cheown a month or so ago the guy next to me was trying to get the same extension to his visa based on marriage. He said to me that this was his 5th visit and things were not looking too good on that day either. And he had presented a folder of information that was nearly 2 inches thick. Some you win, some you lose.

My wife paid off her 7-year mortgage last month. The bank provided some paperwork stating that the mortgage had been paid in full (I guess), together with the title deeds for the land. My wife took the documentation to the Land Office to have the annotation (on the deed) that the deed had been mortgage cancelled out. Total cost of the service was 70 Baht. As I understand it, taxes are paid when the land is first registered in the name of the buyer, i.e. the date when the land is purchased. Often the seller and the buyer share the tax on a 50-50 basis though this needs to be established at the time you are negotiating the purchase.

I remember that I had to sign a declaration that I had no financial interest in the purchase of the land at the time of purchase 7 years ago. There was no requirement for me to sign anything else this time around.

For your information, within the past week I have sent my passport renewal paperwork to Hong Kong to obtain a new British Passport. Here are some observations for you to consider. Contrary to the advice given on the FCO website, if you do not live in a big city DHL is not a very good option for sending your renewal paperwork to Hong Kong. I live in Surin and the nearest DHL office is some 200 Kilometers away in Korat. I sent my application through the Thai Postal Service, Express Mail Service (EMS) which is a registered delivery with online tracking at a cost of 450 Baht. The envelope was delivered by Airmail within 4 days. Actually, you do not send your passport, only a photocopy of your picture and personal information page, plus photographs, plus the application form (filled-in on-line and printed off). Further, they ask for payment via Banker's Draft payable in Hong Kong Dollars. There is no bank in Surin Province, and I suspect most other rural provinces, that will give you a Banker's Draft payable in Hong Kong Dollars. I know, I was in Bangkok Bank yesterday when some other unfortunate soul was trying to obtain said banker's draft. It was the third different bank he had tried that morning. Fortunately I was able to point him in another direction. The ATM Card issued by the Bangkok Bank is a VISAa direct debit card that will accept payments from overseas. I had filled in the Credit/Debit Card Authorisation Form, available from the FCO website, and included that method of payment with my application form. I posted my application on 27th June and my bank account was debited to the tune of 7,106.52 Baht on 4th July. As I do not use my debit card for any other transactions I must assume that this is the application fee plus return courier service charge deducted by the FCO Passport Processing Centre in Hong Kong. At 49 Baht to the £ this equates to a total charge of £145 (£125 to renew passport + some £20 return courier fees). This is in line with the scale of fees published on the FCO website. I hope some of you will find this information useful.

I do not care who is right and who is wrong. The bottom line is that we the paying public are not getting what we should reasonably expect to see. No more, I cancelled my subscription with True Visions yesterday and I will not be co-erced / blackmailed by Gmmy into buying one of their boxes either. Alternative options do exist!

Krung Thai Bank sends a statement every month and a yearly statement for tax reasons, I presume.

On the statement the intrest charged, the received payments and the remaining amount payable.

Bangkok Bank do the same.

Thank you for your excellent and well informed comments on such an important subject. Makes for some very interesting reading.

I do not know if KI is open or closed. However, Monday 7th is a public holiday in lieu of Saturday 5th and Wednesday 9th is also a public holiday. Quite possible KI is taking Tuesday 6th in lieu of public holiday May 1st (Labour Day).

With regards your passport - time for a new one by the sounds of it. KI will transfer your existing visa details into your new passport once you have it.

Thanks MRO - good info!

As a general rule, banks never ask for personal details by telephone or email. Ignore the email - it is almost certainly a scam. I have seen many 'authentic' looking requests from Lloyds TSB for personal details - they are all a scam.

Can someone help me please?

I signed up for the new HD decoder at the beginning of October and, after receiving confirmation that the new box would be delivered on 17th November, sat back and waited. Lo and behold, I was contacted by True Visions on a.m. 17th to say that due to the floods the technicians would arrive p.m. and not a.m. as previously stated. Surprised? Sure was. Technicians came and installed the new box and I was very happy with the HD picture quality on the 3 available channels; 120, 121 and 122. I have a relatively new TCL 40" LCD TV and the match between the two pieces of equipment seemed fine.

No sooner than the installers had left I got the first glimpse of a problem. Tuned to channel 121 (movies) and the sound disappeared totally although picture was still perfect. Changed to another channel and still no sound - no sound anywhere after switching to 121. Switched off decoder and TV, turned on again and sound full restored to all channels bar 121. Once again, after selecting 121 sound was lost to all other channels. <deleted> over?

Called the installers back, arrived day before yesterday and they fitted the old type decoder as a temporary measure pending the arrival of the new type decoder from Bangkok. The old type decoder worked fine with sound on all channels including 121. The installers arrived back this afternoon and fitted a new decoder. Everything worked fine with sound on all channels including 121. Two hours later, yes you have guessed it, no sound on channel 121! A switch to channel 121 is the kiss of death for the sound system - all channels go dead. Sound is restored after turning off and switching on again but not for 121. A double <deleted>!!!

I am completely baffled - can anyone shed some light on what may be going on? Many thanks.

An interesting point, " they buy cars they don't need with money they don't have'

Assuming most of these cars are bought on some sort of repayment plan, if the car is totalled due to flooding, whats to stop the customer stopping the payments?

The car is still the property of whoever the loan was secured from until the final payment is made.

Aaahhh! I think you will find that a lot of the finance deals require a 'guarantor'. I guess the fiannce company is sitting pretty, come what may.

Just picked up a priced-list from the Honda Main Show Rooms in Surin. 1st year insurance for the Honda City ranges from 25,074 to 27,203 THB for the different models. There is no mention of the 1st year insurance being free. In fact, it is included in the basic down payment for the on-road price.

Ban Chang Palace Hotel - its has seen better days but it is quite good value at 600 / 700 Baht per night. They have their own web site too.

+ 4 to all those with positive thoughts! As the curmudgeonly misanthropic poster says, " You can't escape it. More often than not, one has to play their game."

I have had many a chuckle while sitting and waiting my turn in the queue at Korat Immigration. Some farangs really go out of their way to try and upset the Immigration Staff and, in so doing, become quite upset themselves. The more upset the farang becomes the more agro and messing around they seem to receive from the immigration staff. What should have taken a couple of minutes to sort out suddenly becomes mission impossible and the farang is told to go away and return with yet another piece of paperwork that he forgot to bring with him. A trip back to his home and return to Immigration the following day, with more photo copies of course. Yes, and before you ask, I have seen over the years many a farang with 'attitude' turned away.

On the other hand, those that enter the 'hallowed halls' with a polite and positive attitude seem to complete their business without hassle and quickly too. Even when they do not have all the necessary paperwork with them the staff seem to be able to find an acceptable alternative and send yet another happy expat on his way. Without a doubt, polite manners and a nice smile goes a long way in most walks of life.

It happened to me last year, my 90-day report was limited to 60 days to coincide with the expiry date of my visa. It has happened again this year although I was given an extra 28 days (118 days) - this also coincides with the expiry date of my visa extension. It is a helpful measure and saves an unnecessary trip for the 90-day report. (Korat Immigration).

Sinbin, I was merely trying to say that they, Korat Immigration, are not as bad as some people make them out to be. And as to serving some other purpose you are quite correct. I needed to consult with the oracle with regards to renewing my passport sometime within the next 12 months or so and whether this would have an adverse affect on the date to extend my long-stay visa. I am pleased to say they were very helpful in this respect too.

With regards to the other options open to me you are quite correct. I have used Chom Chom on several occasions but not so much this year with the shelling and border dispute carrying on. I have also used the workshop in Surin but not Buriram. However, with a 90-day reporting date at the beginning of the month, e.g. 2 Sep, the workshop was not an option this time around. It would have been too late for the Buriram visit (2,000 Baht fine) and, as Mario said above, it looked like the Surin workshop had been cancelled for September.

I did my 90-day report in Korat two weeks ago. Apart from the 400 kilometer round trip, I obviously live further out in the sticks than Sinbin, I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. I found the Immigration staff to be very friendly, helpful, polite and efficient. Moreover, they showed some initative with the 90-day report. My report was due on 2 September and the next report should have been 90 days later on 1st December. However, without any input from me the officer saw that I was due to extend my 12-month visa (retirement) on 30th December and made the next 90-day reporting period 30th December too, an extra 29 days. As she handed back the passport and TM47 she said she had extended the 90-day report to save me the trouble of coming in again before the visa extension. Now that is what I call good service!

For sure, the 90-day report is a pain in the arse, quite literally with a 400 kilometer round trip every three months, but I do understand that 'the rules are the rules'. Still, its refreshing to see some common sense and a little bending of the rules to make our lives easier.