BeastOfBodmin

I wonder who these guys work for?

It's gone up and down a few times this Millennium: United States federal government credit-rating downgrades. I don't know who was in power at those times.

Is it also planned that, once they get their ducks in a row, this digital wallet scheme will be used as a vehicle for the "Digital Baht" aka CDBC? Apparently the wallet prevents the currency from being spent on certain items and in certain places.

This is news?

I didn't find this mentioned in the thread, so apologies if this was already covered. As far as "pension income" is concerned, it seems you only need to show a regular transfer from an account in another country to your Thai account. Is that correct? No need to prove it is from a state pension or occupational pension?

Same here. I have never had a problem as far as I am aware. However, these transactions are automatically flagged and US.GOV gets to know about them.

You'll still suffer a painful walletectomy on both the spread and/ or the fees. Use Wise, Revolut, currencyfair, xe.com or a host of other firms which specialise in currency conversion and transfer.

Sending over USD 10K (or equivalent) has been an automatic flag for decades (yep, not inflation-adjusted). Of course, it's for our own good and is definitely not a way to keep tabs on innocent transactions. But I digress. If you were to try to send multiple amounts less than or equal to USD 9999, that is spotted too and is known as "layering", which might attract more attention. It seems the Thai banking system's guidelines make people look criminals on occasion, doesn't it?

You can use Wise. It's not just for USA use. Wise is registered in the UK. As far as I know, the only outfit that matches Wise for [insert favourite government-issued toilet paper name here] to THB is Revolut. Getting THB out of the Thai banking system as efficiently is another matter (for example, Wise won't let you do this). I can feel a new thread coming on...

Yes you can. Split it into two if you must. I can't think why immigration would not be happy with a Wise transfer. Print out or screenshot the Wise proof of transfer and take it with you if you are nervous.

The marketing tells you they are "disposable" blades, which is why they are "cheap". I haven't run the numbers for years, but doesn't the same goes for canned lather versus brush, dish and soap?

Nice tip! I was aware of using a strop for disposables (to an extent you're just cleaning the blades). I didn't put 2 & 2 together and think of using it on my Feather DEs. I now have a use for that old leather belt, and an excuse not to look for replacement screws for the buckle. Daren't use my hand. Eventually I'd strop the wrong way, flay myself, immediately get soap in the wound, etc.

Most of his web site is marked as "out of stock" unfortunately.

Been here just over a year on a permanent basis. Couldn't find my shaving soap after my shipped stuff arrived and the small amount I packed for the journey here ran out ages ago. The nearest "barber" can't shave for <deleted>. Usually no soap nor lotion so it's a dry shave so I do it myself. Haven't found any local (Sakon Nakhon city) shaving shops so I have been using normal hard soap. I ordered 100 or so Feather double-edge via Lazada or whatever. I still have my travel brush. I still have my Merkur safety razor since 15+ years. Edit: s/Merkel/Merkur/ (what was I thinking?!?

Here's hoping the probing is harsh and unrelenting.

I have an ancient Epson XP-850 copier/ scanner/ printer/ FAX that is designed to print to various types of high-quality printer. To get a handle on this, I suggest looking up Epson's latest & greatest in that line then look for "best printer in 2025 (even though we're only in May)" to get comparisons. Finally, if you don't want to use first-party ink, make sure the firmware of your shortlist allows third-party compatible cartridges. OEM inks can bankrupt you as fast as glossy paper can.

If you're buying in bulk it might be worth it. A lot of 7/11 stuff has a shelf life longer than U238.

The intonation of the narrator sounds weird, like trying to sound concerned but not doing a good job. Is it an AI reading it out? If they are "illegal"ly in the USA, isn't deportation a "legal" option?

Gor lummee get it right. It was Signal. Ruined the whole rant for me mate 😜.

Long term gold. Gold averages 7.9% pa return in USD since 1971 (not adjusted for inflation). That beats cash in a time deposit account, especially when you take into account the tax on the interest. USA T-Bills average yield was 5.1% to 7.1% over the same period before taxes. Graphic was taken from ttps://www.tradingview.com/chart/omBmWEst/?symbol=TVC%3AGOLD - click on "All" and zoom to 1970. Right-click on the price axis and choose to invert it. There are downloadable data here: https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart

Thread was hijacked as soon as the first reply. Is there not a single reference to any news articles in this thread beyond mine? I found Thailand reports declining Covid-19 Cases; Public urged to remain vigilant Hardly scare-mongering. I asked some AI to "elaborate" and I got this (click the link, wait, then click "Elaborate" and wait a few more seconds): https://search.brave.com/search?q=thailand+covid+cases+2025&source=desktop&summary=1&conversation=fecef0169dd80f86287f11 A few things I am interested to know are 1. Is PCR still used as a diagnostic tool wrt COVID? What cycle threshold? 2. Why is it still called COVID-19? 3. Which strain/ s are we talking about? What are the mutation rates of the strain/ s? 4. What are the current R0s of the strain/ s? 5. Which strain/ s of vaccine are used and which COVID-19 strains are they based on? 6. Where can I find updated safety data, given the millions or billions of COVID-19 injections that have been given the stage three trials for the original vaccines were done during the initial mass rollout of the original vaccines?

Thanks guys, that helps a lot. 👍 I am currently working on paying the electricity bill via auto bank transfer, which is one of the drivers for the original post. I really don't want to have the supply cut off because I missed my calendar reminder to check the PEA app AND sister-in-law forgot to check the PEA app (it's all in her name at the moment) and remind me. We lose it enough during the month anyway, even when we do pay the bill on time... Ironically the local PEA office is only a couple of hundred metres away. Indeed. Which is probably one reason why I get a prompt from my banking app every time I scan a QR code in a shop. My biggest objection to cash in Thailand is the ATM fees we have to pay in order to get it. <off topic>I am not looking forward to the Thai version of a CDBC.</off topic> I top up my mobile phone via regular transfer and I pay our internet connection bill via direct debit or whatever it is called here. The one year renewal is a PITA, but small fry compared to all the other (to me) PITAs I experience as I adjust to life in Thailand.

Been here permanently for just over a year. Our family have a few regular payments to take care of. Only I use regular transfers from my bank account. The reason given for not having such things as the electricity bill on automatic payment is along the lines of "doing this may cause the wrong amount to be sent either in error or as a result of fraud". I can't get specific details from family members as to how these mistakes/ fraud are perpetrated, which can be down to language difficulties as much as anything else. I assume the risk is, when setting up a regular payment from account A to account B, either/ or account A will send the wrong amount to account B, or account A's regular payment will somehow be used to send an amount to account C. A Google search didn't turn up anything clear in English, beyond MSM articles discussing Thai bank security measures, blah blah. I couldn't find any examples of abuses nor recourse should this happen, but these may well be lurking somewhere in the Thai language. Which brings me to the question: what is your take on this? Is banking here liable to such abuses? Any concrete examples I can take a look at?

To get back to the defaults, you can click on the ASEAN NOW logo Then click on this icon. If you've already changed the defaults, I can't help you to get back to that setup.

I am not sure if this is the correct forum. I didn't want to put it in the Support Forum, as I am not asking for support. This is in response to this closed thread in the support forum. I found the support forum while trying to find out how to customise the layout. Searching for how to customise got nowhere - even trying both customiSe and customiZe. I was looking for ways to rearrange the default layout on the home page, but I couldn't find a layout editor as such. By pointing and clicking in various ways (then forgetting how I got to some places), I came up with this alternative arrangement that at least banishes the popular contributors. The other side effects may not appeal, but here goes anyway. Maybe other nerds have their own hacks they could share? First, Select "Fluid" How is that for an uncluttered view? The right hand side now consists in a list of forums/ sub-forums. Click the box next to the forum name and it appears on the left. Search the page if you don't like scrolling. Click on "Unread Content"... ...To get a way to filter and display unread content since your last visit. To go back to the uncluttered view, click on "Forums" at the top & to the right of the ASEANNOW logo. Click on some forum names to display posts from that forum. If you select multiple forums the posts by default are merged and sorted by date. You can change this by clicking on "SORT BY".