jesimps

Apologies if this has been covered on here but just had a quick scan through past postings and couldn't find anything on it. If there is and I've missed it, please point me toward it gently, don't flame me, I've had a very frustrating day.

Last Thursday I tried to withdraw some money from a total of 4 ATMs only to be refused. I knew my account was way in the black so I telephoned Nationwide UK, who told me that I'd tried to withdraw an amount too close to the 300 pound limit. I assume that I'd in fact gone over the limit. Anyway, he unblocked the account and I thought nothing more of it until today when my card was refused again.

I again phoned Nationwide only to be told the same thing, that if any withdrawals in Thailand was considered to be too close to the daily limit, even though below it, the card would be blocked. I explained to her the situation here now regarding the 150 baht charge imposed by the local banks and she said that yes, Nationwide knew about it, but there was nothing they could do. I said that surely what they were doing was illegal; that it was my money I was attempting to withdraw; that they had a 300 pounds a day limit therefore if I remained below that limit, even by a few pounds, that they should abide by it and; how much I was permitted to draw before the block was put on. She said she didn't know, it was up to security department. I asked to speak to her supervisor but the said that she was the supervisor but there was still nothing that could be done.

So the situation with Nationwide as far as I can gather is this: you can make withdrawals here, but you have to guess an amount, realising that if you guess wrong, your card will be blocked. The 300 pound a day limit is meaningless.

I was lucky because I had my Halifax card with me and drew 15000 baht from the machine that refused my Nationwide card. No problems.

What really annoys me is that Nationwide have never mentioned anything about this restriction and it only seems to have begun in the last few weeks. They just let me find out for myself when my card was refused after a long drive to the machine. Nationwide seems to be going to hel_l in a handcart rapidly, they used to be such a good building society. Has Geoffrey Howe always been chairman?

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Find people are quick to condemn FXCM, but they are no worse than any other dealer. They also allow you to trade microlots which is all I can afford. As for spreads, all dealers' spreads are variable.

Providing you use good money management and lots of self discipline, forex trading can be profitable. I make a steady supplement to my pension beside it being a very engrossing hobby.

Have downloaded the FXCM Java platform to replace the normal one (on FXCM advice) and it seems to have eliminated the problem.

For the last two days (Thur/Fri) my FXCM trading platform has been locking up after being logged in for a few minutes and I haven't been able to trade forex. I telephoned them and they emailed me instructions on how to do an internet route check in dos, which I did (30 hops from Pattaya to the US) and emailed it to them. That was yesterday morning but up until I went to bed last night the problem persisted.

Whilst I was out on Thursday, there was quite a severe storm here and the electricity went out. I hadn't turned off my modem so could that account for the problem? All other internet programs are fine and I've removed and reloaded the trading software but the condition persists. The fault is also on the demo platform, although it uses the same software, just a different login.

Anyone else was experiencing the same problem?

Thatcher -- a woman in power -- Need I say more?

See what she did in concert with Reagan......

Thatcher and Reagan brought down the USSR and brought forth the world we now have -- multiple independently "liberated" countries dominated by religiously dominated governments.

Did this woman (Thatcher) make us a better world?

I think NOT -- You are entitled to your own opinion..........

The Thatcher years was the only time I think that I've been proud to say I'm English. You can keep the rest of the wishy-washy fools that have been in power in my lifetime. I don't think we'll ever have another like her; a female Churchill.

Must be difficult running a multi-national company while you're washing the dishes....... ooh....ow.....gerroff! I didn't say that!!

Does anyone know of any online trading platforms available in Thailand ?

I am specifically interested in Forex trading and commodities.

Hi,

the best online trading platform for Forex is with Interactive Brokers. IB is an direct access platform (no trading desk that can trade against you).

IB has offices in Hong Kong, USA, and Europe. With them you actually get the delivery of the currency. I use IB for all my daytradings in Forex

and Futures. The account opening is $10,000 which is high, but you can be 100 % sure that nobody from your Broker is trading against you and

does Stop Loss hunting. Unfortunately, Forex is an unregulatated market and many retail brokers like (Forex.com) trade in a big way against you

to get your money. IB only earns the commission from you and offers the realtime interbank spread. This means it is variable depending on the

volatility at the moment. If you do not have so much money to invest, the best retail automated broker is Oanda (Oanda.com)

I've heard several people say what you say about Oanda, so they must be good. Personally, I ended up going to FXCM. I think Oanda's charts aren't very good and their "Trades in Progress" (to thickies like me) are in Martian. But the biggest turn off for me was that they rejected my passport twice and driving license once which I sent on the internet. The first passport was too dark and the second was too light. The driving license was also too light. After that I gave up, I was getting internet fatigue. I felt as though it was me trying to win their business rather than the other way around. FXCM accepted the proof of identity documents first time.

I've heard people complain about FXCM, but then, I've heard people complain about all dealers. I personally am very happy with them, although that could change with time of course.

"Debate is polarized."

I think that why they call it a "debate".

"the US will inflation the way out of..."

"Inflation" as a verb? Excellent

Prat!

Speaking as an ex-dip with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, its a scam. End of.

This is still Thailand and no matter what you are found guilty of, he still has enough cash to buy anything he wants; including his freedom. We should never forget that.

WRONG! Thaksin is not a very rich guy compared to other business people here in Thailand.

Now the entire world will watch that legal procedure arround Thaksin and an "elephant can't be covered with a lotus leaf" !

/edit typing error

They could be making a very big mistake by trying to bring him back, and if they do succeed, they'd better be very very careful about how they treat him. He has a huge following in Thailand, especially amongst the working class, who think the sun shines out of his rectum. If he's harmed in any way, it would be just the spark needed to ignite civil war. If I were Mr Abhisit, I'd leave Mr Thaksin were he is and send the democrat troublemakers over to join him.

I'm not advocating you do one thing or another, all I can say is that my state pension is due in June and I have given them certain information, what it is, I'm keeping to myself. I would expect anyone who has a good work record, paid tax and national insurance all their working lives and who still pays tax, to do the same as I have.

As for the government sifting through records to find out whether Joe Bloggs is claiming an index-linked pension from a country where he's not supposed to, I think that's a bit far-fetched. I think that maybe they have bigger fish to fry. If I did claim an index-linked pension from Thailand, I would consider myself extremely unlucky or stupid if I was caught.

I thought that pit bulls and rottweilers were illegal in Thailand?

Like driving on the wrong side of the road, or crossing a double yellow ......

Sorry, forgot to add, on no account should you start live trading until you are absolutely convinced that you have found the correct method, which has given you a winning margin over a reasonable period of time. Live trading is no place to be testing out theories, you will blow your account quicktime. Demo trading is also fun, everything is the same as live trading except that you're using monopoly money. If you find that after a period of demoing that forex isn't for you, you can just chuck it in, no harm done. Good luck!

Thoroughly recommend forex trading. I've been participating now for about six months on a demo platform where I went from losing the shirt off my back when I started to having 80% successful trades at the end. I've now been on a live account for a week where I'm more or less breaking even, but because I'm using real money, I'm being far more cautious. As time goes on I hope to have an 80% success rate as on the demo. When I do lose it's usually down to carelessness or impulsiveness, you have to be on the ball when making your trades (finger trouble isn't allowed) and you have to use iron discipline. I'm on a micro account trading 10 cents a pip, the leverage is 400:1 but I only trade 1 or 2 lots at a time depending on how much confidence I have in the trade. I normally only trade G/Y using 4 hour charts with a stop loss and take profit of 50 pips. If my trade goes up 25 pips, I set my stop to the entry price , so if the trade reverses, I don't lose anything. It's important to have as few losing trades as possible, even if your wins are sometimes only a few pips. If it gets near the 50 pips I get in and cancel the limit and and close 1 of my lots (if I have 2 going), then I can just sit back and relax knowing anything further is a bonus and I have a winning trade regardless.

If the situation changes and I decide to chuck it all in I'll let you know, but at the moment I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.

Forgot to mention, the real-time chatrooms are useful too where you can get advice and otherwise from other traders.

I think that is the worst thing they can do. Get this piece of shit back here to spend a few months in a luxury cell (ha!) and then free to stir up all kinds of shit and whining about injustice. Thailand will fall into anarchy if this scumbag ever gets near the place.

These words look like they are coming from a very disgruntled little man - think you might have been happy joining the yellow shirt mob on their path of destruction last year - you should stand up with Sonthi and scream foul - wonder why you not protest the fact that they are wanted by the law for treason, destuction of property etc, etc, etc, etc, - the reality is that Taksin had this country in better standing interntionally and a much better financial position and what it is now - and seems that the PM and his deputy cant even agree on the matter of trying to get him back here --

Good luck Mr Thaksin.

Anyone got the phone number of FXCM? Want to ring them to tell them that I can't access their site. Anybody else having problems?

Am with FXCM - micro account ie 10 cents a pip. Accept proof documents by fax or email and payment by credit card. Only been with them for six months and haven't attempted to withdraw funds as yet. Only complaint is that there is no way to contact them in an emergency, they won't give out phone number. If internet drops out and you haven't had chance to insert a stop, you could get whipsawed for lots of lolly.

Hey jesimps have you looked at FXCM contact page. I just had another look. I've never seen such good telephone broker support. There is even toll free from Thailand. And another thing. I'd forgotten I still had FXCM Trading Station on my computer. You can insert a predefined stop as an emergency stop. Perhaps this is what Chivas meant just in case you lose your internet connection.

Went to 'Support' on the trading platform and couldn't find any contact numbers. Sent them an email and they came back with something like 'We don't have phone contact because we have no dealing desk, thus being able to keep spreads to a minimum'. I didn't look at their web site.

Just tried to access their website and it seems to be on the blink, also their trading platforms both real and demo are dead slow and stop and it's difficult to get a trade started. Anyone else having bother today?

Good to know that they put on automatic stops, didn't realise that. Will check the website for phone numbers when it stops playing up.

They say that Thais aren't affected by the strong baht. I know one who's suffering and who goes ballistic every time someone even mentions the Bot. My girlfriend! The 150 pounds pocket money I give her every month has gone down from 10500 last year to 7500 baht now.

Am with FXCM - micro account ie 10 cents a pip. Accept proof documents by fax or email and payment by credit card. Only been with them for six months and haven't attempted to withdraw funds as yet. Only complaint is that there is no way to contact them in an emergency, they won't give out phone number. If internet drops out and you haven't had chance to insert a stop, you could get whipsawed for lots of lolly.

However i; being one of the people who had sod all in the first place; am actually in a position to gain from the current crisis by dint of hard work and some common sense.

Not everyone sees the current crisis as the end of the world which is how it comes across when 12D posts on here.

Well, yes, I agree if you have nothing to lose then it doesn't matter at all. I guess you should take out more debts, then you would have even less to lose

But unfortunately I, and MILLIONS of other OLD B4StARDS like me am not in the position of being young enough to get a job and work our way up again.

Here are a few points to ponder

- how would you feel after working for 35 years, saving as much as you can and never in debt, and then hoping to retire "a bit early", only to find in the space of 18 months your wealth has been reduced by 30% and your income from that by another 60%? With no end in sight to the losses and risks of banks and countries going insolvent and defaulting? Cannot happen to you? Hey! That's what I thought.

- seeing your company pension scheme going insolvent and unable to pay your pension?

- hoping against hope itself that the UK national pension scheme will be able to pay anything?

OK all that doesn't affect you at all, because you have fukc all, but how about

- who is going to pay all the debt that the UK government is currently creating on your behalf? You may say that you have sod all, but YOUR personal debt has recently increased by over 10,000 Quid due to the bailouts, so you already have debts before applying your common sense and hard work.

- who is going to carry the liability of the inflation proofed civil service pension schemes? YES, its YOU!

I guess that you are in your twenties and optimistic about everything. Yeah, well so was I, so was I once. Now I have spent a lifetime working as an employee.

The future over the next decade is looking very bleak for me and for you. Good luck, we'll all need it.

Here we go again. It's that time of year when all the whinging buggers feel inclined to have a pop at the civil service index-linked pension. I'm an ex low-level civil servant, who has a small index linked pension for which I paid 30 years contributions. My salary when I was working was very low compared to what all my mates were making, so they could have, and in a lot of cases did, contribute to pension schemes which pay much better than the civil service scheme. If you want a public service like those found in third world countries, then by all means take away the index linked pension and reduce civil servants wages, but you'll get what you pay for. If you want anything from your local public servants you'll have to pay a bribe, either that or wait months for what you want.

If you want to have a go at someone, pick on these bankers who've got the world into the state it's in; are being shored up by the use of public money and are receiving large bonuses. Leave us poor buggers alone pal, I'm suffering enough as it is trying to survive with the crap exchange rate.

Probably hear from you in 6 months when the latest flurry of whinges about civil servants' pensions kicks off, usually happens about twice a year when they've run out of other things to whinge about.

It now seems clear policy by the government and the Boe to drive the price of sterling down even lower, every time the pound makes a slight recovery the authorities quickly step in to knock it back again. It can't be put down to stupidy that they are making so many utterences. Merv King came out with another gem yesterday about what to do if we exhaust the interest rate option. In view of this fact, I feel that it is about time that I hedged my sterling a bit more. I already hold some gold, USD, EUR and JPY, but feel that I still have too many UK pounds. Putting national leanings aside, where to the majority of us on here feel is the best home for our life's savings at this moment in time.

I really like the Thai people, but their public servants have to be the biggest hypocrites on this planet. Probably the majority of their tourism is based around the sex industry, in fact, its their biggest claim to fame. Mention to anyone in farang land that you're going to Thailand and you get the nudge nudge wink wink 'I know what you're up to' look. Sex is the big attraction of Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket etc and the authorities must realise this, its been the same for donkey's years. So why do they try to make out that they're outraged when something like this happens? It's the same as the censorship in the movies and on the tv when you only have to walk past a girlie bar to see far worse. It must be this 'face' thing where you pretend to be something on the outside, but everyone knows that you think the exact opposite, but they can't say anything because its against the rules of 'face'.

Must be a Baht slip because it certainly is not a UK recovery, made for a smiling breakfast though

Only another 30 or so baht to go and Britannia will rule the waves again

The gobshite's at it again! Wish you were a John Doe you big mouthed spam.

Reported in todays Telegraph

They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.

Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

Oh, I feel so sorry for the poor Brits.....NOT. Seems like it was only about 6 months ago or so that I was reading on this forumhow thw U.S. Dollar was going to S--t, and I should get rid of my dollars and buy sterling. How times change, don't they! O.K. enough gloating. Actually I work here in Greece...getting paid in Dollars and paying rent in Euro (and sending my Dollars to Thailnd to get changed into Baht for my Thai family) At one point one Euro cost $1.65...and was about 32 Baht. Now the Euro is down to $1.32 and its almost back to 35 Baht for a Dollar. That was a double-whammy at that time. Now I feel likw I have a little breathing space at least. The one thing I'm sure of, the economy worldwide is bad, and I think, will still get worse. Even places like Japan, China and ....wait for it.... Dubai....are feeling the pinch. Factories closing down in China...that wasn't expected.

Everybody, grab your boots, and lift up your feet...there's going to be another flood.

Sorry, what I meant to say was: Your lot started all this and it's only because the dollar is the the world reserve currency that you're able to gloat. Why don't you keep your big spam mouth shut and have some sympathy for the rest us who you dropped in the crap.

Reported in todays Telegraph

They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.

Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

Oh, I feel so sorry for the poor Brits.....NOT. Seems like it was only about 6 months ago or so that I was reading on this forumhow thw U.S. Dollar was going to S--t, and I should get rid of my dollars and buy sterling. How times change, don't they! O.K. enough gloating. Actually I work here in Greece...getting paid in Dollars and paying rent in Euro (and sending my Dollars to Thailnd to get changed into Baht for my Thai family) At one point one Euro cost $1.65...and was about 32 Baht. Now the Euro is down to $1.32 and its almost back to 35 Baht for a Dollar. That was a double-whammy at that time. Now I feel likw I have a little breathing space at least. The one thing I'm sure of, the economy worldwide is bad, and I think, will still get worse. Even places like Japan, China and ....wait for it.... Dubai....are feeling the pinch. Factories closing down in China...that wasn't expected.

Everybody, grab your boots, and lift up your feet...there's going to be another flood.

I just don't geddit, or rather where on earth should a recovery in the GBP come from?

I keep seeing the "optimists" saying it will rebound to 60 or hang around in the 50-54 baht range.

Why? I get the feeling that these forecasts are based more on wishful thinking about where they would like the GBP to be, so that they can continue to fund a nice existence in Thailand. Hey, back to the good old days or, er, six months ago, where 65 Baht/Quid and 6% were very very nice, thank you and please can we live them again?

IMO, probably very simplistic, in order for the GBP to go UP against the THB two major events have to take place

1. The return on GBP's has to go UP by increasing the interest rates

2. Confidence in the ability of Brown to solve the problems has to go UP

Neither of which seem likely in the next year or two, and Labour has already said that they are not interested in supporting the GBP.

Or for the THB to go DOWN

1. Speculators have to think that the mess in the UK will hit Thailand worse than the UK.

This IMO is also unlikely, there are forecasts that both countries will loose 1,000,000 jobs or so and see a reduction in GDP BUT

1. Any infrastructure stimulus package in Thailand will employ many willing Thais in manual labour, who otherwise would not get a job. The money ends up quickly and DIRECTLY in the pockets of the Thais.

2. The Thais are much much more resilient to loss of employment, they can go home to the family house and live on next to nothing with their parents, whilst looking to set up a small business to rake in a couple of thousand/month, or looking for a job generated by the stimulus packages.

3. The UK funding is just disappearing into the banks, which generates no extra jobs. I have not seen any concrete plans to develop any big project in the UK, except the next Olympic Shames.

4. UK jobless just remain jobless and gormless, claiming and claiming and claiming.

The more I think about it, the more the god-awful vision of a socialist UK, with all large industry, banking and housing being state owned, and instead of standing in the dole queue people are forced to take on menial labour at menial rates, because THAT IS ALL THEY ARE NOW QUALIFIED TO DO! Seriously, why should some bank clerk or shop assistant in the UK earn more than a smiling Thai, do they have any major skillset advantage other than they were born in the great UK?

So, to all you fellow Brits, come on, give me an argument that can paint a different picture. And the observation that "the news is so bad it can't possibly get worse", coupled with a vague feeling that the nine month horizon is long enough for "something" to happen, just won't wash.

Think about when it all started with Northern Rock, now 15 months on and STILL the bad news is coming out and STILL the forecasts are getting worse, in fact, in respect of house prices in the UK, some organisations are now REFUSING to make forecasts because either they have NO IDEA or, quite possibly, they have a VERY GOOD IDEA.....

Most countries in the world have a head start on us because a large part of their national cake is not taken up with social security handouts. NHS etc is by far the largest part of our budget. The Thais, for instance, don't have such a problem. Any handouts go to Thais, not incomers, which is not the case in the UK. I don't wish to get into an argument on immigration, or the advantages and disadvantages of the NHS, but it is a heavy drain on the nation's economy.