khunjake

It is a Visa debit card though which is supposed to have cardholder protections.

Finally received an email from wise but it was not from the dispute team. They just said it could be about a week before I receive a response. I have since withdrawn just about all funds from the account as I do not have a high level or comfort and satisfaction regarding the treatment of the dispute case.

Yea i get that. Regardless whether its a debit or credit card, if it is visa, mastercard, unionpay, amex, etc., the holder is protected from fraudulent charges.

Cheers for that. Whoever has my debit card derails continues to make charges to my account for the last two days as well! All have been declined since I froze the card though. Nothing from Wise even after the dispute was filed and a separate email was sent. I can’t seem to find a contact number for them as well.

I have credit cards as well since Wise limits per transaction to $2000. Wise is very useful when paying for things in currency other then USD since credit card companies ding you for 3% FX fee alongside a terrible exchange rate.

My understanding is that each and every single Thai Baht note and coin ever issued by the BOT is still valid and accepted. Unlike neighboring countries who from time to time call in notes and shortly thereafter are no longer redeemable making them worthless.

After using my Wise visa debit card for numerous travel related expenses (AirAsia, Thai, Agoda, etc.), I was fraudulently debited over $800 from some India based grocery delivery service. I have filed the dispute case with Wise but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears with no reply, response or action since this occured a few days ago. It seems way to easy for anyone to use a number generator script to find out card info and start charging away. I have since placed a freeze/lock on every single credit/debit card that I have and will only unlock when I make a charge. However does make it tough when you have other monthly recurring charges though (Netflix, Expat Mail Box, YT, etc.) Anyways, be safe out there!

Consider the fact that some of us need this visa type for the legitimate purpose of living with our wives due to rogue immigration offices that want bundles of baht (via agent) just to accept/process a completely legitimate non-o visa extension application. I’m not saying all offices are like this and we have done 2 annual extensions with very professional and polite IOs at other offices before. The office where we live was part of a larger ring of offices which were caught processing visa extensions illegally for Chinese triads so yes, this offices is and continues to make problems.

One of the many reasons why we bailed out of BKK. It just gets worse each year and there is never a solution provided to the problem. It now spreads to Hua Hin and Pattaya as well. Living upcountry can be tough but at least we got clean air.

Did a quick RT on Thai down to KL and well, lets say nothing much has changed. The food in business class was definitely much better then in years past but both flights had equipment changes to old crappy planes from what was supposed to be newer 787-9s both ways. Crew looks like they were well past retirement age and very forgetful about things. Just a test run to see if they would be worth it for my January trip to ZRH. I’ll probably stick it out with Swiss on that RT though.

The screws just keep on getting tighter and tighter. I remember the good ole days of simply hopping in and out on visa exempts for years with no issues whatsoever. Boy have times changed. You could get a Non-O ME visa at most thai consulate/embassy with next day window service, now its 15 business days only via e-visa. Not a good harbinger of things to come. If the new rule in Savan is true, it wouldn’t surprise me as applying in Penang as far back as 2015, you needed to show your actual thai bank passbook with at least 400k. Now if Savan will not issue any multiple entry non-o, then its bad news for a lot of husbands and fathers but again, they could care less about us. Its all good, enjoy it while you can. Worse case, deal with the Stasi at the local gulag or cough up the baht for the notorious agent extortion fee.

I have never seen much improvement when adding CalMag. You need to watch the watering, use good clean organics (unless you like smoking <deleted>e weed). Everyone has their own thing going. There is no definitive solution. You learn by growing and failing and then success comes if you are persistent.

Dont use too much Guono as well. It can burn your plants. Look at adding some seaweed extract, molasses, worm castings and humic acid if you are sticking with organics.

Too much water and/or lack of nutrients. Try to tail back on the watering. Only water when the soil is dry. Are you giving them any nutes? Fertilizer?

Why only Russians? Do the Scandi’s or other Western tourists not deserve the same opportunity to stay longer visa-free? Seems pretty narrow minded but its likely due to the reciprocal ability for Thais who can travel to Russia visa-free for 90-days.

I have done same day round turns on the same visa type but several years ago and it was through BKK. No issue but nowadays, I will stay 1 night when flying as I have seen IOs flipping around my passport looking for entry/exit stamps of the neighboring country since it was a quick round turn. I have only done a more recent same day in and out at Mukdahan land crossing and we used a VIP van (with easy immigration processing both ways) to take us across to Laos and back. No issues, the driver handled everything anyway.

its because thailand has low economic growth and poor economic prospects. There is a Thailand ETF that trades in the US and it is at the same price today as it was back in 2009. So compare that to the QQQ and well let’s just say dead money invested in the SET. Gold even outperformed the SET..

During our drive from upcountry down to Rayong last week, I was shocked to see how many BYD and GWM dealerships were open now and even more in the groundbreaking process. The Japanese motor companies better wake up or else it all gonna be chinese ev’s out here.

Just came through Swampy both ways the last few days. Only saw a small smattering of chinese wandering about. Seems like a ton of arabs coming though nowadays.

I remember the good ole’ days of being able to walk into the LA consulate and get a Non-O multiple entry visa with next day turnaround. Now its 15 business day’s minimum and thats for e-visa. For tourists who want to stay longer then visa exempt, surely its a major turnoff and just opens up more doors for other neighboring countries to get that tourism spend.

Reading these posts is comical. You guys think the RD is as sophisticated as the IRS which is laughable. Look at how this country is run. Look where you live. You are all worried about nothing. This is a tactic to scare foreign money out of the country plain and simple. They want a weaker baht and they are getting it. The last regime had a strong baht policy and it killed exports and FDI which went elsewhere. It all a game and expats are freaking out over nothing.

When I used to do these BS 90-day reports prior to the online system, I would always take a photo of the filled in form, the envelope and EMS info in case I didn't get the receipt sent back. Fortunately CW always sent the receipt a week or two later.

Not quite. Sold multi-million euros of gear to VPNT. Its still a dump..

Right but that country is a dump. Spent a lot of time there for work and could not wait to leave that place for BKK.

We rented a 2br/2ba there in 2015 for 40k/month. Moved out after 1 year contract ended. Very thin walls in that place. Close to BTS and Gateway but we moved to PK down the way and slashed our rent in half. Was well worth the move.