maechanman

with an extra

Reeds

Roads

Prowl

i wouldn't believe any stats that the nation has compiled from sources that wouldn't have a clue.

I agree with the above.

I lived in Chiang Rai Province during the 90's for more than 5 years,during that time I witnessed many road accidents and most were never reported.I lived in a small village some 45 kms from the main city and almost never saw any police.

Six Wives of Henry VIII------------Rick Wakeman

Toads

I don't know what all the fuss is about here,Simple answer is don't pay it if you don't agree with it.

from a chalice of pure

Roast

It may turn out yet that not all banks will charge this fee or not at the obscene 150 baht, if so i think it would be a good idea to pin a topic & list all the banks charges as i have a feeling some will use this as a sales pitch to gain more farang accounts namely Kasikorn who have always been farang friendly lets wait a week or so & see, SCB would be typed in bold/red please.

Excellent idea,I second this.

I can only guess, the Song Kran holiday/demonstrations and then the two additional, unexpected government-declared holiday days Thurs and Fri may have put them off their implementation schedule....

It's not very often that Thai's defer money making schemes.

Tramp

Well here we are on the 17th,anybody out there used their ATM card yet and experienced these charges?

It seems to me that a lot of people have a view, be it positive or negative on the value of these volunteers. The main crux of all the threads that I have read appears to be that they would be welcomed if they did provide a useful service to the tourists and expats. However the main bone of contention here is that they appear unapproachable due to their demeanor and their particular choice of uniform. These 2 main bug bears voiced by the majority should be easy to resolve. However it would appear that the powers that be dont want to address these negative issues and would seem to be on some sort of power trip. I am sure that the majority would agree that a strictly controlled, well trained (by that I mean people skills and language skills) and obviously easily approachable local volunteer group would be a useful contribution to the local community.

They would be a lot more approachable if they were made to wear plain white shirts and shorts with perhaps a white baseball cap with a volunteer badge clearly marked on the front and carry nothing more than a whistle.

Under my Wheels---------Alice Cooper

Reams

Steam

One of my former girlfriends could have easily suspended herself upside down from a tree branch using her toes.

Over Under Sideways Down------------The Yardbirds

Teats

Now we all know TIT so what if you go into the bank with your credit card & passport and they first tell you there is a ATM outside this has happened to me before as they are too lazy to help you, And you tell them yes I know but your bank charges me 150 baht to use it. The bank teller tells you that they also charge you 150 baht for him doing it this way as well, Do you argue with the teller that I am not using your ATM if you are doing it for me and its a ATM charge or do you just go to another bank and try again with your card & passport?

Regards

Scotsman

This is a good point Scotsman, and one that we will only find out the answer to by trying it out. Personally, I will go to my Kasikorn branch and ask them to swipe my foreign card and ask them to add the balance to my Kasikorn account rather than hand me the cash. Of course, this is not an option for those without Thai accounts.

If however I did want the cash and I recieved treatment similar to what you reported, I don't think I'd bother trying to argue my point, but simply just leave and try another bank.

I use a Nationwide cash card for my ATM withdrawls.I also have a couple of Thai bank accounts (Kasikorn and Ayudhya).

Anyone know if I can go into the branch and ask them to swipe this card and add the balance to my account as Scotsman suggests.

Quote from a reuters story:

The decision by Standard and Poor's to downgrade Thailand's local currency sovereign credit rating on Tuesday will hit the baht, although the rating agency affirmed the foreign currency credit rating, albeit with a negative outlook.

Maybe things will finally pick up for those with GBP. They have had so many protests etc. that it has to have an effect sooner or later!??

Link to story here:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancia...P48257020090414

Well as soon as the protests ended yesterday the Baht was initially up against the USD by around 1%.

Lets hope it's less positive tomorrow when the markets open.

Sheep

I would consider this a very conservative estimate considering the number of incidents that go unreported.