ilgitano

I assume you are in Thailand just now, my advice to you is, seek proper professional advice asap.

By proper advice, I dont mean places with names such as, Shithouse-Carruthers (bkk jamgat) and any others of that ilk.

There are plenty of unscrupulous farang experts just waiting to advise you, avoid like the plague.

Get yourself to someplace like, Standard Charterd or HSBC, ask about the difference between a, resident and non resident account, and the restrictions of either.

Personally for that sort of money there is nothing that would keep me in Thailand, I would be on the first flight back to the UK to sort out my financial affairs.

I dont know the Uk legal system or how long the bank handling your estate can hold onto the money for you, but imho sorting this out is more pressing than any affairs you may have in Thailand.

It may inconvience you just now, but in the long run its worth going back to the UK to sort out, less hassle in the end, and you wont be at the mercy of the Thai banking system.

Right then,

You first need to go to your embassy and get a letter confirming you are British or whatever and that you want to open a bank account. You'll need a non-immigration 'O' visa as well.

Take the passport with visa in it along with the original of the letter (make loads of copies first) along to Bangkok Bank in Silom Road. Here you can set up a Foreign Currency Account. Minimum to start the account is £2500. They charge 2% for Pound notes (you gangster) or 0.25% on SWIFT transfer. Minimum holding after that is £250.

Now, they don't charge commission for turning Pounds into Thai Baht. Set up a normal Thai Baht current account at the same time.

They open the account and give you 30 days to transfer the £2500.

Now only a few branches including Khon Kaen have the FX account facility. So to change money or do anything you'll need to go to one of these. They'll give you a list of branches.

PM me for more if you like, but that's about it really.

Look into HSBC - they have a branch in BKK. For that amount, you could open a UK account, no transfer costs at all, and have a complimentary BKK account. Again for that amount I believe the BKK office will treat you like a king, and wave pretty much all fees - including forex on an international ATM card, which you could access on your local HSBC account and avoid the 150B fees everybody is getting squeezed by.

Look up HSBC on this site.

This post particularly: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Hsbc-Uk-t204592.html

Hello,

I received a call from the bank asking me where the money is coming from and why... they read "commission" on the wire and they were asking what is that...

Is that normal ?

I'm working on internet for foreign companies and i receive payments on my thai bank account.

What i should do ?

If you are working FROM THAILAND then you are doing work IN THAILAND. It doesn't matter if you are on the internet from Thailand then as far as the tax office is concerned you are working in Thailand and have to pay tax on it.

And you need a work permit.

If you are EMPLOYED DIRECTLY as an employee of an Amrican/British/European/ETC company, and they are willing to give you a letter saying they pay your salary as an EMPLOYEE of that company, you MIGHT be able to get off as having your income accepted as foriegn income. But I'm not sure the Thais will accept that or not.

Otherwise, I would open an account in your home country to have your money sent too. Then I would make an arrangement with that bank to trasfer the money to your account in Thailand...which would be considered as income earned outside of Thailand. And the bank wouldn't see it as "commission".

Good luck.

Actually, I'm no accountant or lawyer, but I've done a lot of research around the area of getting ALL my money into my hands before the tax people take their cut. It has always bugged me that the tax authorities in my home country get paid first, then I get what's left.

As I understand it the best structure to use is bank in a country where you neither reside nor work. Believe it or not the US is regarded as the largest 'tax haven' in the world - if you're not a US citizen and don't live or work there.

With regards to tax law, as far as I can tell it all hinges around the concept of 'ownership' vs 'control'. For example, I can be living in a lavish house, expensive car and all the rest. Provably owned by a very good friend of mine. He is resident offshore, so these are just assets he is not using. Can't pin down anybody to tax. In this case I control the assets completely, but own nothing. Sure in real life if the tax farmers see a situation like this they'll look very closely, and being something of a law unto themselves, they'll probably get you somehow. In other words it's best to stay under the radar.

Ultimately it's a very grey area, since there is no real, physically identifiable distinction between 'ownership' and 'control; it's all paper and words. The last people to get advice from are the tax people themselves. Get it from an accountant or lawyer, who is being paid to look out for YOUR interests.

Sorry, long post.

When did you try Kasikorn Thai last and was charged the 150 baht fee?

Barry

Yesterday (sat 15th may) no fee from kasikornbank at Chiang mai airport plaza. Today the exact same machine now wants 150 baht fee.

Bank of Ayudhya (yellow ATM) still not charging the fee as of today (sunday 16th may)

NCCC - National Counter Corruption Commission, just renamed to NACC - National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Anybody have some experience with these people?

UN appears to closely liaise with them - I think that's where the lady I met was involved.

No obvious (English lang anyway) point of contact...

What does "op" mean?

Sri Lankan and other airlines say that the traveler needs to posses the credit card used to buy the ticket, AND the name on that credit card needs to be a traveller... I can't believe they're serious? My Thai girfriend's coming to China a few days after me and I used my card to buy her ticket. I think I'll just give her my card for a few days and a note saying "sorry, but for emergency reasons I wasn't able to accompany my wife on this trip, please allow her to board, signed -farang" of course she isn't my wife, and there was no emergency. Will it work? Are they really going to turn away a customer at the gate??

Encountered that - didn't even slow me down. Use the card to get cash and pay in cash - often get a better price that way too I believe.

She's a 'mountain girl' - I know. That should say it all. I've been with her about 4 years now, and have no reason to think she's lying.

She has a 22yr old daughter and 20yr son, both with full ID. Her ex husband was a thai policeman, but never sorted her ID because he knew she'd leave (the 'marriage' wasn't voluntary - she DID leave as soon as she had a chance)

Apparently, about 10 years ago she should have GOT her ID but a recent arrival in the village paid the headman 1000 THB, and got her ID. There's some lady running around who has the same mother and father and house details as my gf - a sister?

The headman and immigration officers in her area are regularly locked up for corruption. She has persisted - without offering bribes - for over ten years to get her ID. If she could figure out the bribe game, and she had the money, she'd pay it, but just keeps getting brushed off.

She took a more pushy friend and finally managed to get a look at her records which she has never gotten a look at before; according to her records, she was born in Burma - and her mother (AFAIK she has never been near burma - or her mother. She's actually from China originally about 25 years ago overland via Laos.) The alleged burmese origin was a bolt out of the blue for her.

Anyway, past corruption seems to be PREVENTING her from getting ID. Getting ID on the sly is very risky now - I have heard of people having there ID cancelled if corruption is involved, and nobody believes ID can be had for less than 100000 THB if that nowadays.

THE POINT

ID corruption seems to be taken pretty seriously now. I actually met an old lady on the Chiangmai / BKK overnighter once who said exactly that, and she worked with the investigators. I never got her contact details; does anybody know anything about this? Might it be a good idea to contact the anti-corruption side to at least get her records cleaned up? My own thought is that if her records are cleaned up, she'd get her ID in short order.

Right now it looks like she is being officially encouraged to forge supporting people and documents herself to patch the errors in her records into some sort of officially acceptable consistency. I suspect that might just dig her in deeper. The officials who have looked indicate that it seems quite clear her records have been messed with to cover other peoples tracks. And they seem to be scared to open up an investigation - they kept saying that their current management were being investigated or had been arrested - come back in 2 months, and we can do something. That was continuously over the last 2-3 years. Now she is being encouraged to forge support and get her records moved to another precinct. She's just been told she now has another 8 month wait.

NB: According to her records her mother had her when she was 8 yrs old

Anybody know if a nationwide flex CASH CARD (not DEBIT/VISA) can be used over the counter to avoid the 150 THB fee?

And would natwides exchange rates still apply?

we used to take the kids to Ram for flu, cold fever etc etc. Antibiotics were refused at times. no matter what sort of attitude the lady at the counter shows. i tell them straight at their face that i rather buy the antibiotics at less than half the price somewhere else.

ANTIBIOTICS FOR FLU ????????

If one day Doctor give you antibiotics for FLU, go away and change doctor.... !!!

I went to RAM 1 for PIG FLU and of course only one medecine works for flu : Tamiflu...

Flu comes from virus, antibiotics is for microbes !!!!!!

Usually the virus is not so hard on you ... But the virus opens the door to a whole bunch of secondary BACTERIAL infections, which cause a lot more suffering and drag things out. Hence a general antibiotic is often useful.

If I get any kind of virus arround here, I know the secondaries are going to follow and make it worse. I'll often take something like doxycycline as a preventive measure in that case. It works too.

Every time I have some kind of flu, I get a cough that often drags on for weeks after. The cough is I believe is a secondary bacterial infection, and the doxy usually takes care of it pretty efficiently.

Had a simmilar thing happen to me about a year ago, also with Nationwide.

You can contact nationwide via secure message from your internent banking.

With me Nationwide recredited my money strait away pending investigation, a few days later i was recreditid by the thai bank and after emailing me to confirm all was ok Nationwide debited there money back.

All very painless.

Thats it ! Thats the answer !!! Now [rummage rummage ... secure messaging .... wots dat.]

... secure messaging ... done ... will keep the list posted. Thx all.

There have been a few threads on this, including mine last October and the TV readers were correct, just email your bank and in 2-3 weeks the money is returned. It's a pain, but it is a regular occurrence, more so than people realize. The upside is that it is probably the easiest bank problem to fix.

The downside is that you lose out on the withdrawal fee. Have you noticed that? They didn't return my fee. (thanks Cirrus) and when they return the money it's done at a different FX rate. (Buggers at my bank are to blame for that.)

Actually nationwide flex - no fees. And when I had the problem at abbot (I said barclays before I think) they were real good about refunding the fees - not even my idea.

Now - natwide won't "put it right" by email. Nuts. So I have to call. Not using mobile for that - I have no idea how long I'm gonna be discussing or on hold; and skype won't take money off my card right now for some reason.

Happens when you let things go to pot - to fix problem #3, gotta fix #2. And to fix #2, gotta fix prob #1. I haven't called my mum in ages - and the GF is hassling me about that (prob #2 - skype doesn't want my money any more)

OP, this happened 2 weeks ago and you're just now trying to find out what to do?

I guess 10k means a lot more to me than it does to you.

Contact the bank that has the ATM, and also your issuing bank. As others have stated, it might take a little time, but they usually get it straightened out in the end.

Good luck.

Actually no - just slow about realising forums here would be a good place to figure out if there is anything I can do here in thailand. I was told in the previous barclays instance it would correct itself (it didn't) and was told to contact the card issuer (which I did - that sorted it)

Issue is that I have no immediate plans to return to UK.

I know it's not always convenient, but I feel it's best to stick to ATMs attached to branches or at least bank exchange booths and during working hours, that way you can make a report directly and immediately. These ATMs are also slightly less prone to having skimming devices attached.

Definitely valid advice. Looks like you have some experience - Did you manage to recover the money this end? How?

This is actually the second time this has happened to me - as far as I can detect anyway.

I tried to withdraw 10,000 THB via a bankok bank ATM about two weeks ago (JUST before they introduced the 150 THB fee on their machines) (using a nationwide flex cash card)

The ATM whirs and tries to count off the money for 4-5 minutes, and finally returns my card and takes itself out of service ...

For the entire 4-5 minutes it was saying "Dispensing Cash" or something close to that.

This happened once before with a barclays card I had. Luckily with the barclays card, I was back in england the next week, and managed to get the money back. I had the strongest impression they were taking my word for it though.

I have no immediate plans to return the the UK, and was wondering if I had any local recourse to get that money back.

I will make a point that the machine gave me NO receipt, NO pointer to a help desk or anything. And it is quite clear from the internet record I supiciously checked that the money has been clearly debited from my account.

I am sure others have experienced this - any advice?

Given how much I use the ATM, and that this has happened twice now (I think possibly once in Malaysia too) I need to get a clear strategy together to mitigate losses in time and money.