New Thailand Elite Visa packages from September 15th ?

[Caldera]

3 minutes ago, martinafr said:

They wrote "equivalent" then the price shouldn't really differ?

As always and looking at the quality of some of their communications, the big question is if they actually understand and mean what they write.

[martinafr]

Here is the end of deadline in the Pattaya Mail but the risk of a price increase for the upgrade still seems to exist:

 

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/thailand-elite-cancels-visa-change-at-the-last-minute-438274

[Pib]

It wouldn't surprise me in the least that TPC suspends on or before 15 Sep 2023 the implementation of their new & improved (i.e., higher priced) memberships package for a full year.   Thai govt agencies/enterprises have a solid record of delaying (or flip flopping)  at the last minute implementation of new rules/polices that get a lot of public/media attention.   

 

I'm sure TPC is getting a lot of non-flattering mail & feedback about how they are handling cancellation of current packages and implementation of new packages.   Implementation that has no-to scant details on the new packages along with many people surely feeling they are being rushed into making a decision of whether to upgrade or not.

[churchill]

4 hours ago, Caldera said:

As always and looking at the quality of some of their communications, the big question is if they actually understand and mean what they write.

They confirmed to me price to upgrade will remain the same .

 

'

Greetings from Thailand Privilege Card Member Contact Center.

 

According to clause 5.3 "Upgrade, Fee, and Validity" of your application form, during the 5-year validity term, your membership may be upgraded. If you pay THB 500,000 for Elite Easy Access, you will be charged THB 500,000 to upgrade your membership. If you pay THB 600,000 for this package, you will be charged THB 400,000 to upgrade your membership to Elite Superiority Extension.  

 

You are eligible for an upgrade under this condition until three months before your membership expires, except for an upgrade to a new package with new benefits, which we will launch next month.  '

[martinafr]

23 minutes ago, churchill said:

They confirmed to me price to upgrade will remain the same .

 

'

Greetings from Thailand Privilege Card Member Contact Center.

 

According to clause 5.3 "Upgrade, Fee, and Validity" of your application form, during the 5-year validity term, your membership may be upgraded. If you pay THB 500,000 for Elite Easy Access, you will be charged THB 500,000 to upgrade your membership. If you pay THB 600,000 for this package, you will be charged THB 400,000 to upgrade your membership to Elite Superiority Extension.  

 

You are eligible for an upgrade under this condition until three months before your membership expires, except for an upgrade to a new package with new benefits, which we will launch next month.  '

I have same feedback from our Agent. Also i asked TPC directly via email and will post when they reply.

[K2938]

1 hour ago, martinafr said:

I have same feedback from our Agent. Also i asked TPC directly via email and will post when they reply.

According to various Fb posts in the Thai Elite groups, different people were told different things and sometimes even the same person was told different things by two different people.  So confusion really seems to rein.

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, churchill said:

They confirmed to me price to upgrade will remain the same .

 

'

Greetings from Thailand Privilege Card Member Contact Center.

 

According to clause 5.3 "Upgrade, Fee, and Validity" of your application form, during the 5-year validity term, your membership may be upgraded. If you pay THB 500,000 for Elite Easy Access, you will be charged THB 500,000 to upgrade your membership. If you pay THB 600,000 for this package, you will be charged THB 400,000 to upgrade your membership to Elite Superiority Extension.  

 

You are eligible for an upgrade under this condition until three months before your membership expires, except for an upgrade to a new package with new benefits, which we will launch next month.  '

Interesting, I don't have this same upgrade clause (they changed it) as I purchased my 5 year membership a few years back, the Elite Superiority Extension did not exist back then.

 

So instead my clause 5.3 says this and offers the upgrade only to the 2 million baht membership :

 

This is from a time before the 20 year superiority extension existed for just 1 million baht, I suspect they will offer the same to all Easy Access members but will need to confirm this with them.

 

I'm not interested in upgrading to the 1.5 million Baht option but I will go for the 500k option if it's available until September, otherwise I won't bother upgrading at all and will allow it to lapse.

 

Interestingly it doesn't mention anything like I have read before about renewing before the last 3 months or before the last year of membership which is another one I heard of.

 

I'll email them at some point soon I guess.

[James105]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

Interesting, I don't have this same upgrade clause (they changed it) as I purchased my 5 year membership a few years back, the Elite Superiority Extension did not exist back then.

 

So instead my clause 5.3 says this and offers the upgrade only to the 2 million baht membership :

 

This is from a time before the 20 year superiority extension existed for just 1 million baht, I suspect they will offer the same to all Easy Access members but will need to confirm this with them.

 

I'm not interested in upgrading to the 1.5 million Baht option but I will go for the 500k option if it's available until September, otherwise I won't bother upgrading at all and will allow it to lapse.

 

Interestingly it doesn't mention anything like I have read before about renewing before the last 3 months or before the last year of membership which is another one I heard of.

 

I'll email them at some point soon I guess.

Yeah I'd just email them as you may have automatically been switched onto whatever it was at the time for everyone else.   Mine is about 3 years old.   I emailed them earlier and this was the reply:

 

"Greetings from Thailand Privilege Card Member Contact Center.
We hereby certify that there will be no deadline for membership upgrades, and that the condition and price of the upgrade remain the same at 500,000THB as long as your present membership is valid for more than three months before 23 September 2025."

[BeerAttractedPerson]

On 7/29/2023 at 7:53 PM, ukrules said:

That's what I'm thinking of - I plan on upgrading my current 5 year membership to a 20 year membership at some point.

 

Perhaps I should move quickly.

I've heard rumours that a 20y will cost 5mill after 15th Sept. Move quick while u can

[ukrules]

13 minutes ago, BeerAttractedPerson said:

I've heard rumours that a 20y will cost 5mill after 15th Sept. Move quick while u can

Yeah, I doubt that very much and  if it is then it's going to be the 'super luxury package' which hardly anyone goes for these days, the one that costs 2 million Baht with a 20k a year fee.

 

In my opinion the reason Thailand Elite became very popular is the cheaper 5 year 'Easy Access' plans and the 'new' 20 year membership package.

 

I expect every level to have new packages including the 5 year and cheaper 20 year packages along with a more expensive 20 year package as well.

 

For me, I'm going to 'upgrade renew' at some point this month, I was planning on doing this anyway - but not until early next year - then they moved the goalposts so I guess I'll do it now.

 

There was now way at all that I would be strong armed into acting on impulse inside a stupid 2 week deadline.

 

The only time I've ever heard things like 'special prices but you must apply urgently, right now within a very short time frame' was when it involved a scam of some sort. It's the hard sell - and that I do not like and never go for it. Now they opened it back up I'll bite.

 

 

 

[sathornlover]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

I expect every level to have new packages including the 5 year and cheaper 20 year packages along with a more expensive 20 year package as well.

 

For me, I'm going to 'upgrade renew' at some point this month, I was planning on doing this anyway - but not until early next year - then they moved the goalposts so I guess I'll do it now.

 

There was now way at all that I would be strong armed into acting on impulse inside a stupid 2 week deadline.

 

The only time I've ever heard things like 'special prices but you must apply urgently, right now within a very short time frame' was when it involved a scam of some sort. It's the hard sell - and that I do not like and never go for it. Now they opened it back up I'll bite.

The last sentence in clause 5.3 of this "Easy Access" plan seems very problematic:

“The Company reserves the rights to change the said fees, charges, and method of payments without prior notice.”

This gives TPC carte blanche to charge whatever upgrade fees they want, even without notice?

The 12-day deadline and the way it was communicated was more than borderline and anything but "elite".
One can only hope that TPC  have understood that this can ruin their reputation.

Legal certainty is not that way ...

[churchill]

4 hours ago, sathornlover said:

The last sentence in clause 5.3 of this "Easy Access" plan seems very problematic:

“The Company reserves the rights to change the said fees, charges, and method of payments without prior notice.”

 

One would hope that if fees were going to raised they would give existing holders some notice .

[freeman01]

of course they will allow people to upgrade to the old scheme, otherwise it would make them look really bad and this whole elite visa scheme is not much about money but rather mostly to facilitate visa for rich people. changing the term of a contract people signed would just create unnecessary trouble and bad reputation for them.

 

for anyone under 50 with some capital and the ability to borrow money, the Elite Visa is a no brainer, the 20 years comes down to roughly 1500 USD a year (perhaps a bit more with interests if you borrow money for it), very reasonable for being able to enter Thailand at will for 20 years ...

 

also the ability to pay using Cryptocurrency for this visa at various Agencies is very underrated I think, as long as you clear background checks you are good to go and don't need to go through the banking system ...

 

also of notes for all the retirement and marriage visas, the rules can change any time and take effect after the annual renewal ... the elite visa lock the term for 5, 10 or 20 years which is quiet good for the price really, I personally really appreciate the peace of mind the elite visa brings.

[Tuvoc]

31 minutes ago, freeman01 said:

I personally really appreciate the peace of mind the elite visa brings

Yes, I will be getting my application together over the weekend. The upfront cost is off-putting  but when you convert to an annual number it isn't too bad. 

 

 

[freeman01]

most people don't realize how mad inflation has gone since Covid ... 15-30k USD is not as much as it used to be ... very likely also the main reason behind the coming price change for the whole scheme, every rich people have gotten way more richer the past years ...

 

a reminder to anyone who is thinking they could afford this, Elite visa was not designed for you but for wealthy people for whom 15-30k usd is close to nothing and the price increase will likely reflect this.

[RedCardinal]

On 8/17/2023 at 7:05 AM, BeerAttractedPerson said:

I've heard rumours that a 20y will cost 5mill after 15th Sept. Move quick while u can

This all started with a single agent video which clearly stated they were pure guesses. 

[Tuvoc]

I submitted my application online today.

 

On the one hand I feel like I'm completely mad - I could just continue to get retirement extensions or marriage extensions, so why am I squandering 1 million baht ??

 

On the other hand, it makes sense:  - for a retirement extension 800k baht is locked away anyway until I die, and the Elite fee is not a lot more than that. The only real difference there is that the 1M Elite fee is gone, whereas the 800k would go to my wife on my death. She will have plenty without that.  And then, I think of it as 50k baht per year and that doesn't seem like a lot. Worth it to me for easier dealings with immigration for the next 20 years, if I live that long.

 

Having been sitting on the fence for a while, I'm at peace with my decision to go for it. 

[zoltannyc]

47 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

I submitted my application online today.

 

On the one hand I feel like I'm completely mad - I could just continue to get retirement extensions or marriage extensions, so why am I squandering 1 million baht ??

 

On the other hand, it makes sense:  - for a retirement extension 800k baht is locked away anyway until I die, and the Elite fee is not a lot more than that. The only real difference there is that the 1M Elite fee is gone, whereas the 800k would go to my wife on my death. She will have plenty without that.  And then, I think of it as 50k baht per year and that doesn't seem like a lot. Worth it to me for easier dealings with immigration for the next 20 years, if I live that long.

 

Having been sitting on the fence for a while, I'm at peace with my decision to go for it. 

Congrats, same reasoning for me.

The discussion by some preceding posters makes me think about a situation where I have enough money to buy a nice Benz, but some people with less money telling me that getting a Honda Jazz would be just as good, as it would get me to the same places.

It should be mentioned that if you have a retirement visa, you might need Thai insurance too. And if you choose to keep the insurance for 20 years, it could cost around 1 million.

[BE88]

It's not an easy decision ultimately, but anyway I decided not to take it because I think it's just a waste of money because it doesn't give me any security for various reasons, change of government, if you forget to go to immigration within the time established for the your renewal your Elite Visa is automatically cancelled, always the 90-day declaration therefore essentially no effective improvement. and id I decide to leave Thailand for different reasons that I don't see now, the money is lost.

 

In other words I don't see any real benefit beyond that you run the risk of losing some money.

And I end all this propaganda about the current Visa Elite and getting money very quickly for reasons that are not very clear and it just seems like manipulation.

[ukrules]

15 minutes ago, BE88 said:

And I end all this propaganda about the current Visa Elite and getting money very quickly for reasons that are not very clear and it just seems like manipulation.

Well I'm upgrading mine from Easy Access 5 year membership which currently expires in 2025 to get the extra 15 years of hassle free visas so my membership will end in 2040 instead.

 

When I got my most recent membership it cost 500k per 5 years which was before the price increase.

 

That's 15 years for 500k Baht = 33.3k Baht per year - pretty reasonable really. Especially when you consider that before they announced you could upgrade which wasn't always the case at all I planned on buying the 1 Million baht version for the full 20 years.

 

For those who paid 600k for their 5 year visa the upgrade cost is only 400k Baht which is 26.6k Baht per year for the upgrade.

 

So I'm taking advantage of this offer while it lasts......nothing lasts forever.

 

Regarding the timing I was previously informed that I must upgrade before the final year of my 5 year membership so this is something I planned on doing in early 2024, this brings it forward by about 6 months which is slightly inconvenient but not massively so.

 

[BE88]

18 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Well I'm upgrading mine from Easy Access 5 year membership which currently expires in 2025 to get the extra 15 years of hassle free visas so my membership will end in 2040 instead.

 

When I got my most recent membership it cost 500k per 5 years which was before the price increase.

 

That's 15 years for 500k Baht = 33.3k Baht per year - pretty reasonable really. Especially when you consider that before they announced you could upgrade which wasn't always the case at all I planned on buying the 1 Million baht version for the full 20 years.

 

For those who paid 600k for their 5 year visa the upgrade cost is only 400k Baht which is 26.6k Baht per year for the upgrade.

 

So I'm taking advantage of this offer while it lasts......nothing lasts forever.

 

Regarding the timing I was previously informed that I must upgrade before the final year of my 5 year membership so this is something I planned on doing in early 2024, this brings it forward by about 6 months which is slightly inconvenient but not massively so.

 

I have only stated my reasons and I do not change my decision, but I assure you that you will then do what you do with your money.

 

[sathornlover]

2 hours ago, Tuvoc said:

I submitted my application online today.

 

On the one hand I feel like I'm completely mad - I could just continue to get retirement extensions or marriage extensions, so why am I squandering 1 million baht ??

 

I can understand all your considerations so well.
With an application and 2-4 digital copies of the passport, one probably has peace for the next 20 years. Strangely enough, no further documentation is necessary!
My wife already does the stupid 90-day notifications online with a left hand!
In contrast, LTR is still far too complex for me ;-). 

The problem is, there are a lot of confusing possibilities in the legal and grey area to realise a long stay in Thailand. But each of the rather modest options can be very unsatisfactory in itself.

Everyone has to decide for themselves what is best.

 

There are many people who have no choice but also enough people who see it as a challenge to defy the bureaucratic madness every year anew or even enjoy this kind of contact and have fun doing it, or at least don't mind the degrading procedure or are happy to have managed it at least so far relatively cheaply, which I think are also very good reasons why they should throw the money at TPC?  
 

On the other hand, despite the middle class crumbling again, there are more and more people in absolute numbers worldwide for whom one or more million baht is the least problem of all, why should they face this annual ridiculous immigration procedure if they don't enjoy it so much and can buy their way out of it?

 

No one should have to justify why everyone chooses one of the many rather modest options that seem to be the "best" for them ...

[lamyai3]

2 hours ago, BE88 said:

if you forget to go to immigration within the time established for the your renewal your Elite Visa is automatically cancelled

Although you'd be on overstay at that point and subject to any penalties and blacklist if applicable, I don't think Elite membership is cancelled. 

[martinafr]

For me Elite Visa is not expensive because in germany i need a mandatory health insurance and a car that makes living much expensiver then living in BKK with cheaper insurance, no car and a nice condo.

[BE88]

8 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

Although you'd be on overstay at that point and subject to any penalties and blacklist if applicable, I don't think Elite membership is cancelled. 

Wrong.  Please read the information of Elite Visa, if you arrive even only one day after your Elite Visa is automatically cancelled.

[Ben Zioner]

13 hours ago, Tuvoc said:

I submitted my application online today.

 

On the one hand I feel like I'm completely mad - I could just continue to get retirement extensions or marriage extensions, so why am I squandering 1 million baht ??

 

On the other hand, it makes sense:  - for a retirement extension 800k baht is locked away anyway until I die, and the Elite fee is not a lot more than that. The only real difference there is that the 1M Elite fee is gone, whereas the 800k would go to my wife on my death. She will have plenty without that.  And then, I think of it as 50k baht per year and that doesn't seem like a lot. Worth it to me for easier dealings with immigration for the next 20 years, if I live that long.

 

Having been sitting on the fence for a while, I'm at peace with my decision to go for it. 

Indeed, seems that nothing beats LTR. Let's hope they won't  decide  it is "too easy to get", like the  others ..

[findlay13]

On 7/29/2023 at 7:11 PM, Jacques Clouseau said:

It's a strange move.

Usually when what's on offer doesn't sell, you lower your prices, right ?

Not in Thailand.They put the prices up????No customers? increase prices. I was incredulous when I first saw this 20 + years ago.

[Mike Teavee]

52 minutes ago, BE88 said:

Wrong.  Please read the information of Elite Visa, if you arrive even only one day after your Elite Visa is automatically cancelled.

Wrong... It may be cancelled... 

 

From https://thailand-elite.com/faq/

 

The only time I can recall anybody reporting an overstay on TE was the guy who overstayed by > 90 days & was given a 1 year ban but his Visa was still valid so he could return to Thailand after the 1 year had passed though he'd effectively lost 1 year of the (IIRC) 5 year Visa. 

 

 

 

[JayClay]

13 hours ago, BE88 said:

all this propaganda about the current Visa Elite and getting money very quickly for reasons that are not very clear and it just seems like manipulation

Never be too quick to attribute malice to that which could just as easily be explained by incompetence.

[BE88]

33 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

Wrong... It may be cancelled... 

 

From https://thailand-elite.com/faq/

 

The only time I can recall anybody reporting an overstay on TE was the guy who overstayed by > 90 days & was given a 1 year ban but his Visa was still valid so he could return to Thailand after the 1 year had passed though he'd effectively lost 1 year of the (IIRC) 5 year Visa. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that's right, it all depends on the person you find at immigration but nothing guarantees you that it won't be cancelled, so I find that it's an extra stress with the Visa Elite, you are forced to do like a Visa O but you risk losing your money too