Dear Forum

I was catting to a guy in the pub last night who had just returned from Phetchabun. This guy has a Thai GF in Phetchabun and is supporting her. Nothing wrong with that as she has family in Thailand and he has business comitments in the UK. I would say he is quite smitten and rather taken with the prospect of moving to LOS to be with his GF.

I had cautioned my friend with tales of conspiracy and extortion to no avail. And at the end of the day who am I to rain on his parade. And I am fully aware that for every bad story there are 10 good ones that never see the light of day. However he told me something last night that made my think.

Aparrantly the Thai government has made available an interest free loan of 150,000 bht to every Thai family if paid back in full within 1 year. As there was a flood in the village recently that washed away the road his GF's family was awarded one of these loans and as a supportive BF my friend is paying back the loan month by month...................... is this true or just another one of those sick buffalo stories?

If it is a scam well it is quite a creative one and i guess something I will keep to myself as this guy wouldn't listen anyway. If it is not then it looks like Taxim was doing a rather good job with his reforms.

Dear Forum

I was catting to a guy in the pub last night who had just returned from Phetchabun. This guy has a Thai GF in Phetchabun and is supporting her. Nothing wrong with that as she has family in Thailand and he has business comitments in the UK. I would say he is quite smitten and rather taken with the prospect of moving to LOS to be with his GF.

I had cautioned my friend with tales of conspiracy and extortion to no avail. And at the end of the day who am I to rain on his parade. And I am fully aware that for every bad story there are 10 good ones that never see the light of day. However he told me something last night that made my think.

Aparrantly the Thai government has made available an interest free loan of 150,000 bht to every Thai family if paid back in full within 1 year. As there was a flood in the village recently that washed away the road his GF's family was awarded one of these loans and as a supportive BF my friend is paying back the loan month by month...................... is this true or just another one of those sick buffalo stories?

If it is a scam well it is quite a creative one and i guess something I will keep to myself as this guy wouldn't listen anyway. If it is not then it looks like Taxim was doing a rather good job with his reforms.

I don't know about 150,000 but in our village they give out 20,000 baht loans to be paid back one year later.

the government is not as foolish as the Farang. No such thing as B150,000 loans with no collateral.

On the basis that the GF said that she bought an elephant last year and asked the BF to pay for it (which he did), the two replys kind of confirmed my suspicions.

But hey at the end of the day not my business, and who am I to judge (but in a quiet moment it does make one smile).

If they are a poor family and earn perhaps 6k a month why would anyone give then a loan of 2 years+ money ?

If they wanted a bank loan or a car loan, they would need an income of at least 30k to 40k a month to repay the money back in a year.

For a mortgage over say 20 years, a bank would ask for income of 250% to 300% the payment which would be 150,000/12 = 12,500 which would require an income of Bt31,250 to Bt37,500 per month minimum.

Sounds like a scam. I know my missus' family have no access to such loans and they own land, houses, cars etc.

Perhaps she has borrowed cash off a loan shark say 100k and must pay back 150k over one year. Or she is just getting the money for old rope.

The buffalo's are unwell.

I don't know about 150,000 but in our village they give out 20,000 baht loans to be paid back one year later.

The Village fund introduced by the Thaksin government gave loans to villagers of up to 20,000bt (but usually less) for periods of 1 year at 6% annual interest, Although there is no collateral as such, 5/6 villagers must guarantee the loan on behalf of the recipient.

Once the loan is repaid after 1 year (usually requiring an additional loan from a shark to do so) the recipient may apply once again for a loan which is usually forthcoming after 1 week. This ritual is repeated annually ad-nauseam!

It's not my business to burst his bubble, but all in all looks like he has been had !.