Border Means Testing At Mae Sai

[Felt 35]

When you approach the Immigration checkpoint, you might be taken a side, get your picture taken, be interrogated about what you are doing in Thailand, and how you are financing your stay here. And it won’t help you to show THB 20-30.000 in cash. They could be income from illegal work in Thailand. You will have to prove that you have been transferring not less than THB 20-40.000,00 a month from abroad to cover the costings of your stay.

That means I have to carry my bankbook and my income statement from my Embassy with me if I tavel in the region.

Okay fine.

Hope my own country make the same easy rules for any foreigner who live there are married there, and are the main income source.

[loong]

By the way someone mentioned mickey mouse currency of thai bhat which was then defended as being a strong currency to invest in I dont remember if it was on this thread but the problem is not the currency its the bank.If you put your money in a thai bank and then forget to check up on it for 6 months they can and will confiscate all your money.

A mate of mine had this happen to him, but he had a relatively small amount in the account and hadn,t accessed it for a long, long time.

Is that right? After only six months?

Think I will start a new thread to see if others have had this experience.

New thread at

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=13&t=17135

Please post any info in new thread

[LivinLOS]

With Kasikorn (Thai Farmer) it is only for value amounts of less than 500 baht...

Though try getting anything out of an account that someone has died holding and has no will !!! They like to try and hold that !!!

Luckily its not hard to 'forge' a new ATM card in the old persons name and it gets posted to your house.. This way you can simply empty the account manually..

[Foggy Bottom]

As the vast majority of 30 day runners are using land borders to keep prices down it makes sense to conctrate on those if you are trying to catch the cheap charlies.. Someone taking a 5k return to to KL or Singapore and having a night on the town so spending perhaps 10k is not in the cheap tourist category they are attempting to control.

But under the mentality of this government's policies - it should be just the type of thing they are trying to prevent.

[LivinLOS]

Hmm... Personally I see it as the people working jobs (that Thais could do) earning in the 20 - 50 k baht range working black paying no taxes and living on boderline existance that they wish to stop..

Anyone below the minimum wage is better off paying nothing than paying thier rightful amount and still having to do visa runs.. the 55k per month min wage is a little high for Thailand IMHO.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

With Kasikorn (Thai Farmer) it is only for value amounts of less than 500 baht...

Though try getting anything out of an account that someone has died holding and has no will !!! They like to try and hold that !!!

Luckily its not hard to 'forge' a new ATM card in the old persons name and it gets posted to your house.. This way you can simply empty the account manually..

That happens with most banks in most parts of the world. It sure isn't unique to Thai bank practices.

[Foggy Bottom]

Hmm... Personally I see it as the people working jobs (that Thais could do) earning in the 20 - 50 k baht range working black paying no taxes and living on boderline existance that they wish to stop..

Anyone below the minimum wage is better off paying nothing than paying thier rightful amount and still having to do visa runs.. the 55k per month min wage is a little high for Thailand IMHO.

Hmmm - sure is some naivette somewhere but not sure in which direction to point the finger when the official salary for farang teachers in government schools, colleges, and universities is only 17,800 per month if on full time contract and recruited from within Thailand.

Those recruited out of country seem to get western (6 figure) wages each month plus a load of other perks such as housing allowance, visa & work permit paid for (and the running around often done for them), health insurance etc. The exact package depends on the negotiating skills of the parties involved.

At non-government institutions, the benefits are usually higher.

So if this show cash to re-enter policy is aimed at impoverished state-employed teachers (who shouldn't be doing border bounces after the first month or so anyway) then the government is shooting itself in the foot. It's also doing that by cleaning out those not state-employed, as from their ranks comes the majority of applicants for the cut-rate locally-recruited future teachers in government instutions, which are normally recruited because they have local teaching experience.

As Homer Simpson would say ..... " Dohhhhh"

[astral]

By the way someone mentioned mickey mouse currency of thai bhat which was then defended as being a strong currency to invest in I dont remember if it was on this thread but the problem is not the currency its the bank.If you put your money in a thai bank and then forget to check up on it for 6 months they can and will confiscate all your money.

The usual rule for a Dormant Account is that it has not been accessed for over 1 year. Then they start charging you 100 baht a month until it is all gone.

[loong]

QUOTE 

By the way someone mentioned mickey mouse currency of thai bhat which was then defended as being a strong currency to invest in I dont remember if it was on this thread but the problem is not the currency its the bank.If you put your money in a thai bank and then forget to check up on it for 6 months they can and will confiscate all your money. 

A mate of mine had this happen to him, but he had a relatively small amount in the account and hadn,t accessed it for a long, long time.

Is that right? After only six months?

Think I will start a new thread to see if others have had this experience.

New thread at

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=13&t=17135

Please post any info in new thread

Please note that I have started another thread re this subject - click on the above

The usual rule for a Dormant Account is that it has not been accessed for over 1 year. Then they start charging you 100 baht a month until it is all gone.

Somebody in the new thread reckons they lost 5000 Baht after 6 months!!!!!!!

[toopeekaa 1]

Something that may have been mentioned, and perhaps I missed it....

Every day from all over the Northern Region of Thailand tourists visiting Thailand take what is known as treks. Many of these go , by 12 passenger van, as example from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai and then on to Mae Sai, with I would guesstimate hundreds of tourists daily going over the bridge to Tachalek.... Are each of the tourist trekers expected to carry 10,000 to 20,000 baht for reentry.....

If so I think we should look for the return of a modern day Jesse James or Ned Kelly....... for a 12 passenger van thats 120,000 -240,000 per van.... Buy a chain saw, drop a few trees over the highway ???????

[not our Thaivisa Ned Kelly of course ] but then maybe 200,000 for a few hours work ?????

[george]

This thread continues here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17186