Helpppp. Need Visa Advice!

[paulnuek]

Planning to move to Thailand next year.

Will be 38 married to a thai for last 14 years and own a house in Chaing Mai.

Will be living off redundacy money and sale of house etc. (pension froze until 50).

Putting capital in a Guensey bank as the interest is much better that UK and Thailand.

My question is WHICH type of visa shall I apply for????

I do not want to tie up any capital in a Thai Bank so I think I will endure so called Visa runs to maybe Burma!!!!

Can anyone give a future expat any advice?????

I am in Chaing Mai in December/January time and would love to meet any English speaking people in a similar position.

Also any advise on Thai Bank accounts/transferring money from outside Thailand would be useful. When my wife sent any money to her mother in Thailand we had to pay Bank charges in UK and Thailand. £20 LloydsTsb and 300 Baht Bangkok Bank. This would seriously eat away at my income!!!!!!!!

Help............

[JuniorExPat]

Planning to move to Thailand next year.

Will be 38 married to a thai for last 14 years and own a house in Chaing Mai.

Will be living off redundacy money and sale of house etc. (pension froze until 50).

Putting capital in a Guensey bank as the interest is much better that UK and Thailand.

My question is WHICH type of visa shall I apply for????

I do not want to tie up any capital in a Thai Bank so I think I will endure so called Visa runs to maybe Burma!!!!

Can anyone give a future expat any advice?????

I am in Chaing Mai in December/January time and would love to meet any English speaking people in a similar position.

Also any advise on Thai Bank accounts/transferring money from outside Thailand would be useful. When my wife sent any money to her mother in Thailand we had to pay Bank charges in UK and Thailand. £20 LloydsTsb and 300 Baht Bangkok Bank. This would seriously eat away at my income!!!!!!!!

Help............

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sure you will get plenty of advice around here and very soon - for my two pence worth:

- repost this thread in the Visa forum.

- when in Chiang Mai visit the Mad Dog bar near Thapae Gate, there are usually plenty of experienced expats there.

- from the info you have given you sound like a candidate for a Non-Imm O visa, if so then I expect you already know to avoid the embassy in London and stick to the 'friendlier' consulates in Birmingham or Hull.

- I would agree about keeping capital outside of this kingdom but you may be able to set up a regular income from that capital that justifies one of the Non-Imm visas

See you in Chiang Mai - good luck with your move

JxP

[BigMac]

The Mad Dog (about 300 metres south of Thapae Gate) is certainly a good place for local info. Besides all sorts of advice a good feed can be got there as well as a cold beer.

[Steve2UK]

Planning to move to Thailand next year.

Will be 38 married to a thai for last 14 years and own a house in Chaing Mai.

Will be living off redundacy money and sale of house etc. (pension froze until 50).

Putting capital in a Guensey bank as the interest is much better that UK and Thailand.

My question is WHICH type of visa shall I apply for????

I do not want to tie up any capital in a Thai Bank so I think I will endure so called Visa runs to maybe Burma!!!!

Can anyone give a future expat any advice?????

I am in Chaing Mai in December/January time and would love to meet any English speaking people in a similar position.

Also any advise on Thai Bank accounts/transferring money from outside Thailand would be useful. When my wife sent any money to her mother in Thailand we had to pay Bank charges in UK and Thailand. £20 LloydsTsb and 300 Baht Bangkok Bank. This would seriously eat away at my income!!!!!!!!

Help............

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Paul, regarding the visa part of your question - I agree that it's better to post in the Visa section.

On the money transfer side, I suggest you take a look at opening accounts with Nationwide. Their E-savings account will enable you to hold funds in an interest-paying account but withdraw from Thai ATM's at a good rate of exchange and zero fee per transaction. I'm looking at the "offshore" aspect myself and may well go for an offshore Nationwide account linked to the above-mentioned E-savings account. Not entirely sure of the set-up yet, but it all looks right in principle. Otherwise, you might want to look at holding your main funds in another bank's/building society's offshore account - but still use an internet facility to transfer from it to the Nationwide account (because of the charge-free ATM access - which is unique as far as I know).

[Maejo Man]

The HSBC in Jersey offer excellent off shore account facilities. Readily accessed by internet, and transfers to all the major Thai banks can be made online. Also available is their debit visa card, which works in all the ATM's in Thailand, and can be used for regular transactions as well. Check out the link

HSBC OFF SHORE

[Steve2UK]

The HSBC in Jersey offer excellent off shore account facilities. Readily accessed by internet, and transfers to all the major Thai banks can be made online. Also available is their debit visa card, which works in all the ATM's in Thailand, and can be used for regular transactions as well. Check out the link

HSBC OFF SHORE

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maejo Man, there are threads elsewhere on ThaiVisa about this, but I have to ask - are you actually paying 4.25% (1.5% handling fee + 2.75% exchange commission) in charges per transaction for using that HSBC debit card?

Have to say, I was impressed with how user-friendly the HSBC Offshore site is - but much less impressed with the interest rates on offer...........

[Maejo Man]

The HSBC in Jersey offer excellent off shore account facilities. Readily accessed by internet, and transfers to all the major Thai banks can be made online. Also available is their debit visa card, which works in all the ATM's in Thailand, and can be used for regular transactions as well. Check out the link

HSBC OFF SHORE

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maejo Man, there are threads elsewhere on ThaiVisa about this, but I have to ask - are you actually paying 4.25% (1.5% handling fee + 2.75% exchange commission) in charges per transaction for using that HSBC debit card?

Have to say, I was impressed with how user-friendly the HSBC Offshore site is - but much less impressed with the interest rates on offer...........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm a great believer in efficiency Steve, and that's what the HSBC deliver. My statements for overseas transactions always indicate the correct US dollar equivalent, at a fairly good rate. I mainly use the debit card for extracting cash in Thailand, and for that they charge $5 per transaction. One of my other banks charges me $3 and a friend of mine gets his for free from a UK bank. As I said, it's an efficient painless system, but there are better offers around..Maejo

[paulnuek]

Planning to move to Thailand next year.

Will be 38 married to a thai for last 14 years and own a house in Chaing Mai.

Will be living off redundacy money and sale of house etc. (pension froze until 50).

Putting capital in a Guensey bank as the interest is much better that UK and Thailand.

My question is WHICH type of visa shall I apply for????

I do not want to tie up any capital in a Thai Bank so I think I will endure so called Visa runs to maybe Burma!!!!

Can anyone give a future expat any advice?????

I am in Chaing Mai in December/January time and would love to meet any English speaking people in a similar position.

Also any advise on Thai Bank accounts/transferring money from outside Thailand would be useful. When my wife sent any money to her mother in Thailand we had to pay Bank charges in UK and Thailand. £20 LloydsTsb and 300 Baht Bangkok Bank. This would seriously eat away at my income!!!!!!!!

Help............

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[paulnuek]

Planning to move to Thailand next year.

Will be 38 married to a thai for last 14 years and own a house in Chaing Mai.

Will be living off redundacy money and sale of house etc. (pension froze until 50).

Putting capital in a Guensey bank as the interest is much better that UK and Thailand.

My question is WHICH type of visa shall I apply for????

I do not want to tie up any capital in a Thai Bank so I think I will endure so called Visa runs to maybe Burma!!!!

Can anyone give a future expat any advice?????

I am in Chaing Mai in December/January time and would love to meet any English speaking people in a similar position.

Also any advise on Thai Bank accounts/transferring money from outside Thailand would be useful. When my wife sent any money to her mother in Thailand we had to pay Bank charges in UK and Thailand. £20 LloydsTsb and 300 Baht Bangkok Bank. This would seriously eat away at my income!!!!!!!!

Help............

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sure you will get plenty of advice around here and very soon - for my two pence worth:

- repost this thread in the Visa forum.

- when in Chiang Mai visit the Mad Dog bar near Thapae Gate, there are usually plenty of experienced expats there.

- from the info you have given you sound like a candidate for a Non-Imm O visa, if so then I expect you already know to avoid the embassy in London and stick to the 'friendlier' consulates in Birmingham or Hull.

- I would agree about keeping capital outside of this kingdom but you may be able to set up a regular income from that capital that justifies one of the Non-Imm visas

See you in Chiang Mai - good luck with your move

JxP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[seeker108]

Paul,

Check out the following post:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=47010

[paulnuek]

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Nationwide sounds interesting as no-fee to transfer. LloydsTsb currently charge me £20 and it takes up to 5 working days!!!!

I have been looking at a few web sites Jersey and Guensey look quite good also.

Any one know about Generali International?????

Check out the info I got from them!!!!!

Given that you do not wish to risk your capital, I would recommend investing in a range of low risk managed money market, bond and fixed income funds. An example portfolio may be:

Investec European Bond Fund Past Year - 7.47% Past 3 Years – 22.69%

Fidelity European Bond Fund Past Year – 9.02% Past 3 Years – 30.48%

Barclays Sterling Bond Fund Past Year – 10.43% Past 3 Years – 19.79%

Lloyds TSB Gilt Fund Past Year – 8.73% Past 3 Years – 14.35%

Lazard High Quality Bond Fund Past Year - 7.32% Past 3 Years – 17.65%

Barclays International Equity Fund Past Year – 18.10% Past 3 Years – 30.67%

Whilst all these funds are low risk in their own right, the investment risk is lowered further by diversifying the investment across several funds. This creates a truly low-risk investment that is capable of producing a reasonable return. In keeping with the returns of the above portfolio, we would expect a low risk portfolio to return between 6%-7.5% per annum on average. Consequently, we would not recommend withdrawing an income of more than 6% per annum if you want to ensure you will not eat into your capital. Usually when we establish such portfolio’s for investors, we recommend drawing a quarterly income of 1.5% - which would be £1,500 per quarter in your scenario.

Thanks to everone again Paul.......