Retirement Visa problem - New Rules

[onehunglo]

On 21 March 2019 at 01:02, bar stool said:

I just pay the legal amount of 1,900 baht

 

30 minutes ago, GlobalTraveler said:

Renew visa if you have the income or 800K in bank is 10 000 if they provide it  for you 16 500 Baht. 1st one however is 25K

i think barstools would have to be the better and cheaper way , understanding that he has to front with the 800,000

[petermik]

On 19/03/2019 at 10:58, petermik said:

Pal of mine renewed his at the well known agency on soi Buk a little further down from Nature View Hotel 14,000 baht last week....me I do it the legit way...what happens next year when he/they have to show their bankbook is anyones guess.....

 

16 hours ago, GlobalTraveler said:

mareerat on soi 13/2 said no problem at all.

good luck with that......of course once you have paid up front for this years visa through the "backdoor" method the agent is very happy of course and he will happily say next year no problem also.....let,s hope for your sake it happens.

Me? I picked up my passport on thursday and signed a form to report back with my bank book updated on the 3rd July showing my 800,000 is still there,afterwards I can withdraw anything up to 400,000 baht and providing next year when I apply again I can show I,ve never gone below this figure I will be complying with the new regulations.

How the "agents" get round this I do not know but the whole idea of this,according to Big Joke that is,was to eradicate fraudulent issuing of visas thus getting rid of these so called agents...but like everything else here things change and rules mean nothing.....we shall see

p.s. I,m assuming and hoping I,ll still be alive this time next year....as we all do of course

 

[Kahoy]

Heads up for anybody who uses the Bangkok Bank Thepprasit Road Branch the branch is closing from Monday.

 

[Insomniac]

12 hours ago, petermik said:

 

good luck with that......of course once you have paid up front for this years visa through the "backdoor" method the agent is very happy of course and he will happily say next year no problem also.....let,s hope for your sake it happens.

Me? I picked up my passport on thursday and signed a form to report back with my bank book updated on the 3rd July showing my 800,000 is still there,afterwards I can withdraw anything up to 400,000 baht and providing next year when I apply again I can show I,ve never gone below this figure I will be complying with the new regulations.

How the "agents" get round this I do not know but the whole idea of this,according to Big Joke that is,was to eradicate fraudulent issuing of visas thus getting rid of these so called agents...but like everything else here things change and rules mean nothing.....we shall see

p.s. I,m assuming and hoping I,ll still be alive this time next year....as we all do of course

 

Keeping 800,000 in a Thai Bank is worst than hiding the money under your bed. I have lost track of the amount of bank frauds on the Thai News during the last 39 years. In fact my daughter had her account cleared by someone, only 450 pounds luckily, last week. Bank declared no liability. 

The way agents get away with it is cash payments to certain people. No checks on 800,000 in bank at 3 months. 

[Jebb]

On 04/04/2019 at 05:15, Ru4Real said:

New one on me and pretty sure there'd be people bitching about it all over the web if the rules had changed. What government department does he reckon told him that and did he get informed of it 3 days ago?

RU, I went to Centrelink about 6 months ago and asked. Yes, for the last 2 years before you apply for the aged pension you must spend the majority (6 months +) in Australia. He said to me candidly, whatever you do never mention that you are going overseas to live or they may make things difficult for you. Always maintain that you intend to live in Australia.

[petermik]

11 hours ago, Insomniac said:

Keeping 800,000 in a Thai Bank is worst than hiding the money under your bed. I have lost track of the amount of bank frauds on the Thai News during the last 39 years. In fact my daughter had her account cleared by someone, only 450 pounds luckily, last week. Bank declared no liability. 

The way agents get away with it is cash payments to certain people. No checks on 800,000 in bank at 3 months. 

I,ve held two bank account,s here for nearly 10 years...not lost a baht yet .

[Soi7]

Same same but 15 years for me

49 minutes ago, petermik said:

I,ve held two bank account,s here for nearly 10 years...not lost a baht yet .

Same same for me but 15 years

[forcebwithu]

Three accounts and 10 years, never lost a baht either.

[Garzan]

I have several too and haven't lost a satang to fraud. If I were worried and wanted to keep a large sum in a deposit account, I'd do it with an account that had no ATM card, and no link to online banking (like my current direct deposit account). Since the money only sits there, a passbook only account isn't limiting in any way. Every Monday I get an SMS with the current balance to remind me all is okay, and it just keeps growing upward. You can't skim account access off a card if there is no card. :-)

[Jarrod2518]

7 hours ago, Jebb said:

Yes, for the last 2 years before you apply for the aged pension you must spend the majority (6 months +) in Australia.

if you are not confused by the Australian age pension system it tells me one thing - you have not tried to understand it. The current position is that you must have been a resident of Australia for the two years before you apply and have the intention to remain a resident of Australia while drawing the pension. However the definition of residency is subject to a number of tests - of which the period of time spent outside Australia is an important component. The quantum of the pension  payment will depend upon how long you have been resident in Australia between ages of 18 -65yrs.   

[Oukiva]

The big question now is :

What will the new Chief of Immigration do with the recent Big Joke's rules...? 

[davidge]

As indicated above, it very much looks as if there will be a new Head of Immigration.

We CANNOT discuss anything related to this on here. We just have to wait to see who it is and then if there are any rule changes to follow.

[GlobalTraveler]

23 hours ago, petermik said:

 

good luck with that......of course once you have paid up front for this years visa through the "backdoor" method the agent is very happy of course and he will happily say next year no problem also.....let,s hope for your sake it happens.

Me? I picked up my passport on thursday and signed a form to report back with my bank book updated on the 3rd July showing my 800,000 is still there,afterwards I can withdraw anything up to 400,000 baht and providing next year when I apply again I can show I,ve never gone below this figure I will be complying with the new regulations.

How the "agents" get round this I do not know but the whole idea of this,according to Big Joke that is,was to eradicate fraudulent issuing of visas thus getting rid of these so called agents...but like everything else here things change and rules mean nothing.....we shall see

p.s. I,m assuming and hoping I,ll still be alive this time next year....as we all do of course

 

they reported to all clients...  .no problem. I have the money just dont want to convert to baht and loose 40% of when the baht dives against the USD. However I will check and if USD account with Bangkok Bank will be accepted then I transfer USD here 

[Jebb]

3 hours ago, Jarrod2518 said:

if you are not confused by the Australian age pension system it tells me one thing - you have not tried to understand it. The current position is that you must have been a resident of Australia for the two years before you apply and have the intention to remain a resident of Australia while drawing the pension. However the definition of residency is subject to a number of tests - of which the period of time spent outside Australia is an important component. The quantum of the pension  payment will depend upon how long you have been resident in Australia between ages of 18 -65yrs.   

True. Nobody said that it was easy to understand. 55555

[timbota]

6 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Three accounts and 10 years, never lost a baht either.

Three accounts since 2001.  Never a problem.

ATM cards for two of them.

Automatic withdrawals on two of them.

Used my ATM for a cash withdrawal at another bank's ATM & received no money.  Went to my bank, explained what happened, bank verified, & credited the full amount within a couple days.  Brilliant!

 

[Insomniac]

Saying "I've not lost a satang in many years" is a bit like saying you've been riding a motorbike in Thailand for many years but not been killed yet, so it must be OK. 

My daughter has now got her money back from the bank. 

[timbota]

34 minutes ago, Insomniac said:

Saying "I've not lost a satang in many years" is a bit like saying you've been riding a motorbike in Thailand for many years but not been killed yet, so it must be OK. 

My daughter has now got her money back from the bank. 

Absolutely.   I have been riding a motorbike regularly in Pattaya since 2006.  Never an accident.  I am always careful, alert, etc., and only ride when I really need to. 

Happy to hear that your daughter got her money back.

Life is good.  Chin up.  Think positive.

 

[Garzan]

1 hour ago, Insomniac said:

Saying "I've not lost a satang in many years" is a bit like saying you've been riding a motorbike in Thailand for many years but not been killed yet, so it must be OK. 

My daughter has now got her money back from the bank. 

Funny you should mention that. :-) I've been riding since I was 17, and now I'm 64. I've been hospitalized twice for motorcycle accidents and they have both been since moving to Thailand. I never had a broken bone until I moved to Thailand, and I never had to go through extensive rehab to recover the use of a limb until I moved to Thailand. But I still ride motorcycles and Scooters. 

The banking issues I've read about in Thailand have all been through either social manipulation (someone tricking you into giving out account details) or mechanical manipulations (someone putting a card skimmer on a point of sale, or automated teller machine.) The same sorts of problems that can happen in any country that has banks. So far I have not yet heard of any financial loss due to bad accounting practices at any major Thai bank. I suppose it could happen, but I've not heard it on the news, been able to Google it, had a friend of a friend had it happen to them, or any other way of event reporting. 

I'm glad your daughter got her money back. Do you care to share exactly how she lost it to begin with, and how she went about getting it back? Was it an accounting error on the banks part (that obviously they resolved)? 

[brutox]

1 hour ago, Garzan said:

... The banking issues I've read about in Thailand have all been through either social manipulation (someone tricking you into giving out account details) or mechanical manipulations (someone putting a card skimmer on a point of sale, or automated teller machine.) The same sorts of problems that can happen in any country that has banks. So far I have not yet heard of any financial loss due to bad accounting practices at any major Thai bank. I suppose it could happen, but I've not heard it on the news, been able to Google it, had a friend of a friend had it happen to them, or any other way of event reporting. ...

Lived here for nearly 20-years now .. as with Garzan, above, same-same for me.

Since the Asian Currency Crisis (created by the Thais), Thailand has been forced to adopt the international banking standards prescribed by the Basel Accords I, II, and III .. they have slowly done so with great resistance .. and they do so only because Thailand is otherwise cut-off from access to the international capital markets, becoming the financial equivalent of a junk bond.

Thai government regulations are quite well-developed to (overly) protect Thai banks (considered a 'strategic industry') from full-on competition by the bad foreign banks .. so, Thai banks are not the most modern banking system and are still a near-monopoly by a half-dozen banks founded by politically and commercially powerful Chinese-Thai oligarch families.

The foreign-imposed regulations do give depositors security .. not necessarily appealing returns.

With little real banking competition, the net interest rate spread in Thailand's financial sector has for a decade+ (perhaps longer) been amongst the highest in SE Asia .. good for the Thai banking families .. bad for Thai depositors and borrowers .. this failure to make affordable credit available to Thais is what keeps a huge swath of Thailand poor .. and a much, much, much smaller number, a handful actually, of Thai families stupendously rich.

Yeah .. Thai bankers are dinosaurs deceptively dressed fashionably in proper suits and ties, but they do now forcibly operate subject to international regulations, within a still protected, largely non-competitive sector of the Thai economy.

Safe for your deposits .. but at a beggarly 1.5% fixed deposit interest rate that just barely exceeds inflation.

Edited April 7, 2019 by brutox

[Insomniac]

9 hours ago, Garzan said:

Funny you should mention that. :-) I've been riding since I was 17, and now I'm 64. I've been hospitalized twice for motorcycle accidents and they have both been since moving to Thailand. I never had a broken bone until I moved to Thailand, and I never had to go through extensive rehab to recover the use of a limb until I moved to Thailand. But I still ride motorcycles and Scooters. 

The banking issues I've read about in Thailand have all been through either social manipulation (someone tricking you into giving out account details) or mechanical manipulations (someone putting a card skimmer on a point of sale, or automated teller machine.) The same sorts of problems that can happen in any country that has banks. So far I have not yet heard of any financial loss due to bad accounting practices at any major Thai bank. I suppose it could happen, but I've not heard it on the news, been able to Google it, had a friend of a friend had it happen to them, or any other way of event reporting. 

I'm glad your daughter got her money back. Do you care to share exactly how she lost it to begin with, and how she went about getting it back? Was it an accounting error on the banks part (that obviously they resolved)? 

Someone phoned my daughter and already had all information on her. Name, bank and account details, mother's maiden name, etc. Kept her talking a long time. Next day she found her account cleared. She or bank in England don't know how they did it. They phoned on numerous other occasions since and she has now changed her sim. 

Various ways I have heard of in Thailand including bank employees clearing accounts. Little problem if you have a small amount in your account. But having over 1 million, as necessary for Visa, tempting, especially when the matter is advertised by letters confirming amount in account for many months. 

My wife's friend is Assistant Manager in my local branch so I know exactly how easy it is to get information on any customer. 

[bar stool]

On 06/04/2019 at 00:47, Kahoy said:

Heads up for anybody who uses the Bangkok Bank Thepprasit Road Branch the branch is closing from Monday.

And on Soi Khao Talo Siam Commercial Bank has closed.

The building is for rent now.

[Insomniac]

For those who are considering the 800,000 baht route for a Visa make sure you get a Will drawn up in Thailand. Probate is a requirement in Thailand and it may get very complicated for your next of kin to withdraw your money from the bank. 

[udontony]

On 06/04/2019 at 12:03, petermik said:

I,ve held two bank account,s here for nearly 10 years...not lost a baht yet .

Had bank accounts here for many years without any loss.  It seems that the main danger is from ATM cards so I have the visa money in an account with no card, only passbook access.   My card access accounts never have that much in them so if the worst happened I would not lose too much cash.   Also the passbook account has a far better interest rate than any of the other accounts.

[forcebwithu]

4 hours ago, Insomniac said:

For those who are considering the 800,000 baht route for a Visa make sure you get a Will drawn up in Thailand. Probate is a requirement in Thailand and it may get very complicated for your next of kin to withdraw your money from the bank. 

And if you have a friend you can trust here, a financial power of attorney would also be a good idea if you should ever be incapacitated and need access to the funds for medical care.

[Taa_Saparot]

https://www.pattayaone.news/new-thai-immigration-rules-already/

New Thai immigration rules already forcing ex-pats out
May 29th, 2019

Deanna Denis played by the rules. When advanced Alzheimer’s meant her mother needed around-the-clock care, the American did everything Thailand required to bring her here to live legally. That was two years ago.

Now the family says immigration rule changes are forcing 77 year old Anna Padgett to be relocated from her Chiang Mai care home and taken to Manila in The Philippines.

There she will easily get a three year visa without financial hassles and investing her savings by propping up Thai banks.

DeAnna say she loves Thailand and doesn’t want to go to The Philippines but the family has no choice.

They simply don’t have enough money to deposit 800,000 baht in the bank and leave it there for their mother’s visa application.

Mrs Denis and her husband who is 55 originally come from Atlanta. They were attracted to Thailand as a retirement option after running a successful web development business that they sold.

Her mother was looked after in the states by a relative until 2017 when they decided to move her over to Thailand. She has had Alzheimer’s for about 15 years.

A home that specialises in Alzheimer’s care in Chiang Mai called Care Resort was found.

Cosing 85,000 baht a month they could just afford it and pay for their own retirement needs.

But they now claim Thai immigration has refused to negotiate and allow the 86,000 baht to be considered as her mother’s income.

The family have put 800,000 baht in the bank and Mrs Padgett could stay to February next year.

But with worries about her condition deteriorating and being unable to move her in the future they have decided that it is now or never.

Mrs Davis described dealing with immigration as highly problematical. She has received mixed messages but the bottom line for her mother is pay up or go.

“We are not totally happy about going to the Philippines. The care will not be so good as in Chiang Mai and the environment is not so good”, added Mrs Davis.

“Thailand talks about being a hub for medical care but the immigration rules are just not conducive to that, especially in our case.”