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williewolf

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Posts posted by williewolf

  1. There are now charges for using this card abroad. Have you notified them that you are abroad?. Transactions that are deemed unusual do get blocked but if you notify them of your whereabouts there are usually no problems.

    Best way is to use secure messaging via internet or you will have to phone them so you can continue to use your card.

    All this may seem a lot of trouble but try to look at it from their point of view i.e. if it was fraud and they authorised it how much trouble would you have to go to in getting your money back.

  2. Have a look at at Krungsri. They have an account "Jad hai" with a card that is supposed to give free ATM withdrawals "any atm , any bank".

    Nationwide in the UK used to be free withdrawals abroad and with a decent exchange rate but they also charge now but exchange rate is still not bad. I used this card many times and although they did not charge the local bank whose atm it was did charge ( I think it was about 150b)

  3. I am also with ais and my validity is also 50b for only 5 days. When I first purchased the sim I did not notice this as I was here for holidays so I was topping up quite a lot because of phoning the UK. Now I live here it is a pain in the butt. My g/fs phone is also on ais and she seemed to have validity for ever (always using my phone to save her credit!). Not long ago ais contacted her with some " wonderful" promotion that she accepted . When this promotion finished she was also put on this rate that 50b lasts 5 days. She was mad at this and went to the ais shop to complain but they said there was nothing they could do. They gave her a leaflet with numbers on to dial that gives access to various promotions but that was all.

    Her dad was on true but the rest of the family said it was to expensive to call him.

    I often wonder how the Thais always seem to be on their phone and I asked one of her nieces who is always phoning and she told me she pays 9b a day and can call all ais numbers for free so this probably helps to keep their custom.

    To extend my validity I dial *500*9# this costs 30b but gives me 30 mins "free" to be used in 5 days but extends the validity of the remaining balance by 30 days

  4. Anyone know or have experience of a good opticians in Bangkok?

    My g/f is suffering from dryeye and I am looking for an optician that sells dryeye glasses with moisture chambers for this condition.

    Thanks for any help

    WW

  5. Simple solution. Go to the taxi stands. They have to use meter and you get identifying information if you need to report them later. Tell your friend to choose the taxi, not let the taxi choose him.

    Many of the taxis at the taxi stand at the airport have turbo meters. After getting turbo meters several times at the airport, I now only get taxis at the departure level that I see actually dropping someone off. There are now many taxis waiting at the departure level, but you should avoid these and only take a taxi that you see dropping off a passenger.

    Last time I came into swampy it was very busy at the taxi stand so I headed up to departures to get a taxi there. I was greeted outside by many taxi drivers and foolishly took one of them. As we set off I asked him to put the meter on but he said no if he did I would have to pay extra 50 baht for airport tax. I said meter please and he said no meter 400 baht for journey (normaly 130 + 50) I then said stop and opened the door but he said ok ok meter. When we left the airport he stopped to talk to another taxi that was parked on the side of the motorway I thought here we go change taxi another fare another scam but he got back in and drove off. Then he started asking me the way to my destination, I think if I had been new here we would have been taking the senic and more expensive route. I knew a toll booth was coming up and I had some coins on me and when I gave him the 30 baht for the toll he looked surprised and said " Oh you been here before"

    So lesson learnt get a taxi from the rank or as said use a taxi that is just dropping someone off. The drivers that approach you outside departures are as bad as the ones that hassle you inside arrivals.

    • Like 1
  6. Lived in Thailand for 15 years...been on the Bangkok to Pattaya bus and back maybe 50-75 times and never even seen a cop...let alone been accosted by one smile.pngang under 80 who steps off.

    Then you have your eyes closed at Ekamai. They wait for buses coming from resort destinations and grab the first Farang under 80 who steps off.

    Then the rest are grabbed by "taxi" drivers trying to bundle them into their vehicles to take them to Nana Plaza!!!giggle.gif
  7. I don't know if they're still in general circulation in UK. I was in a large Tesco near Milton Keynes about a month ago now and the woman before me had her old fifty declines. She lost her temper and the manager came over and said they can only be changed in banks now.

    The notes the o/p refers to have not been withdrawn yet. The last £50 to be taken out of circulation was in 1996 (Sir Christopher Wren) Maybe the woman had her floorboards up!!wink.png
  8. I used to work in retail and a high percentage of £50 notes were torn where someone was trying to check if they were not fakes and had the metal strip running inside. Also a lot of notes were written on. I tried to change some of these on a visit to Thailand but the banks and money changers would not accept themsad.png .This left me a bit short of cash so I had to use my UK bank card at atm and incurr the charges with it. Since then when I brought cash with me I always made sure the notes were in good condition.

  9. When my G/F opened account at BKB she was issued with one of these cards. They told her this was the way forward with more security. This was almost two years ago.

    We went for a weekend away at ampawha floating market carrying very little cash because we would be using ATM`S, however it was soon squeeky bum time when we discovered it did not work in other banks ATM`S but luckily after much walking round we found a bkb branch. So as Lopburi says, beware if you are travelling outside of Bangkok.

  10. I was going to go down this route i.e. using HSBC to transfer money to my bank account here then I discovered the money is diverted to a London branch first and as you say a hefty chunk of commision is deducted. I opened up a currency account with Hargreaves Lansdown and there are no charges for amounts over £1000 or for regular transfers over £500 every month. Money takes about four working days to reach here, that is if you pay by debit card.

    They also give a decent exchange rate (better than exchanging cash here)

  11. You will check your bags in at Manchester and they will be transferred on to bkk.

    You will be in transit at Ams so you will not go through immigration so no need for a visa

    Your layover time is 2.20 but depending on your arrival/departure terminals you will find this could go pretty quickly so my advice would be to get to close proximity of your departure terminal as Amsterdam airport is pretty big and busy

    WW

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