@Lynnette ******

- can't receive SMS OTP codes that's all I need the phone for

@Mark ****

- do you know what the rates are for calling international?

@Stephen *******

- do you know what it's called like the sim name is it meant for expats? I am still thinking of getting one. I have now resolved my problems with Vyke but it might be a useful back up. I have just brought a new phone so I can leave it in the old one. I will see how it goes with Vyke hopefully won't need something else as well 🙏🏼

@Nick ***********

- Hi Nick those costs aren't terrible, it takes Virgin Money about 1 hour to answer and if you assume you will be another hour about £14 for the one call.

I would use that method if absolutely desperate. I have since resolved the technical issue with Vyke and act managed to briefly phone my sister. It was all very simple and I pretty much found the answer myself it's a shame their numpty staff are so poorly trained that they are unable to give you the information you need. I have been working on it since 14.00 Thai time and it's only been sorted in the last hour 🙄

I am a little tired and frustrated and don't even have a cold beer in the fridge in fact I have nothing in the house 😒😏

It doesn't surprise me what you said about your bank a lot are at it. I found an interesting link about expat accounts the other day so I might start looking at that. Also thinking of not worrying about the interest I might lose and opt for a peaceful life and send most over here. I will never be going back not even in a box lol.

Big institutions love to make our lives complicated and difficult 🙄😒

@Christopher **********

- I think it's a technical issue at their end but it's frustrating when you get someone from tech support repeating nonsense and not listening to what you are saying. She was accusing me of entering +66 as if I don't know that the UK is +44. I have just sent them the call logs but told her to pass it onto a manager. Clearly something is wrong when I enter +44 and it changes to +66. It can't be anything to do with my Thai Sim because this works off WiFi and I deliberately switched off the sim before I started as I wanted to make sure it was impossible to be connecting to it. Maybe that caused a problem but they are yet to explain what the issue is.

Fingers crossed 🤞🏼 it can be resolved. I have just rebooted my phone to try again 🙄

@Nick ***********

- high Nick thanks for advice.

I don't want to pay much because I don't plan on returning to the UK again so I would see it as a waste of money. I am aware that I can get a Giff Gaff and I may have to do that and get my sister to send it over to me. I went with Vyke see below but having lots of problems so far would have been great if it had worked. There's a couple of others doing something similar I could try but just wasted nearly £12 today on Vyke are they going to be just as bad?

I heard Google Voice might be an option but I am not sure if you can receive text messages I need to look into it.

As for the 44 any idea cost per minute because someone else paid 1000 baht doing something similar and only on phone for 1 hrs 10 minutes that's extremely expensive.

Any information and advice much appreciated 🙏🏼👍🏼

@Christopher **********

- that's the one I signed up to today and I am having nothing but problems.

The support who reply quickly, I have unfortunately today got one of those that just repeats the same nonsense over and over claiming I'm entering the wrong numbers despite the fact I have sent them the numbers. The latest nonsense is that the numbers are invalid but as I've pointed out to them I also tried my sisters number to rule out the banks having blocking software and it cut off exactly the same way. I have an excellent WiFi connection by the way so it's extremely unlikely to be that.

If you have any advice regarding calling UK numbers I would be very happy to hear from you because I am getting nowhere with their support team 🙏🏼

@Andy *********

- thanks so much for your explanations much appreciated. I think I have found something that suits me and doesn't involve having my sister involved but this is good to know as a back up if needed.

Many thanks again 🙏🏼👍🏼

@Ally ***********

- sure I will post tomorrow evening once I have set it up 👍🏼

@Ally ***********

- thank you so much Ally I have come across it and it's nice to hear from someone using it giving it a thumbs up 👍🏼

I have actually found another service a little bit cheaper so I will start with that and this service can be a good back up plan. It's not expensive I think I saw £8.99 pm for what you get but I simply don't need to call the UK accept for these 2 banks causing me problems. If that changes and the service I've found let's me down I will definitely try this out especially as you have given it such a great review. Thank you so much for posting much appreciated 👍🏼🙏🏼👏🏼