@Ben ********

Yes. See my full answer below.

You can drop Part B easily with no special conditions, other than you must accept the consequences of doing so, if you later need Part B but don’t have it.

There is no effect on your SS disbursement, other than there is no deduction to cover Part B.

I dropped Part B because I never will return to the USA, so I’ll never have an opportunity to use it. I’d rather put the money into health insurance usable in the country I actually live in.

But you’d be out of your mind to take advice from a Facebook group on something this important. You can verify this information and read specific instructions on how to cancel on the official USA medicare.gov website, and I encourage you to do so.

@Bonnie ********

You certainly woke up on the judgemental side of the bed this morning. Since you’re claiming to be a compassionate person, I would hope you might have learned to argue a point instead of sarcasticly attacking another person’s character in your first breath.

I guess you skipped the day in Compassion School where they discussed the evils of ad hominem attacks.

I hope we never meet up as well. I have little patience with judgemental hypocrites, and you sound a lot like one.

You gotta have an account with an ap - if for no other reason that Instant electronic payments are so common and popular here.

@Bonnie ********

To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a person here who has an ability to impact the exchange rate by even one Satong.

There is no lack of compassion in celebrating one’s own good fortune in circumstances where one had zero control over outcomes.

Given the state of the world today, with cruel injustice everywhere, you would have us all in a continual state of scowling self-denial, if not full-on self-flagellation.

But virtue-signaling has its limits, and even the most compassionate among us are permitted to celebrate from time to time. Lighten up, Francis!

Some larger banks will accept torn bills, sometimes with a lengthy process.

I suspect most of those whining/commenting here never exchange dollars for Thai baht.

But for those of us living in Thailand on a fixed income from the US, this is excellent news. Full stop.

@Dennis ********

It seems to vary from bank to bank. When I set up my account with Bangkok Bank at the Jomtien branch near immigration, they actually installed the ap on my phone for me and set it up and made sure everything was working properly. They also issued me a debit card on the spot.

I remember seeing a Bangkok Bank web page that specifically addressed all this - a special program just for foreigners.

But I have heard stories suggesting that every branch has different policies. Sometimes two different employees in the same bank will give different answers.

But thousands of us have done this successfully, so don’t give up.

They didn’t even look at my Thai Pass when I reentered Thailand from Cambodia yesterday (land border crossing). Crazy.

@Brett *********

As a retiree from the USA myself in my third year in Thailand, I strongly recommend opening a Thai bank account. There are just too many things it makes it possible/easier to do. I use Bangkok Bank and Wyse to move my retirement funds into it. Problem-free.