I returned to Brisbane in March, only needed a certified R A T , 24 hrs before flight, unfortunately I stuffed up, I got the test at 9am the day before, I arrived at the airport 4pm next day and they(Singapore Airlines) didn't accept it, they sent me to a clinic next to the Airport and fortunately I had enough time to complete the test and get back before the flight my mistake, but I heard on the radio news that Australia is dropping the PCR/R A T requirement for fully vaccinated travellers.

@John *******

Hey mate, I spoke to my Tax accountant yesterday and he said that as long as you stay a resident of Australia you will be ok, apparently all i have to do is maintain a bank account in Australia or keep your Medicare account active ( don't close it before I leave to live in Thailand ) then the new rules will not apply to you, apparently as long as you don't become a Non resident you are fine, you just have to have the intention to return to live in Australia sometime in the future, could be 20 or 30 years , it doesn't matter, just the intention, I will check further into it 🙏😊

@Rob *********

Cheers Rob, thanks for that, as you can see i am a bit of a dinosaur with this type of thing, but with your help I am learning, I can't thank you enough for your help, 🙏👍

Thanks Jason, just a question, the rate in Australia is always quite low compared to the Wise exchange rate, do I get a good rate at the Bangkok bank if I do it your way, Cheers 🙏😊

Thanks everyone for the discussion, all comments provided valuable information, I am extremely happy with the outcome, I will chase up the tax laws and post the answer, it seems Wise is the winner here🙏👍😊

@Jim *********

i just checked and I don't think it applies to pensioners living overseas, I will follow it up and let you know 😊

@John *******

Thanks , I have Smartway, and every time I do a transfer with Wise I check the rates with smartway first, they sadly so far don't compare , I seem to lose about 4000THB on each transaction 🙏

@Scott ******

Thanks, that is exactly why I asked, on $5000AUD , Australian banks vs Wise, I received 5200THB more with Wise

@Tony ******

yea Tony, a bit hard to do that, they tell me it changes every day and won't commit to a rate, so I did this to see if a pensioner out there had done the sums because on $5000 AUD Westpac transfer vs Wise transfer , Wise gave me 5200THB more each time🙏😊

@Rob *********

thanks mate, that fully answers my question, I am currently transferring $5000 a fortnight via wise for the 800k non 0 Visa to my Bangkok bank account, the rates are awesome compared to Westpac, and wanted to know if the reserve bank gave a decent rate when they pay my pension directly into my Bangkok bank account or should I do it myself through wise, 🙏👍