@Chris *******

i did the solar chest feeezer thing for a while. Problem with the a/c type is your inverter is gonna always be on because its gotta constantly monitor the temp. I searched for the most efficient inverter i could find but it drained the battery and shut down often. A company called Danfoss used to sell dc compressors to convert ac units to dc. Dont know if theyre still around. A way around the inverter always running is to get a dc thermostat that can take the inverter out of sleep mode to save your batteries

how big is your solar system? if you don't have solar i'de recommend a propane freezer

I might add that you can open one of these accounts with just a tourist visa. I found that bangkokbank charges 1% to deposit and 1% to withdraw in dollar notes. But your mileage may vary with other banks.

@Steve ****

yes thai accounts allow you to keep dollars but like carlito below my post says, "there may be hidden cost" for withdrawing dollars. From a Bangkok bank website: Thai banks allow non-residents to keep US dollars in a Foreign Currency Deposit (FCD) Account. An FCD Account for Non-Residents is for foreigners who would like to hold incoming foreign funds without needing to immediately convert them to baht or for those living in Thailand who want to convert and save their Thai earnings in a foreign currency. You can open an FCD Account for Non-Residents in a Savings, Fixed Deposit or Current Account with the minimum initial deposit at USD1,000, or the equivalent in another currency

@Eric ****

how does an agent save money on currency exchange and wire transfers?

@Steve ****

thanks for reminding me of schwab transfers. You can get around the thai bank dollar to baht exchange fees by setting up a dollar account and withdraw dollars in thailand and exchange locally

@Albert ******

are you talking about ach transfer or swift?

@Jae ******

OUCH! that's theft

@Robert *******

do they charge a teller transaction fee to give you dollars?

@Michael *****

I concur with the your assessment of the embassy. I needed notary services here in japan and went to the us embassy. They refused to notarize a form from the us post office, the mail forwarding service form, because of THEIR interpretation of the form. I didn't know thats part of the notaries job lol. I wanted to change address for myself and my wife and they wanted $50 each for 2 forms lol. I bought a webcam and did it for $45 which included the price of webcam. never again will i use the embassy unless absolutely necessary. what a waste of time with all their security crap just to get inside.