Reputable and agent dont fit into the same sentence they will just spread a little happiness around and bobs your uncle - all of the same ilk…..good luck
yip danger is you can get locked in , once immig see an out of town visa, very hard to normalize your visa……not to mention handing your passport over to a 3rd party worries me greatly……
I earn 25k pa here in interest and don’t pay the 25k to an agent , and risk being kicked out if agent screws up, my passport never leaves my sight……everyone to their own. Perhaps there is a 7% deal out there, cant be arsed with trying to find it, and enjoying peace of mind here in LOS
not entirely true circumstances differ case to case lots of alowances avail , I have got it down to 20k and that’s offset against tax I pay in UK due to DTA
they feed corruption and create an expectation that makes it hard for those of us who are compliant - example , DLT in phuket who have created a 3 month backlog for those who won’t pay an agent/bribe - so we drive to Phang Nga and get same day - a nuisance but WTF some of us will. or feed the dragon