Lots of choice for schools, demand has led to waiting lists in many so do your research, it will dictate where you choose to live Lighthouse is building a new campus in Rawai
Use an agent and you are stuck with that process every year, hard to normalize (do yourself) without leaving country , use agent for bank account and do the visa yourself
the funds to support your retirement visa must come from outside Thailand - or they will naturally assume you are working here or laundering cash - they can see from the code in your bank book origin of money local or foreign. No grey area here…..same applies to annual renewal they are very strict on this.
It’s been covered in various sections of the media , caught my eye because I spent 30 years in logistics industry fighting to increase deminimus values and reducing redtape
Get an IDP, if you have a UK address you can obtain on line through RAC or AA, and then use Express Mail to get it sent out, try and avoid agents they pay bribes and thats starting to make life difficult for those of us who want to do it legally.