Remember with the METV visa, if you do a border bounce just before the expiry use by date, you will get stamped in for another 60 days, that you can extend once at your local immigration office, doing it that way you can get 8 to 9 months out of that visa.

@Mark ********

I use an insurance broker that has an office in Pattaya, I purchased accident and critical illness cover, I think they were two separate policies, at a cost of between ฿6000 and ฿7000 each for a 12 month policy, I don't have any links from the messages I mentioned, because I always just delete them, but if you want the link to the insurance broker I use, I could DM the link to there website in a message, it is run by a British expat, you could e-mail them for a quote, or even better depending on your location, just go to there office for a chat so you know who your dealing with.

Generally speaking, you could just take out a good accident and critical illness cover, and self insure for everything else, it's not expensive to treat minor illnesses, a bad accident or a critical illness are the two things that could potentially cost you a lot of money, I get messages everyday from AXA and AIA saying polices start from ฿9 a day.

@Becky *********

the people that claim they can get you a Thai driver's license, without you doing any test or producing your home country licenses, are scammers, but there are legitimate agents in places like Pattaya, that can assist you to convert your home country licenses, together with an IDP, into full Thai licenses at the DLT, by completing a simple colour blind and reaction test, it's fully legal.

@Becky *********

I think the lady in the photo, is a genuine visa agent in Pattaya, that isn't the company she works for, I can only assume the photo is stolen, and is being used on a scammers website and Facebook pages 😳

The UK has the new polymer notes now, very few are in bad condition, not like the old notes, but yes the exchange booths will only accept notes in good condition.

@John ********

wise can be used as a bank account, they give decent interest rates for euros, USD, and GBP.

@Frances *******

I think the point Ralph Tyson was trying to make, and also what I was thinking, okay yes you could pay for a minor accident, such as a broken hip like you said, or I know someone that paid for a broken leg, with a titanium plate $6000 usd, but what if it was a really serious accident, where you get mangled! and spend months in hospital?? Or you have a heart attack and need heart surgery?? Or even cancer (cancer is more for someone living in Thailand rather than going on holiday I understand that) but my point is, a good accident insurance policy in Thailand, is not expensive, and also a critical illness policy, I get messages on my phone everyday, from AXA and AIA offering policies from ฿9 a day 😂

there are some good inexpensive accident insurance policies available in Thailand, and also critical illness insurance, they are the two things that could potentially cost you a lot of money, everything else you could just self insure, those two policies I mentioned was between ฿6000 and ฿7000 each, for 12 months of cover.

Another option is to use an agent for the first year, and show the money and meet all the requirements yourself, then the second year and every year after that, you could just do the extensions yourself, using the monthly deposits or banked money method, some people just don't want to deal with all the paperwork and immigration visits, I've seen an agent in Pattaya, advertising ฿14k for the first year, and ฿7k for every year after that, if you continued to use them, if you meet all the requirements yourself, if you don't want to do it yourself the first year because of the extra paper and immigration visits, this is an option not to get tied to the agent forever.