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Fee Structure
Full Disclosure:
Our fees are always fully disclosed to you before we start work on your case, as are the expected expenses based on our experience. You are always asked to approve these expenditures and there are never any extra costs or hidden charges.
Advice and consultation time is always free!
When asked to assign a field agent or other representative we bill on an hourly basis or per-day basis as appropriate to the assignment. This is offered at a fixed rate — the complexity of a case impacts the head-count and expenses, not the expertise.
Simple Structure:
- Single agent assignments in Bangkok are billed at 500 baht per hour plus case-related expenses and a four hour minimum billing per operational day applies.
- For other locations in Thailand our rate is 5000 baht per day plus case-related expenses.
- An additional agent assigned to a team is billed at 80% of these rates. The team leader remains responsible for the conduct of the team, tactical decisions and reporting.
- Our extensive capability in research services across a range of public and proprietary local and global databases is billed at 350 baht per hour, in 15 minute increments.
When a task requires travel, lodging or other extraordinary expenses, this will be explained in advance. All major expenses are passed through to the client at cost — there is never any mark-up — and we carry all routine operational expenses.
For informational products and other research work most items have a set fee and delivery time. This varies by item so please let us know your requirements.
Our fees are the most competitive of ANY Thailand private investigator.
Straight Talk about PI Fees
You may be wondering how private investigators in Thailand and elsewhere set their fees. And after reading this overview, you’ll know why nearly every Thailand private investigator but Thai-Spy.com is charging too much.
As one of Thailand’s oldest agencies we have a network of colleagues and partners in the investigative field around the globe — over 45 countries in fact. So we’re familiar with the billing practices and rates charged by detective agencies in many markets.
As a rule professional private investigations agencies charge a multiple of 8x to 16x the prevailing local minimum wage plus expenses for general investigations incl. single-agent survillance, marital and loyalty investigations, missing persons locates, etc.
These are not high-tech or high-risk investigations and while they require patience, sensitivity and skill, they don’t call for high prices as do in-depth transnational criminal investigations and the like. They are in fact the very sort of cases that are the lifeblood of most general service agencies like Thai-Spy.com (and we will always charge appropriately — please read on).
To put this into local context, the prevailing minimum wage in Bangkok is 300 baht per day or around 30 baht per hour in a standard 10 hour day. When investigating in Bangkok we will charge 500 baht per hour, a multiple of about 16x and in line with rates around the world.
(And we must be at the high end of the scale because of the relatively higher costs of quality equipment vs. local wages. An iPhone which “costs” 100 hours of minimum wage labor in America will cost 700+ hours in Bangkok, for example, and cameras and other equipment are priced similarly.)
When other Thailand investigators quote rates of 750 to 1200 baht per hour (an unjustifiable multiple of 24x to 40x), they are looking to cash in on the prospective client’s lack of understanding of appropriate billing rates in Thailand, and exposing their own lack of understanding of the investigative profession’s established practices as regards an appropriate fee structure.
Even worse are those that will attempt to charge a full-day rate for a task that will only require a handful of hours and minimal travel. It’s often represented that this is somehow to the client’s convenience “in case the job runs long”… On the contrary, this sort of nonsense is only to the advantage of an unscrupulous and unprofessional operator.
For a experienced agency like Thai-Spy.com the job won’t “run long” (pre-arranged open-ended assignments are discussed below), but if we can’t complete on schedule, we’ll either forgo additional payment or give you compelling evidence that justifies the overage with a polite request for additional compensation. No professional investigator ever walks off the job simply because “the clock ran out”.
A similar untruth is often floated by disreputable operators claiming to “help keep it simple for the client” because “the rate includes expenses”. How does paying 2000-4000 baht in extra costs for “expenses” help the client when his or her assignment may only require two short taxi rides and the price of a bottle of water (200 baht net)? It doesn’t and we are vehemently opposed to such exploitation.
One must also be on guard against those who insist that “all jobs need two agents” and automatically bill for it. The vast majority of field investigations done world-wide are conducted by one skilled and experienced agent working alone. To claim otherwise is the hallmark of a predator, not a professional.
It is an industry standard practice that each client should bear the reasonable case-related expenses needed to achieve the objectives of his or her unique assignment. To that effect, we plan each case carefully, calculating from experience the expected hours or days required and the anticipated expenses, and requesting that amount as a retainer.
In short, we will not employ the law of averages as other agencies do and force some clients with simpler requests to foot part of the bill for other clients with more complicated cases. Always pay time-and-expenses to get a superior effort and an optimal result.
On the matter of retainers and open-ended assignments, we will not bill in advance for 100% of any job planned for more than 4 days, unless the client specifically requests a one-time payment arrangement. Why? The retainer is the most critical financial equalizer in the relationship between the professional private investigator and their client.
(We set four days as the limit in respect of a few facts: the majority of our clients are offshore and there are overheads involved in all international financial transactions — currency exchange and the fees to make any amount of money move — as well as delays in banking and other arrangements. Four days thus strikes a fair balance between unacceptably high costs and trapping the client.)
Even if a case is initially framed as a week or more of investigative work, the client must be free to terminate the relationship with the minimum level of investment and risk. As professionals, we welcome you to hold the power to fire us if we aren’t performing to your expectations. Every client deserves this high degree of respect and freedom of choice.
A retainer is calculated from expected hours and expenses and when those funds are nearly used up it is at the client’s sole discretion to end the investigation or to make an additional payment to continue with the case. If an agency insists that you pre-pay in full for a long assignment, you’re being taken. It just isn’t done this way by professionals.
We hope that by making this clear exposition of proper rates and the reasons for them, billing and retainer policies, and our industry-compliant practices, that we will earn your business now and whenever you require private investigation and related services in Thailand and Southeast Asia.