Payment on Immigration in Thailand?

[nasa123]

Why can we not pay with cards on Immigration in Thailand ? And why they just want cash ? :)

[lopburi3]

Because cards charge fees to use so unless they wave them the government facility would not be making what their receipts show.  Not a great concern that visitors will rob the police.

[ubonjoe]

There was talk of doing it a few years ago at Bangkok immigration on trial basis but it did not go beyond that.

Maybe with the move to digital payments they will get there sometime.

I don't think there is any Thai government agency that accepts payment by credit or debit cards. I think though you can pay your income taxes with prompt pay.

[nasa123]

Thank you Ubonjoe and lopburi3.

[elgenon]

Less possibility of fraud?

[BarnicaleBob]

It is just too hard to add in tea money when everything is documented on the charge card receipt. 

[SteveB2]

My company has accepted credit cards for decades...

 

I guess that not too many folks are aware of the rules that apply to merchants who permit their clients to use credit cards for purchases - so let’s spill the beans.

 

1.  The 'credit' in credit cards comes from the merchant NOT from the credit card issuing bank
2. All payments made by credit cards to merchants are 'authorized' at time of payment
3. Authorized simply means that the card holder had the funds available at the time the payment request was authorized.
4. The credit card holder will have the authorized funds temporary 'locked' and appear withdrawn from their credit card account at this time.
5. However, the credit card payment to the merchant does not 'irrevocably clear' for 183 days (about 6 months)
6. Any cancelled payments to the merchant are immediately 'clawed back' from the merchants own bank account or any other liquid funds linked to the merchant that the credit card company has access too.

Meaning that...

 

Any credit card payment to the merchant (or an online payment that uses the same clearance systems) can be cancelled up to 6 months after the credit card company said it was authorized.

 

Payment cancellations

 

Credit card payments to merchants can be challenged, disputed and cancelled for many reasons

 

The merchant can then challenge the payment cancellation etc., etc. - This all adds up to a massive administration BS headache with emails that go on for evermore.

 

If the merchant insists on cash payment, all his problems all end right there.

 

For the merchant 'Cash is King'

  

Edited September 30, 2017 by SteveB2
spelling, grammar, alliteration...durrr!

[Tchooptip]

28 minutes ago, BarnicaleBob said:

It is just too hard to add in tea money when everything is documented on the charge card receipt. 

Hundreds were waiting for this comment to come, you did it, congratulations!

[lopburi3]

1 minute ago, Tchooptip said:

Hundreds were waiting for this comment to come, you did it, congratulations!

Cash is documented by the receipts provided by immigration - and in my experience with immigration have always received correct receipt for my payments (although do not doubt a few people may not have - although suspect some of these cases were third party types).

[Srikcir]

20 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

There was talk of doing it a few years ago at Bangkok immigration on trial basis but it did not go beyond that.

Maybe with the move to digital payments they will get there sometime.

I don't think there is any Thai government agency that accepts payment by credit or debit cards. I think though you can pay your income taxes with prompt pay.

Last year:

Motorists given tickets by traffic police will be allowed to pay fines using credit cards, electronic banking or at convenience stores.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/More-options-for-traffic-fine-payments-30287812.html

 

 

[grumbleweed]

Why not indeed, can't for the life of me imagine why the banks and card companies wouldn't jump at the chance of allowing  such a fine upstanding organization into the system.

 

Even though for some inexplicable reason many farangs think leaving their card and pin number at the side of the atm is a safer bet than letting the BIB  within a country mile of it

[Boss]

Card payments all around would choke a good part of corruption 

[SunsetT]

23 hours ago, nasa123 said:

Why can we not pay with cards on Immigration in Thailand ? And why they just want cash ? :)

You  even cannot pay by card when making a postal visa application to the  London Embassy. It must be cash or a postal order! Whoever heard of using postal orders in this day and age! I didnt even know they still existed! They just love to inconvenience their customers as  much as possible.

[stevenl]

" Any cancelled payments to the merchant are immediately 'clawed back' from the merchants own bank account or any other liquid funds linked to the merchant that the credit card company has access too. "

 

Not completely correct. If the credit card holder disputes a payment, the merchant will be offered the opportunity to react to the dispute. Depending the result of the query the merchant will be charged. Here in Thailand, if the payment slip has been signed, the credit card holder will have a very, very difficult time to get the payment refunded.

[sandyf]

22 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

You  even cannot pay by card when making a postal visa application to the  London Embassy. It must be cash or a postal order! Whoever heard of using postal orders in this day and age! I didnt even know they still existed! They just love to inconvenience their customers as  much as possible.

I paid for my Thai visa by credit card many times in the UK, I would suggest that they had a perfectly valid reason for stopping card payments.

[William T]

Because handing over cash is quicker. Paying by credit card takes more time and adding several minutes to each individual adds up if there are 20 people in the queue before you.I see that in the Supermarkets.

 

Use your card to get money before you go and don't inconvience other people.

[MyFriend You]

5 hours ago, BarnicaleBob said:

It is just too hard to add in tea money when everything is documented on the charge card receipt. 

Wow, only took four posts before someone popped this one in.

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, SteveB2 said:

Meaning that...

 

Any credit card payment to the merchant (or an online payment that uses the same clearance systems) can be cancelled up to 6 months after the credit card company said it was authorized.

 

I paid for my US E-Visa with a credit card. The US immigration service clearly arent too bothered about this.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, William T said:

Because handing over cash is quicker. Paying by credit card takes more time and adding several minutes to each individual adds up if there are 20 people in the queue before you.I see that in the Supermarkets.

 

Only in Thailand. In other countries paying by card takes just a couple of seconds. I used my card in Europe recently for all my purchases, including supermarket purchases of less than 2 Euros and road tolls, and all hotel and restaurant/bar costs. In fact the only thing I used cash for was 1 Euro for a car wash. All blindingly fast and much quicker than waiting for a Thai to work out change.

[lopburi3]

And if they accepted credit cards we would complain we could not obtain local cards and using foreign cards receive bad exchange rate.  This is still basically a cash country so probably best to keep it simple.  KISS

 

[scorecard]

7 hours ago, Boss said:

Card payments all around would choke a good part of corruption 

 

Yes and no, very possible many officials have no hesitation to openly request tea money, they might indicate, for some payments, xxxBaht in cash then I will process the real payment on your cc. 

[SunsetT]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

I paid for my Thai visa by credit card many times in the UK, I would suggest that they had a perfectly valid reason for stopping card payments.

The UK consulates used to accept payment by Credit card.

 

Pray suggest a valid reason apart from shifting their small cost for accepting cc to the much larger postal order cost to the customer; the visa applicant.............and, of course, the possibility of tax evasion on these payments. Is the payee recorded when postal orders are cashed. I dont think so.

[KittenKong]

3 hours ago, SunsetT said:

Pray suggest a valid reason apart from shifting their small cost for accepting cc to the much larger postal order cost to the customer;

 

From the consulate's point of view they are not paying commission, so their bottom line looks better. These people have extremely small brains and would not last 5 minutes in a real job.

[ThaiWai]

Slightly off topic, I did a Friendship Bridge trip a few weeks ago and we went though 4 beautiful clean practically new USD $20 bills before the nits behind the glass gave the all clear. Why do the notes have to be so pristine? 

[kenjinuk]

Because a credit card payment can be recorded and audited but a payment under the counter; an envelope with 1000 bht, or a tasty khanom gift cannot.

The current rate in our local Immigration office is 1000bht to be given priority treatment on any office visit and 300 but to have paperwork sorted by telephone rather than office visit.

Besides a credit card would be quick and convenient while having carbon copy receipt books, hand written signatures and photocopies and rubber stamps and keeping people waiting is much more fun.

[Get Real]

I am sure it´s implemented in Thailand 4.0. The only question is when that is going to be implemented in a working version.

[Global Guy]

On 9/29/2017 at 2:01 PM, nasa123 said:

Why can we not pay with cards on Immigration in Thailand ? And why they just want cash ? :)

I was told by someone with firsthand knowledge that the entire immigration office is "on the take." Money is handled by certain people and then distributed accordingly.

 

Also, I would imagine there is a high degree of credit card charge offs in Thailand. Much of the country operates on cash. It is a third world country, after all.

[mikiea]

On 9/30/2017 at 8:39 AM, elgenon said:

Less possibility of fraud?

if 100 % of the baht is collected and passed down the line ......well.....sxit happens  on the way to central accounting .

[sandyf]

17 hours ago, SunsetT said:

The UK consulates used to accept payment by Credit card.

 

Pray suggest a valid reason apart from shifting their small cost for accepting cc to the much larger postal order cost to the customer; the visa applicant.............and, of course, the possibility of tax evasion on these payments. Is the payee recorded when postal orders are cashed. I dont think so.

Fraud, but maybe you would not see that as a valid reason.