EV Charging Stations (CS)

[Pib]

PTT has 12 EV charging "hubs" as of today/3 May 2025.   You can see the locations around Thailand by going into the PTT EV Station Pluz app, selecting the map icon, and then enter "hub" in the search bar.    

 

PTT is adding charging stations at a fast clip.   Seems any "new" PTT station of medium to large size comes with chargers...and old PTT stations are installing chargers at a fair clip also.   

 

When a person gets an EV registering with the PTT EV Station Pluz app is probably the first charging app they should register with as PTT has many DC chargers around the country....just like they have many petrol stations.   

 

The only downside to the PTT EV Station Pluz app is it only allows payment via debit/credit card (card payment can be problematic at times if your card is rejected) versus also allowing a QR Code/PromptPay payment option.  Having a Wallet capability with QR Code/PromptPay top-up option is also missing from the PTT app.    The PTT app should definitely expand payment options vs only having a card payment option.

[Pib]

For those of you that are registered with/use the Elexa charging app I found out yesterday when stopping at an Elexa charger to do a few minutes test charge that now "before the charging begins" Elexa does a check of the credit/debit cards you have in your payment profile by doing a small charge/deduction which is immediately followed by refund of that small amount.  If that fails you "can not" begin a charging session.....and the payment via QR Code/PromptPay is gone.  Summary: you can not begin the charging session, whereas, before the payment process didn't come into pay until the end of the charging session.

 

I have two of my foreign/US Visa credit cards loaded in my Elexa payment profile...these had been successfully added probably 6 months ago.  And I use to have my Bangkok Bank Mastercard "debit" card loaded but removed/deleted it from my Elexa profile several months ago after a fraudulent transaction for a few hundred baht from a Spotify transaction occurred (Bangkok Bank did refund that fraudelent charge) and I got a new debit card.  I did not reload that in Elexa as I don't want to load any cards whenever an app has payment by QR Code/Payment or a Wallet function....less chance of the card info getting into the wild (i.e., the system it's loaded in getting hacked).   Since Elexa had a QR Code/PromptPay payment option I didn't reload my new debit card.

 

Anyway, when trying to start a charge when Elexa tried the test of the credit card before allowing the charging to begin, both cards failed the Elexa test...Elexa said the transaction was declined and one of my banks did immediately send me notice of they declining this foreign transaction. 

 

 So, I tried re-adding my Bangkok Bank debit card....the Elexa process to add the card appears to fo fine, to include transaction verification via OTP, and Elexa gives a popup message of success in adding the card to my payment profile and says it can take up to one minute for the card to appear in the profile but unfortunately it never appears in the payment profile....it's like the process actually failed although Elexa says it was succeessful.

 

I retried adding the debit card several time yesterday and this morning....around 6 times total.....same result every time.  I contact both Bangkok Bank and Elexa customer service today...English speaking reps...and it showed Bangkok Bank had "approved" the Elexa test transactions to add the card, but apparently that is when Elexa determines it's a "debit" card and apparently will no longer add a debit card to your Elexa payment profile....it only wants "credit" cards. 

 

The Elexa customer service rep said this policy change occurred in March and have apologized for any inconvenience this may cause.  I expect March timeframe is probably when the Elexa app updated to the new payment process.   The Bangkok Bank rep also told me other customers have been calling them with the same Elexa issue....that is, Elexa will no longer accept their Bangkok bank debit card.   I expect it's really "any bank's' debit card" based on the what the Elexa customer service rep told me about Elexa's policy change in March.   I sure appears this policy change kicks debit card usage to the curb. 

 

Oh, well, since Elexa now apparently only allows "credit" cards if your foreign card-issuing bank doesn't decline the transaction you are still good to go.  And I expect there will be no problem with a Thai bank credit card.  But if you had been using your Thai bank "debit" card or payment via QR Code/PromptPay to pay for an Elexa charging session at the "end" of the charging process, you might want to go check and see if your cards still works with Elexa.  As mentioned the Elexa Customer Service rep said the policy change occurred in March 2025.

 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

47 minutes ago, Pib said:

For those of you that are registered with/use the Elexa charging app I found out yesterday when stopping at an Elexa charger to do a few minutes test charge that now "before the charging begins" Elexa does a check of the credit/debit cards you have in your payment profile by doing a small charge/deduction which is immediately followed by refund of that small amount.  If that fails you "can not" begin a charging session.....and the payment via QR Code/PromptPay is gone.  Summary: you can not begin the charging session, whereas, before the payment process didn't come into pay until the end of the charging session.

 

I have two of my foreign/US Visa credit cards loaded in my Elexa payment profile...these had been successfully added probably 6 months ago.  And I use to have my Bangkok Bank Mastercard "debit" card loaded but removed/deleted it from my Elexa profile several months ago after a fraudulent transaction for a few hundred baht from a Spotify transaction occurred (Bangkok Bank did refund that fraudelent charge) and I got a new debit card.  I did not reload that in Elexa as I don't want to load any cards whenever an app has payment by QR Code/Payment or a Wallet function....less chance of the card info getting into the wild (i.e., the system it's loaded in getting hacked).   Since Elexa had a QR Code/PromptPay payment option I didn't reload my new debit card.

 

Anyway, when trying to start a charge when Elexa tried the test of the credit card before allowing the charging to begin, both cards failed the Elexa test...Elexa said the transaction was declined and one of my banks did immediately send me notice of they declining this foreign transaction. 

 

 So, I tried re-adding my Bangkok Bank debit card....the Elexa process to add the card appears to fo fine, to include transaction verification via OTP, and Elexa gives a popup message of success in adding the card to my payment profile and says it can take up to one minute for the card to appear in the profile but unfortunately it never appears in the payment profile....it's like the process actually failed although Elexa says it was succeessful.

 

I retried adding the debit card several time yesterday and this morning....around 6 times total.....same result every time.  I contact both Bangkok Bank and Elexa customer service today...English speaking reps...and it showed Bangkok Bank had "approved" the Elexa test transactions to add the card, but apparently that is when Elexa determines it's a "debit" card and apparently will no longer add a debit card to your Elexa payment profile....it only wants "credit" cards. 

 

The Elexa customer service rep said this policy change occurred in March and have apologized for any inconvenience this may cause.  I expect March timeframe is probably when the Elexa app updated to the new payment process.   The Bangkok Bank rep also told me other customers have been calling them with the same Elexa issue....that is, Elexa will no longer accept their Bangkok bank debit card.   I expect it's really "any bank's' debit card" based on the what the Elexa customer service rep told me about Elexa's policy change in March.   I sure appears this policy change kicks debit card usage to the curb. 

 

Oh, well, since Elexa now apparently only allows "credit" cards if your foreign card-issuing bank doesn't decline the transaction you are still good to go.  And I expect there will be no problem with a Thai bank credit card.  But if you had been using your Thai bank "debit" card or payment via QR Code/PromptPay to pay for an Elexa charging session at the "end" of the charging process, you might want to go check and see if your cards still works with Elexa.  As mentioned the Elexa Customer Service rep said the policy change occurred in March 2025.

 

 

Thanks, that is a shame as I liked the “ choose your payment method after charging “ approach, meant I could use the QR code method and avoid a foreign credit card registration.

 

Probably means EleXA will lose my business, although tbh they were 3rd on the list after EV Station and PEA and i only used them once but it was nice to have them as backup.

[Pib]

56 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Thanks, that is a shame as I liked the “ choose your payment method after charging “ approach, meant I could use the QR code method and avoid a foreign credit card registration.

 

Probably means EleXA will lose my business, although tbh they were 3rd on the list after EV Station and PEA and i only used them once but it was nice to have them as backup.

I just hope PTT does not decide to stop accepting debit cards like Elexa apparently has. 

 

Since PTT only has a card payment option (no QR code or wallet method) if they stop accepting debit cards and use of foreign "credit" cards for online payment can often result in the payment being declined then loss of PTT charging would be bad since they have the most chargers especially along major roads at many of their PTT dino fuel stations.