On 9/4/2025 at 10:06 AM, Pib said:

Yea...I also noticed it didn't have an expiration data like the 60 days new member Bt300 credit.   But I won't be taking the chance....I'll drain my "coupon" wallet balance within 60 days from trips.

Today the wife and I did a roundtrip from our Bangkok home to Hua Hin.  385Km round trip which included some driving around Hua Hin and taking a little longer way coming back home for some more site seeing.   When going to Hua Hin I set Google Maps to take me to the Spark EV DC fast chargers (8 connectors each with 180KW charging capability) pretty much right in the middle Hua Hin at a very nice Bangchak fuel station with a half dozen of so restaurants, nice bathrooms, Spark chargers, etc.   

 

The charging session went just fine at nice, pretty new chargers.  When we arrived around 11am 4 of 8 charging connectors were in use....I made it 5.  Within a few minutes it was up to 6 of 8 in use.   My EV sucked Bt217 worth of electrons to charge up to 100% while we ate lunch at nice restaurant at the Bangchak station that was full of people.  These were free electrons since I used as payment the Spark EV free coupon credits given when signing up.    Yeap, a very nice charging station.  I now have less than two baht left in my Spark "coupon" wallet....I've now used up Bt348 of the Bt350 free coupon credits....thank you Spark. 😜😀😁

 

 

And this week I also registered with the "On|ion" Charging Network which has approx 91 charging locations around Thailand with the great majority of their chargers being 7KW AC chargers at malls, restaurants, resorts, etc.,  but they do have some DC chargers.   The majority of On|ions chargers are located in the metro Bangkok area.     Around 32 of the 91 locations are at Central malls around Thailand. 

 

Makes sense in using slower 7KW AC chargers at malls typically located in towns vs using DC fast chargers as people who go to a mall in town are usually going to do some shopping, dining, watch a movie, etc., "for a one to three hours."   Slow 7KW AC charging would probably be preferred to DC fast charging from the viewpoint going to a movie/shopping/dining for say 2 hours and not wanting your EV to reach full charge before those 2 hours are up forcing a person to come unhooked their EV and repark it.  Since 7KW charging adds approx 10% charge per hour on a 60KW EV battery  if a person arrived with say 50% SOC, started charging on an AC 7W charger and went in to watch a movie, shop & dine for 2 hours, etc., then they don't have to worry about their EV hitting full/100% charge before they are ready to leave causing them to repark their car....they would only reach around 70% charge.   "Plus the EV chargers in Central malls are usually located in some prime parking locations"....just park your EV in prime parking location while you top-up your battery charger around 10% per hour of charging.  

 

But On|ion does have some DC chargers around the country and I briefly used one of their DC 120KW chargers that happened to be at a 7-11 about a 10 minute drive from my Bangkok home.   This brief charging session went fine....was done just to do a real world test...be able to walk completely thru a charging session which also allows a person to see all of the "payment options" offered.    It's not uncommon with some charging apps that it may appear only a debit/credit card payment option maybe be allowed but when finishing the charging session you find out other options are available.   Right after I registered (and before doing the charging test) I did add my TrueMoney virtual credit card and my Thai bank "debit" card in the app's payment profile....both cards were accepted...went thru the process of sending a OTP to verify the card before adding it to your payment profile. 

 

Now when paying for my brief real world charging test the payment options that popped up were shown as below....the two cards I had earlier loaded into my profile and also QR PromptPay, TrueMoney account & LINE Pay payment options.   I chose QR PromptPay for the payment...payment went fine. Price per KWH at this particular DC charger was 8.5KWH.  

 

Just one more charging network to use although I will rarely use it....most likely when needing a prime parking spot when visiting a Central mall for a few hours.  😀

 

On|ion Payment Options

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Today the wife and I did a roundtrip from our Bangkok home to Hua Hin.  385Km round trip which included some driving around Hua Hin and taking a little longer way coming back home for some more site seeing.   When going to Hua Hin I set Google Maps to take me to the Spark EV DC fast chargers (8 connectors each with 180KW charging capability) pretty much right in the middle Hua Hin at a very nice Bangchak fuel station with a half dozen of so restaurants, nice bathrooms, Spark chargers, etc.   

 

The charging session went just fine at nice, pretty new chargers.  When we arrived around 11am 4 of 8 charging connectors were in use....I made it 5.  Within a few minutes it was up to 6 of 8 in use.   My EV sucked Bt217 worth of electrons to charge up to 100% while we ate lunch at nice restaurant at the Bangchak station that was full of people.  These were free electrons since I used as payment the Spark EV free coupon credits given when signing up.    Yeap, a very nice charging station.  I now have less than two baht left in my Spark "coupon" wallet....I've now used up Bt348 of the Bt350 free coupon credits....thank you Spark. 😜😀😁

 

 

And this week I also registered with the "On|ion" Charging Network which has approx 91 charging locations around Thailand with the great majority of their chargers being 7KW AC chargers at malls, restaurants, resorts, etc.,  but they do have some DC chargers.   The majority of On|ions chargers are located in the metro Bangkok area.     Around 32 of the 91 locations are at Central malls around Thailand. 

 

Makes sense in using slower 7KW AC chargers at malls typically located in towns vs using DC fast chargers as people who go to a mall in town are usually going to do some shopping, dining, watch a movie, etc., "for a one to three hours."   Slow 7KW AC charging would probably be preferred to DC fast charging from the viewpoint going to a movie/shopping/dining for say 2 hours and not wanting your EV to reach full charge before those 2 hours are up forcing a person to come unhooked their EV and repark it.  Since 7KW charging adds approx 10% charge per hour on a 60KW EV battery  if a person arrived with say 50% SOC, started charging on an AC 7W charger and went in to watch a movie, shop & dine for 2 hours, etc., then they don't have to worry about their EV hitting full/100% charge before they are ready to leave causing them to repark their car....they would only reach around 70% charge.   "Plus the EV chargers in Central malls are usually located in some prime parking locations"....just park your EV in prime parking location while you top-up your battery charger around 10% per hour of charging.  

 

But On|ion does have some DC chargers around the country and I briefly used one of their DC 120KW chargers that happened to be at a 7-11 about a 10 minute drive from my Bangkok home.   This brief charging session went fine....was done just to do a real world test...be able to walk completely thru a charging session which also allows a person to see all of the "payment options" offered.    It's not uncommon with some charging apps that it may appear only a debit/credit card payment option maybe be allowed but when finishing the charging session you find out other options are available.   Right after I registered (and before doing the charging test) I did add my TrueMoney virtual credit card and my Thai bank "debit" card in the app's payment profile....both cards were accepted...went thru the process of sending a OTP to verify the card before adding it to your payment profile. 

 

Now when paying for my brief real world charging test the payment options that popped up were shown as below....the two cards I had earlier loaded into my profile and also QR PromptPay, TrueMoney account & LINE Pay payment options.   I chose QR PromptPay for the payment...payment went fine. Price per KWH at this particular DC charger was 8.5KWH.  

 

Just one more charging network to use although I will rarely use it....most likely when needing a prime parking spot when visiting a Central mall for a few hours.  😀

 

On|ion Payment Options

Thanks @Pib.

Am going through the process of adding Onion charging app but struggling a bit.

 

I registered okay and go to the Add a Card stage.

My BKK Bank debit card isn’t accepted being of the Union Pay variety but no problem as I have the True Money app up and running.

 

I enter my details in the Digital Payment section and the option then is “ Continue Payment “ which I press thinking it will do a minimum transaction as a test. The black “ Continue Payment “ button turns light blue but nothing happens ??

 

I go back to your above post to see if I am missing something and see you added your True Money Mastercard instead of Digital Payment so I follow suit.

Check my card is enabled in TrueMoney app then enter all the details ( it requests expiry date and 3 digit code) , press the Continue Payment button which again goes light blue but nothing happens ?

 

So am confused, did you follow the same process ?

If I don’t press Continue Payment my card details are not retained.

Am i just not waiting long enough for the card details to be accepted ( light blue button ).

10 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Thanks @Pib.

 

I registered okay and go to the Add a Card stage.

My BKK Bank debit card isn’t accepted being of the Union Pay variety but no problem as I have the True Money app up and running.

 

I enter my details in the Digital Payment section and the option then is “ Continue Payment “ which I press thinking it will do a minimum transaction as a test. The black “ Continue Payment “ button turns light blue but nothing happens ??

 

I go back to your above post to see if I am missing something and see you added your True Money Mastercard instead of Digital Payment so I follow suit.

 

 

Be sure you are trying to add your cards  under the "Global Card" selection and not the "Digital Payment" selection.

11 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

Be sure you are trying to add your cards  under the "Global Card" selection and not the "Digital Payment" selection.

yeah, am doing that.

I put in all the card details, under Global Card but then cannot exit tat page.

I press Continue Payment, which turns light blue and nothing happens.

I can’t go anywhere, any movement ( scroll up or down) and it reverts back to the black continue payment button .

 

Then i have to close the app to escape and upon opening again it recognises me but the “ add card “ page is empty again.

 

How did you get the cards to add ?

Did you see the Continue Payment button ( which i assume is a small transaction as a test as in other charger apps ) ?

 

Edit: i haven’t used the card before but it is enabled, used TrueMoney plenty and have a decent balance (> 1000 baht).

27 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

yeah, am doing that.

I put in all the card details, under Global Card but then cannot exit tat page.

I press Continue Payment, which turns light blue and nothing happens.

I can’t go anywhere, any movement ( scroll up or down) and it reverts back to the black continue payment button .

 

Then i have to close the app to escape and upon opening again it recognises me but the “ add card “ page is empty again.

 

How did you get the cards to add ?

Did you see the Continue Payment button ( which i assume is a small transaction as a test as in other charger apps ) ?

 

Edit: i haven’t used the card before but it is enabled, used TrueMoney plenty and have a decent balance (> 1000 baht).

Okay so I contacted them on Line and this is what they said ( didn’t answer why I couldn’t add a card but hey ho )

 

 

Also:

 

 

So, according to on-ion EV Charger via Line it should work with no card registration.

 

Will see !!

2 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

yeah, am doing that.

I put in all the card details, under Global Card but then cannot exit tat page.

I press Continue Payment, which turns light blue and nothing happens.

I can’t go anywhere, any movement ( scroll up or down) and it reverts back to the black continue payment button .

 

Then i have to close the app to escape and upon opening again it recognises me but the “ add card “ page is empty again.

 

How did you get the cards to add ?

Did you see the Continue Payment button ( which i assume is a small transaction as a test as in other charger apps ) ?

 

Edit: i haven’t used the card before but it is enabled, used TrueMoney plenty and have a decent balance (> 1000 baht).

If I remember right after entering your card number and your email address (the only two data field on that first page) when pressing Continue Payment it seemed like "maybe" it spent a second or two just checking to see if such a card number existed and then it would go to the next page where you enter the card's expiration date, CV, and name on the card.   Then when pressing continue again it would connect to the 2C2P payment gateway where the card is validated via a OTP process.  Then if it passed that validation process the card was added to your payment profile.  Basically the identical 2C2P payment gateway/OTP process I've experienced in some other charging apps in getting card loaded into your payment profile.

 

Since you can't seen to get pass the page where you just enter the card number and your email address maybe the Onion network is having issues right now in connecting to the 2C2P network?   

 

Are you sure you are entering the "TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Card" and not the "TrueMoney SME  Card"  as the SME card is only accepted for a limited set of online purchase like for "ads shooting."   And you already mentioned you did have the virtual card Enabled/turned on....I forgot to do that one time as I keep it disabled until needing to use it for an online payment.....when trying to add the card to one of the other charging apps with the card disabled and the 2C2P process would not work.   Just make sure you were attempting to add the Virtual card and not the SME card.

 

And regarding does the 2C2P/OTP process verification process always result in a small debit immediately followed by an offsetting equal credit I have found from adding the Truemoney virutal card to several different apps that sometimes that debit/credit transaction processs shows up in the card's history of transactions and sometimes it does not.  I'm assuming when it does not the app only used the part of the 2C2P  verification process like only using the OTP portion versus "also" going a little further to confirm the card could actually be debited vs just using the OTP only part. 

 

When I added the TrueMoney Virtual card to the Onion profile it did "not" result in a debit/credit appearing in the card's history.  Now when I added the card to the Altervim charging network app a debit/credit transaction "did" appear in the card's transaction history.  All depends on the vendor (i.e., Onion, Altervim, whoever)  charging the payment as to how thorough of card payment process they want to use as the payment gateway, Visa, Mastercard, etc., offer vendors different choices in how they want to verify cards/payments. 

 

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Okay so I contacted them on Line and this is what they said ( didn’t answer why I couldn’t add a card but hey ho )

 

 

Also:

 

 

So, according to on-ion EV Charger via Line it should work with no card registration.

 

Will see !!

 

When I registered on the Onion app I wondered if I needed to add a card before even attempting a card.   I wondered would I be offerred addtional payment option at the ending of the charging process OR would I even be able to start a charging process with a card loaded.   

 

For a few seconds I thought about not attempting to load any card as a test; just wait until I go try a realworld charging session.   But then I thought I didn't want to possibly waste the time/effort in attempting to start charging session if the Onion app would then popup a message saying something along the lines of, "Hey Dude, you need to load at least one payment method first so I can insure I get paid, but once you load a card I will also now offer other ways to pay instead of just by card."   

 

The Elexa charging app is now that way....since around March 2025 when you can't even begin a charging session without a "credit" card loaded but after loading a credit card it will then  at the end of charging session offer you  four ways to pay for the charging session...one of which is by the card you loaded.    Before Mar 2025 you could use a "debit" card or even a foreign card with Elexa, but no more....they just gotta have a Thai credit card loaded to even begin a charging session.  

 

Heck, don't be lazy like me....go give an Onion charger a test without having a card loaded in the app's payment profile.  Maybe it will indeed work and you'll be offered other payment method when it's time to pay.   But it seems some people could cheat the system (not implying you would but some people seem to cheat whenever, wherever they can) by simply not paying at the end....get some free electrons...although their charging app acct would surely end-up being locked until the bill was paid....but maybe they don't care.  And although the charging connector is locked to the car until payment is made if a cheater wanted to all he would need to do to get the charging connector unhooked from the car is hit the Emergency Stop Button on the charger to cause it to shutdown which typically also unlocks the charging connector from the car.  OR, on many EVs  (like my Atto) there is Charging Port Emergency Unlocking cable in the engine bay close to the charging port which you can pull to unlock a charging connector that refuses to let go of your car.   I actually used that Unlocking cable once....it indeed works.    

 

This is about all I an recommend in getting cards loaded to the Onion payment profile.  As mentioned earlier my TrueMoney Virtual Mastercard added no problem as did my Thai bank debit Mastercard.  And I've loaded that TrueMoney card in some other charging network apps....each and everyone accepted the Truemoney card.

 

18 minutes ago, Pib said:

If I remember right after entering your card number and your email address (the only two data field on that first page) when pressing Continue Payment it seemed like "maybe" it spent a second or two just checking to see if such a card number existed and then it would go to the next page where you enter the card's expiration date, CV, and name on the card.   Then when pressing continue again it would connect to the 2C2P payment gateway where the card is validated via a OTP process.  Then if it passed that validation process the card was added to your payment profile.  Basically the identical 2C2P payment gateway/OTP process I've experienced in some other charging apps in getting card loaded into your payment profile.

 

Since you can't seen to get pass the page where you just enter the card number and your email address maybe the Onion network is having issues right now in connecting to the 2C2P network?   

 

Are you sure you are entering the "TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Card" and not the "TrueMoney SME  Card"  as the SME card is only accepted for a limited set of online purchase like for "ads shooting."   And you already mentioned you did have the virtual card Enabled/turned on....I forgot to do that one time as I keep it disabled until needing to use it for an online payment.....when trying to add the card to one of the other charging apps with the card disabled and the 2C2P process would not work.   Just make sure you were attempting to add the Virtual card and not the SME card.

 

And regarding does the 2C2P/OTP process verification process always result in a small debit immediately followed by an offsetting equal credit I have found from adding the Truemoney virutal card to several different apps that sometimes that debit/credit transaction processs shows up in the card's history of transactions and sometimes it does not.  I'm assuming when it does not the app only used the part of the 2C2P  verification process like only using the OTP portion versus "also" going a little further to confirm the card could actually be debited vs just using the OTP only part. 

 

When I added the TrueMoney Virtual card to the Onion profile it did "not" result in a debit/credit appearing in the card's history.  Now when I added the card to the Altervim charging network app a debit/credit transaction "did" appear in the card's transaction history.  All depends on the vendor (i.e., Onion, Altervim, whoever)  charging the payment as to how thorough of card payment process they want to use as the payment gateway, Visa, Mastercard, etc., offer vendors different choices in how they want to verify cards/payments. 

 

Thanks @Pib,

Yes am using the Virtual Card, i didn’t create the SME card after reading your post on setting up TrueMoney some time ago.

 

I was trying late last evening and tried again this morning, then i deleted the app and downloaded again, signed in but still no joy.

That’s when i added on-ion to my Line and had the conversation i posted earlier.

 

I will give it a go at a charger, maybe tomorrow as doing a 420 km round trip.

If it works, as EleXA used to without card registration, then great but i have my doubts as it doesn’t let me exit the “ add card “ page whether i press Continue Payment or not so something is not working properly.

 

I will continue to try tonight and tomorrow, then try a charge and see what happens !!

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

When I registered on the Onion app I wondered if I needed to add a card before even attempting a card.   I wondered would I be offerred addtional payment option at the ending of the charging process OR would I even be able to start a charging process with a card loaded.   

 

For a few seconds I thought about not attempting to load any card as a test; just wait until I go try a realworld charging session.   But then I thought I didn't want to possibly waste the time/effort in attempting to start charging session if the Onion app would then popup a message saying something along the lines of, "Hey Dude, you need to load at least one payment method first so I can insure I get paid, but once you load a card I will also now offer other ways to pay instead of just by card."   

 

The Elexa charging app is now that way....since around March 2025 when you can't even begin a charging session without a "credit" card loaded but after loading a credit card it will then  at the end of charging session offer you  four ways to pay for the charging session...one of which is by the card you loaded.    Before Mar 2025 you could use a "debit" card or even a foreign card with Elexa, but no more....they just gotta have a Thai credit card loaded to even begin a charging session.  

 

Heck, don't be lazy like me....go give an Onion charger a test without having a card loaded in the app's payment profile.  Maybe it will indeed work and you'll be offered other payment method when it's time to pay.   But it seems some people could cheat the system (not imply you would but some people seem to cheat whenever, wherever they can) by simply not paying at the end....get some free electrons...although their charging app acct would surely end-up being locked until the bill was paid....but maybe they don't care.  And although the charging connector is locked to the car until payment is made if a cheater wanted to all he would need to do to get the charging connector unhooked from the car is hit the Emergency Stop Button on the charger to cause it to shutdown which typically also unlocks the charging connector from the car.  OR, on many EVs  (like my Atto) there is Charging Port Emergency Unlocking cable in the engine bay close to the charging port which you can pull to unlock a charging connector that refuses to let go of your car.   I actually used that Unlocking cable once....it indeed works.    

 

This is about all I an recommend in get cards loaded to the Onion payment profile.  As mentioned earlier my TrueMoney Virtual Mastercard added no problem as did my Thai bank debit Mastercard.  And I've loaded that TrueMoney card in some other charging network apps....each and everyone accepted the Truemoney card.

 

Yep, will give it a go without loading any card.

Oh, by the way, I'm trying hard to not register on the iGreen+ and OneCharge charging networks as I figure I would rarely use them due to their charger locations and also already being signed-up with all the major charging networks already like PTT, PEA, EA Anywhere, ReverSharger,  Elexa, Altervim, Spark, etc....etc.   

 

But iGreen+ and OneCharge seem to be two up-and-coming charging networks in Thailand.   Both use the Wallet method payment....that is, a person must load money into the app's wallet before using using different wallet top-up options like credit/debit cards, PromptPay, etc.   But I think you can load as little or Bt50  into their wallet just so you can go do some small real-world tests, use them once in a blue moon, etc.    My resistance to registering will probably fail and I'll just register to add a couple more charging networks....more charging locations...will be hard to go far or stay at any resort or go to any mall with EV chargers  without already being registered on the chargers being available.

 

Also, GAC the maker or Ora EVs has a charging network app apparently anyone can use/register with; it does not appear to be a proprietary network like the MG charging network which is only for MG vehicles.   The GAC charging app has around 106 charging locations around Thailand like in many GAC dealerships but when looking at the GAC charging app list of chargers approx two-thirds of the charging stations/locations are actually at  Bangchak stations and are "Spark" chargers.   

 

Now the Spark chargers are not simply being listed for reference and you must use the Spark app to actually charge....it appears the GAC app will start a charging session on Spark chargers.   This is similar to how the ReverAutomotive app focus towards BYD vehicles can start charging sessions on ReverSharger/Shell/SUSCO station chargers....no need to use the specific ReverSharger charging app.  The way chargers are made the software protocol they use can be setup to operate with different charging apps/networks....all depends if/how EV and charger businesses want to partner-up....you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back type setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, Pib said:

Oh, by the way, I'm trying hard to not register on the iGreen+ and OneCharge charging networks as I figure I would rarely use them due to their charger locations and also already being signed-up with all the major charging networks already like PTT, PEA, EA Anywhere, ReverSharger,  Elexa, Altervim, Spark, etc....etc.   

 

But iGreen+ and OneCharge seem to be two up-and-coming charging networks in Thailand.   Both use the Wallet method payment....that is, a person must load money into the app's wallet before using using different wallet top-up options like credit/debit cards, PromptPay, etc.   But I think you can load as little or Bt50  into their wallet just so you can go do some small real-world tests, use them once in a blue moon, etc.    My resistance to registering will probably fail and I'll just register to add a couple more charging networks....more charging locations...will be hard to go far or stay at any resort or go to any mall with EV chargers  without already being registered on the chargers being available.

 

Also, GAC the maker or Ora EVs has a charging network app apparently anyone can use/register with; it does not appear to be a proprietary network like the MG charging network which is only for MG vehicles.   The GAC charging app has around 106 charging locations around Thailand like in many GAC dealerships but when looking at the GAC charging app list of chargers approx two-thirds of the charging stations/locations are actually at  Bangchak stations and are "Spark" chargers.   

 

Now the Spark chargers are not simply being listed for reference and you must use the Spark app to actually charge....it appears the GAC app will start a charging session on Spark chargers.   This is similar to how the ReverAutomotive app focus towards BYD vehicles can start charging sessions on ReverSharger/Shell/SUSCO station chargers....no need to use the specific ReverSharger charging app.  The way chargers are made the software protocol they use can be setup to operate with different charging apps/networks....all depends if/how EV and charger businesses want to partner-up....you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back type setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t really go on that many road trips to warrant adding all these charging apps but better to be prepared and I did come unstuck one time up near Doi Inthanon where a charger, in a Lotus car park, was labelled as a PEA Volta charger ( don’t remember the app i was using, might have been Sat Nav ) when in reality was an Altervim.

 I hadn’t registered for Altervim, at the time, and in the process of trying to register my over zealous U.K. bank froze my credit card.

Put me off Altervim for a while until True Money saved the day and i registered my True Money Mastercard…. should really test that out with a charge !

 

So, keep em coming Pib, am right behind you !

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I don’t really go on that many road trips to warrant adding all these charging apps but better to be prepared and I did come unstuck one time up near Doi Inthanon where a charger, in a Lotus car park, was labelled as a PEA Volta charger ( don’t remember the app i was using, might have been Sat Nav ) when in reality was an Altervim.

 I hadn’t registered for Altervim, at the time, and in the process of trying to register my over zealous U.K. bank froze my credit card.

Put me off Altervim for a while until True Money saved the day and i registered my True Money Mastercard…. should really test that out with a charge !

 

So, keep em coming Pib, am right behind you !

 

Yea, there has only been 3 times that I needed (or wanted) to charge while on trips due to the good range of my Atto.  Those 3 trips which were around 375 to 425km in length were just site-seeing trips lasting about 6 to 8 hours.  Leave home in the morning and be back in the afternoon.   These round trips would take my battery SOC to just a few percent on one trip and 5 to 10% on the other 2 trips.   I may be "hansum" but I ain't dumb enough to let my bucket of electrons get that low while traveling especially when it's easy to top-up that electron bucket. 

-

It gives a person a feeling of security to have numerous charging networks and many chargers to choose from while on long trips....it helps greatly to minimize the possibility of Murphy's Law biting you.  

 

@Pib

A quick perusal of the on-ion charging map tells me that I am unlikely to test the theory that i don’t need a card registration to start charging tomorrow.

Would have to go out of my way to charge at Central Nakhon Sawan but the map tells me that there are 6 on-ion chargers at Central Ayutthaya less than 5 km from my home, albeit AC only, so it makes much more sense for me to visit Central near home one day next week.

 

While the majority of chargers are in the Bangkok Metropolitan area, which I am very unlikely to need, there are chargers in areas that i will likely visit on my next road trip ( possibly CM/CR or down south ) mostly in Central Malls but as you say AC chargers in malls make sense for a leisurely top up while shopping or eating.

 

Might even have a couple of days in Pattaya …. yeah, I’m not proud 😊 

 

@Andrew Dwyer

  Yeap....where a person lives and/or where they are likely to travel can be a major factor in whether a person even wants to register with a certain charging network as a  charging network simply may not have many (or any) chargers closes to where you live/travel.

 

  Like for a person who lives in Bangkok but has no charger at his residence then registering with the MEA charging network would probably be something they might want to do for local charging needs.   But MEA chargers are only located in the greater Bangkok area....zero, nada, zip anywhere else in the country as far as I know.  So, for travel outside of the Bangkok area the MEA charging network is a no-go, but is just fine if needing to charge in the Bangkok area. 

 

   I seriously doubt MEA, which is the electric company that supplies electricity for the Bangkok metro area (call it the PEA for the Bangkok area only) will ever expand its EV charging network beyond the greater Bangkok area.  Therefore, the MEA charging network would be useless for charging when on trips outside of Bangkok...the other 95% of Thailand....but would be a good for charging when in Bangkok. 

 

   I'm not registered with MEA since it would probably make my home wall charger mad at me, but I may register with MEA someday anyway.  There are several MEA chargers close to my Bangkok home making it easy for me to do a real world test on.   But other than registering just for grins/doing a test, I doubt I would ever use a MEA charger again other than once a year to ensure my registration still works.  I try to use every charging network I'm registered with at least once a year just for a brief, low cost charge to ensure I can still use the network....primarily to make sure I can still pay for charging session since charging networks sometimes change policy on permitted payment options/cards/etc.   Now if the MEA charging network started offering something like free EV electrons for a certain period or I won some lottery that awarded me free MEA EV electrons for life then the MEA charging network would become my favorite charging network.   😁

 

   

9 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Okay so I contacted them on Line and this is what they said ( didn’t answer why I couldn’t add a card but hey ho )

 

 

Also:

 

 

So, according to on-ion EV Charger via Line it should work with no card registration.

 

Will see !!

 

 

This Onion webpage provides complete charging session instructions from app registration to charging payment.

https://onion-solutions.com/charge-at-station

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

 

This Onion webpage provides complete charging session instructions from app registration to charging payment.

https://onion-solutions.com/charge-at-station

Thanks @Pib, 

It doesn’t say to provide any form of payment during registration ( just says fill all required information ) so maybe is as EleXA used to be ??

 

 The “ add a card “ page is just for convenience then ?

 

Of course it doesn’t explain why my True Money Mastercard wouldn’t load or why when after clicking on Add Credit Card then + Add Card to get to the Global Card/Digital Payment screen i cannot exit this page without closing the app whether i have loaded any details or not ?

 

A glitch it would seem ?

 

So, i have a couple of tasks this week :

Try charging with on-ion, if it works will probably pay with True Money rather than the M/card, don’t want to tempt fate !

Try charging with Altervim which has my TM M/card as registered form of payment.

 

 

Wishing you successful task completion.

@Andrew Dwyer

I got brave (because I now have one Leo under my belt) and decided to test deleting and readding my TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Credit Card from my Onion payment profile.   I deleted it from my profile and then was able to add it back going thru the 2C2P payment gateway/OTP process. 

 

Maybe try adding your TrueMoney card again...."right now."  If it still don't work it must be something to do with your Onion acct setup, a glitch/incompatibility with your phone, etc.,....who really knows.   

 

Thanks to Leo for allowing this test.  

And if adding your True card to Onion still doesn't work maybe try deleting and reading the True card in one off your other charging apps. 

 

If it readds OK in another app then that helps to narrow it down to probably an Onion app issue...maybe Onion and your phone are having a compatibility issue.  

42 minutes ago, Pib said:

@Andrew Dwyer

I got brave (because I now have one Leo under my belt) and decided to test deleting and readding my TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Credit Card from my Onion payment profile.   I deleted it from my profile and then was able to add it back going thru the 2C2P payment gateway/OTP process. 

 

Maybe try adding your TrueMoney card again...."right now."  If it still don't work it must be something to do with your Onion acct setup, a glitch/incompatibility with your phone, etc.,....who really knows.   

 

Thanks to Leo for allowing this test.  

Not wishing to suffer the wrath of Leo by not acting on his wishes i begrudgingly abided by his request.

 

I deleted the app and then downloaded again from the App Store, logged in again and added all the required information.

Clicked on Add Credit Card and then, under Global Card tab filled all the required information about my True Money Virtual Mastercard.

 

Up to now everything had been exactly as before but as soon as i clicked on “ Continue Payment “ it reacted differently !!

 

Whereas on the previous times i tried the Payment button turned light blue and stuck like that now it went directly to the OTP ( my OTP appears as a banner on the top of phone screen ) , entered the 6 digit number and …….

 

 

 

Success !!

Thanks PiB, or should i say Leo ?

 

Mystery somewhat solved, is it a coincidence that it is 24 hrs after registration ?

 

Anyway, it’s done, but this does mean that we will never know if charging can be started without any form of payment registered ! Blame that one on Leo !!

EDIT: now entering the add credit card process again i can exit by pressing cancel whereas before it was frozen.

All hail the power of Leo!!!

 

Now you could still delete the True card and go into your 1st Onion charging session and see what happens...see if you could start the session.  Yea, I know,  I could do the same thing but I'm too busy drinking Leo.  🤪

1 minute ago, Pib said:

All hail the power of Leo!!!

 

Now you could still delete the True card and go into your 1st Onion charging session and see what happens...see if you could start the session.  Yea, I know,  I could do the same thing but I'm too busy drinking Leo.  🤪

Yeah, probably not going to risk annoying the charging gods by doing that.

I might try and see if my BKK Bank Debit card will add as that is my preferred payment ( works on EV Station Pluz a treat ) but it is that Union Pay malarkey so probably not .

3 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Yeah, probably not going to risk annoying the charging gods by doing that.

I might try and see if my BKK Bank Debit card will add as that is my preferred payment ( works on EV Station Pluz a treat ) but it is that Union Pay malarkey so probably not .

Yeah, didn’t like that at all !!

 

 

Oh well, it expires in Jan 2026 so will push for a Mastercard replacement, i heard somewhere they have started using M/C again ?

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Yeah, didn’t like that at all !!

 

 

Oh well, it expires in Jan 2026 so will push for a Mastercard replacement, i heard somewhere they have started using M/C again ?

Bangkok Bank switched to Mastercard ages ago, you can swap your card any time. Get rid of the Union Pay thing immediately.

Yea, Bangkok Bank now offers Visa, UnionPay, and Mastercard "debit" cards. 

 

Around 5 years or so ago Bangkok Bank only offered only Visa debit cards, but then Bangkok Bank and UnionPay partnered to develop a "Thai Payment Network (TPN) which also birthed UnionPay debit cards for Thailand.   Bangkok Bank started pushing their new UnionPay/TPN cards and also phased out their Visa debit card so they could push more folks towards their UnionPay card as that would make more profit for the bank.

 

But pushback from customers and merchants to the UnionPay network/card was large since a lot of merchants were perfectly happy in only using the Visa and Mastercard networks..  Plus, merchants have to pay extra for each card network they add to their accepted card networks....like accepting Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay costs the merchant more than if just using say one or two of those networks...of course the downside for merchants is maybe driving away potential customers who have a certain card.  

 

So, Bangkok Bank reluctantly added Mastercard debit cards along with keeping the UnionPay debit card.    Bangkok Bank didn't immediately add Visa back to their cards lineup as they had recently decided to cancelled their Visa debit cards to be replaced by UnionPay cards....having to bring the Visa cards back too soon would be loss of face.  But later on Bangkok Bank brought back a couple of specialized  Visa card choices also, but UnionPay and Mastercard debit cards would be the two main cards offered by the bank. 

 

So, now Bangkok Bank offers UnionPay, Mastercard, and Visa network debit cards although I think they still push their UnionPay card whenever possible due to the Bangkok Bank-Union Pay "Thai Payment Network" co-owned business but Bangkok Bank no longer presents much of any resistance to a customer who asks for Mastercard or Visa instead of a UnionPay card.  But if resistance was initially presented just say No, I want a Mastercard/visa debit card and you'll get it.   If switching from UnionPay to Mastercard or Visa "before the card's renewal date"  typically results in a Bt100 card issue fee (kinda like getting the card for the first time) and paying the first year debit card fee of Bt200-300 upfront but a person would be paying that fee anyway come annual fee time on the old UnionPay card.

 

See below Bangkok Bank webpage for their debit card offerings

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Cards/Be1st-Smart-Card

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

Yea, Bangkok Bank now offers Visa, UnionPay, and Mastercard "debit" cards. 

 

Around 5 years or so ago Bangkok Bank only offered only Visa debit cards, but then Bangkok Bank and UnionPay partnered to develop a "Thai Payment Network (TPN) which also birthed UnionPay debit cards for Thailand.   Bangkok Bank started pushing their new UnionPay/TPN cards and also phased out their Visa debit card so they could push more folks towards their UnionPay card as that would make more profit for the bank.

 

But pushback from customers and merchants to the UnionPay network/card was large since a lot of merchants were perfectly happy in only using the Visa and Mastercard networks..  Plus, merchants have to pay extra for each card network they add to their accepted card networks....like accepting Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay costs the merchant more than if just using say one or two of those networks...of course the downside for merchants is maybe driving away potential customers who have a certain card.  

 

So, Bangkok Bank reluctantly added Mastercard debit cards along with keeping the UnionPay debit card.    Bangkok Bank didn't immediately add Visa back to their cards lineup as they had recently decided to cancelled their Visa debit cards to be replaced by UnionPay cards....having to bring the Visa cards back too soon would be loss of face.  But later on Bangkok Bank brought back a couple of specialized  Visa card choices also, but UnionPay and Mastercard debit cards would be the two main cards offered by the bank. 

 

So, now Bangkok Bank offers UnionPay, Mastercard, and Visa network debit cards although I think they still push their UnionPay card whenever possible due to the Bangkok Bank-Union Pay "Thai Payment Network" co-owned business but Bangkok Bank no longer presents much of any resistance to a customer who asks for Mastercard or Visa instead of a UnionPay card.  But if resistance was initially presented just say No, I want a Mastercard/visa debit card and you'll get it.   If switching from UnionPay to Mastercard or Visa "before the card's renewal date"  typically results in a Bt100 card issue fee (kinda like getting the card for the first time) and paying the first year debit card fee of Bt200-300 upfront but a person would be paying that fee anyway come annual fee time on the old UnionPay card.

 

See below Bangkok Bank webpage for their debit card offerings

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Cards/Be1st-Smart-Card

Thanks, yeah i had a Visa card ( could have been MC ) when i opened my account in 2016, then 5 years later they said “ only Union Pay “.

5 years on ( 2026 ) it expires again and sounds like I have a choice .

 

Tbh i never took advantage of the Visa part of the card so it didn’t really bother me and charging at EV Station Pluz, which is registered with my BB Union Pay debit card it comes straight out of my bank account. I often do a small charge when returning from my regular 450km round trips.

 

Now with True Money Mastercard am not really needing another MC ??

 

@Pib does your BB MC debit card allow you to debit directly from your account on charging with any charging operator ??

This could be the deciding factor to which BB card I go for.

 

p.s. I also have 2 U.K. credit cards which I use.

For all listening in, since more Thai online merchants, to include some of the EV charging networks/apps, are switching to the OTP online payment verification method (i.e., get a OTP via SMS) which a farang's  home country card may not participate in "OR" only accepting Thai credit/debit cards (some have stopped accepting debit cards for online purchases...will only accept credit cards) having a Thai "credit" card makes online purchases/payments less of a "pain in the you know what" because it's a Thai bank credit card and it will participate in the OTP purchases verification method. 

 

As talked about in this thread when opening a TrueMoney account it comes with a "TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Credit Card" which can be used for online purchases/payments like paying for an EV charging session, topping-up an app's wallet, etc.   TrueMoney and TTB bank joined forces to make this virtual credit card available.    Since it's a virtual card you can't use it for physical payments at a store as you have no physical card....that is, handing a card to a checkout cashier....but the virtual card works just like a regular unsecured or secured credit card for online payments/purchases.   

 

By "secured" credit card I mean one of those credit cards "anyone" (even a farang) can get from your Thai bank without even having a job or work permit, but it's "secured" by certain amount of money in your Thai bank account.  That "secured" amount, or maybe call it a "locked" amount, can't be withdrawn until you close the credit card followed by an extra month or two so the bank can ensure no unknown credit card charges arrive out of the blue.    

 

The TrueMoney virtual credit card is like a "prepaid" credit card with a credit limit based on the real-time balance in your TrueMoney wallet up to a maximum of Bt50,000 balance.   if you only have Bt100 balance in your TrueMoney wallet and try to make an online purchase using their virtual CC for more than Bt100 then the transaction will fail.   If you have say Bt50,000 in your Truemoney wallet then you could make an online purchase up to Bt50,000.   See below for more details regarding TrueMoney transaction limits "for foreigners." 

 

Signing-up for a TrueMoney acct can be easy....just register using their TrueMoney mobile app, pass their identify verification where a passport main page picture  and a selfie face scan process, upload one of the supporting ID docs like your Thai drivers license, and then wait a few hours to maybe 3 business days for True to complete your account applications.   

 

Now getting the selfie face scan and passport picture process to work might be challenging in some cases as this process can often be very picky depending on room lightning, how old your passport picture is, etc.  It took me a couple of days of trying to finally pass....I think I got just the right lightning to make the face scan process happy. 

 

It will probably only be a few business hours before being approved because passing the passport picture and face scan process pretty much ensures your application will be approved.   My application was approved within a few hours and I had my TrueMoney Mastercard Virtual Credit Card setup within minutes of logging into my brand TrueMoney account.   You can use a TrueMoney acct for payment of lots of products/services....I should have signed up for a TrueMoney acct many years ago to overcome the occasional problems where my home country credit cards were not accepted because the online merchant only accepted Thai credit cards or required the OTP verification purchase process ....like some EV charging apps seem to be drifting towards where they now only accept a Thai credit card such as Elexa.  But fortunately most of the charging apps still accept a  Thai debit card and/or foreign credit card not to imply your home country card-issuing bank will always approve a foreign online transaction.   However, having a "Thai credit card" like the TrueMoney virtual credit card should ensure you can register and use any of the many charging networks/apps used in Thailand.

 

Summary: do yourself a favor and signup for a TrueMoney account. 

 

https://support.truemoney.com/en/knowledge-base/credit_limit/

39 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

 

@Pib does your BB MC debit card allow you to debit directly from your account on charging with any charging operator ??

This could be the deciding factor to which BB card I go for.

 

 

Not with "any" charging operator; but the majority of the charging networks I'm signed up still allow my BB MC debit card to be charged directly. 

 

Being able to have a charging session charged "directly" to a card is probably a good thing in those cases where an app's "primarily" payment option is the app's "wallet."   As you know some charging apps use the wallet method and others don't.  Some charging apps require payments to come directly for the app's wallet although you can top-up the wallet with a credit/debit card or other methods. And of course some apps do not use/offer a wallet method but have payment done directly from a card, QR PromptPay, etc.   Preaching to the choir I know...just for other listening in who are getting into the EV charging world.

 

Example: Elexa stopped accepting  my BB MC debit card in March of this year when they changed their policy to requiring a Thai credit card plus even requiring a charging session although if having a Thai credit card in the app's payment profile you would then be offered other payment methods at the end of the charging session to actually make the payment.  Another example is ReverSharger will not accept my BK MC debit card..never did....but gladly accepts my home country credit cards.....and the ReverSharger app also offers a wallet approach if a person prefers to pay that way.   Now others like PTT EV Station Pluz and Altervin still accept my BB CC.  Can't remember off the bat how the other charging apps I'm registered with as to whether they accepted my BB MC debit card or not.  Most charging apps accepted my BB MC debit card without issue but I drifting away from even having my Thai bank debit card in charging app payment profiles to guard against fraudulent transaction/the app's acct getting hacked. 

 

After I got my TrueMoney virtual CC I actually deleted my BB debit card from a couple of the apps because I didn't want to leave the info online in case the charging network gets hacked and lets my card info into the wild for scammers to use.   Several months ago I had a fraudulent transaction (a Bt219 Spotify charge)  occur to my BB debit card....the only place I had my BB debit card info posted online is most of the charging apps payment profiles.  I cancelled my BB debit card, got a new one, and BB also reimbursed that fraudulent charge in about a week.   Since that time I keep my BB debit card turned off for online purchases until I need to do one...like a charging session payment....then I turn it off again.  BUT turning the card back on requires a face scan which sometimes goes no problem with good lightning but other times I'll spend several minutes, quite a few times in trying to get a successful face scan....this can get frustrating.  Now as you know with the TrueMoney CC a person can turn the card off and on but "no" face scan is required....just flip the switch off and on....I even keep the TrueMoney card turned off until I need to use it for a purchase....helps guard against fraudulent transactions since it's super easy & fast to turn the TrueMoney card off and on as you know.

 

 

2 hours ago, Pib said:

 

Not with "any" charging operator; but the majority of the charging networks I'm signed up still allow my BB MC debit card to be charged directly. 

 

Being able to have a charging session charged "directly" to a card is probably a good thing in those cases where an app's "primarily" payment option is the app's "wallet."   As you know some charging apps use the wallet method and others don't.  Some charging apps require payments to come directly for the app's wallet although you can top-up the wallet with a credit/debit card or other methods. And of course some apps do not use/offer a wallet method but have payment done directly from a card, QR PromptPay, etc.   Preaching to the choir I know...just for other listening in who are getting into the EV charging world.

 

Example: Elexa stopped accepting  my BB MC debit card in March of this year when they changed their policy to requiring a Thai credit card plus even requiring a charging session although if having a Thai credit card in the app's payment profile you would then be offered other payment methods at the end of the charging session to actually make the payment.  Another example is ReverSharger will not accept my BK MC debit card..never did....but gladly accepts my home country credit cards.....and the ReverSharger app also offers a wallet approach if a person prefers to pay that way.   Now others like PTT EV Station Pluz and Altervin still accept my BB CC.  Can't remember off the bat how the other charging apps I'm registered with as to whether they accepted my BB MC debit card or not.  Most charging apps accepted my BB MC debit card without issue but I drifting away from even having my Thai bank debit card in charging app payment profiles to guard against fraudulent transaction/the app's acct getting hacked. 

 

After I got my TrueMoney virtual CC I actually deleted my BB debit card from a couple of the apps because I didn't want to leave the info online in case the charging network gets hacked and lets my card info into the wild for scammers to use.   Several months ago I had a fraudulent transaction (a Bt219 Spotify charge)  occur to my BB debit card....the only place I had my BB debit card info posted online is most of the charging apps payment profiles.  I cancelled my BB debit card, got a new one, and BB also reimbursed that fraudulent charge in about a week.   Since that time I keep my BB debit card turned off for online purchases until I need to do one...like a charging session payment....then I turn it off again.  BUT turning the card back on requires a face scan which sometimes goes no problem with good lightning but other times I'll spend several minutes, quite a few times in trying to get a successful face scan....this can get frustrating.  Now as you know with the TrueMoney CC a person can turn the card off and on but "no" face scan is required....just flip the switch off and on....I even keep the TrueMoney card turned off until I need to use it for a purchase....helps guard against fraudulent transactions since it's super easy & fast to turn the TrueMoney card off and on as you know.

 

 

Yes to all that !

 

People new to EV charging can be somewhat surprised not only by the number of charging networks but also by the different forms of payment and information required to register for the charging apps.

Before you know it you have a healthy array of charging apps at your disposal but the payments for these can be spread across a few different formats.

 

My aim is to condense these forms of payment into as few as possible i.e. avoid money spread over several wallets and avoid using my international credit card details.

 

True Money is a godsend and means that even though a couple of my charging network apps require a wallet ( PEA Volta and Spark ) I don’t have to load them up. I can simply transfer money from the True Money to the charging network app in seconds.

 

EV Station Pluz ( PTT ) is my most widely used charging network due to their number of chargers available and currently my easiest form of payment ( direct from my bank account via my Union Pay debit card courtesy of Bangkok Bank ).

While registering for these various charging apps EV Station Pluz has been the only one to accept my Union Pay card as form of payment.

 

So, after some consideration, my best bet is to change my debit card to Mastercard ( probably wait until Jan when it expires ) and go through all the apps again to see which I can utilise the MC debit card for form of payment and True Money should take care of the rest.

 

Sounds like a plan !

in many european countries, charging an electric car while traveling or on a road trip seems to be very complicated. there are countless different providers, many of them require special charging cards, sometimes you can’t even pay with a normal bank or credit card. to get lower rates you often need to sign a charging contract, prices are not transparent, and the price differences can be huge!

 

now, some bev users (also you-tuber) are developing an app that only shows ad-hoc charging stations with up-to-date price information. overpriced stations are not even displayed in the app. the goal is to make payments easier for all users and to push providers towards fair and competitive pricing ...

 

(explanation: ad-hoc charging means ev drivers can charge spontaneously at usually publicly accessible charging stations without prior registration. payment is made directly at the charging point, for example by credit card, debit card, or qr code.)

 

here in thailand, the price differences are not very big and they are transparent, but having to install a separate app for each provider and use different payment methods is not very customer-friendly. there is definitely room for improvement ...

 

to all, drive safe, motdaeng