Couple of weeks ago we (myself, wife) went to bangkok to purchase a car, pre-emptively we'd ensured they had a card (pos) device to take payment, when we arrived, they mentioned their PoS device could only do max 100k and 10 trasactions a day and each transaction would be less than 100, i.e 100k, 99k, 98k etc from my wifes overseas account.

Didn't think much of it except weird, asked why they didn't have a larger card processor, seeing as they had lambos etc in the showroom, said most customers paid cash or bank transfer, as funds were in overseas account (wife) we had authorization from bank overseas for the card transaction up to 1m and rest transferred.

Paid 10 x and left, nothing happened for a week (no car transferred into wife name) so contacted, they said the payments had been frozen (checked with our bank said all is fine)

Then they needed paperwork (passort etc)

turns out the car company was using a card machine from a family members business, hand bags or something and the card company processor K Bank froze the funds, they thought they'd be released yesterday, KBank said they would not release them, so the car company asked us to contact our bank to recall funds, our bank asked us to ask the car company to refund, the car company asked us to speak to Kbank and ask them to refund, kbank told us the company has to contact them, and by the sounds of it Kbank wont refund the funds at their request.

So right now funds with K-Bank, our Bank can likely do a forceful recall but if K-Bank doesn't release them unsure, car isn't transferred and funds are 'frozen', evidently we were unaware the car company was using a family members hand bag store POS until the statement showed and it didn't exactly show that, but until we queried when they said funds were frozen and told us that it was a sisters company (bla bla bla).

Anyone experienced anything like this? whats the recourse or time for funds to either be released to them or returned to us?

K-Bank send us round in circles as they can't see/say anything and the company seems to be unable to resolve.

Edited April 28Apr 28 by Jenkins9039

Did K-Bank independently confirm directly to you that the payment is indeed on hold, because I suspect you're being lied to by everyone.

Edited April 28Apr 28 by ukrules

4 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Did K-Bank independently confirm directly to you that the payment is indeed on hold, because I suspect you're being lied to by everyone.

Yeah K-Bank confirmed all 10 transactions are on hold, they asked for additional paperwork via the dealership (passport etc) but said they won't release the funds to the garage...

5 minutes ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Yeah K-Bank confirmed all 10 transactions are on hold, they asked for additional paperwork via the dealership (passport etc) but said they won't release the funds to the garage...

So there's hope that one day you will get your money back.

They can't keep them on hold forever can they?

I've no clue, as it stands the funds are frozen in this 3rd party company so either they release the funds to them (*unlikely*) or return the funds...

We're in limbo...

There was a few red flags from the beginning there, why would you want to go on with the transaction ?

What was so special about the car? To good price ?

23 minutes ago, Hummin said:

There was a few red flags from the beginning there, why would you want to go on with the transaction ?

What was so special about the car? To good price ?

Indeed, sounds like a goat f*** to me.

6 hours ago, Hummin said:

There was a few red flags from the beginning there

Not really, their explanation was customers usually do QR or Cash... dealership had 50 cars from Lambo down...

10 hours ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Not really, their explanation was customers usually do QR or Cash... dealership had 50 cars from Lambo down...

But they were only able to process 100K at a time, which would be a concern for me, but then I'm not buying Lambos and whatnot. My last car we just put 5K down and took a bank check with us when the car was ready.

I don't know about luxury car dealers, but AFAIK most, if not all car dealers in Thailand would not accept CC payment over a certain amount. I always paid the initial deposit (5-10K) by CC, and some dealers were willing to accept up to 50K of the pay by CC. This is due to the cost of processing CC payment, while transfer / cash payment cost nothing to process.

As for canceling a payment made by CC - again, AFAIK you can't just call your bank and aske the to cancel a transaction. You can dispute a transaction, but it can take weeks for the claim to be processed.

Buying goods in Thailand with overseas funds looks to the bank like money laundering and to the authorities like tax evasion.

The government under Thailands 4.0 are tracking all purchases and deposits from Thai bank accounts, you’re causing a problem with reporting. Better to move your funds to a normal thai account first.

Once they told me about the requirement for 10 separate transactions that would have been a huge red flag, and I likely would have walked away.

The car market here is quite soft right now, so the selections are vast and nearly unlimited. It is a buyers market.

4 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

The government under Thailands 4.0 are tracking all purchases and deposits from Thai bank accounts, you’re causing a problem with reporting.

Causing a problem to who? There is no issue if, indeed, Thai banks are not involved.

If you're implying that they are not able to track/check anything but Thai entities, well they then should adapt their laws accordingly instead of trying to push rules they are powerless to concretely enforce.

I'm surprised that your card didn't get suspended with that pattern of transactions, a whopping 10 transactions in a row at the same merchant in quick succession! I would never even dare attempting something like that, and a car dealership that isn't able to charge it as just one high value transaction would be a red flag to me.

9 minutes ago, Caldera said:

I'm surprised that your card didn't get suspended with that pattern of transactions, a whopping 10 transactions in a row at the same merchant in quick succession! I would never even dare attempting something like that, and a car dealership that isn't able to charge it as just one high value transaction would be a red flag to me.

I thought he said he notifies the card company he was going to make the transfers.

I think it's a debit, not credit card.

Wouldnt have accepted the 10 payments, bs, especially for a big dealer.

Point now is, as I understand, money frozen in kbank and said dealer should contact.!

To continue, simple dealer needs to contact kbank. Just demand it.

Cancelling the whole situation brings a lot more effort. I think.

People buying cash or QR , ok, thats their problem.

Why you didnt make transfer from your country bank directly to bank dealer?

9 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Why you didnt make transfer from your country bank directly to bank dealer?

If credit card the main benefit is probably to accumulate a substantial amount of reward points that can be redeemed to get free air tickets/upgrades.

19 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

If credit card the main benefit is probably to accumulate a substantial amount of reward points that can be redeemed to get free air tickets/upgrades.

But there is no way the vendor is going to eat the credit card fee.

11 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

I thought he said he notifies the card company he was going to make the transfers.

I think it's a debit, not credit card.

Correct Debit Card.

11 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Why you didnt make transfer from your country bank directly to bank dealer?

Card easier bank transfer requires visiting the branch. (private banking)

12 hours ago, Caldera said:

I'm surprised that your card didn't get suspended with that pattern of transactions, a whopping 10 transactions

Bank authorised it - were aware.

16 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

10 separate transactions

Wasn't aware... they took the card and proceeded to do the transaction(s).

2 minutes ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Card easier bank transfer requires visiting the branch. (private banking)

What kind of card was it?

18 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

Buying goods in Thailand with overseas funds looks to the bank like money laundering and to the authorities like tax evasion.

Tax evasion only occurs if you don't report taxes the year after, spending money from a bank isn't laundering unless said funds are dirty

1 minute ago, Yellowtail said:

What kind of card was it?

Visa Debit

Apparently the dealership has refunded, but no informed us of a txt record, my bank manager (account manager) said if they can get that they will immediately credit the account for the funds whilst they are still on route otherwise can take a month or something.

Dealership owner is a absolute moron it seems.

My advice to people building homes, is don’t try to do something different, do it the way everyone here understands.

It applies here, and it applies to everything in Thailand.

Go with the flow or expect a world of pain.

12 hours ago, Caldera said:

isn't able to charge it as just one high value transaction would be a red flag to me.

Most dealerships have a max transaction value of 900,000 THB....

This company used a Service POS for 1,000,000 THB broken across ten payments, their bank pos provider (K-Bank) only allowed 100,000 THB per Card per day, they breached their terms, by doing 100,000, 99,000 etc

They actually spoke to the bank before doing it, but the card processing department is different to the fraud department, to them it looked like structuring.

8 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

is don’t try to do something different, do it the way everyone here understands.

Buying a car with Card was / is normal.

Only the past few years QR has taken over most transactions in Thailand, and until crossborder QR works for high value transactions you have very little choice but to use a card or transfer funds in.

1 hour ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Card easier bank transfer requires visiting the branch. (private banking)

It's 2026. You may want to reconsider your banking options. Definitely not difficult to find (private) banks, especially with substantial money, that offer online transfers or just by calling your account manager on the spot.

1 hour ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Wasn't aware... they took the card and proceeded to do the transaction(s).

It would be nice if there was the equivalent of a small claims court here in Thailand, quick easy and efficient, and a major deterrent for idiots.