Expats Can Apply For Credit Cards

[john b good]

Looking at their website, Krung Thai seems to offer only an ATM card. Can't find anything about a credit card.

KTB will issue (to non work permit holders) a KTB Convenience Card which is essentially a debit card / ATM card.

Depending on the money in your account you can get Baht 150,000.00 a day (perhaps more if you have a higher balance)

AMEX hounded me for months to take an AMEX Gold Card and then they said (when I did apply for one) that I needed a work permit and an income of Baht 800.000.00 / year. I show them copies of bank books (accounts in the realm) showing that income (or more) each month but NO! because I didn't have the work permit they declined the application.

Edited April 12, 2009 by john b good

[moonoi]

I've been here 4 years and had a credit card for 3.5 years, first one from SCB (just needed a friendly introduction by one of my work collegues to the local branch manager and move all my accounts to them). Then once established a credit record, got a citibank gold card, which has since been upgraded to Platinum Select and just last year got the Thai Airways AMEX Platinum card.

I have a work permit and a reasonable salary, my experience is that it all depends on who handles your application (HSBC refused me).

For all my local cards, I do not have any secured deposit. They are all based on my monthly thai income.

When I first read this in the Nation a while back, I thought it was all a pile of bull having had no real difficulty to obtain cc in the past. Thailand is a strange place!

[phanu]

For me, no problem with Bangkok Bank for having ATM/Visa Electron Card for cash / or buy for maximum 500,000 THB per day... No need visa / Work permit / Income... I got 2 cards..

This card can be used in Europ in ATM or in shop too !

For having VISA Gold or Platinum, just have to put 150.000 THB on bank accound and you get the card.. no need work permit or income too !!!

Thats in BK Bank in Chiang Mai... in other cities, I don't know

(I have no income / no work / no work permit in Thailand ... It's just my second home...)

Edited April 13, 2009 by phanu

[astral]

Is this really new news??

I had a Thai American Express card back in 1985.

Passport and work permit were required then.

[bledu]

I don't undrstand why one wants a credit card.

A credit card is a card that when you buy something, the money is not drawn immediately from your bank account but, usually at the end of the month. It is why it is called "credit" : the bank advances the money for you.

I had a Gold Credit card in France when I lived there but always asked to have an immediate draw when I payed something. I don't like to live with credit – only for a car or a house. For other things, I always payed with a card as I would pay with cash, it is only much more convenient by card.

I' am in Chang Mai at the UOB bank. I have an Electron Debit card. To get it I just have a saving account open 5 years ago.

I can draw money from ATM and more importantly, I pay everything with this card as I would with a credit card, the only difference : the money is drawn one or two days later.

I even paid my gas at a French gas station last year when I made a mistake and didn't use my French card the the UOB one, and everything went perfect – and at very small tax.

So again, why foreigners ask always to get a credit card and are not satisfy with a debit card if they don' work but only live here ?

[Oberkommando]

Except that the reason most people posting here want a Thailand-based credit card is so that they can order from online vendors who will only ship to the billing address. A Sing credit card is useless for that purpose.

You can get prepaid credit cards easily online and the billing address can be wherever you want.

[kenk3z]

There is usually a vast difference between disputing fraudulant charges against a debit card vs. a credit card. With the credit card, you have not yet paid the amount, and thus have some leverage to dispute the charge. With a debit card, the money is already gone and you have to convince the bank to restore it. This is hard to do in Western countries and I should think near impossible in Thailand.

With respect to making hotel reservations, it may be possible to make the reservation with your home credit card - this is a temporary hold. Then when you actually arrive tell them you intend to pay with cash. Doing this will cause the temporary hold to expire with no charges.

I would recommend not routinely using a credit card in Thailand. You have to be really careful just using a bank ATM machine (best to use one physically attached to a bank branch) and handing over a credit card to pay for dinner or clothing (as you would in the West) is pretty risky.

Also, in paying with any credit card in Thailand for a significant purchase (laptop? gold? etc) from a merchant - you are going to find the merchant will likely add in 3% or more because the transaction is via credit instead of cash. That should clue you in right there that you're not in the West any more.

Cash.

Of course, that brings about another question - how much cash are you willing to carry to make a significant purchase?

[bazmlb]

"Siam Commercial Bank requires a work permit and minimum monthly salary of Bt100,000, compared with Thai applicants' minimum income of Bt15,000."

If you have PR then you fall in the same category as thai applicants and only need 15,000baht income, SCB in Pattaya wants 150,000baht income if not.

[theoldgit]

I took advantage of my Thai American Express credit card, as I have said before without a work permit as I am retired, because I found that I couldn't rent a car, even with Thai Visa Car Rental, and book into some hotels with just a debit card.

I was sent an application form because I am Royal Orchid Plus member, and all they wanted was copies of my last three months bank statements, no nod and a wink, no references from employers and no I have a friend who knows the manager, though I suspect I was just lucky to have the application assessed by the right person.

A car hire owner once told me that if a bank will not trust you to manage a credit card why should I trust you with a car.

I think if 50 people in a room all applied for a card and all had the same circumstances, there would be 50 different results.