Huge markup on imported foods. Why?

[A_Traveller]

Anyone help on this, I've been asked how easy it is for someone here without a credit card to use PayPal on a US site? Person has a couple of ATM saver/accounts here but no CC's {they are falang}.

To be honest I may do it for them, after getting the money for those doubters out there, but I wondered if it's easy to do these days?

TIA

Regards

[mosquitobill]

I have lived in Thailand for 5yrs on a retirement visa and as such have no credit cards either but I kept my Natwest bank account open back in England as I have a goverment pension paid into it which I can withdraw from ATM machines using my Natwest Switch card.Natwest have my sisters address in England which they use as my contact address although most of my contact with them is online.I opened a Pay Pal account here in Thailand using my switch card and just gave them my name and number as detailed on the card and my contact address in England which was verified when Pay Pal confirmed my Bank details. Hope this helps.

Bill

[monty]

The most practical at the moment is with Kasikorn bank.

Open Account.

Apply for internet banking.

Get virtual web card. This is a virtual credit card, you get card number, expiry date and cvv number.

Register and verify the virtual card with paypal after you can retrieve the extended use number using your internet banking, and all is well.

Any payment done with paypal will get deducted directly from the virtual card's credit.

Second most practical (the one I use) is with a Be1st Visa electron card from Bangkok bank.

Register said card with paypal. With the newer card a CVV code is on the back, with the older cards you can use the last 3 digits of the first 4 digit block of your card number.

After paypal deducts the 1.99 US$ from your card, you'll have to call Bualuang, the company managing Bkk bank cards. Number is 1333 I think. Talk to an operator and ask for the extended use code on the paypal charge. You'll have to enter your card number and your pin code through the telephone key pad in order to identify you as the genuine holder of the card.

Once you have the extended use code, enter on pay pals website and you're all set.

You cannot actually put money on your paypal account using that card, but any payment made with paypal will just deduct the amount directly from your card!

I guess currently 70% of my on-line payments (hosting, domain names, buying some stuff, rapidshare etc) are all done through paypal coupled to my Bkk Bank Be1st card.

One word of advice though, since with the Be1st card you cannot keep track of the actual transactions (unlike a real credit card, or Kasikorn's virtual webcard), it's best to open a separate account with a card, only to be used for your on-line dealings. Just keep a limited amount of cash in it, so in case of fraud, damage will be limited to whatever you put into that account!