A safer way to use an ATM in Thailand?

[up2you2]

If you use a Kasicorn ATM you dont need to worry about your card being scanned.

Be more worried about the music being played when you make a withdrawal.

Its letting all around you know you have a pocket full of cash

Please explain why you feel your Kasikorn Bank ATM is safer?

Dirk Schmidt I feel would beg to differ:

www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/640080-phuket-german-expat-loses-bt600k-to-skimmers/

You missed the sarcasm.

Monkey was saying that getting your card skimmed at a K Bank ATM is less likely to occur than getting robbed by somebody nearby when you make a withdrawal. K Bank ATM's play a very loud tune reminiscent of a Sega Game Machine that can be heard at 30 paces when you make a withdrawal - very annoying!

Sarcasm unfortunately and regrettable is not international.

This is a huge issue here in the resorts, and it seems that there is only one bank in Thailand that is finally addressing it.

[Madgee]

I'm sure there are common sense approaches to ATM use which reduces your of skimming (i.e. using ATM inside well lit buildings, shopping centres etc and taking note of the condition of the card entry point etc... )...

I would like to have the Chip and Pin option in Thailand. This option has been available in the UK for nearly a decade. Customer / consumer protection is not high on the list of priorities for Banks in Thailand. At least not until the customer starts to care about this.

I had a large amount in my SCB account (which I've had for 15 years or so). When I asked to open a second account and explained that I want one which is card free to keep most of the money in it and another with a small 'user-balance' with a card I was told that I couldn't open a second account without a work permit (I'm now working overseas).

SCB recognised the risk, they even agreed it was a good idea to have a second account. But couldn't help me due to red tape.

Thus: Reading threads on similar subjects before it might be worthwhile roaming a few Bangkok Bank Branches until one accepts to provide me with an account and ATM.

I am new to Thailand and had no problems opening two accounts with Bangkok Bank.

With security the key issue, I opened one with an ATM card for daily use and one without to hold the main balance with both accounts linked using internet banking to transfer funds. Easy Peasey!

[ianguygil]

I can't tell you how many "experts" I hear from who do not believe in chip and pin who finally get skimmed and end up losing lots of cash. Then they scream.

One guy I know was into only using ATMs in bank branches, always carefully examining the cardslot, making sure nobody was behind him. Bottom line was he relaxed or did not concentrate just once and lost a bundle.

If this was not a big problem do people really think that banks around the world would have spent the billions of USD required to move to this?

Anyway, you have the option with us. At this point there is no known way of duplicating Chip cards. And this is your best bet. We have 8,000 ATMs and growing. Being restricted just to our machines at this time in terms of inconvenience (you can't be that far from one) is surely easily offset by the huge increase in security.

Edited July 8, 2013 by ianguygil

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This subject has been covered a lot before, in various other places here...

The chip embedded debit cards seem to be a good and secure technology, and it's a good thing BKK Bank has decided to offer the cards and implement the technology into their ATMs.

However, many customers don't like the limitations the BKK Bank chip card creates, such as not being able to use that card to withdraw funds at any other Thai bank or even at most ATMs in the U.S., for example.

For those folks who don't want to bank with BKK Bank or BKK Bank customers who don't want to accept the limitations of the chip debit cards, there are plenty of other measures that a cardholder can take:

--Set their BKKB POS daily limit to zero, so the card/card number can't be used for swipe and sign purchases or online purchases.

--Set their BKKB ATM daily withdrawal limit to the lowest amount available, 50,000 baht, if I recall correctly.

--Keep the bulk of your funds in an account without an ATM card, and only keep a minimum amount in another account with the ATM card. Use online banking to transfer funds into the ATM card account as needed.

Perhaps in the future, all the other Thai banks will follow the same course as BKKB and its chipped cards will become less of a loner.

In the meantime, as I've said before, it's very unfortunate the Thai banks AS A WHOLE couldn't manage to come up with a single, unified approach to card security.

It's equally unfortunate that the Thai government and Thai banks--unlike many other countries--haven't seen fit to adopt reasonable consumer protection laws to protect cardholders from bank card fraud even in cases where the cardholder has done nothing wrong.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I guess I should say THANKS to the OP for repeating in his words what I've probably written hundreds of times here over the years. It's just as true now as it ever has been. Thai bank card holder beware:

Thailand basically has no legal consumer protection laws for Thai bank card holders. Not if someone clones or steals your Thai bank card. Not if someone at the bank steals money from your account, etc etc.

Thai-based banks basically operate from the principle that the card holder is responsible for any fraud on losses on the card that occur prior to the card holder notifying the bank to freeze the card (which can be kind of troublesome in that the card holder often doesn't KNOW fraud has occurred until AFTER it's happened).

On the other hand, U.S. based banks and those in many other countries have national laws/regulations (unlike Thailand) that protect cardholders against liability for bankcard fraud, assuming there's no indication the card holder was involved or negligent or failed to report in a timely way.

Edited July 9, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK