mikey88 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Just wondering if people with the experience can share. I currently have a Thai friend who pays my monthly electric bill for me....I may be out of the country for a few months at a time and my friend is going away.... Is there anyway I can pay by direct bank account debit or alternatively pay a lump sum in advance so that I'm in credit. I don't want to come back from travel and find I have to reconnect my electric because it's been cut off... Any help greatly appreciate... Old Mick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NancyL Posted January 9, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) Yes, go to your bank with a copy of your electric bill and they'll help you fill out a form they have and then you'll have to go to the electric company for them to do some paperwork. As I recall, it took a couple months for it to take effect after all the paperwork was done, but then it worked very, very well. Don't forget to bring your bank passbook and your passport when you do make these visits to the bank and the electric company. Oh yes, if two people are listed on the bank passbook, both have to go to the bank to set this up. We did this when we'd been here about three weeks and somehow managed to muddle thru with absolutely no working knowledge of the Thai language, either. Just smiles and showing the electric bill and saying words like "auto pay" and "direct debit", along with our bank book. The challenge, really, was in stopping the direct debit once we moved out of that rental condo. For some reason, that was more difficult to do. Edited January 9, 2014 by NancyL 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 We've been paying by direct-debit at Bangkok Bank for some years, because we were told that the PTT couldn't accept SCB, has anyone else heard that, or does someone have any experience to-the-contrary ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyL Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Direct debit is a much safer way to go than giving money to someone to pay a bill. Too much potential for that someone not to pay, either deliberately or because of circumstances beyond their control. I've just seen too many situations where people give money to others to pay bills here and something goes wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hml367 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I think you can set up PEA as a Payee in some banks bill payer services. I set up an account in the past but never completed the bill pay. https://epay.pea.co.th/epay/ I have never been able to find the instructions in English. Perhaps your bank or PEA office could help set it up. If you do this with bill payer you don't have to worry about wrong charges or stopping automatic debits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey88 Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Thanks everyone for all your help... OM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HullyGully Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 We have been paying all our bills by DD for over 10 years without any problems. Once you have run around to the bank and Company you want to pay..the work is done You can travel leave Thailand knowing all bills will be paid, we pay water, phone / internet and power by DD No issues whatsoever, I think you get charged 5 baht Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onthedarkside Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Agreed. we have paid electric & water bills for over a decade by DD. And the bank charge is a modest 5 Baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiangaq Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Agreed. we have paid electric & water bills for over a decade by DD. And the bank charge is a modest 5 Baht. What does DD stand for? Where can I find it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepsel Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 The people at the Electric Autority Office are very helpful, and most of them speak some English. Take the electric bill to your bank, and have them fill out a number of copies of a form and it will be stamped and signed, and don't forget your passport to the bank as well. Take the forms along with the bill to the Electric Authority Office and they will set up automatic withdrawals from your bank account---it usually takes two cycles--but they will tell you when the direct debit will come into play. Cancelling and moving is another story which is not so easy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar2 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Agreed. we have paid electric & water bills for over a decade by DD. And the bank charge is a modest 5 Baht. What does DD stand for? Where can I find it? direct debit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SantiSuk Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 In Bangkok we were told to go to the electricity paying office first to pay the most recent bill. The bank then needed to see that paid bill before they would set up the DD papers to then be taken to the central electricity office on the outskirts of BKK to establish the DD. Extraordinarily drawn out process, which failed the first time but has now eventually stuck. 6 visits and about 100 km to do something that can be done online in 5 minutes in the UK. I hope it s much simpler for you in Chiang Mai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrens54 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Yes, go to your bank with a copy of your electric bill and they'll help you fill out a form they have and then you'll have to go to the electric company for them to do some paperwork. As I recall, it took a couple months for it to take effect after all the paperwork was done, but then it worked very, very well. Don't forget to bring your bank passbook and your passport when you do make these visits to the bank and the electric company. Oh yes, if two people are listed on the bank passbook, both have to go to the bank to set this up. We did this when we'd been here about three weeks and somehow managed to muddle thru with absolutely no working knowledge of the Thai language, either. Just smiles and showing the electric bill and saying words like "auto pay" and "direct debit", along with our bank book. The challenge, really, was in stopping the direct debit once we moved out of that rental condo. For some reason, that was more difficult to do. Thanks for the info. We'll do that and also see if we can do the same for the Water as well. (No Pun intended...."water as well.") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyL Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 In Bangkok we were told to go to the electricity paying office first to pay the most recent bill. The bank then needed to see that paid bill before they would set up the DD papers to then be taken to the central electricity office on the outskirts of BKK to establish the DD. Extraordinarily drawn out process, which failed the first time but has now eventually stuck. 6 visits and about 100 km to do something that can be done online in 5 minutes in the UK. I hope it s much simpler for you in Chiang Mai. Yes, actually is was much easier in Chiang Mai. And our experience was just the opposite. It was one visit to the bank, one visit to the electric company where pretty, smiling young women helped us. They even served us tea at the bank. We were three weeks into our "Thai experience" so we welcomed the adventure of locating the electric company office on the other side of town using the song thaew system. I agree, though, now we'd just find it a PITA, especially since we could set up DD in the U.S. either on-line or by mailing a voided check to the electric company with a signed form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beautifulthailand99 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 My missus has online Banking with SCB and transfers money in large chunks from the UK to this account. When in Thailand we set up payees which requires sending a one time code to the Thai phone registered to the account. Once done you can pay online with ease and it costs just 12 baht a transaction. I'm sure you could set up bills and then maintain the control yourself when you are out of the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivinLOS Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Cancelling and moving is another story which is not so easy! My experience also.. Getting it stopped was so much of a problem I just emptied the bank account in the end and left them to it. I asked the companies to stop billing, all assured me they would, but they kept doing so.. I then went to the bank who amazingly told me I didnt have the power to stop other people taking money out of my account, the company taking the money had to stop / control it and there was nothing the bank could do !!! Hence I would strongly recommend opening a small account purely for billing.. I do this and each month I have set up a standing order to send my house bills money into that account from where electric, water, phones, internet, rent, and everything that is regular payments are automated out. I book a years worth of standing orders (for peopel who cant do direct debit like landlords, pool services, etc) and forget about it for the year. When I move house, I can simply empty the account and am sure no one can bill me beyond what I control. All easy, all automated, all dont online, and all sending me an SMS with each transaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hml367 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 As I already posted, you should be able to setup PEA as a Payee in bill payment. With Bill Payment you decide if and when to pay. If you can read Thai, you should be able to setup bill pay from your computer if you use online bill pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivinLOS Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 As I already posted, you should be able to setup PEA as a Payee in bill payment. With Bill Payment you decide if and when to pay. If you can read Thai, you should be able to setup bill pay from your computer if you use online bill pay. Kasikorn couldnt pay a few places I needed to via that system.. Sure they had tisco finance and some but mindblowingly didnt have some basic utils. Their excuse was it was up to the vendor to set it up and if they didnt bother that was down to the vendor.. I cant remember which utility couldnt but it required doing the direct debit way anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hml367 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 The Bill Pay institution that can be used are listed on the e-Pay web site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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