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[James207]

On my recent holiday to Thailand from the UK I had problems with my ATM card and credit cards. Fortunately I had transferred money to my Kasikorn account so was able to get cash. I had to use a back up credit card on several occasions. Both cards were with Lloyds Bank. I briefly asked about getting a K bank credit card as I was transferring money to my accountant on my way to the airport. They said that I could have a card but I was in a hurry so didn't make an application.

Can I get a Thai credit card if I only enter Thailand on a visa on arrival. I am married to a Thai and have a fixed address in Thailand.

[nowork114]

You can get CC with some limit (ie 50,000 THB) against guarantee of the same amount or on your wife name as 2nd card (if she can get one).

As a tourist you won't get a normal CC (it requires a NON-IMMI visa and 3 years consequent Work Permit + letter from my company or pay slips), BUT it depends on the amounts you are transferring to your K-Bank account, I know few foreign guys who were offered CC just by having big $$$ on their accounts ...

[fletchsmile]

Your chances of getting a credit card without a long term visa (non-immigrant B,O, etc) and/or right to be here for a year at a time (extension of stay based on non-Immig) are close to zero.

Having a work permit significantly enhances your chances. The number of years you have worked also comes in to play. Unlikely if you've less than 6 months. (I would add though that's a bank policy on number of months as when working at a bank I was able to refer senior professionals from reputable multi-national companies who'd been in town under 6 months and they got CCs).

So your chances are very slim indeed. More likely would be your wife getting a card - much easier for Thai nationals. Possible then to get you as a supplementary card holder.

BTW Other general guidelines you will come across are minimum income of 15k for Thais and 75k for foreigners. These are just that though guidelines. My wife has a Platinum Card and has been a housewife ever since we had children. So no salaried income. However, as a Priority Banking customer she could get the credit card and they approached her. So if your wife has THB 3mio+ in assets under the custody of the bank, with a good relationship that is another avenue.

Cheers

Fletch

[Pib]

Other general guidelines you will come across are minimum income of 15k for Thais and 75k for foreigners.

This is the part that hurts my brain trying to figure out regarding the 5 fold higher requirement for farangs. Maybe if you are a farang and not making at least Bt75K/mo the banks consider your job too lowly or insecure...more likely to skip the country with an outstanding balance?

[fletchsmile]

Other general guidelines you will come across are minimum income of 15k for Thais and 75k for foreigners.

This is the part that hurts my brain trying to figure out regarding the 5 fold higher requirement for farangs. Maybe if you are a farang and not making at least Bt75K/mo the banks consider your job too lowly or insecure...more likely to skip the country with an outstanding balance?

It combines a variety of factors, including what you mention:

- Foreigners like you say have an increased flight risk.

- They are expected to have minimum salary levels to be working here. Lowest nationality is about 40k, and western foreigners higher (60/65k). Hence if you are not earning above these it increases the risk you are not legit, as well as your job is less secure

- Visa requirements are often not far off this number per month. Particulalry when you consider the bank wants you to have not just enough more to get by for visa purposes but also money to spare for them to make money off you.

- Foreigners are generally on average more hassle to manage

- There are a lot more additional regulatory requirements a bank has to adhere to for foreigners, increasing the cost and time of managing foreigners accounts

- Cost of living likely to be higher for foreigners, and DSR is a key metric here

- More difficult to process their background, situation etc, whereas Thais is standardised etc etc

I spent some time a few years back studying the prospect of offering expat banking services to foreigners here in Thailand. I believe there's a case, but it is by no means easy pickings. Other senior management simply didn't think it was worth it, or didn't want to be bothered with it. 99% of a banks customers are Thai so the economies of scale are sometimes difficult. I think the estimate at the time varied for around 80,000 expats vs 70mio Thais. Hence there are a lot better ways to significantly improve your bottom line than focusing on setting up for the 1% - particularly as the quality of that 1% varies enormously.

Like many business the 80/20 or Parot rule often kicks in with 20% of the customers generating 80% of the profit (tho %s differ). Your average farang in Thailand isn't necessarily in the top 20%. There are a lot of wealthy Thais here. Much easier for them to distinguish the Thais than foreigners.

The attitude of both senior management and the average staff member at the bank I was doing this for was also that there are a lot of farang that hold low balances and are a hassle to manage - not just because of compliance but also their attitude and problems they cause. Obviously 2 sides to every coin, but this often comes down to cultural differences as well as the foreigner not understanding Thailand (in addition to vice versa). You only have to look at the attitude of some members on here They want top notch services, but only want to keep a few thousand baht with the bank because they think it's not safe, and have a condescending attitude to Thailand and its people, often combined with a tendency to be aggressive and argumentative even when wrong or not knowing what they are talking about

All things considered: minimum wage, visas, flight risk, cost/benefit, 75k is a reasonable level. Below that the farang is probably struggling to get by, or at least not going to have enough disposable income and assets to be of interest in developing a relationship. There are always exceptions, but sometimes just not worth it sifting thru the stats for quality people below 75k.

Cheers

Fletch

Edited April 26, 2014 by fletchsmile

[Pib]

I spent some time a few years back studying the prospect of offering expat banking services to foreigners here in Thailand. I believe there's a case, but it is by no means easy pickings. Other senior management simply didn't think it was worth it, or didn't want to be bothered with it. 99% of a banks customers are Thai so the economies of scale are sometimes difficult. I think the estimate at the time varied for around 80,000 expats vs 70mio Thais. Hence there are a lot better ways to significantly improve your bottom line than focusing on setting up for the 1% - particularly as the quality of that 1% varies enormously.

Like many business the 80/20 or Parot rule often kicks in with 20% of the customers generating 80% of the profit (tho %s differ). Your average farang in Thailand isn't necessarily in the top 20%. There are a lot of wealthy Thais here. Much easier for them to distinguish the Thais than foreigners.

Couldn't agree more with your post and just to comment on one portion of it, farangs are just a drop in the bucket in comparison to the Thai population, both in numbers and overall spending. And when you get away from places like central Bangkok, Phuket, Pattya, and a few other well known locations which most farangs tend to concentrate, farangs don't even rate a drop in the bucket. Sure farang money poured into Thailand to build/run factories and such is important to the Thai economy, but for the individual farang living in Thailand we are just a small drop in the Thailand economic bucket. I get tickled when I see some posts which makes farang spending, tourist or non-tourist, sound like Thailand's economic engine when in fact we are just one small component of the whole engine....and we are a component that won't make the engine stop if we break, fall over the engine, etc...the engine might miss a little but it will keep on running.

But with that being said, I still consider the 5 fold higher month income requirement as discriminatory. Heck, just from my lifetime U.S. govt pensions I easily exceed that Bt75/mo but from trying years back in trying to get an "unsecured Thai credit card" it was a repeated "no" from various banks simply because of no work permit....even with my Thai wife in tow, Yellow Book in-hand, and a paid for home in Thailand. But each bank would provide a "secured credit card" in a heartbeat...of course that secured card required a locked deposit with the bank for the credit line given so you were basically using your own money to back credit card purchases. But that desire for a Thai credit card only lasted for about 6 mouths...once I got several no foreign transaction fee (and no annual fee) with cash back programs U.S. credit cards I probably wouldn't accept an unsecured credit card if a Thai bank begged me to take it.

[fletchsmile]

But with that being said, I still consider the 5 fold higher month income requirement as discriminatory. Heck, just from my lifetime U.S. govt pensions I easily exceed that Bt75/mo but from trying years back in trying to get an "unsecured Thai credit card" it was a repeated "no" from various banks simply because of no work permit....even with my Thai wife in tow, Yellow Book in-hand, and a paid for home in Thailand. But each bank would provide a "secured credit card" in a heartbeat...of course that secured card required a locked deposit with the bank for the credit line given so you were basically using your own money to back credit card purchases. But that desire for a Thai credit card only lasted for about 6 mouths...once I got several no foreign transaction fee (and no annual fee) with cash back programs U.S. credit cards I probably wouldn't accept an unsecured credit card if a Thai bank begged me to take it.

Work permit always makes it easier.

Even with a WP though I used to struggle with BBL and they always wanted me to secure it with a fixed deposit. Even when my salary went thru there, and even when I was CFO for an SME with about 70 staff and I oversaw the different companies' payrolls in our group and authorised all staff payroll each month paid thru BBL they wouldn't budge. Some banks/branches are just more difficult than others...

It also depends on relationships though - never to be underestimated in Asia:

- When I first started working here it was for a foreign bank. They didn't offer credit cards themselves, but had an arrangement with the local bank downstairs - Bank of Asia - for all staff to have their salary paid thru there and I got a gold card straight away/within a few days - no 6 month history, wait etc. Just all the docs, a member of HR with me and there and then account opened, ATM card, cheque book and CC.

- The funniest CC I got here was Citibank. It was many years ago, and I was with a friend out drinking in an expat area. One of the girls who approached us said she used to work at Citibank, but gave it up for better pay on her night shift. We joked around and asked if she could get a CC for us, giving the hassles of getting one back then. We thought she was joking when she said yes. Next day she turned up at our office in her old daytime business attire. Collected all the docs, forms and photocopies. Not long after we each had a Citibank Thailand CC each. That was despite the fact neither of us even banked with Citi and the girl who got it for us had left the bank, but was still able to connect into the system thru her contacts and get her commission on the cards to boot.

Cheers

Fletch

Edited April 27, 2014 by fletchsmile

[James207]

You can get CC with some limit (ie 50,000 THB) against guarantee of the same amount or on your wife name as 2nd card (if she can get one).

As a tourist you won't get a normal CC (it requires a NON-IMMI visa and 3 years consequent Work Permit + letter from my company or pay slips), BUT it depends on the amounts you are transferring to your K-Bank account, I know few foreign guys who were offered CC just by having big $$$ on their accounts ...

Judging by the posts here it would seem getting a credit card as a tourist is not on so I will investigate a second card on my wife's account. I certainly don't want to be put in the situation again that Lloyds blocked by card on three occasions through no fault of mine and charges a shed load on the occasions that actually allow me to use it.

[Pib]

You can get CC with some limit (ie 50,000 THB) against guarantee of the same amount or on your wife name as 2nd card (if she can get one).

As a tourist you won't get a normal CC (it requires a NON-IMMI visa and 3 years consequent Work Permit + letter from my company or pay slips), BUT it depends on the amounts you are transferring to your K-Bank account, I know few foreign guys who were offered CC just by having big $$$ on their accounts ...

Judging by the posts here it would seem getting a credit card as a tourist is not on so I will investigate a second card on my wife's account. I certainly don't want to be put in the situation again that Lloyds blocked by card on three occasions through no fault of mine and charges a shed load on the occasions that actually allow me to use it.

Heck, getting an unsecured Thai credit card even if on a long term 1 yr visa like a Retirement Visa/Extension with plenty of monthly money flowing in like from multiple govt pensions still makes it close to impossible. Of course a few guys in such a situation will get lucky and get an unsecured credit card, but for the most part an unsecured card requires a work permit, X-amount of salary, and X-amount of time in the job. But as already mentioned, most anybody can get "secured" credit card "with locked savings account deposit" in a heartbeat.

[James207]

ok given that a credit card seems to be out of the question may be I can deal with this another way by using my Kasikorn Visa debit card. The trouble is the only time I tried to use it as a debit card it was refused.

Three UK credit cards were declined to pay the 4000 baht deposit on some specs, no idea why so not having enough cash offered my Kasikorn debit card but it was also declined by the bank (not by the opticians).

Are debit cards widely accepted or is there a problem using them. I was hoping at least I could use that to avoid the 2.5% non sterling transaction fee for each credit card transaction, assuming that it wasn't declined by the bank of course, I could use my debit card but it looks like on my next trip I will be using cash for everything which seems daft in 2014.

[fletchsmile]

Have you contacted your bank and specifically told them you're overseas and will be using CCs overseas. I used to get it in the past that my cards were blocked, especially when Thailand came up... Hassle to call and sort out but they could unblock for my visit

[James207]

Have you contacted your bank and specifically told them you're overseas and will be using CCs overseas. I used to get it in the past that my cards were blocked, especially when Thailand came up... Hassle to call and sort out but they could unblock for my visit

yes I did phone them up and clear it before hand. Most of the rejections seemed to be down to something the retailer was doing wrong but that was no consolation to me and the bloody endless options that go through before you talk to somebody wracks up the bill. Yes I do know you can reverse the charges.

[Soutpeel]

I had an unsecured SCB credit card 6 weeks after arriving here to start work