Just wondering if anyone here has been to Thailand recently and tried using any of the available QR code payments for tourists?
For what's available for tourists:
My last trip in 2024, I stuck with card payment where available and cash so it's great to see more options which may help with holding less cash.
Yeah I'll largely stick with that. Though, I am keen on trying out Moreto for vendors if I don't feel like breaking a large bill or handling coins.
I have been spending a lot of time in Thailand in the past 12 months, will probably apply for one of their 5-year digital nomad visas soon.
I used to be a credit card guy + cash (withdraw from ATMs) but around six months ago, my wife got pickpocketed and they withdrew $7k, so now we go pretty conservative.
SO we now use Tag Thai, which is designed for tourists. You bring your passport to one of those dedicated kiosks, and they will issue a prepaid card valid for 12 months. Cons: its safer as you use an app for payment and leave the real credit/bank cards at the condo/hotel etc. Negs: 1. The app is quite slow to load, but my workaround is to load up the app right to the camera scanning page before going to make a payment. 2. You can only top up using foreign currencies i.e no thai money allowed, so they make a small commission off you.
Withdrawing from ATMs used to be OK but they charge from 220BHT everywhere these days, which is like $11. Even if you take out $1,000, it is around 1%. Not bad for larger amounts but smaller amounts it kind of hurts.
If I was going to be a thrifty, then BYO cash from Australia and just change at one of the Super Rich changers. They also accept so many currencies that I exchange, all my random loose currencies accumulated during my travel there. And for payments in malls, restaurants … just use a credit card/prepaid card/Wise.
they withdrew $7k
Well there must be more to that, because not only would they need a pin, but the daily limit is $1k or $2k per day for aus cards so even if its a thai card surely it would be much lower than that. Must be someone who knows her to be able to find out her pin. Especially as pickpocketing is basically not a thing at all there other than in MBK Center.
Nothing more actually. (I did think of the PIN requirment at first instance, but then see below) It was just two transactions, the first was ~$3k, then the second was ~$4k. (happened within 10 minutes of the pickpocketing, because my wife had just bought a bag, and around 10-minutes later wanted to buy a drink, and her whole wallet was gone).
I am speculating this was organised crime; someone must have had access to a merchant that could accept payments over the phone —- how many times have we called over the phone to pay for something, give card name, number, expiry and the 3 or 4 digit code and voila - payment made. (if this was in-store purchase, a PIN would likely have been asked).
Took almost three months for our bank to come through and return our money. (Was going to claim upon travel insurance as the next step).
We have visited Thailand dozens of times over the past 20 years, and we had the same impression - pickpocketing? nah no such thing - until it happened to us. FWIW, we got pickpocketed at Chatuchak market, and its all over the web pages about this. When we spoke to market security via translate, they were like happens quite alot, and then when we were at the police station reporting it, another Korean tourist was reporting the same thing. The police really didnt show any interest other than that you guys will be fine e.g "you have insurance, you get it back". There are signs everywhere in Chatuchak about pickpocketing, and so are signs on the BTS/MRT trains.
Dtv you still can't open a bank account. I have a local bangkok bank & kbank account.
Moretapay
moretapay.net/
Is backed by ycombinator, its one of the only ones that support personal qr codes and should have a license to operate.
Truemoney some people might be able to open, some people have had success on dtv visas with it.
Cards are really not used much outside tourist areas some areas don't even have atm machines.
Seems like you have to buy a prepaid card at the airport at least that's all I've seen IG people promoting. And then some street food vendors are still going to be cash only.
Just stick to mostly cash IMO until they make a proper solution, I just take AUD cash and convert a bit more every few days.
Card machines often tack on horrific fees that they don't warn you at all about until you have paid, like 3.5% on top of your own bank's fees, so I only use that as a last resort or for a large spend like a dental bill or electronics purchase where I might need some hope of recourse/chargeback if the purchase goes wrong.
Yeah I thought so. I'll bring a fair bit of AUD and go to those SuperRich/Value Plus exchange vendors every now and again.
Appreciate the response!
The cash exchange rate is always terrible. Take an ING card or similar card and select at the ATM to withdraw with the official exchange rate (not the bank rate that it says first).
You'll still get the Thai ATM fee, but you'll save a lot of money not taking actual cash with you.
You can still take a bit of cash with you just incase your card gets misplaced, but please compare the ATM withdrawals yourself before exchanging for cash before exchanging any money. You can save yourself hundreds.
I've been there quite a few times including recently and cash exchange has always been the worst option.
yep plus every time i walk pass that superrich there are lines/queue i tried once only 6 people in front of me (3 tellers) but after 20 mins still have like 2 people in front, i gave up and went to ATM
@McMaferMur: Yeah I did hear that the queues at SuperRich can often be packed, depending on the time of day.
are they better than ATM (nett, after considering ATM fees) ? maybe big/max exchange on ATM is better?
ATM is much better. You can get the actual rate minus the ~250THB ATM fee.
Cash you'll be stung 10%+ on every exchange. It's huge.
@studentl0an: ATM exchamge rate is less than superRich and you have to pay the ATM fee (250b). Cheapest option is taking cash but riskier.
I was planning to try one on a recent trip, but was put off by reports from a few expat friends.
It seems the tourist accounts work for QR codes associated with businesses, not personal accounts. That killed the appeal for me. Being able to pay street carts, food stalls, etc was the main draw. I would generally stick to normal credit/debit in malls & hotels.
Moreta is too expensive after the recent changes.
TagThai and EasyPay are not good as you have to go to a physical bank and only use foreign currency and their fx rate
TrueMoney works well but it is a manual deposit first
WAIWIN has too many issues such as freezing and sometimes not working at 7-Eleven
I wonder if DANA would also work (apparently covers Thai QRIS codes)…..
Better to open local bank account, but for short visit it's not convinient, I used cash and visa. Better to take cash with you or use ATM only for some big sum, 20-30k thb, because ATM comission is the same for 1k and 20k…
To pay through QR, you need a local bank account.
recently.
just bring ING Macquarie etc debit card and tap for MRT, and pay cash/coins for BTS. not too hard.