Cashless Thailand?

[reader]

Came across an article in Thaiger, predicting a cashless economy in four years. Sounds like a banker's wet dream. While there are some stores that don't accept cash, they're far and few between. Don't see myself--or many others--opting to pay bin tab or massage tip with plastic.

https://thethaiger.com/news/business/thailand-predicted-to-go-cashless-by-2028-leads-asean-in-rtp-usage

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Today's Pattaya News carries a piece, describing new tourism strategies to attack tourists. They don't seem to realize that they already have successful strategists that have worked for decades: offer what people have already proven they want and make it easy to travel to the country. Instead, they seem intent on screwing it up with advance entry permission systems and policies that discourage expats.

https://thepattayanews.com/2024/10/04/thailand-gearing-up-to-become-world-class-destination-with-new-tourism-strategies/

[bkkmfj2648]

1 hour ago, reader said:

Sounds like a banker's wet dream.

as an ex-banker - that really made me chuckle.....

[tm_nyc]

My impression is that China is already a largely cashless economy & tourists cannot necessarily use non-Chinese credit cards or cash when travelling there.  I have not been to China but maybe someone who has can comment.

[10tazione]

1 hour ago, tm_nyc said:

My impression is that China is already a largely cashless economy & tourists cannot necessarily use non-Chinese credit cards or cash when travelling there.  I have not been to China but maybe someone who has can comment.

• Alipay allows foreign credit cards, but you must also check if your credit card issuer allows it. I used a Wise Virtual Debit Card to connect with Alipay, which I deleted when I left China
• I am not sure if you can use foreign credit cards with Wechat pay, probably not. I think Wechat pay is the most widely used system and then comes Alipay, but most vendors offer both.
• I can speak here mainly about Beijing:
  • you actually can pay cash in most places, I just doesn't look like it because almost noone does it and they don't explicitly mention it and they hide the cash somehwere behind in the room.
    Near the end of my holiday I tried to intentionally pay cash in many places to get rid of the left over paper money, and that worked pretty well, I am talking about museums, restaurants, small shops; I didnt try with taxis 
  • I "only" had 2 occasions where I had trouble to pay:
    • 1 taxi driver because he only had Wechat-Pay and I had Alipay and he became pretty angry (stupid guy!) but in the end I could pay in cash with a few percent surcharge
    • 1 automatic massage chair where i wasnt able to figure out how to pay, so no massage

[10tazione]

I forgot 1 point:

Paying online is a different story, like buying a museum ticket or train ticket online. For that you must be a mainland China resident. The alternative is to buy tickets on those international websites like Klook, Getyourguide etc, but they are much more expensive.

[Keithambrose]

4 minutes ago, 10tazione said:

I forgot 1 point:

Paying online is a different story, like buying a museum ticket or train ticket online. For that you must be a mainland China resident. The alternative is to buy tickets on those international websites like Klook, Getyourguide etc, but they are much more expensive.

I read that the authorities in China want you to pay by card, and also by phone, because then they can check on you, and your spend.  Not sure how true this is, but it seems more than likely

[Jez1980]

Alipay APP in china or WeChat pay in china is about the only way to pay for anything. Cash and credit cards are not much in use anymore. 

[daydreamer]

Well, the government of Thailand is still promoting cash usage big time.  The government just budgeted 180 billion baht (cash) for the first tranche of 10,000 baht handouts.  

The ATM machines are working overtime, as can be seen in this photo from the front page of today's Bangkok Post.

 

[ichigo]

To be honest, and in my opinion, I wouldn't mind a little more cashless alternatives in Thailand. To be able to use the QR code payment system/PromptPay, one must have a Thai bank account, and there are too many hurdles to jump through to open one as a tourist in Thailand. I would like to see the QR code system modelled like China's Alipay/WeChatPay whereby you can link a foreign credit card to the app. This would save time in needing to go to ATMs or cash exchange places, or worrying about needing to change bigger bills into smaller ones. Of course, cash would still be necessary for tipping purposes, but for things like restaurants, street food stalls, check bin at a bar etc., I think a cashless payment alternative would be great. That being said, I have used a credit card in bigger department stores and I think restaurants too. Where I live, I hardly use my credit card as I can use ApplePay where I just need to hover my phone over the point of sale terminal. I don't think ApplePay is available in Thailand though.

[Keithambrose]

30 minutes ago, ichigo said:

To be honest, and in my opinion, I wouldn't mind a little more cashless alternatives in Thailand. To be able to use the QR code payment system/PromptPay, one must have a Thai bank account, and there are too many hurdles to jump through to open one as a tourist in Thailand. I would like to see the QR code system modelled like China's Alipay/WeChatPay whereby you can link a foreign credit card to the app. This would save time in needing to go to ATMs or cash exchange places, or worrying about needing to change bigger bills into smaller ones. Of course, cash would still be necessary for tipping purposes, but for things like restaurants, street food stalls, check bin at a bar etc., I think a cashless payment alternative would be great. That being said, I have used a credit card in bigger department stores and I think restaurants too. Where I live, I hardly use my credit card as I can use ApplePay where I just need to hover my phone over the point of sale terminal. I don't think ApplePay is available in Thailand though.

I agree. However, I invested in a foreign currency card, where I can load foreign currency onto the card, and hence don't pay foreign exchange  charges. Can use at ATM.  Exchange  rate ok, but not the best. As reported earlier I also have  a 'Currensea' card, which is a Mastercard, but linked to my bank account, and debits my bank account direct. Advantage is it uses the interbank exchange  rate, which is very good, and no extra charges. Works in ATM.

 

Don't know about Apple pay, etc, not yet worked out how to use it!