Thai based credit cards

[S13SFC]

Hi

My wife and daughter will be based in Bangkok for 3 years from September with a Thai bank account and access to credit cards.

Currently, we use the BA Premium and Virgin Premium cards to trigger 2-4-1 vouchers annually but we are very unlikely to trigger them after that date.

I’ve switched to Amex Gold to give flexibility, but we were wondering what my wife would be better off using in Thailand to gain points and which airline we should prioritise?

Thanks in advance.

[Talay]

I lived in Thailand for a number of years and I am there around 100 days a year currently and despite having multiple Thai accounts and even businesses at one time, I never found anything worthwhile in the Thai market and every overseas card came with FX charges making domestic spending in THB costly.

If you are not paying the bills, then why do you care ? Just use the BAPP. However, you state that you won’t be processing enough (£15k) to make them worthwhile.

I don’t think there is a “play” for points outside the EU and the UK / USA.

Access to credit cards in Thailand often means set against a deposit earning zero interest.

[John]

Well Amex operates in Thailand so see if any of the cards work for them. I suspect it will be marginal.

[BBbetter]

Talay wrote:

I don’t think there is a “play” for points outside the EU and the UK / USA.

Not really. Most of the other countries, especially Asia, have very few consumer protections- including no cap on interchange fees. Which means some great miles rewards cards in many of them. For example, Singapore has cards offering 7 miles per £. India has cards that give you 4 miles per £.

Thailand might just not be a market with demand for miles cards. Poor redemption opportunities on Thai airways doesn’t help either.

[QFFlyer]

Talay wrote:

I don’t think there is a “play” for points outside the EU and the UK / USA.

This is very much incorrect. At the very least, Hong Kong, China (mainland), Singapore, Japan, Australia and Canada have heaps of opportunities and more than enough people willing to do a lot to get them. I’d go as far to say that, these days at least, the UK market is very much behind the rest of the world, with the interchange caps introduced in a market where no annual fees were the norm and there was a reluctance to accept them.

Australia was also slapped with a swipe fee cap, albeit at a higher 0.8%, which did indeed make the points game suffer, but 100k+ signup bonuses are still alive and well, along with the $400+ annual fees which existed already. NZ unfortunately doesn’t have the same opportunities, even Amex barely offer much there now (the Platinum card was withdrawn a year or so ago) and the Australian banks that operate there don’t need to compete, so they don’t (ANZ & Westpac for example, are not offering 100k SUBs in NZ).

Singapore has some weird signup bonuses, but optimising earn can result in very good miles per $ earn rates. HK and Japan I know the cards exist but don’t know enough about them to comment (although Japan still advertise Diners Club everywhere – I’ve only held a Citi cobrand one in Australia, and Japan’s could be different, but when they offered them here they had a lot of transfer partners). Canada has a thriving market and the benefit of close proximity to the US (although they’re far from the only country with residents building US credit histories).