Is Apple Pay useful in Thailand?

[keepitfun]

While I realise cash is king, does anyone use Apple Pay in Thailand?  

A better / safer option than carrying credit cards around?

I’m thinking better restaurants and hotels.

Is it readily accepted? / understood?

cheers

[SydneyFarang]

From my experience its not accepted in most places. The POS units are still the old style where you need to insert the card.

[Man7]

Not really. Cash 99% of the time. CC at big stores and higher end restaurants. No more dangerous to carry a CC here than in most places in the world IMO.


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[Little Evil]

I've never tried it personally, but I've seen TG's use tap to pay with phones in 7-11's as far back as 4 years ago. Also saw one use a RFID bank card to do the same. Still, those are rare sightings, as most just use cash and many places aren't set up for it. Just keep an eye out for the ))) symbol on POS machines. If they have it, it should theoretically work as long as your underlying bank has been told about your travel. 

[Little Evil]

I take back what I said. I looked into this a little further. Thailand's NFC payments are controlled by the government, local telecoms, and local banks only. It seems like they are shutting out Apple and Google for the time being. It is not that they aren't equipped to handle it. This is more of a regional business thing.  As of right now, it does not look like Apple pay is accepted even though the terminals might be technologically capable:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207957

 

 

[forqalso]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207957

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