@Henk ********

Nonsense. Thailand and the Netherlands are not the same. Different logic applies. Forget this fact at your own peril.

@Jeffrey *********

Bwahaha! Excellent! Your money is MAYBE safer with a credit card, but you can't use it most places in Thailand. 😳🙄

@Jeffrey *********

Let me try again: name me some things you like that don't have a potential downside.

The biggest risk to a happy life is an obsessive devotion to safety.

@Jeffrey *********

But isn't that just the way of the world? You can use the streets and sidewalks, but you might be injured, even killed in an accident. You might get food poisoning at a restaurant. You can leave your house, but someone might break in and steal your possessions, even harm your family during your absence. And so on - you get the idea.

Everything in life involves risk. And each of us evaluates risk differently.

But a huge percentage of the Thai and expat population have found using PromptPay to be a an acceptable risk, lower than using a debit or credit card.

You are free to disagree.

@Jarek ***********

I could care less what big brother knows about the vast majority of my financial transactions. But for those rare occasions where I DO care, I simply use cash.

Governments and financial institutions would love to kill cash for the obvious reasons, many of which are dark and nefarious, but I doubt they will succeed, especially in countries like Thailand.

@Terary *********

I think in time, as you gain confidence and use it more often, you'll wonder how in the world you got on without it before. I'm amazed that something like this isn't available in the west.

When you open a Bangkok Bank account at a branch, they issue you an activated Visa debit card on the spot. When you leave the bank, you can literally go directly to an ATM or shop and use the card.

Also, bring your phone when you go to set up the account. They will install the mobile banking ap and make sure it's working properly before you leave.

You can then use an option in that ap to scan, making or receiving PromptPay QR code payments. The money appears instantly in the payee's bank. It's pretty slick and secure, and IMHO far better than using a debit card.

There is no fee or charge for using PromptPay to send or receive money.

Here's where you fill in your debit card details. You might even be able to use a western bank card here - not sure - I just use the debit card I got with my Bangkok Bank account.

@Ivan ***********

Ah, I see your problem. You're trying to use Lazada Wallet to check out. And that does indeed require a Thai ID card.

Fortunately, Lazada offers many other options for payment, one of which is to use a debit card. No need to use the Lazada Wallet.

When you check out, you get to the payment part and you can pull up a list of options, as shown in the attached screen grab. The first time you do this, go down to the "Credit/Debit Card" option. There you enter the details for your Thai bank's debit card.

You can choose to save the card to your Lazada account, as I did, and all the details will be remembered for faster checkout next time. Easy!

@Ivan ***********

Lazada linked to my Bangkok Bank account with no drama.