Three in five Thais keen to pay for city commutes with contactless credit and debit card
08/18/2022
Benefits of contactless credit and debit cards for transit include eliminating the need to wait in long queues to top up, greater speed, convenience, and ability to track spending.
Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, has today released findings from its Transit survey1(the “Survey”) that showed more than three in five (63%) of Bangkok’s subway and skytrain commuters are keen to use contactless credit or debit card to pay for their daily journeys.
In addition, nearly two in three (65%) of those who drive a car said they are interested in using contactless credit or debit card to tap-to-pay at the tollbooth instead of having to top up their stored-valued card for tollway.
Pipavin Sodprasert, Country Manager for Visa Thailand, said: “Even with the rise of remote and hybrid work, transit remains a vital part of daily life for people across the world including Bangkok. As citywide transit increases, it’s important that people are able to move around the city seamlessly, whether they choose public or private transport. Bank-issued contactless payment cards, whether credit or debit cards, remove friction from a commute because they eliminate the need to top up, allowing commuters to move from point A to point B faster and seamlessly.”
According to the findings, the top three inconveniences of stored value travel cards are the hassle of having to wait in long queues to top up (30%), only being able to top up at train stations (29%), and not being able to travel when there is insufficient balance (26%).
Among those interested to pay for subway and skytrain fares with their contactless credit or debit cards, the main advantages for this type of digital payment are greater speed and convenience (64%), ease of tracking spending (14%), and that it helps reduce the number of cards in their wallet (11%).
Commuters on Bangkok’s subway blue and purple lines have been able to pay with their contactless credit cards since its inception in February 2022. Average transactions grew by 134% between March – April 2022 to May – June 2022. During the same period visitors from 75 countries paid for their subway trip with Visa credit card.
Since March 2021 drivers have been able to tap their Visa contactless credit and debit cards at tollbooths on six tollway routes around Bangkok. The average number of transactions grew by 41% between January – March 2022 and April – June 2022.
“With the country reopening and more people resuming their daily routines, there is no better time to re-evaluate the work that we do and the impact we can have to enable both Bangkok’s residents and visitors to travel seamlessly and securely. We are on a mission to leverage our innovation and network to improve the quality of life and help the economy thrive,” Pipavin concluded.
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1 Visa Transit survey was conducted by YouGov among 2,000 Thai respondents online in June 2022
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.