But Thai banks set guidelines on minimum local work experience and monthly income for foreign customers wishing to use plastic

This is the second in a series about financial products for expats gathered by The Nation. Having previopusly covered procedures for opening deposit accounts for foreigners, this is about credit-card applications.

For a credit-card application, each card issuer requires a work permit and passport from foreign applicants.

For expats, domestically issued credit cards will allow you to receive benefits from regular retail promotions, lucky prize draws, discounts and loyalty programmes. By using local cards, foreigners can also save by not having to pay the foreign-exchange fee charged when using foreign-issued credit cards in Thailand.

However, each bank has different conditions for credit-card applications.

The Bangkok Bank credit card is available to foreign applicants who are permanent residents or have had a work permit for at least one year, while other conditions are the same as for Thai applicants.

Kasikornbank requires foreign customers to have a minimum of one year’s work experience in Thailand to apply for a credit card, with a minimum monthly income of Bt50,000.

They must also provide a credit bureau’s authorisation, and their work permit must be valid for at least six month after the application date. Customers will be informed of the approval result within 16 days for applications in Bangkok and 19 days upcountry.

Siam Commercial Bank requires a work permit and minimum monthly salary of Bt100,000, compared with Thai applicants’ minimum income of Bt15,000. The bank also needs foreign customers to show a bank statement covering the past six months.

Krung Thai Bank requires foreign applicants to have had a work permit for at least two years, but their requirement for minimum monthly income is Bt15,000, the same as for Thai applicants. They must also show a bank statement covering the past three months and their passport.

TMB Bank offers two choices of credit-card applications for foreigners. The first requires lending deals with corporations of at least three years and a minimum credit line of Bt30 million. Expats employed by these companies are eligible to apply for a TMB Bank credit card. A work permits must also be shown.

The second choice is offered to individual foreigners who open a fixed-deposit account with the bank. They must use the account as collateral for their credit-card application and will receive a credit line of not more than 80 per cent of the deposit amount.

Bank of Ayudhya requires three years’ local work experience and a minimum monthly income of Bt50,000 for a classic card and one year’s local work experience and a monthly salary of Bt100,000 for gold and platinum cards. Self-employed customers should have average cash flow in their bank account of Bt350,000 a month or more for the classic card and Bt700,000 or more for gold and platinum cards. Applicants must submit copies of their passport and work permit valid for at least six months. Company employees need a copy of a payroll slip and a bank statement covering the past six months.

Remember that if any of your credit cards has been lost, stolen or retained by an ATM or if you suspect you have been the victim of fraud, contact your card issuer immediately.

In cancelling your card or putting a hold on your account, you will be liable for all transactions made before notifying the bank.

Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayothin and community leaders from 23 provinces nationwide on Saturday attended a workshop aimed at exchanging ideas on global warming and how to contain its negative impacts.

Participants at the workshop also laid out strategies on environmental preservation and measures to cope locally with global warming on a sustainable basis.

Mr. Apirak, who chaired the workshop, said he hoped the activity would lead to continued cooperation between Bangkok and municipalities in the provinces as well as in regard to solving global warming problems in the future.

Giving further explanations on the impact of global warming on the Thai capital, Mr. Apirak said it causes infectious diseases and erosion of sea coastline due to a significant release of carbon dioxide in the capital. Discharge of the gas is much more than other major cities in the world including London, San Francisco and Toronto.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration which administers Bangkok along with 36 public and private organizations have launched campaigns to make Bangkok green since May 2007, he said. The campaigns are aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by15 per cent in 2012.

Bangkokians will have to pay 11 per cent higher on average as taxi fares, if Deputy Transport Minister Songsak Thongsri approves the fare increase Thursday.

Acting Land Transport Department director-general Chairat Sanguansue said the minister will weigh two options: First, the first 2km fare is maintained at Bt35 but the rates for subsequent distance is raised 50 satang to Bt1 per km. Second, the first 2km fare is Bt40, but the subsequent rate is raised at only 50 satang per km.

Songsak said he would discuss with Transport Minister Santi Prompat on the fare hikes, before issuing the ministerial regulations to validate the increase.

This is good news for private bus operators in Bangkok, but bad news for passengers.

The Supreme Administrative Court on Wednesday cancelled the injunction issued by the Central Administrative Court against the increase of bus fares in Bangkok.

The today’s ruling will allow the private bus operators in Bangkok to increase their fares, which is expected to start Thursday or Friday.

The injunction by the Central Administrative Court had put on hold the increase of the bus since May.

Following the injunction, the private bus operators went on strike for a day, causing chaos in Bangkok particularly for students and commuters.

Government Spokesman Wichianchot Sukchotrat Saturday blamed the protests led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy for the disappearance by some 80 per cent of tourists from Japan.

Wichianchot said the protests on the Rajdamnone Avenue by the PAD scared away foreign investors and tourists.

He said the disappearance by tourists also affected the aviation industry.

The spokesman said the government was trying to negotiate with the protesters to move to another site because the protests had severely affected the country and affected many other people’s rights.

The Land Transport Federation of Thailand is threatening to halt freight forwarding services nationwide unless the government promises relief from rising fuel prices within seven days - diesel subsidy and loans for converting to gas.

Federation chairman Yu Jienyuenyongpong, flanked by representatives of transport operators in various sectors said in a press conference Wednesday that the continued increase in diesel prices had considerably pushed up the overhead costs of transport truck operators considerably.

Federation secretary-general Thongyoo Kongkan said the government will have seven days to respond with the measures to meet its demands.

The transport of building materials took the heaviest toll since product prices are low while fuel cost had risen by up to 75 per cent.

Mr Yu said that transport of farm products had begun to decline because the harvesting season had gone by. Even so, fuel costs had increased by 60 per cent.

In the past, the operators were allowed to raise the transport cost by 3 per cent every time diesel price edged up by one baht.

But the continued rise in transport costs had reduced the number of customers seeking the services. It resulted in many operators stopping services and selling off 4,000-5,000 trucks.

To ease the hardship of the operators, he said the federation is calling on government to provide fuel at a special discount for the land transport sector, offer a securitisation plan so that operators could afford the natural gas for vehicles (NGV) kit installation, support soft loans with interest lower than 0.5 per cent per annum, and reducing the tax on new trucks with NGV engines to 10 per cent.

In addition, the federation asked the government for financial support through the Energy Conservation Promotion Fund for alternative energy consumption, to provide enough NGV stations in every region, to improve the quality of NGV fuel, and to prepare the NGV consumer plan for medium and long term use.

Mr Thongyoo said that unless there are concrete measures, the federation would stop transport services and a caravan of at least 10,000-12,000 trucks would move to Bangkok.

He said there would be no blockade of any roads, but that the caravan of trucks would be brought in to park somewhere to demonstrate that the operators had insufficient money to fill their trucks fuel tanks.

Citing expensive prices of fuel, the owners of 63 authorised bus lines which supplement the regular government services went on strike on Thursday morning as threatened.

They drove more than 100 vehicles to the transport ministry for an afternoon protest to insist on higher fares or better subsidies to help pay for higher fuel costs.

Operators said that in lieu of higher fares, they would call on the government to waive concession fees they pay to the government for operating their routes.

The government announced it will try to work with the bus operators to help them out of the energy crisis.

The initial plan is to provide Bangkok city buses with cheap fuel at special fuelling stations, said deputy permanent secretary to the Transport Ministry Piyapan Champasut.

Officials were to hold a press conference to announce an emergency six-month package of help.

Ministers meanwhile said they would hold talks with board members of the Bangkok Metro Transit Agency on a request by private operators to waive concession fees to the government.

Chatchai Chaiwiset, President of the private bus operators’ association, said he didn’t expect so many buses to go on strike. If negotiations cannot be reached with the government by today, he threatened to file a petition calling on Transport Minister Santi Promphat to resign.

Eight more MPs and Senators withdrew their support of constitutional amendment motion causing the motion to be dropped.

A total of 42 senators and two MPs have so far withdrawn their names from the motion seeking to amend the Constitution.

The motion is automatically dropped because the number of MPs and Senators supporting the motion is 124, less than 126 as required by the law.
—————————————————–

Constitution amendment motion dies
source: Bkk Post May 30 2008

The proposal to amend the constitution was automatically killed by parliamentary procedure on Friday after seven backers withdrew their support, meaning the measure no long has enough sponsors to be presented to the House.

The charter rewrite motion was lodged by 164 lawmakers last week, but the number went down to 124 on Friday.

At least 126 parliamentarians are needed as signed sponsors in order to put the measure onto the official agenda of Parliament.

Suphan Buri senator Prasit Photisuthon, one of the seven senators, said he pulled his backing for the amendment so that the supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), would no longer have an excuse for their street rally against amendment.

PAD core leaders, meanwhile, presented a list of 31,881 people to Senate Speaker Prasobsuk Boondech to impeach the lawmakers who backed the motion.

The core leaders are scheduled to announce later Friday whether to continue to rally to oppose the charter rewrite.

The Thai government has approved a US$100,000 grant to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis which devastated Myanmar over the weekend, and Thailand will consider further assistance as the Cabinet meets today, according to the minister of foreign affairs.

Interviewed on the morning news programme on Modernine TV (TV Channel 9), Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said the ministry doubled its aid to $100,000 from an initial $50,000 to help cyclone-battered Myanmar.

The cabinet meeting today will discuss providing more assistance on rehabilitation work, he said.

“We are among the countries that offered help to Myanmar early. The army on Monday sent dry food and medical supplies to cyclone-hit areas by a C-130 military transport aircraft. The Myanmar foreign ministry thanked Thailand for the humanitarian aid,” Mr. Noppadon said.

Myanmar’s state media said last weekend’s cyclone killed some 10,000 persons in the town of Bogalay in the country’s Irrawaddy Delta, raising fears that the country’s overall death toll will rise significantly.

The Associated Press reported Myanmar’s foreign minister told diplomats in Yangon on Monday that, overall, more than 10,000 people may have died when Cyclone Nargis struck Saturday.

Myanmar has appealed for urgent assistance from the international community in wake of the disaster.

The announcement said the cyclone had weakened to low pressure system but heavy downpours were still expected in some scattered areas throughout the country.

Flash floods remain possible on Monday and Tuesday, the announcement said.

Waves in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand are predicted, as high as two to three metres and small boats in the Andaman Sea are advised to stay ashore until Tuesday.

According to Myanmar state television channel MRTV, at least 351 people died and nearly 100,000 people were left homeless after Cyclone Nargis battered southern Myanmar on Friday and Saturday