Is it common for a dive shop/resort (Koh Lak) not to accept credit cards to book a holiday and instead request a deposit made into their account? Just wondering....
Credit Card scams
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Never heard of that before
Not sure I'd like that - if it was Paypal, you'd have some protection, but ... I'd be looking at that twice.
Apologies in advance to my US and Canadian dive buddies, but you guys are making your judgments based on a different set of laws and banking regulations than are enforced in Thailand (where Khao Lak is located). Your responses are incorrect.
To answer the OP, YES it is common practice here. Credit card fraud is rampant in SE Asia, and making credit card charges offline (just by using the number supplied by the customer) is very ill-advised. Setting up an internet payment system through a company website is a very involved process that many small companies simply choose not to do. Most of us can accept credit cards on-site (where we swipe the physical card through the machine and perform an on-line charge). Naturally, if you are there and the machine is in Thailand, this isn't an option.
PayPal is also not generally an option here because of PayPal's requirements that a recipient have a credit card against which PayPal checks the validity of the account. "Juridic persons" (businesses) here are not permitted by Thai banking laws to have credit card accounts, so that in order to receive a PayPal transfer, a company would have to ask the customer to send the money to a "physical person" (a private individual) rather than to the company. The same is true for Western Union. Both of these, in my view, are more "iffy" than sending the money to a bank account in a company name since you are sending the funds to an individual with whom you have no contract at all. If that money disappears, it becomes much more difficult for you to make a claim as the person you send the money to may not be a Director of the company at all. The most common practice here is to ask for a wire transfer, sent to an account in the name of the company that runs the operation. In order to set up a commercial account here, companies have to provide the banks with all of the company registration documents, tax information, etc.
In sum, it's perfectly safe for you to issue a wire transfer order to the company to pay for your dive trip!
To answer the OP, YES it is common practice here. Credit card fraud is rampant in SE Asia, and making credit card charges offline (just by using the number supplied by the customer) is very ill-advised. Setting up an internet payment system through a company website is a very involved process that many small companies simply choose not to do. Most of us can accept credit cards on-site (where we swipe the physical card through the machine and perform an on-line charge). Naturally, if you are there and the machine is in Thailand, this isn't an option.
PayPal is also not generally an option here because of PayPal's requirements that a recipient have a credit card against which PayPal checks the validity of the account. "Juridic persons" (businesses) here are not permitted by Thai banking laws to have credit card accounts, so that in order to receive a PayPal transfer, a company would have to ask the customer to send the money to a "physical person" (a private individual) rather than to the company. The same is true for Western Union. Both of these, in my view, are more "iffy" than sending the money to a bank account in a company name since you are sending the funds to an individual with whom you have no contract at all. If that money disappears, it becomes much more difficult for you to make a claim as the person you send the money to may not be a Director of the company at all. The most common practice here is to ask for a wire transfer, sent to an account in the name of the company that runs the operation. In order to set up a commercial account here, companies have to provide the banks with all of the company registration documents, tax information, etc.
In sum, it's perfectly safe for you to issue a wire transfer order to the company to pay for your dive trip!
ItsBruce
Contributor
Quero: Thanks for the very good and helpful information. While sending money via a wire transfer might be necessary to conduct business or schedule a dive trip, the process would concern me greatly. Given the state of the world economy, I could see sending money and then having the dive operator go out of business before I got there. (There was a health club in my own neighborhood that was accepting money for new memberships right up to the day before it closed its doors. To my knowledge, no one who paid for a membership recovered so much as a dime.) I feel much better having a credit card company in the middle.
Bruce, I understand your position. There's more you don't know, though.
Companies in Thailand that work with foreign tourists are required to be licensed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and this licensing procedure requires a substantial amount of money left on deposit and administered by the TAT to cover eventualities such as what you describe. That is not to say that an operator couldn't take much more money than is on deposit and still go out of business (particularly if it is uninsured and catches fire or gets destroyed by a tsunami or something), but only to point out that any Thai business that jumps through all the hoops, goes through the required site visits by authorities, etc., to obtain a TAT license is unlikely to be a fly-by-night enterprise.
I personally have heard ZERO horror stories from divers coming to Thailand having paid for their trips through wire transfers and getting scammed in the process. Scams here involve credit cards, not bank accounts.
Again, this is not a scam. This is simply the way most operators do business here. It IS important to work ONLY with companies that have the TAT license, however.
Companies in Thailand that work with foreign tourists are required to be licensed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and this licensing procedure requires a substantial amount of money left on deposit and administered by the TAT to cover eventualities such as what you describe. That is not to say that an operator couldn't take much more money than is on deposit and still go out of business (particularly if it is uninsured and catches fire or gets destroyed by a tsunami or something), but only to point out that any Thai business that jumps through all the hoops, goes through the required site visits by authorities, etc., to obtain a TAT license is unlikely to be a fly-by-night enterprise.
I personally have heard ZERO horror stories from divers coming to Thailand having paid for their trips through wire transfers and getting scammed in the process. Scams here involve credit cards, not bank accounts.
Again, this is not a scam. This is simply the way most operators do business here. It IS important to work ONLY with companies that have the TAT license, however.
DiveTheGalapagos
Contributor
This is a very common practice in tourism in the whole of Ecuador and especially the Galapagos. Many hotels and dive shops do not accept credit cards, do not have PayPal nor even have a foreign account, only an Ecuador account. Down here, we have to go to a local Ecuador bank and make deposits in person using either an Ecuador check or cash. Just another way it's like living in the 60's...but at least there's broadband.
stevenl
Contributor
Especially the small diveshops or persons operating without a diveshop might do it that way.
Most 'real' DC's though will have a way for you to pay by credit card online. Not accepting credit card details without having possession of the actual card is quite common though.
But yes, you should be able to find a DC that will accept a deposit by credit card.
Thanx Quero, makes more ense now.
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