Visa card issuers playing hard to get

Different qualifying standards for Privilege cardholders has caused particular problems regarding Platinum cards which offers many discounts at shops and hotels.

Visa Platinum cards have not been accepted by a number of out¬lets because creditcard issuers had approved the card for too many cus¬tomers. Some of whom were actual¬ly on too low an income to qualify to hold the card.

Without establishing level quali¬fying standard, the problem of some Platinum cards not being universal¬ly welcome would still exist.

Earlier, Credit Cards Club presi¬dent, Choke na Ranong said that Visa Thailand should set the same qual¬ifying standard for Platinum card applicants to resolve this problem.

However, Visa Thailand manag¬er Somboon Krobteeranon revealed that it took time to establish a com¬mon standard for Platinum card applications, as they were approved by indi¬vidual Visa International members.

"Each creditcard issuer has its own unique requirements for card approval. Although we want to establish a common standard, we first need to collect the current cri¬teria from each issuer for an appli¬cation to be approved. And the prob¬lem is, they don't want to reveal this kind of information to each other, therefore we need to talk to them one by one," Somboon said.

However, Visa Thailand still plans to run reward schemes for its cus¬tomers, especially premium card¬holders because spending within this group is still rising, despite the weak¬ening economic situation, Somboon said.