Pay taxi fare by credit card in Bangkok

Taxi passengers in Bangkok will soon be able to pay their fares with a credit card, making Thailand the first country in South East Asia to use the integrated system that comprises an automatic controller, handheld card reader, printer, meter and dispatch monitor.

The pilot project will be jointly launched soon by credit card company MasterCard, Thailand's Siam City Bank, Suvarnabhumi Taxi Co-operative and the system provider Ingenico International (Thailand).

The alliance believes the new service will be more convenient for passengers, particularly foreign tourists who will no longer have to worry about preparing cash for the taxi fare.

As an added benefit, the system offers tracking by a built-in global positioning system, the Bangkok Post reported on Thursday.

Currently, there are only seven cars offering the service at the Inter Continental Hotel and 26 Bangkok locations, including hospitals, hotels and convention centres.

Passengers will be charged 10 percent extra for the service. Ingenico has already installed the system in 15,000 taxis in Australia, 1,000 in Japan and a few countries in Europe.