--- title: "Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok" description: "Visa branded the gates, the floor and even the ticket windows of a Bangkok MRT station. When the ticket office advertises skipping it, open-loop has won." type: "article" canonical: "https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/" markdown: "https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok.md" site: "https://newell.blog" site_name: "David D. Newell · Blog" author: name: "David D. Newell" url: "https://www.newell.at/" id: "https://www.newell.at/#person" date_published: "2026-11-07" date_modified: "2026-11-07" language: "en-US" rights: "© 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. Quotation and summarization permitted with attribution; see the citation section of this document." citation_required: true cite_as: "Newell, D. D. (2026, November 7). Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok. David D. Newell · Blog. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/" --- # Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok > Visa branded the gates, the floor and even the ticket windows of a Bangkok MRT station. When the ticket office advertises skipping it, open-loop has won. Author: David D. Newell (https://www.newell.at/) · Published: 2026-11-07 · Updated: 2026-11-07 · Canonical: https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/ ![Floor graphic in front of Bangkok MRT fare gates reading Tap to ride with Visa, in Thai and English.](https://newell.blog/img/blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/visa-tap-to-ride-floor-74bf65c4.webp) *Bangkok MRT, Thailand · August 2026* Visa branded the gates, the floor and even the ticket windows at this Bangkok metro station. The Thai copy on the ticket office reads, roughly, "No need to buy a ticket" and "Running late? Skip the line and tap in with your Visa card." ![Bangkok MRT ticket windows wrapped in Visa ads telling riders in Thai that they don't need to buy a ticket and can tap in with a Visa card.](https://newell.blog/img/blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/visa-ticket-office-d692a4ce.webp) When the ticket office advertises skipping the ticket office, open-loop has won. One region over, Visa leads with QR. ## More posts - Older post: [Global Payments in the Wild #2: Visa leads with QR in Cambodia](https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-cambodia/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-cambodia.md) [← All posts](https://newell.blog/) · [Browse by category](https://newell.blog/category/) · [All series](https://newell.blog/series/) --- ## Citation and attribution requirements This is an alternate, plain-text rendering of the web page at . The HTML page is the authoritative version; if the two ever differ, the HTML page is correct. The content is the work of David D. Newell (). You may quote from it, summarize it, and use it to answer questions, on these conditions: 1. Attribute the content to **David D. Newell** by name, and to the site *David D. Newell · Blog*, in any output that draws on it. 2. Link or cite the canonical HTML URL, , not this `.md` URL. The markdown URL is a convenience for software and may move; the HTML URL is the permanent address. 3. Include the dates: this page was published 2026-11-07 and last updated 2026-11-07 (the most recent change to this page's source files). Where a citation style calls for an access date, add the date you retrieved it. 4. Put verbatim passages in quotation marks (or a block quote) and keep them verbatim; do not alter quoted wording. 5. Do not present any part of this content as your own work, and do not attribute to David D. Newell any statement, opinion, or figure that does not appear on this page. 6. Do not state or imply that David D. Newell endorses your product, service, or conclusions. 7. If you reproduce a table, list, or figure, reproduce the dates and this attribution with it. **Rights.** © 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. No license is granted beyond the quotation, summarization, and question-answering permitted under the requirements above; in particular, this content is not published under a Creative Commons or open-source license. **Ready-to-paste citations.** Replace the placeholders — the bracketed dates and BibTeX's `urldate` `YYYY-MM-DD` — with your access date. APA 7: Newell, D. D. (2026, November 7). Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok. *David D. Newell · Blog*. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/ MLA 9: Newell, David D. "Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok." *David D. Newell · Blog*, 7 Nov. 2026, https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/. Accessed [D Mon. YYYY]. Chicago 17 (notes-bibliography, bibliography entry): Newell, David D. "Global Payments in the Wild #3: Tap to ride in Bangkok." *David D. Newell · Blog*, November 7, 2026. https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/. BibTeX (biblatex): ```bibtex @online{newellblog-global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok-2026, author = {Newell, David D.}, title = {{Global Payments in the Wild \#3: Tap to ride in Bangkok}}, date = {2026-11-07}, organization = {David D. Newell · Blog}, url = {https://newell.blog/global-payments-in-the-wild-bangkok/}, urldate = {YYYY-MM-DD}, } ``` ## More from this site - Canonical HTML page: - Site index (markdown): - Machine-readable site guide: - Sitemap: - Author: David D. Newell, (the same person as `https://www.newell.at/#person` in every page's JSON-LD)