Overview

Initial Impression: Krungsri Signature is a solid credit card that stands out for users who are particularly focused on retail and dining spend.

Benchmarking

Krungsri Signature is an interesting card in that, apart from a few key spend categories, from afar it really is a very ordinary card. However, it scores highly owing largely to the few bonus categories really hitting the mark for most consumers. Krungsri Signature is one of the few cards that offers extremely attractive bonus earn rates on the online, retail and dining spend categories.

Earn Mechanism

Krungsri Siganture’s points system is not the most straightforward, but easy enoug to understand. It revolves around a base earn rate for practically all general spending and bonus earn rates in select categories. We’ve broken it down in detail below.

• Base Earning Rate: Earn 1 BAY Point for every 25 baht spend
• Department Store & Online Earning Rate: Earn 1 BAY Point for every 5 baht spend
• Dining Earning Rate: Earn 1 BAY Point for every 5 baht spend

It is important to note that for all bonus earn rates, a minimum transaction of 2,000 baht per sales slip is required. For all transactions below this threshold, you will only be able to earn the base rate of 1 point per 25 baht spend.

You can see how this earn mechanism works in the examples below:

Unfortunately, despite the very high earn rate in what can only be described as very usable spend categories, there are a few shortcomings. A rather stringent cap is placed on the bonus earn rates. You will only be able to enjoy preferential earn rates up to 10,000 baht of spending per category per month. 

Collecting Miles

BAY points are relatively straightforward. You earn the points and exchange for miles on a handful of frequent flyer programs. While Krungsri offers some selection for available partner programs, it is far from being the largest variety we see on the market. For the 90% of cardholders though, the airlines covered should more or less do the job.

Note: For ease of comparison, all examples would refer to Thai Airways ROP miles unless otherwise stated.

Based on the points earn rate, we can infer the following miles earn rate for Krungsri Signature:

Getting Cashback

Spending Overseas

When you use a credit card overseas, your purchases are charged in a foreign currency and then converted to Thai Baht. This conversion comes with a foreign exchange (FX) spread or fee—a hidden cost many cardholders overlook.

Krungsri Signature FX fees are right on par with all other cards. Unlike many other cards, despite having to pay the hefty FX fees, Krungsri Signature does nto offer any form of preferential earn rate when spending in foreign currency. So you’re really paying for convenience and nothing more.

• Currency Conversion Fee: Foreign Currency Conversion Fee of ~2% on top of the Visa/Mastercard spread.
• Exchange Spread: Depending on which version of the UOB Zenith card you get, this will refer to either Visa or Mastercard’s spread that is built into their respective rates. This typically stands at ~1%.

For example, you spend 30,000 baht on an overseas trip.

Lounge Access

One of the best perks of the Krungsri Signature card is the lounge access that comes with it. While it is far from the best, it is (at least in our opinion) one of the ‘more usable’ types of access. With Krungsri Signature, you will receive a Dragon Pass to access lounges globally. However, the drawback is that there is a restriction of the number of uses per year. Furthermore, you will also need to spend at least 300,000 baht within the year.

Now, the next question may be “what lounges can I use in Bangkok”? For that, we’ve compiled a list of lounges available for DragonPass holders at Suvarnabhumi Airport:

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the Krungsri Signature, you must meet specific eligibility criteria based on nationality, income, and employment status. Here's a breakdown of the requirements:

A. Ordinary Requirements:

Thai Nationals

Foreigner

B. Alternative Requirements:

Annual Fee

The annual fee for Krungsri Signature is extremely steep. However, a waiver condition has been officially published. While it may not be so easy to reach (as is the case with many KBank cards), it is reasonable at 300,000 baht annual spend. 

Primary Card

Supplementary Card