UOB Thailand has waived interest and fees for credit cardholders affected by the bank's payment apportionment system.
Yuttachai Teyarachakul, the bank's head of personal financial services, said it completed a waiver of interest and fees for cardholders, following the credit card business transition from Citi Thailand to UOB Thailand.
"There are thousands of credit card customers affected by this issue, and the bank has already completed the interest waivers," said Mr Yuttachai.
Under the current apportionment system, if a cardholder has multiple credit cards and repays the full amount on one card when due, the payment is automatically distributed across all cards. This system forces customers into making minimum payments, resulting in interest charges.
UOB Thailand said it will cancel the payment apportionment system this month, while also allowing customers to select their bill payment due dates and choose either full or revolving payments, which will take effect in July.
The bank completed its business transition on April 21 this year. Since then, its credit card clients have encountered issues with the TMRW mobile banking app and call centre services.
Separately, Vira-Anong C Phutrakul, head of retail and brand for UOB Thailand, said the bank increased its call centre staff from 500 to 1,500.
The move follows call volumes rising by 2.5 times from April to May compared with normal levels, with the average call handling time increasing from 350 seconds to 700 seconds.
She said the bank divided the call centre staff into three teams to address specific issues: payment apportionment, the TMRW app and bill statements.
Around 1.2 million Citi cardholders transitioned to UOB Thailand, with 90% successfully migrating to TMRW.
All customer data remains secure and uncompromised, said Mrs Vira-Anong.
In April this year, the bank's credit card spending dropped by about 20% year-on-year, attributed to the business transition. However, spending has improved since, registering double-digit growth for the first half of 2024, she said.
The bank expects credit card spending to continue to improve in the second half of the year, in line with economic conditions and seasonal factors, with the credit card system normalising over this period, said Mrs Vira-Anong.