A referral link costs nothing to send. That is precisely why so many of them are worth nothing. In Thailand the question is almost never whether a programme exists — banks, wallet apps, brokers and affiliate networks all run one — but whether the reward ever lands in your account, in baht, without a condition you did not read. This guide gives you a way to price an offer before you spend a relationship on it. It also covers the quieter option many households keep running alongside: I am Beezy, an app where consulting videos, articles and adverts generates a payout to your usual payment method, and where nothing depends on convincing anyone else to sign up.
Who actually runs a referral programme in Thailand
Search in Thai for a scheme that pays you to bring in a friend and the results are dominated by financial institutions. That is the first useful fact, and it is not the case everywhere. In many markets the referral economy is built on retail and travel; in Thailand it is built on accounts, cards and wallets.
The bank-and-app programmes
Bangkok Bank publishes one under the name Friends get Friends. Kasikornbank runs one through its MAKE app. Krungsri runs one through Kept. UOB Thailand maintains a refer-a-friend page attached to its credit cards. These sit alongside the other large retail banks — SCB, Krungthai and ttb — any of which may open or close a scheme at any time. Two consequences follow. First, the offer is tied to a product you must genuinely believe in, because your friend will be living with a bank account or a card for years. Second, the reward is almost always conditional on the friend completing something: opening, activating, spending, or keeping a balance. Read that condition before anything else.
Wallets, brokers and affiliate networks
Outside the banks, the e-money wallet TrueMoney runs its own invitation scheme, and the online broker SBI Thai Online publishes a Friend Get Friend page. A third family exists and behaves differently: regional affiliate networks such as Involve Asia, which sign you up as a publisher and give you access to many merchants at once. The network model pays per action on a merchant catalogue, while the bank model pays a one-off reward for a completed account opening. They are not competing offers; they answer different questions, and mixing them in the same mental spreadsheet is how people end up disappointed.
Why the split matters for a family
If your circle is family and neighbours, the bank model fits: a handful of introductions a year, each one meaningful, each one to someone who was going to open an account anyway. If you already publish something — a page, a group, a channel — the network model fits, because it pays on volume you do not have to know personally. Choosing the wrong one is the most common waste of effort in this whole area.
How does the reward actually reach you?
This is where a Thai reader has to stop copying advice written for Europe or North America. The mechanics of receiving money here are specific, and they change which offers are worth your time.
A PromptPay ID, never an IBAN
Thailand runs a national instant payment rail, PromptPay, launched in 2016 and operated under the authority of the Bank of Thailand, with every bank participating. You are identified on it by your mobile number, your national identity card number, or your account number. There is no IBAN in Thailand, and no SEPA transfer of any kind. If a programme asks you for an IBAN, it was not designed for this country, and you should expect friction at payout time rather than at sign-up time. Ask, before you start, exactly which identifier the payer will use.
What the official fee schedule says
The Bank of Thailand publishes a PromptPay fee schedule: free up to 5,000 baht, under 2 baht from 5,001 to 30,000, under 5 baht from 30,001 to 100,000, and under 10 baht above that. The central bank adds that since 2018 most banks have removed these charges on their digital channels. For a referral reward, the practical reading is simple: at the sizes a household deals with, the transfer itself should not cost you anything, so any deduction you see is coming from the programme, not from the rail.
Store credit and points are not baht
A reward paid in vouchers, in loyalty points, or in credit usable only inside the same app is worth what you can actually spend it on. That is not a criticism, it is a conversion question. Before you accept one, ask whether you would have bought the thing anyway. If the answer is no, the reward's real value is a fraction of its face value, and a smaller cash payment may beat a larger voucher.
What is a referral worth against a day of work in your province?
Every guide tells you to compare a commission to your hourly rate. In Thailand that instruction does not survive contact with the law, and the correct version is more useful.
The Thai yardstick is a day, not an hour
There is no national minimum wage here. A tripartite wage committee sets it province by province, in baht per day, and the current schedule — notification number 14, adopted on 17 June 2025 and in force since 1 July 2025 — contains seventeen different rates running from 337 to 400 baht per day. A day means the normal working day: seven hours for hazardous work, eight for everything else. So the honest comparison is not "is this commission worth an hour of my time" but "does this whole introduction, start to finish, beat a day at the rate that applies where I live".
Same province, two rates: the district trap
The schedule descends below provincial level, which surprises even Thai readers. Chiang Mai province pays 380 baht per day in the district of Mueang Chiang Mai and 357 baht in the rest of the province. Songkhla pays 380 in Hat Yai and 352 elsewhere. Surat Thani pays 400 on Koh Samui and 352 in the rest of the province. And the top rate of 400 baht applies nationwide, whatever the province, to hotels in categories 2, 3 and 4 under the hotel legislation and to service establishments. Use the rate for your own district and your own sector, not a national average that does not exist. The three southernmost provinces — Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — are the only ones at the floor of 337 baht.
Putting the two together
| Type of programme | Who runs one in Thailand | How the reward usually arrives | What to check before you start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail bank account or card | Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank through MAKE, Krungsri through Kept, UOB Thailand | Credit to a Thai account, or a card statement credit | What the friend must complete, and how long the reward takes after that |
| E-money wallet | TrueMoney | Balance inside the wallet | Whether the balance can leave the wallet, and at what cost |
| Broker or investment app | SBI Thai Online | Account credit, often tied to trading activity | Whether the friend has to trade, not merely open |
| Affiliate network | Involve Asia and similar regional networks | Payment to a nominated Thai bank account | The minimum payout threshold and the payment calendar |
| Merchant or marketplace scheme | Large e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada | Read the terms: cash and platform credit are both used | Whether any credit can be converted, and its expiry date |
Building a steadier monthly total with I am Beezy
Referral income is lumpy by nature. You cannot decide that three friends will open an account in March. That is the structural weakness of the whole category, and it is why the households who stay with it usually pair it with something that pays on their own activity rather than on someone else's decision. I am Beezy works that way: you consult content — videos, articles, advertising — and each consultation generates a gain, paid out to the payment method you already use, with no introduction to make and no relationship to spend.
The order of magnitude, and the conversion
The reference range across the platform is 5 to 15 euros a day. On the Bank of Thailand rate of 5 August 2026, one euro was 37.9494 baht at the commercial banks' transfer buying rate, which puts that range at roughly 190 to 570 baht a day. The baht moves every working day and the central bank republishes the rate each time, so treat that conversion as an order of magnitude and check it on the day rather than trusting a figure written in an article.
Where it fits next to a referral link
Think of it as the floor rather than the ceiling. A referral reward is an event; a daily consultation total is a baseline. If you are trying to decide whether an affiliate network is worth the set-up effort, having a baseline already running makes the decision calmer, because you are no longer counting on the network to cover anything fixed.
When does referral income become a tax matter?
This is the part foreign articles get wrong about Thailand, and it is entirely checkable at the source.
The 150,000 baht band
The Revenue Department applies a progressive schedule to personal income: nothing on the first 150,000 baht of taxable income, then 5 percent from 150,001 to 300,000, 10 percent to 500,000, 15 percent to 750,000, 20 percent to 1,000,000, 25 percent to 2,000,000, 30 percent to 4,000,000, and 35 percent above that. Commission and referral rewards are assessable income; they are not a gift and not a rebate. Whether you owe anything depends on your total, not on the source, which is why keeping a running annual figure matters more than classifying each payment.
Two deadlines, not one
The annual return is due by the last day of March following the tax year. There is also a half-year return, due by the last day of September, for certain categories of income received in the first half of the year. Almost every article written abroad mentions March and stops. If your referral income is not salary, the September date is the one that catches people out. The Revenue Department publishes both at rd.go.th, and that page is where you should confirm which return applies to your situation rather than relying on a summary.
The checklist to run before you share anything
| Question | Why it matters here | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Which identifier will they pay to? | A programme asking for an IBAN was not built for Thailand | The programme's terms, before sign-up |
| What must my friend complete? | Opening is rarely enough; activation or spending is common | The conditions page, not the banner |
| Is the reward cash or credit? | Credit is worth only what you would have bought anyway | The reward description |
| How long from action to payment? | Long delays turn a reward into a debt someone owes you | The terms, and the payout calendar |
| Does this beat a day at my district rate? | The Thai minimum is daily and varies by district and sector | Wage notification number 14, published by the Ministry of Labour |
| What is my running annual total? | It decides the tax band and which return you file | rd.go.th |
A method you can run this week
None of the above requires a spreadsheet, but it does require writing things down once.
Three questions before the link leaves your phone
Would you recommend this product if there were no reward at all? Can the person receive and use it where they live, given that a bank branch network and a district wage rate are not the same everywhere? And would you be comfortable if they asked, six months later, what you were paid for the introduction? If any answer is no, the reward is not the problem — the recommendation is.
What to record each month
One line per introduction: date sent, product, condition to be met, expected payment date, amount actually received. After three months you will know which programmes pay on time and which quietly do not, and that single piece of evidence is worth more than any comparison table you will read, including this one. Households that want a predictable baseline underneath those irregular rewards can open an account with I am Beezy and let daily consultation earnings run in the background while the referrals do what they do.
