There is no list

In Thailand a borrower who fell behind is said to be ติดแบล็กลิสต์, on the blacklist. The phrase is everywhere, and it describes something the National Credit Bureau says it has never kept.

What the bureau keeps instead is a record of every loan and card account it is sent, month by month, for up to three years. It shows the good months as well as the bad ones. It does not decide who gets a loan. And for 40% of Thais of working age, it holds nothing at all.

What the bureau holds

The National Credit Bureau is licensed under the Credit Information Business Act. The Act defines what it may hold:

• who you are: name, address, date of birth, marital status, occupation, ID card or passport number, and tax number if any;
• your credit: what you applied for, what was approved, and how you have paid, including card payments.

For each account, the central bank’s guide lists the lender, the type of credit, the limit, the amount used, and the account’s status: normal, closed, in a payment holiday, or overdue. Lenders report every month, so a debt paid off in October shows as closed in the report made in November.

Some things it does not hold. The Act forbids it to store a borrower’s physical disabilities, genetic characteristics, or the fact that they are under criminal investigation or on trial. On the bureau’s own answers, it holds no bank deposits or other assets, and it records a guarantor only if they are also a co-borrower. The central bank’s guide adds that it holds no phone numbers.

Who sends it, and who sees it

Lenders that are members of the bureau must send it their customers’ data. They do not need the customer’s permission, but must tell the customer in writing, or another agreed way, within 30 days of first sending it. Since a 2022 amendment, online platforms that arrange credit without lending can be members too.

A lender may see your record only with your consent, given each time unless you have agreed otherwise, and only to assess credit or issue a card. Courts, investigators of financial crimes, financial regulators and, with the committee’s approval, certain asset managers can see it without consent, and the bureau must then tell you in writing within 30 days. The bureau must keep a log of everyone who looked, for at least two years, so that you can check it. The state reads the same record for its own purposes: the 2026 welfare card round tested applicants’ credit lines at the bureau against a ฿100,000 limit (article 197 Only if you asked).

A bureau or processor that gives the data to anyone else, or for any other purpose, faces up to three years in prison, a fine of up to ฿300,000, or both.

How long it lasts

Data stays in the bureau’s system for up to three years from the date the lender reported it, on the bureau’s own account of the rules. Paying a debt off does not wipe the months when it was overdue. The bureau compares the record to a school report: the bad term stays on it, and the next term is recorded as it happens.

So the old phrase gets it half right. There is no list, and nothing is permanent. But clearing a debt does not clear the record until each overdue month has aged out.

The central bank’s own debt programme shows how this works in codes. In “Clear Debt, Move Forward”, which buys small bad debts from banks (article 100 Borrowing to eat):

• 42 is a debt sold on while more than 90 days overdue;
• 26 is that debt, still more than 90 days overdue, now with the asset company that bought it;
• 16 is the same debt being paid normally to the asset company;
• 11 is an account closed;
• 43 is a debt that was sold on and has been paid in full.

A borrower who settles moves from 42 to 43, and the asset company’s account shows 11. The record changes code. It does not disappear.

The bureau does not say no

The bureau says it plays no part in approving or refusing a loan. Its data is one input, beside income, ability to repay, occupation, age and collateral, and the decision is the lender’s. The bureau’s own answer to “can I borrow again after falling behind?” is that it depends on the lender.

What the Act adds is a paper trail. A lender that refuses credit, or raises its charges, because of bureau data must say so in writing, with the reason and the source. The borrower may then check the bureau record free, if they ask within 30 days. A lender that fails to give that letter faces a fine of up to ฿300,000, plus ฿10,000 a day until it complies.

Checking and correcting it

You have the right to know what the bureau holds on you, to check it, to ask for corrections and to dispute it. The Act caps the fee for checking at ฿200.

• The bureau’s own centre charges ฿100, and produces the report in about 15 minutes, on its answers page.
• A free summary — number of accounts, total limits, total balances, and account types — is available in the government’s ทางรัฐ app. The bureau says it cannot be used as a reference with anyone else.
• Bank apps, post offices and kiosks also sell reports, for a fee.
• Checking your own record has no effect on a loan application, however often you do it, the bureau says.

If something is wrong, the lender must look into it and decide within 30 days of the request. The bureau must report the result within 30 days too. If the dispute is not settled, it is recorded on your file, and lenders who pull the report see that it is disputed. An appeal lies to the Credit Information Protection Committee, which the governor of the Bank of Thailand chairs; the central bank’s guide gives 60 days from notification to lodge it.

Who has no record

In June 2026 the bureau published its own count. Of 39.18 million Thais aged 20 to 60, on the National Statistical Office’s figures, 23.5 million have data with the bureau. The rest, more than 40%, have none.

A missing record is not a clean one. A borrower with no history has nothing for a lender to read, good or bad. Paying rent on time, or a phone bill, builds nothing: the bureau’s answers say phone bills are not sent to it, and a landlord is not a member. Nor does repaying a moneylender, a neighbour, or a savings circle like the one in article 25 Len chae: the bank made of friends.

The same release set the two markets side by side. A bank research unit, ttb analytics, put average interest on personal loans in the system at 17% to 25% a year, against up to 120% a year for informal debt.

What this adds up to

The bureau is not a blacklist, and the Act is specific about its limits. It sets what may be held, who may look, how long it lasts, what a lender must put in writing, and what a borrower may challenge.

But the record that gets a borrower cheaper credit can only be built with credit. On the bureau’s own figures, four in ten working-age Thais have no record at all. This is the second finding in another form. A benefit that attaches to a category, here people who already borrow from the formal system, is missing for whoever most needs it. Outside it, the comparison the bureau itself published is 17–25% a year against up to 120%.

Nothing in this article is financial or legal advice.

---

Common misconceptions

“The bureau keeps a blacklist.” It keeps a monthly record of every account it is sent, with a status for each month. The bureau says it has never kept a blacklist, and the word does not appear in its reports.

“Paying off the debt clears my name.” The new month shows the account closed. The overdue months stay until they age out, up to three years from when they were reported.

“The bureau turned down my loan.” The lender decides. If it refuses because of bureau data, it must say so in writing, and you may check your record free within 30 days.

“Checking my own record lowers my score.” The bureau says checking your own record has no effect on loan applications.

“No record means a clean record.” It means no record. A lender has nothing to read.

“Guarantors are on the bureau.” Only if they are also co-borrowers, the bureau says.