It's been annonce last week that alipay and wechat now accept foreign bank cards
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wRXcxA1n3Bpq8bN44Bd34Q
Did someone try it out? I could add my visa credit card
to my wechat account but the card won't show up when I try to top up my wallet..
A friend of mine will visit soon so that would have been very convenient if this actually worked..
any feedback on this would be great.
Have a good day.
Bubbler
Credit cards have always been a bit of a problem. Have you tried a foreign debit card?
There are also different types of Visa card to consider. My Chinese Visa card is linked to Union Pay, and was not accepted in the UK when I tried to use it earlier this year.
In other words, some cards might work, others might not.
I read the announcements too. Interested to know if this works and, crucially, what exchange rate is applied.
It would nice to make it easier for laowai's living or visiting China. Finally if it's true.'
@Bubbler You should try Alipay, the new service they announced seems to be a real workaround that already works.
from rapidtravelchai.boardingarea.com/alipay-tour-pass/
"- Exchange rate is close to interbank rate (a 500 RMB load today shows as US$71.15, XE’s rate list $71.42)
- No transaction fee to December 31, 2019, BUT the terms say the fee going forward will be a steep 5%"
from www.scmp.com/[...]
"Tour Pass doesn’t give foreign users access to all of Alipay’s functions. Alipay told us that Tour Pass users can’t transfer their Tour Pass money to other Alipay users. So splitting a dinner bill with friends could still be a hassle."
WeChat doesn't seem to work yet:
from www.travelchinacheaper.com/foreign-credit-card-wechat-pay
"So what’s to say it’s going to work this time? Well, for one, both MasterCard and Visa have made announcements about the upcoming partnership, which is a good sign."
Edit: Regular method, not via the TourPass. The mini program failed to download: "This service is available for select users only." Perhaps for those 90-day visa tourists. Someone with this type of visa should try.
I just tried the regular method, and will report it here.
After binding my overseas Visa credit card to Alipay, I attempted a mobile top up for 100.
End result, 3% extra credit card fee was shown prior to payment finalization. So the 99ish top up came out to 102ish. I subsequently cancelled the transaction.
I'm guessing exchange rates will depend on rates set by your home bank.
So it appears to work. May be useful option in cash strapped emergency situations.
Nice so it work lol I think just like tigertiger said
"some cards might work, others might not."
Cause mine isn't showing on top up, I though the problem was that I used a credit card but satii here did a transaction with visa credit card soo I don't know anymore.
@philou thank for the links I ll check out this tour pass solution
I'll try it again with debit card from my bank, see if it make a change.
Lets keep the thread up and see how it goes for others.
