Hi

I have read that some hotels/shops etc.will not accept amex, mastercard etc and only accept cards with the CUP logo. Is this still true?

i think that's still pretty true. not sure if some big/international department stores and chains might accept them but most shops can't. i don't know about hotels. some banks will let you use the cards to get cash... try China Construction Bank (CCB).

What does CUP mean?

China Union Pay?

yes

This may or may not help - but:

1. Talk to the manager. If no joy, proceed to step 2 in front of the manager.

2. if you have an international credit card and the vendor refuses to accept your flavor of visa/mc/diners/amex etc - you can call the credit card company (international - usually collect - ie credit card company pays for the call) and report the vendor for refusal of service. For international visa etc, this can result in either a fine, suspension of service, or BLACKLISTING of the vendor. Vendors who advertise the visa/mc/etc logos are required to accept the credit cards, unless the credit agency itself rejects the charge.

The credit agencies usually have multilingual staff who can try to resolve the issue for you DIRECTLY with the manager, to try to get their machine to accept the charge. Failing that - ALL authorized vendors must have MANUAL machines (the old carbon stuff), in case the electronics fail.

Happy Trails...and don't accept crappy service from morons, imbeciles, and other similarly lazy, unprofessional, yada yada yada.

This may or may not help - but:

1. Talk to the manager. If no joy, proceed to step 2 in front of the manager.

2. if you have an international credit card and the vendor refuses to accept your flavor of visa/mc/diners/amex etc - you can call the credit card company (international - usually collect - ie credit card company pays for the call) and report the vendor for refusal of service. For international visa etc, this can result in either a fine, suspension of service, or BLACKLISTING of the vendor. Vendors who advertise the visa/mc/etc logos are required to accept the credit cards, unless the credit agency itself rejects the charge.

The credit agencies usually have multilingual staff who can try to resolve the issue for you DIRECTLY with the manager, to try to get their machine to accept the charge. Failing that - ALL authorized vendors must have MANUAL machines (the old carbon stuff), in case the electronics fail.

Happy Trails...and don't accept crappy service from morons, imbeciles, and other similarly lazy, unprofessional, yada yada yada.

Another thing to consider, if the card is not accepted, you may need to tell your home bank you will be overseas and wanting to use your card in China/etc.

This has happened to me, it was standard anti-fraud measure.

Robin, I don't know if this will help you. Before coming to Kunming in March, I was a bit concerned about credit card usage here. I came here with Visa, Amex, and Discover. None have been predictably accepted. However, my Plan B has worked out fine.

Plan B was to leverage the use of my bank back home - Bank of America. BofA owns part of the China Commercial Bank (CCB), which has lots of branches. While I was back home, I learned that this relationship enabled BofA customers in China to use CCB ATM with no fee. It was true! I can draw money from my BofA accounts through any CCB ATM...for free...up to 5000 RMB per day. This solved half of my problem. I could now get as much cash as I needed. But, I never liked carrying that much cash. Luckily, CCB came to the rescue again.

In China, there are two kinds of "credit card" accounts. Type A is one that is linked to your savings account. Type B is one that is a refillable debit card. Both are affiliated with China Union Pay (which is the Visa of China.) I am told that over 90% of Chinese people use Type B. Not speaking Chinese very well, I had planned to go to the CCB with my teacher to open a debit card account. But, one morning I happened to pass by a CCB branch and just look in. A nice Chinese lady came up to me and started to speak Hanyu. I apologetically said "Dui bu qi, wode Hanyu hen zaogao. Ni shuo Yingyu, ma?" ("Sorry, my Chinese is very bad. Do you speak English?") She cautiously said "A little" and then asked one of the younger workers to come over. His English was great and he explained that opening a debit card account was very easy. All I needed was 30 minutes, a passport, and about 200 RMB to start the account. True to his word, in 30 minutes I had a CCB UnionPay debit card.

Now, I can go up to any CCB ATM in China, withdraw cash from my BofA account, and immediately deposit the cash at the same ATM into my CCB debit account. Having my CCB UnionPay debit card is awesome. It is accepted EVERYWHERE in China where they take plastic.

There is also one thing you may want to check, if you are still in the U.S.. A few months ago, Discover Card Services became the first American credit card company to sign a deal with China Union Pay. This did a number of things. First, in the U.S., any place that takes Discover will take a UnionPay card (theoretically). Second, any place in China that takes UnionPay will take Discover (theoretically). But, the thing that has me most excited is the news of a new Discover-UnionPay debit card that will be issued in the U.S.. Supposedly, this will be refillable from your bank account AND you will be able to denominate fund in either USD or RMB. You will also be able to manage this card online (which is hard to do with the CCB card due to the language).

In any case, if you need help opening up an account in China, let me know. I can refer you to someone who you can hire on an hourly basis to translate for you at the bank.

Best of luck!

Robin, one other thing. To open an account, you do need a telephone number, but that's cheap in China. You can get a GSM phone for as little as $25, a China Mobile SIM card (with a local phone number) costs about $8, and adding minutes to it for voice, texting, and Web-browsing costs about $4 a month. If you're going to be here, you will probably want a local phone number.