Back in late 2019, it was announced that WeChat and Alipay would let people add foreign credit cards to use mobile payment in China. Considering how much easier it is to purchase goods and services using WeChat in China, this is a huge announcement for expats and travelers to China. But does it work? And if not…what other options are there?
Up until this point, it’s only been possible to connect a Chinese bank card (usually UnionPay) to your WeChat Pay or Alipay account.
For foreigners, this meant opening up a bank account in China, which takes a bit of time and patience, not to mention a long-term residence visa.
There are other other global payment solutions for China that are great, but these are alternatives to WeChat at best. If only WeChat could accept Visa or MasterCard as payment options, life in China would be so much easier!
Back in early 2018, WeChat announced that they would begin accepting foreign credit cards as an option on their platform. That was two years ago and, well…
…it never worked (as many commenters on this article have attested to).
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.
Here’s what you need to know about using WeChat in China, including my thoughts on the wisdom of giving the Chinese government all your financial information (hint: this is key).
Conditions | Foreign Credit Cards & WeChat
Back in 2018, WeChat had set up a number of limiting conditions to add a foreign credit card to use WeChat Pay.
- First, you had to download WeChat in China, which meant you couldn’t set up WeChat Pay before you arrived. That sucked.
- Second, you couldn’t use a debit card; they only accepted credit cards.
This time around, it seems that things are different. While it’s not clear exactly how WeChat will be handling the change, right now Alipay launched an international version of their app that caters to foreigners.
Here’s what we know so far:
- WeChat will accept Visa, MasterCard, JCB, Diner’s Club and American Express Cards (credit cards, not just debit cards);
- You won’t need a Chinese phone number to register your account; it can be done with your foreign phone number.
- Apparently, this marks a loosening of regulations around foreigners with WeChat Pay accounts.
You see, throughout 2019, many foreigners who had previously had WeChat Pay accounts without a Chinese bank account had been shut down. Now, it seems like that will be changing.
Adding a Foreign Credit Card to WeChat | My Experience
Disclaimer: Because WeChat hasn’t yet rolled out this new feature, I can’t be 100% sure this is how the process will eventually be done. However, what I’m about to show you is the current process of adding a foreign credit card to WeChat Wallet.
Currently, it doesn’t work.
As I open up WeChat on my phone, the first thing I do is click “Me” on the bottom menu to find my “Wallet”.
From here I can click on the “Cards” menu item. As you can see, I already have a WeChat Wallet activated, so theoretically this should be easier for me to do.
I’ve already added my Bank of Communications card to WeChat, which works very well, I might add.
However, I’d like to see if I can add my foreign credit card. So I’ll go ahead and click “Add a Card” and see what we can do here…
The first sign that things might not go well is that it won’t let me change the name on my card. It insists that my name is “Summers Joshua [middle name]” because in China, they put your last name first.
Of course, this isn’t how my name is listed on my credit card, but oh well. We’ll continue anyway.
Once I’ve added all my card information, address and contact info, I’m ready to finish this process.
I press “Ok” and the card should (theoretically) get added to my WeChat Wallet.
And this is where things will hopefully change with this new announcement from WeChat and Alipay.
Right now, I can’t add a foreign credit card (as you can see from the error message above), but in the near future, that’s supposed to be different.
Security Alert | Is This a Good Idea?
Before we continue with some alternatives to adding a foreign credit card to WeChat Pay, we need to address a very important question that you should be asking yourself:
Is giving my financial information to WeChat a good idea?
It’s a well-known fact that China’s government has backdoor access to WeChat. That’s just part of life for Chinese people, but for those of us who have a choice…
…do you really want China to have access to all your personal info?
Consider this: when you add your foreign credit card to WeChat, you’re going to have to give WeChat – and by extension the Chinese government – the following information:
- Your Verifiable Identity: They need to know who you are, so you’ll have to verify your identity using your passport, which means they’ll have your real name and ID number.
- Your Phone Number: You’ll have to provide a working phone number using a text verification code to open up a WeChat account. Now your name is attached to a phone number.
- Your Address: Your credit card verification is attached to your address, so you’ll need to give that to them.
- Your Credit Card Information: Finally, you’ll be required to give your credit card information.
Wow…that’s a lot of information that the Chinese government all of the sudden has access to. I don’t know about you, but that’s slightly scary.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it; I mean, it’s certainly going to be a more convenient way to travel to China. But I want you to understand what kind of privacy you’ll be giving up in order to do so.
And if that seems like a bit too much, here are your other options.
Alternatives to Using Foreign Credit Cards with WeChat Pay
So until foreigners are granted the ability to add credit cards to WeChat, what alternatives do we have to pay with WeChat or otherwise? Is cash the only option?
Fortunately, there are a few solutions that I’ve mentioned above but I’ll go into more detail here:
- Open a Chinese Bank Account: The easiest way to add money to WeChat Pay is to connect it to a Chinese bank account. Foreigners with residence permits are legally allowed to open an account and it usually only takes 1-2 hours to get it done. They’ll issue you a bank card immediately and you can add that card to WeChat.
- Use a Global Payment Solution (U.S. residents only): I’ve recently started using a new global payment solution known as ECARD. It’s a UnionPay-branded card that gives me the ability to use any ATM in China and pay for things anywhere cards are accepted (which is better than Visa/MasterCard). I load the card with my U.S. bank account (it’s pre-paid) and although I can’t use it with WeChat, it works for pretty much everything else in China. If you’re interested, it’s free to apply for ECARD.
- Peer-to-Peer Exchange: Of course, since many travelers don’t have friends in China to send them money, you’ll need to find another way to get money onto WeChat. That’s where something like a peer-to-peer exchange service can help. These services connect you with somebody who wants US dollars so that you pay them $100 via Paypal or bank transfer. They in turn pay you the equivalent RMB to your WeChat account. Unfortunately, this only works if you already have your WeChat Wallet activated.
- Cash: Finally, it’s perfectly acceptable to still use cash in China. It’s not exactly easy, but it’s possible. Many Chinese ATMs accept foreign debit cards and will spit out Chinese Renminbi for you to use.
Conclusion | Foreign Credit Cards on WeChat Pay
There are changes that are coming to the system, but for now, we still need to wait before we can add a foreign credit card to WeChat Pay.
Nobody has given a clear timeline for the rollout of these changes (and it’s almost been a year), so we’re really just in a wait and see period.
As travelers or expats, using WeChat is convenient but not absolutely necessary. Don’t be afraid to get cash from a Chinese ATM.
And if you absolutely must add money to your WeChat Pay account, you can do so using the alternate methods mentioned above.
Otherwise, don’t bother trying to add your foreign credit card to your WeChat Wallet yet. Based on my experience, it doesn’t work yet. I’ll let you know when things change.
Any update to this, josh?
Not yet, Rick. At this moment I’m just waiting to see how things change over the coming year.
June 2018 ive tried the peer to peer. Still doesnt work
It Doesn’t work. Just tried after receiving money into my wechat wallet from a friend and when I tried to use it a message appeared saying that my account had to be linked to a Chinese bank account.
I can’t open a Chinese bank account because I don’t have any residency status here in china, even though I’m married to a local and we bought an apartment here.
Freaking control freaks.
It seems I can add credit card, but it is grayed out saying that “Card not supported for payment”. 🙁
nothing has changed. and also i just found out on this trip that i can not accept any transfer money from anyone either as form of transfer or pocket money either. It requires us to have a chinese bank account to bone.
Even worse, i went to back to try to open a banck account, almost impossible for a tourist. it requires that you have job empolymnet letter for at least 6 months. I was borned and raised in china and moved to america few years( i’m a us citizen now). i can not even have a chnese bank account.
I live in China and have both of my credit cards from Canada on WeChat. No problem.
I’ve seen it done, so I absolutely believe you. I wonder when you did this, though? It seems as though current users – including myself – are having a hard time adding a credit card to WeChat whereas if you did it a year or two ago you were fine.
Yes, I also can add all of my foreign credit cards to the WeChat Wallet. There is even a verification booking of 1CNY from “WeChat Shenzhen” happening on those accounts then. Looks good at the first glance, but it’s all useless as still no top-up or anything else is possible to do with them in WeChat.
Somebody posted somewhere that it was at least possible to do some payments with them, e.g. in the taxi. But I can’t confirm as it is pretty embarrassing trying things with locals which then probably won’t work, just to reach for the cash again in the end…
of course you can add credit card or debit card but you cannot top up the money from credit card or debit card to wechat account!
good writeup. I downloaded the latest Wechat, and in fact, it now has the option for visa, mastercard, discover, etc. However, when I go to add it, it fails just like you highlighted.
Yea, there have been so many changes that it’s hard to tell what’s possible and what’s not.
no luck. Hitting the same error. basically as a foreigner without bank account in china, you can’t link your credit card to your wechat wallet. without this cashless payment option, traveling in china is difficult.
Hi,
I recently downloaded alipay and my foreign bank card was accepted
Have you tried using alipay in china with success?
Hi Rue, I have! Although I’ve never put a foreign credit card on my profile, just my Chinese bank account.
Hi
Do you know how i can get a chinese bank account while abroad?
Patty
You can’t. You have to be there in person. Sorry.
same here. I even tried to open a bank account in Shanghai with a help from my local friend, but it failed. they dont allow to create an bank account for travellers. HSBC only said yes, but they asked me to put at least $2000 as an initial deposit which is quite tremendous amount for me.
Really? I’d be prepared to do that, no worries, but I’ve received misleading information before from Bank of China. They told me if I was married, then I could open a bank account. So I married my girlfriend (we’ve been together a couple of years and bought an apartment as well) but after returning to the same bank I was told by higher management that I still needed residency status to open a bank account.
It’s all too hard, but why???
i’ve actually been able to link my us credit card (VISA) to my wechat wallet. (disclaimer: expat working in china, already have wallet linked to chinese bank account) which on the surface seems like a success however i haven’t actually been able to *use* my foreign credit card to pay for any transactions. i mean, sure it’s a first level success to have it linked but when i dine out or want to transfer money to friends, the pop up window just says that my foreign-issued visa cC “is not supported”. so what’s the point honestly? has anyone else been successful in linking their foreign CC’s AND been able to *use* it in china?
Interesting observation. Congrats on getting it linked! (I think) I obviously couldn’t even get that far.
I have the same problem. WeChat Wallet set up with local bank account debit card. Added foreign card, but when I try using it for payment it says “card not supported for payment”. Have limited funds on chinese account, so it makes life here harder if I can not access my foreign account through wechat. Does anyone know a trick to make this work?
What I’ve done in the past is just pull money out from an ATM using my foreign card and then deposited it into my Chinese account for use with WeChat. That’s the most convenient way to do it that I’m aware of.
in the same boat. I am roaming the street with a big wallet loaded with cash.
I just tried to add mine but I can’t even get past “link bank card issued with mainland China”. It doesn’t even let me try a foreign account. I do have a chinese bank card form when I lived here 2009-2011, but my phone number has changed and the bank has the old number, which causes a fail when I try to link it. Foreign card linking would really help me.
Update: I was able to add my card (I ignored where it said it had to be a chinese bank card), but after I try to send money to someone (to test it) it says “credit card isn’t supported”. So, it lets me add it but unsure if you can use it for anything.
Wonderful – haha
That makes sense (in a Chinese fashion)
Note that wechat pay would not let me send even money sitting in my wechat balance until i added a credit card (foreign). once i added the credit card, i couldn’t use the card to transfer money, but that did allow the existing balance i had to be transferred.
Thanks for sharing, James. Very useful information.
@K.k. Same result for me – added two U.s. cards and both are “Not supported for payment.” It’s a bit funny, when you click on the added foreign cards, a window pops up with the following statement: “Wechat pay supports visa and mastercard and is PCI-DSS compliant to guarantee your payments are secure.” Yeah, about that…
Hi JoSh,
As im planning to travel to china mid august, i’d Like to investigate the peer to peer solution and how it works in practice:
1) requirements: i assume you only need a chine sim and the chinese wechat app?
2) using it: Assume i convinCe a hotel Enployee to send me the money this way, will wechat wOrk as a prepaid Money account? What Limitations Can i encounter? Will i still be able to rent a bike, bUy a bottle of waTer, pay for public transport etc.?
In most cases, the best thing you can do is open your own Chinese bank account to use with WeChat. If that’s not possible or practical, you can try working with a hotel employee or some other hack.
I moved to china this week, got wechat, and a coworked sent me money to my wechat wallet. even though i added a u.s. bank account, it cannot be verified until i get my resident card. i cannot use the money they sent at all. i would suggest making sure you can actually use the money they send you before paying a local chinese person to send you money in the app – like i said, for me i cannot even access the money.
That’s great advice, Lizzi. Make sure you’re working with smaller amounts of money before you verify whether you can get WeChat Wallet to work for you.
Just did it today(07/28/2018) WITH uSA number and credit card:
1. send a red packet to new account first
2. When open the red packet, it asks for real name identification and USA VISA card was accepted
Note: Step 2 won’t work if step 1 was not done first
Thanks for sharing. Let’s see if others can get it to work that way as well.
I Added my mexican card… cost 1 dolar comision add the card and when i trY to use only i can read message that my card isnt supported… Somebody know how have my money comision back?
Good luck! I’m not sure it’s possible…thankfully it wasn’t that much.
Hola, Berenice, lograste alguna vez pagar con el app? yo tengo problemas con alipay y queria encontrar otras opciones.
How do I link Alipay to wechat wallet?
You don’t. You either use Alipay or you use WeChat.
Question: had anyone bern able to transfer money from their Chinese bank to their foreign bank via WeChat?
I saw alipay was one way but you’ve got to get a trustable Chinese friend. Oxymoron or what. Haven’t reach that level yet.
Hey, so I wouldn’t be surprised if WeChat also has a similar function to Alipay for transfer, but I haven’t seen or used it personally.
I worked in China for years and have a local bank card (UnionPay visacard). Has been very useful in accepting payments from my Chinese clients while travelling and especially now that I am in my home country – I could withdraw at any atm in the local currency despite deposits being made in RMB. BUT…I now have a problem after becoming confused with the pin number (after a big night out) and the card is now blocked, so I cannot access my China held funds. Thought of using Wechat to enable Chinese clients to pay me but I only have a local visa debit card. Could maybe set up a China based Wechat account using my blocked card as ID and then try to add my local visa card but have read elsewhere that cards must be Credit and NOT Debit. Could also do the red envelope thing, but not sure how I would access cash funds. Any clues would be welcome.
Hey Geoff, those are great questions and I wish I had good answers. You’re right that the card needs to be a credit card and not a debit card. There are a lot of restrictions on the red envelope method. If you already have WeChat Wallet set up, you could look at this creative way to add/withdraw money from WeChat. Best of luck!
I have been using peer to peer. I reside in the US and use wechat wallet extensively. I would like to open up a Chinese bank card in the usa (ICBC). Is there a possibility I can use the money I deposit in this bank to fund my wechat wallet?
Honestly, I’ve never tried it. Would you be willing to give it a try and let me know so I can share this information with other people?
that would be a no i think, currently all chinese bank branched in USA are not directly connected with their branch in china. so basically the chinese banks in USA are treated as though they are U.S. banks.
Well Guess i Shall share mine exPerience since i’m here… it is possible to link an overseas card .. do not add the cards from the wallet page. Go the the Page whEre your chat is and click the + iCon top right , click it and select money. U should be able to see a greenie page click on receive money and you should be able to go by from there .. btw i have my singapore credit card added successfully and made purchase in jd with it
Very interesting Dominic. Thanks for sharing. Is your card a Visa/Mastercard/American Express or is it a UnionPay? I would bet a lot of money that it makes a difference, and in most countries outside of Asia, UnionPay isn’t an option.
i dont even have that icon in my wechat account.
it only shows- new chat, Add contacts, scan qr code and help &feedback. is there any other way to do it?
A lot of that depends on where you download the app. If you’re in China, you might need to delete WeChat and reinstall it while in China. Make sure you know your username and password, though!
Hi, I was able to link my canadian credit card to wechat today, in preparation of my trip in October. Any way you suggest I can test it out whether it works or not?
That’s great! If I were you, I would attempt to make a small train ticket purchase or something similar to see what happens.
Question: If one uses a VPN……and picks a point in china….shouldn’t it be possible to download a wechat version that includes the wallet feature?
Theoretically, yes. But I don’t know of too many VPNs that have servers in China. It’s illegal to do so without State permission.
You caN google ways to create a chinese apple id without being in china and then download wechat as It’s free
Sure, that’s possible. I’m not sure why you would do that, though – Apple doesn’t allow you to switch between country IDs, so you’d be stuck with the heavily censored Chinese version of the Apple Store.
Hi , i live in hk and managed to add my hk credit card to wechat wallet. HOwever, when i tried to pay with it tonight, it sayS on the last scReen i have to input the card number and in grey in the field : only debit cards. So still nono to use foreign credit cards on Wechat accounts that are not from maiNland.
Yea, that sounds similar to most accounts that I’ve heard.
Hello Josh, I have successfully added my 3 cards: two credit cards and one debit card from my bank in Guatemala. I can’t transfer money or pay with the QR code, but I can use them to pay in apps like Meituan and other Waimai apps. It’s also useful for recharging the balance on my cell phone through WeChat. I haven’t tried to buy plane or train tickets in WeChat yet, but I think that it should work.
Good to know. Thanks for sharing! If you don’t mind, can you share what kind of cards you’re referring to? (Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay, something else?)
sure josh, i added one visa debit card, one visa credit card and one mastercard credit card. One more thing , i downloaded the wechat app in guatemala not in china.
Josh, Glad I found this thread because i’m Going to china soon and had thought I could simply use my credit card. Wow. Guesss not. What is the latest recommendation regarding arranging available funds to use there? Thanks
Hey Bill, I’m glad you found the website as well! For more info on getting funds in China, check out my article on the cheapest ways to get cash in China.
Hi, I was helped by this thread so I though I might share my experiences. I’m from sweden but now live in Shanghai and i downloaded wechat in china.
My problem was that my chinese bank card was not accepted by wechat wallet. Apparently bank cards from China Merchants Bank (CMB) are not accepted if you’re a foreigner! All or most other banks work. I have linked the same card to Alipay and that works.
But I needed to link a bank card to be able to join large group chats in wechat! Another silly rule! Some kind of requirement for verifying your identity by having a bank card linked… Smaller group chats doesn’t have this requirement.
I successfully linked my Swedish AmEx credit card by the method described by Dominic, even if I understood I would probably not be able to pay with it. But now I could join large group chats! Then I asked a Chinese colleague to send me money so that I have a balance on my wechat wallet, and that works for payments.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Annika!
I followed the instructions of this post and I managed to get my card verified. I have not tested paying anyone yet, but i have a qR screen now. my steps:
1. connect my VPN to Hong Kong
2. on the chat screen, tap the (+) icon located on top right. then in the drop down menu tap on Money.
3. you will be taken to a green screen. tap receive money.
4. I entered my australian mastercard credit card details.
5. I then noticed that my credit card was debited aud0.07
6. the we chat app said i am now verified.
7. i then activated the pay vendors qr code by choosing a 6 digit pass code.
now i have a “wechat pay” on the “me” page. a wallet with Y0.00 and a money qr code that looks like it will work.
chinese mate tried to send me money. doesn’t work. i get a notification screen that reads “According to local regulations, you must add a mainland china bank card to complete your identity information in order to continue using wechat pay.”
ok success. working today. if you’re friend sends you money and you accept using wechat on PC you will get the money. and you will be able to use it.
NOTES:
accept on wechat for PC (not mac)
your friend “transfers” (does not send you money via red pocket)
Credit for my last post goes to “kavip” who sell wechat recharge services.
I used another method of getting rmb to usd when i was in china and someone in the states got the money. i had a chinese bank account, i had a type z visa and worked in china. i lived there for years. i left a bank card with a friend in the usa and they could withdraw up to $500/day using it. so I was able to transfer about $20k in a couple of months, no problem. this made it safer than trying to take all that money out of the country and maybe get pick pocketed, etc. my friend just went to an atm machine at a bank, took out the max cash, and deposited the cash into my american bank there at the atm location. kind of a hassle, but this is a way to get money to the usa without having to take it personally to the usa in wallets, backpacks, or going through airports where things are crazty hectic enough as it is. You need a china bank account, you need a bank card (union pay, etc) and it has a pin number. this card could also be used in most any american store to make a payment like a debit card.
John Jones method may have worked in the past, but now you get stuck on step 4. Before you add a credit card you have to be verified with a Chinese ID card.
Hi, I’m glad to find this website!
I would like to point out the part you mentioned that they insist to have your last name first. however, for my name, my surname (last name) is at the front and they said the “system” insist to put my surname at the back instead. this is downright confusing.
So, in the end, they couldn’t edit my name to how it is written on my passport. 🙁
I have another question. How do I transfer money via WeChat to my family who comes for a short visit? If they add a bank card while in the home country, will they be able to receive my money?
Sorry to hear about the trouble, Jestyne. As for transferring money, it’s not possible unless your family member can set up their WeChat wallet. If they do that, then you should be able to transfer money.
Guys, correct your two wrong views. First, WeChat does not support credit card transfers. In China, deposit accounts are called savings cards. If you want to use WeChat to bind a bank card for transfer, you can only bind the savings card. Secondly, if you do not bind a savings card, but bind a credit card, then you can only use it for consumption, it is impossible to transfer funds, and it can only be used in WeChat wallet, Jiugongge merchants and e-commerce, O2O, travel, travel and other fields. Cooperative brands include core merchants such as Jingdong, Ctrip.com, Qunar, Didi, China International Airlines, China Railway Corporation (12306). Cannot be used in other scenarios. Of course, if you have a credit card that opens an account in China, there is almost no spending limit except you can’t transfer money.
Same issues and frustrations . However, i will add that while i worked in china i found that the easiest way to transfer funds from china to usa was to have two paypal accounts, one chinese and one usa. no problem moving funds from china to usa , but very difficult to go in the reverse direction.
I tested having friend with wechat to send you money thru wechat. Since you do not have a credit card or bank card, you are not able to accept too
That’s right, you need to set up WeChat Wallet first.
Hi Josh. Excelent article.
Do you know if your local bank that issue your vS or ca card will charge you a fee for loading your Wechat or alipay account?
I am just curious to see how all this works.
Thanks!
I dOwnloaded Wepay in HK. I could add both my swedish cards, one visA (skandiabanken) and one mastercard (Eurocard). When trying To top up my chIna mobile HK sim using the “TeleCom Payment” button i Always get an error with both cards that say i have gone over my daIly transactiOn limit. HowEver, the top up works fine when going to “Tickets” and then “CMHK Payment and refIll”.
I know most here are only interested in china mainland so this info probably wont help you. I can personallY not receive RMB to my account only HKD. Of somebody sends me a redpacket and i try to open it i just get the meSsage “according to the laws of the Peoples Republic of China, you need to add a Chinese bank card registered in your name in order to continue using your WeChat Pay Balance” 😛 Oh well.
All information is helpful, Martin, so thanks for sharing your experience!
Ok. So here is my experience: I linked my visa bank card and it accePted it but is not actually usable. Regardless, I can now receive and send money from my wallet.
This was done back in February.
As I am heading back to Beijing Tomorrow with my daughter, i wanted to put money in her wechat but to no avail. No bank card woRked and she could not receive red envelope ???? without main land chinese id. Until I red DomInic’s comment and it worked! No card linked but I can tRansfer money to her from my wallet. As Dominic said, chat, upper right, money, receive! Works!
Thanks for your input, Frank!
I open an aCcount only this today 30th November 2018 at icbC which a debit card and when u tried linking it with my wechat it cant be.have tried but always i got a popup MESSAGE which say “unmatched id type but but i registered with my passporT
Actually, after linking non-chinese credit or debit cards (visa, mastercard), it is at least possible to use them for some in-app services. top up chinese phone sim cards worked for me with all linked foreighn cards. also booking a train ticket seemed to work (didn’t finish it). Still, no top-up of the wallet value or QR-CODE payments in the offline world are possible with those cards…
Thanks for sharing your experience! That sounds in line with what I’ve heard from many others. Another good thing is that it at least opens up your WeChat Wallet, so you can receive money from friends/family over WeChat and send it that way as well.
I tried to add my cards and each time, it charged $.05 cents. Not a big amount but enough people do this, wechat is making a small fortune. All failed to link. I wished I read the part about must download in China, Taiwan etc. Thanks for the INFO. Luckily, I have friends in China so I may ask them to send a small amount to test it.
Sorry you’ve had so much trouble, Anna!
I have the same problem. I was wondering if anyone knows how to remove credit/debit card from wechat pay? I got charged $0.10 for adding two cards and they both don’t work with wechat pay. Now I want to remove them but wechat won’t let me. There’s no removal link or anything. When I press on the card information, it brings me to a broken link and nothing happens. Thanks for any help.
InteresTing article! We’re from austRAlia with family in china. I added my fOreign card a few years ago without a problem but I can’t use It but allows me to receive and traNsfer red packets which means family can send me money so i can use it in china.
However, my husband recently joined wechat and had no problem adding the foreign card but when he tries to receive a red packet he gets the message that a preVious poster (Martin) get.
Will try again when we’re in china next. Maybe have better luck then
I think what happened was that lately chinese central bank (PBOC) has demanded stricter ID authentication. So adding an overseas credit card or using a chinese mobile (which requires basic id check) to register a wechat account is considered an entry level authentication and will allow basic wechat pay functions to be made available to users. However those functions (fund transfer, red packet, generating qr code to pay or scanning qr code to pay) that may have aml concerns will only be made available to users who have a chinese bank account which will need more sophisticated ID authentication.
I am from Australia. If I register a WeChat account using a Chinese mobile number, the WeChat Pay becomes visible as soon as the WeChat account is setup. If, however, I use an Australia mobile number to register a WeChat account, then the WeChat Pay function is not visible when the WeChat account is setup. In the latter case, you can however use Dominic’s method to ‘activate’ the WeChat Pay function by linking an overseas VISA/MC/AMEX card.
On the WeChat FAQ website, it does clearly say that using international cards WeChat Pay does not support Red packet, transfer, top up and withdraw WeChat wallet balance.
https://kf.qq.com/touch/sappfaq/180704bUR7zU180704NjIBvA.html?platform=15&ADTAG=veda.weixinpay.wenti
This FAQ doesn’t say that account registered only with international cards can not generate QR code or scan QR code to pay merchants – however that appears to be the case.
At least, though, this ‘limited function’ Wechat Pay can allow you to accept RMB transfer from someone else then you can use this balance to pay merchants. It would aslo allow you to pay for purchases made via other apps (like JD).
Hi Howard, Did you try to scan QR code to pay merchants when registered as a China Mobile user?
Michael – Yes I did. Scanning QR code to pay merchants is similar to make a peer-to-peer payment. As such, WeChat Pay would not allow you to use foreign cards for this purpose. You have to use either Wechat Pay balance or linked Chinese bank card. Foreign cards are only good for ‘online payments’ – I’ve used it to top up my Chinese mobile or pay for goods bought from JD.com. But foreign cards are no good for funds transfer or ‘offline payments’ – e.g. paying merchants, either you scanning their QR codes or you generating a QR code for them to scan.
So far linking a foreign card is only a small step forward – nevertheless it allows for the WeChat Pay function to be activated (when you register WeChat using a foreign mobile) and you can use foreign card for certain (albeit limited) payments.
Hi Howard,
Your comment was very helpful. I will be going to China and have a few questions. It would help me a lot if you could reply
1. Did you download the WeChat app in china or while you were in Australia?
2. I will be buying a Chinese sim as soon as i enter china. Do I have to create a Chinese Apple id to download the correct version of the WeChat or just downloading the app in China is enough? Or is it all about the Chinese number and the location of the download doesn’t matter?
3. If I understand your comment correctly, I cannot make or receive offline payments by scanning QR codes when using a foreign credit card. However, I will be able to buy tickets, make payment for the cab rides, order food etc from my card. Am I correct? Thankfully, I want to use WeChat primarily for such online services while in china.
Thanks for your helpful comment once again
Hi Namdaar,
Sorry I missed your message… Better late than never 🙂
I downloaded WeChat in Australia, and it still worked. The online payment I was referring to was the kind of payment triggered by another third party app such as JD (an Amazon like eCommerce provider in China), not those ‘mini apps’ embedded inside WeChat such as Didi or MeiTuan. Though car hail service like Didi has their own app and you can register international cards with their own app. I’ve tried Didi’s own app with overseas card and no issue at all.
Maybe you can share your experience once you are back.
Cheers
Howard
Just been back From a two week Family trip to shanghai after 18 years away from china. I encountered the same issues discussed here and tried all suggested solutions. I could add any Australian debit/credit card however Wechat didn’t allow me to top up my balance. I managed to find a workaround by using my masterCard debit card thRough meituan so at least i could order food and car rides and pay with wechat. Meituan/wechat only allowed me about five transactions per day due to Some unknown reason.
Initially i thought the issue Was With wechat. I work for a large american bank and After arriving back at sydney i aSked my colleague in the payment solutions tEam about this. She mentioned this is not wechat’s problem. The fact I could add mg cards to the wallet means wechat have enaBleD the functionality on their Side. The reason i coUldn’t top up was due to my bank who haS not enabled the payments Api with wechat. She mentioned this is the same as each bank having to enable their cards for apple pay, google pay, samsung pay etc.
No I disagree.
All the three ‘international pay’ mentioned above are quite different from WeChat Pay or AliPay for that matter.
All the ‘international Pays’ don’t hold balance and they don’t settle transactions themselves. They merely ‘mimic’ the actual physical cards. WeChat Pay, on the other hand, could hold balance (which means the company needs to hold certain financial licenses) and up until recently, both WeChat Pay and Ali Pay could actually settle the transactions themselves.
this was the case until PBOC stopped this practice, instead asking all transactions via these ‘third party payment’ apps to be settled via a centralized clearing house (similar to unionPay).
Not being able to use WeChat Pay linked to foreigh cards to make ‘in-store’ payments is more likely a restriction imposed by WeChat Pay due to insufficient authentication (lack of Chinese ID/Chinese bank account), to comply with PBOC’s latest requirements. Wechat Pay in fact outline this limitation in their FAQ.
While I was in Taiwan, I was able to link my overseas card with Line Pay – and Line Pay would allow QR code to be generated so that in-store payment could happen using Line Pay with linked overseas card.
It is definitely an App restriction (due to different level of ID authentication) not a bank issue.
Hi All,
I’m from Australia and I just connect my Master debit card and my Visa credit card. My experience is the same that I can only use it for actual purchases and I believe I know why. When adding a card you can choose between a debit card or a credit card but when it actually adds the card it defaults to credit card. Online merchants can’t charge a credit card for cash (like transfering a friend money etc) therefore it won’t allow those types of transactions. Given instore QR code scanning doesn’t require any form of official business registration to complete, I think that is the reason why we can’t use our offshore cards to pay for things instore.
Interesting theory, Warwick. Makes sense! Thanks for sharing 🙂
There are two different types of QR code scanning.
When buyer scans merchant’s QR code, that was a ‘static’ QR code and PBOC set a lower transaction limit. When merchant scans buyer’s QR code, that QR code is a dynamic QR code (e.g. it changes each time) and there is higher transaction limit for this.
From late 2018 PBOC has required all third party payments (like WeChat Pay or AliPay) to go through ‘Wang Yin’, or net bank, a government led clearing system. That system doesn’t process overseas “Scheme card” like Visa/MasterCard/Amex and that’s why the in-store purchases (also called offline purchases) can’t be made with overseas card, only China domestic cards as these domestic cards go through ‘Yin Lian’ system (Union Pay system)
Online purchases (in-App purchases) like JD, DIDI go through a different process system and hence overseas cards can be used.
Obviously it’s not a technology issue (not being able to use overseas card for in-store payments) but rather government regulation issue.
my case and my solution:
1. my iphone wechat pay was WORKING fine without a bank card attached to it until spring 2018 – could’t receive pay anymore. but when I tried to add my chinese bank debt card (I opened an account years ago) via my us iphone, no luck, INFO mismatch. even in the chinese bank lobby. no one can EXPLAIN why. very frustrating. Finally (by the end Jan 2019) I used my wechat (I DON’T REMEMBER WHere I DOWN LOAD IT, perhaps while I was in china) on my china made android phone with my chinese number SIM card (I bought a phone number and REGISTERED with my bank) while I was in the states to add my chinese debt card, i was able to receive the verification code message via wifi, and it worked !
2. Have Friends Send You Money: yes. Next I add BECU debt card to my us iphone wechat so it can receive pay. I then use my china android phone wechat to withdrawn from my chinese bank ACCOUNT, red pocket to my US iphone wechat. I now can pay Hainan airlines MILEAGE REDEMPTION processing fee via wechat pay.
3. US bank card will not charge wechat pay, period. at recent chinese new year party, my other wechat friends confirm it. so if you don’t have a chinese bank account, the solution is to have your chinese wechad friends send you a RED-POCKET – peer-to-peer transfer, then pay them in cash (INCLUDING to withdraw at ATM in china) or use us bank transfer to their chinese accounts but it will cost you about $40 fee.
you don’t really need to know what is wrong, it is crazy, all you need to know is the solution.
Thanks for sharing, Frank!
1. I downloaded wechat from app store uk, and linked my amex card, it works properly, however not all merchants accept wechatpay with amex.
2.simply apply a diners club card (or discover card) before you going to china, diners club(discover) has partnership with unionpay, any MERCHANT accepts unionpay as well as your diner club(discover) card.
Interesting…I’d never heard that before. I’ll have to look into it.
hi,just want to share myexperience with wechat pay. when i first used wechat,it didnt have the wallet feature. but i was able to somehow activate it by changing the language. so for about a year now, i have been able to receive red packets,buy stuff using the qr while i was in china and make transfers. but today,it wont work and an alert pops up saying that i need to register with a china bank account to continue using wechat pay. i am still able to transfer to a friend or give out red packets but not the other way around. btw, i have managed to link my visa and mastercards but they still cant let me top up or withdraw.
hey, im going to be in china for two months as of next month, which bank would you recommend for a foreigner to open up an account on and which is the smoothest?
If banks Of your contry issue diners club or discover card, I suggest you apply one as backup. If you want to apply for china local bank account, the Bank of China is highly recommended!
I would like to recieve money on wechat, i have chinese costumers. right now i cannot recieve the money because i can’t identefy. is there a way to do so? will i be able to use this money ?
thanks
Unfortunately, unless you have a Chinese bank account, you can’t verify your identity on WeChat. Your best bet is to require your customers to use Paypal, which works in China but isn’t very popular.
Just Read it in wechat helpcenter…
3.When you are noticed to verify your identity after you linked a credit card opened outside Mainland China, you need to add a new card for an account opened in Mainland China.
So….
Contrary to comments I made very recently, this morning I tried again and was able to add by Australian Mastercard to my wechat account.
I tried topping up my Chinese phone card account and was successful in doing so.
My wechat account was installed in Australia. I have no idea why it worked this time when I couldn’t do it earlier using my visa card. Perhaps it’s just the usual constantly changing situation in china or perhaps Mastercard is easier in this case than visa.
Only wish I could have used this to buy train tickets online two days ago. That would have saved me a lot of hassle. The high speed rail tickets had all sold out by the time I stood in line for an hour at the ticket counter, so I had to suffer an overnight conventional train journey instead.
Hi , Can I ask you are saying “Adding” a card. I totally get it. I can’t even activate my account due to fact that I don’t have any China bank so does this mean that I can’t EVEN use wechat pay because I can’t even activate the first stage , is that right ? I am from UK. Thanks
I was able to add my australian mastercard, but in the ‘money’ section, the cards are visible but in a bracket next to them, it says ‘card not supported for payment’. I got money transfer from my friend in China and was able to accept it on a Windows PC, I added a visa card and the account is shown as verified, but the cards are not usable to top up or pay vendors.
Anyone has anymore ideas.
So what I’ve been able to do is to activate the RMB wallet, and add a foreign currency MasterCard to it for verification, and use this card to make *online* purchases within Tencent’s own ecosystem (Tencent game credits to be specific). The entry on my card statement is shown as a card-not-present foreign charge in RMB accordingly. I have not been able to topup to the wallet or receive RMB transfers from friends in China, it says those features are only available to users who have verified their identity using a bank card issued in mainland China.
I haven’t tried using the barcode for offline transactions, will try that when I get the chance and see if it bars using the foreign card as others mentioned…
I have added UK cards to WeChat but I cannot use them to top up or pay. Clicking on the card details gets a message saying “WeChat Pay supports VISA and MasterCard and is PCI-DSS compliant to guarantee your payments are SECURE.” But I can do nothing with the CARDS. They are added to my WeChat profile but I cannot find a way to use them.
I have we chat for years but november 2018 started wallet. I have no cards at all connected. Someone sent me about 700 RMB. Just used it for taxi mainly. Last june 2019 i travelled china for 10 days and i got around 20000 Rmb. Worked like a charm. (Business transaction which is totally legal and just this way to save exhange rate)
Now i go back to china And I receive 1750 rmb but app says “to —continue— using wechat pay add a credit card”
So. Somehow i hit a limit? No clue. I have no chinese card. So back to cash i guess. ??
Add: i just accepted money on the wechat pc app. That worked. Will see tomorrow if i can actually use the money.
Hey Chris,
I’m curious about the fact that you can accept money from the PC app rather than the phone app.
Does it means that both apps will sync with each other?
And Have you manage to pay for anything?
Hey Chris,
I’m curious about the fact that you can accept money from the PC app rather than the phone app.
Does it means that both apps will sync with each other?
And Have you manage to pay for anything?
hI ALL,
Apparently, WeChat Pay just got more restrictive; I have my American VISA credit card successfully linked (but not usable), and when I tried to accept a red packet a couple of days ago, I got a notification telling me to add a Chinese Bank Card.
This happened to me recently too while I was traveling in China. I thought it was because I was in china.
Has anyone tried to link a Disvover Card on wechat? APPARENTLY they are the most “user-friebdly american credit card based on an AGREEMENT theY have with the chinese ubion bank.
i just completed a trip to china to visit my wife’s family (aug-2019), and we failed.
the failure point wasn’t bank account, credit vs debit, or even china phone# – i have all of those. to add a card, Wechat now requires a valid chinese Id#, both the version I downloaded in the usA, and the chinese version that we downloaded onto a clean cell phone while there in china. there was a field to select ‘type of id’ (sp?) but it only had one option: id#. changing to ‘Passport#’ or similar was not an option. I tried to enter my us passport number anyway, but the software would not let me go any further – it error messaged me that my (Chinese) id# was invalid.
this is a change, because early last year i could enter my us credit card, and it was still there as a payment method, it just wouldn’t work.
two other comments:
a) I got a Chinese bank account without being a resident. Ask around. the First several banks i tried (e.g. Bank of China) wouldn’t let me because my visa only allows a maximum 60 day stay. But i found a bank that did. took about an hour, and they didn’t have a minimum deposit or any monthly fee.
b) ALIPAY worked fine as an alternative. just no ‘red envelope’ fun with the big family wechat group. 🙁
I somehow added a debit card that’s in my wallet (Probably quiet a while ago, don’t remember the circumstances) but when I tried using it at a starbucks with qr code it said connection busy).
Now i’m back in sweden and tried adding my mc credit card – it didn’t work until i entered a picture of my swedish passport and a selfie, but it did work and then I could add another debit card. So quite the opposite to steves experience (which seemed to happen in china)
Now I will have to wait until next week to see if i actually can pay anyone with this…
When I’m trying to add any of my cards i get an error: “unable to complete the transaction as it may be compromised.” Anybody has an idea why would that be?
any update on this? I’m going to China next year January and wondering if I can use wechat to pay for things, I’m from Australia
No update, it’s still not possible.
I can confirm that if you have a friend with wechat, they can transfer (not red packet) money to you and you can accept it on the wechat windows app without a local bank account.
only if you’re verified… Doesn’t let you accept the transfer otherwise.
I opened a chinese bank a/c (savings a/c i think) with ICBC (in BJ) in 2hrs with my UK passport. I was only on a holiday trip but as it was for 7 weeks it was worth a couple of hours. I had to extract Yuan from the atm and pay in at the same terminal with the card which I also used for direct payments at times eg in hotels.
I recently added my uk visa debit card using the instructions but when I tried to top up my wechat wallet it was not listed as a valid card for top up! (Dur, I just entered this…). Perhaps charges on wepay will go direct to the card instead but not due back in china for a few months to test this. Wepay also works in other countries I understand. Indonesia?
As for personal data. Nothing new here. All this info is already available to the uk authorities. China is no worse and it already has all your transactions linked to your phone, you enter email address already, you are registered at your residence, they have your passport, fingerprints and visa details… is there anything they dont already have?
which bank did you go to? i walked into a local icbc in bejing and shanghai, and they all said they cant open a bank for a foreigner.
Hi Josh, much like for Alipay, the same is true for WeChat pay in regards to the credit card feature.
1. It will only be acceptable for accounts that are linked with an overseas mobile number
2. There will be a time limit at which the money needs to be spent (Alipay is 3 months and something similar likely true for WeChat)
3. It will require your Chinese visa copy to make a transaction – this means that for those long term in China, this is not a solution
4. The functions of the international version will be limited as compared to the full version
I just added my US credit card. I tried to top up and it doesn’t recognize the credit card i just entered. does it take some time for the system to kick in and accept the credit card? anyone else have this same problem?
Have successfully added visa credit card to we chat pay, get the qr code up on screen but when present for payment it fails, error message in Chinese says something like “we chat needs to perfect the information” which I interpret as verify/check. can’t tx money into wallet either. whats more beyond the front end most of the back end pages on the app including the help pages are in Chinese. so totally stuck and still using cash. does ali pay work?
Successfully added my international credit card. But still can’t top up money from cc to wallet.
It seems the only feature we can use is called “money” which is only accepted by a few “vendors” .
There’s a list of the vendors on Money>>View Details>>3.Which vendors can use money?.
THe vendors including places like 7eleven, Carrefour any many others chinese brands.
Hi everyone
I just arrived in China and thought it is now possible to use wechat /alipay to do those QR transactions. Apparently not so yet. All my attempts to no avail. Was able to link my Citibank credit card but that’s the most I could do. I tried reinstall my apps in China, maybe thinking only local based app, but no. Had wechat to verified me successful, and still not possible to pay.
So I Believe the roll out to support international credit card is still very much a work in progress…
You might need to verify your ID details (passport number etc) then it might actually allow you to use the QR code etc. I’ve also been able to add my AU Visa card to WeChat Pay. Then when I tried to top up mobile using this Visa card, it brought up another screen to add passport details etc. Since I’ve tried this on a ‘dummy We Chat account’ I didn’t proceed to upload passport details.
Although this post is about WeChat Pay, it looks like the Alipay alternative does work better now. First of all there is an Alipay international version that you can download from Google App Store. Then during the setup process, when you select ‘Region’ that is outside China, it will then allow you to setup an one-off virtual debit card issued by ‘Shanghai Bank’. This virtual debit card can be topped up with an overseas VISA/MASTERCARD card and then be linked to Alipay, which will then allow you to use QR code payment. This virtual card will be valid for only 90 days and the most you can top up is 2,000 RMB – but this is probably enough to cover those small street vendors/taxi drivers where overseas credit card is not accepted. After 90 days, any money left over on the virtual card will be refunded to the source.
further to that, I read an article from a Canadian website. And it says that what WeChat Pay is doing now is to team up with international scheme card payment network (e.g. Visa, MASTERCARD， Amex). Wechat Pay is simply a platform and all the payment is still processed by those payment networks. So it will only work with those merchants who already participate in those international scheme card payment networks, which are likely to be the big players like big hotel chain, JD.com etc. From this point of view, Alipay’s approach is better – it introduces a intermediate ‘virtual card’ issued by a China local bank and you simply top up this virtual card using your overseas card. And this domestic virtual card will be more widely accepted.
Once you are able to add a visa credit card, you’ll be able to receive money thru wechatpay via transfer on pc version. Phone version doesn’t allow receiving of money but pc will
Hello, thanks for the helpful posting. I linked my foreign (American) ViSA credit card and also a Bank of America VISA debt card to my wallet in WeChat. The credit card I added in America and the Debit card i added in China.
The first chance i had to attempt to pay was getting a taxi from the Beijing airport to our hotel. I scanned the driver’s QR but my card was not supported. The next time i tried was at a restaurant where they had the payment scanner to scan my qr/barcode. It worked! Afterward, we had another successful WeChat payment at 7-11 (phone scanned at register).
When i tried to make another purchase, it failed with an error stating we reached our daily spending limit. Our total WeChat payment for the day was 174.4 yuan. There was an option to contact support about the limit. It required front and back photos of an Id (i used my Passport+Chinese visa) and then a picture of the card. I took a picture of the side that had the card number. I received a message stating they received the info and will get back to me in 24h. Additionally, i went to the help section and selected a an option for “can’t pay”. There was an option for “unpayment limit – account payment is limited and quickly lifted”. I selected that and then received a message saying the account is normal. There’s no way for me to check to see if that did anything. Maybe another day on this trip.
If the merchant has a way to scan your phone and you’ve linked a card, you should be able to pay. Be aware you may reach your daily spending limit like we did. Hopefully this info helps somebody.
I have wechat for a long time but the wechat pay icon never appears or accessible but suddenly today when i access the me in the wechat, the wechat pay is there and accessible too. I also tried adding my canadian master card and it seems that it has been successfully added as the default payment method. when i click on the money icon, it shows a code that it says will allow me to scan and pay the merchant. under the payment code is my mastercard information which i had just added. I have not tried using it to pay but it looks like i have already added my mastercard for the payment in wechat pay. may be josh can try again and let us know whether it is now working?
Hi Anthony, yes adding mastercard or visa are working fine but it’s only for payment to merchant.
What is currently not possible is to add money in your wallet using credit card, it said you should have registered using Chinese bank account. Have you tried this?
When you add payment information, are you guys getting charged? I am currently working on unlocking my dad’s wechat and they asked for payment information. I added his credit card information and they charged the card. one of the card was charged 25 cents and the other $1.
Usually those charges are refunded once the setup is complete.
HOW Do you open a bank account in china? i was in china october 2019 and went into a bank and they told me as a foreigner, i am not allowed to open a bank account.
how did you guys do it? I cant seems to add my Singapore ICBC card to wechat pay and they kept prompting me is an invalid card.
After i added mY card details it reQuests foR other private details Like my passport copy as wEll as national id number. SAys it will take a few days to approve in order for me to use it. Here in kenya i Though there is a bank that one can use to send via wechat And it is connect to our mobile money TraNsfer called m-pesa. That’s our only hope for Using we chat To transact INTERNATIONALly for now.
When I was in China in 2019, I was able to activate my wallet using a foreign VISA, but couldn’t actually use money from it. Instead the only way to get money into the wallet was accepting a transfer from a friend or using a peer to peer transfer service. AND the only way to accept was on a PC computer. I also wasn’t able to connect my Chinese bank account at all because it asked for a Chinese National ID number in the connection PROCESs.
Thing is, now my method of accepting transfers on PC has stopped working so I can pay using my wallet but can no longer get new money in. I hope we foreigners get some new options with improvements coming to the ap!
I agree! I hope something changes soon.
I traveled to China in 2019 and right after my trip I forgot my WeChat wallet password.I tried to talk to customer service many times after that,but the fact I don’t have a Chinese phone number and a Chinese bank account made this more complicated . Yesterday March 31/2021 I gave CUSTOMER service a chance ,and I was able to reset my WeChat wallet password, and even add An us bank account. They Will take your info as josh said , but if you want to use this service I guess that’s what you have to do .I tried My account By sending two 红包s and it worked ,so I think its worth To try .
can you please explain in detail the process of setting up a Wechat wallet with a US credit card, when you live in the US and travel occasionally to China (no residency), i.e. to exhibit at trade shows in Guangzhou etc.
Ideally I would like to pre-load the Wechat card with 1000 or 2000 RMB before each travel to minimize the risks. Thks.
WeChat keeps saying that they allow foreign credit cards, but as you read in this article, I have never been able to get it to work. You might want to try Alipay, where I’ve heard some people have had success.
“that’s a lot of information that the Chinese government all of the sudden has access to. I don’t know about you, but that’s slightly scary”
This statement seems kind of ridiculous. Why is it scary? It’s exactly the same as traveling to any other country. If you’ve entered legally, they already know everything about you.
Show me another country that tracks your spending alongside your passport information and I’ll be happy to revise the statement. When you enter a country, you do not present your credit card. It’s absolutely naive to assume that when you enter a country “they already know everything about you”. They don’t…but they sure would love for you to voluntarily give that information up!
“WHEN YOU ENTER A COUNTRY, YOU DO NOT PRESENT YOUR CREDIT CARD.”
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU DO. TRAVEL VISAS IN MANY COUNTRIES ARE PAID VIA CREDIT CARD/PAYPAL/BANK TRANSFER BY THE APPLICANT. AUSTRALIA IS ONE EXAMPLE. YOUR STANCE IS POINTLESS PARANOIA, WHILE OFFERING ZERO BENEFIT TO A TRAVELLER IN CHINA. IF THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO TRACK YOUR SPENDING, THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.