Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

blog.lerner.co.il

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 115 posts

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#11

Post by NedIsakoff »

reuven wrote: post #8
pascoej wrote: post #7

Nice guide. I didn’t know it was possible without the Chinese phone number + Chinese bank account. Getting a Chinese phone number and bank account was surprisingly painless for me. You prepay around 20-30$ for a phone number at 1rmb/500mb and the account is a simple form. Then if you have a nice bank account with fee free international withdraws you can convert money without fee by going to the atm, withdrawing, then…

I seriously thought about getting a bank account and phone number. But I have a single-SIM phone, and really didn't feel like swapping the SIM in and out, depending on who I was calling. (Nor did I feel like having two phones with me.) But yes, if I hadn't managed to get WeChat payments to work, I probably would instead have written a guide on getting a Chinese bank account!

WeChat pay is a lot less useful then Alipay. I would recommend Alipay.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#12

Post by reuven »

NedIsakoff wrote: post #11
reuven wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously thought about getting a bank account and phone number. But I have a single-SIM phone, and really didn't feel like swapping the SIM in and out, depending on who I was calling. (Nor did I feel like having two phones with me.) But yes, if I hadn't managed to get WeChat payments to work, I probably would instead have written a guide on getting a Chinese bank account!

WeChat pay is a lot less useful then Alipay. I would recommend Alipay.

As I wrote in the blog post, I tried to get Alipay to work. So far as I can tell, they truly don't let foreigners (without Chinese bank accounts) use their payment system.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#13

Post by reaperducer »

I was getting funny looks from taxi drivers and waitresses, all of whom were disappointed that another primitive foreigner was forcing them to use cash.

I simply don't like the thought that if I forget my phone, get my phone taken from me, drop my phone and it breaks, or run out of battery that I'll be stranded somewhere and unable to buy food, check in to a hotel, or even get home.

Societies should move toward more payment methods, not fewer. Redundancy is important, especially with something as essential as currency. Look at the recent CenturyLink outage which reduced non-cash sales at stores that relied on it for credit card transactions to zero.

Too much risk in too small a basket.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#14

Post by reaperducer »

reuven wrote: post #5
pcr0 wrote: post #2

Given that the Chinese government actively promotes tourism, the number of hoops a foreigner has to jump through to pay for things where cash isn't accepted is quite ridiculous.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune?

This is true for every other country in the world, yet somehow it's done. China is the exception.

Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.

No, that's just a thing that happens. It's not unique to China, or even this point in time. I've been to lots of places in the world where I've gotten the "tourist" menu at a restaurant, which has higher prices.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#16

Post by baybal2 »

Another option is that you spoof your sim card and gps to HK with xposed, and then the wallet will unlock, and if you are lucky enough, it will allow you to directly debit your credit card.

There is some kind of uncertain logic it uses to guess if somebody in HK is an actual Honkonger with a foreign credit card, but rumors are that some card issuers work 100% of times.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#17

Post by reuven »

reaperducer wrote: post #14
reuven wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? This is true for every other country in the world, yet somehow it's done. China is the exception. Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of…

I totally accept your point about tourist vs. local prices.

But when it comes to credit cards, China is truly different: They don't have Visa or MasterCard (or AmEx) in the country. They do have Union Pay, which is a special, China-only credit card.

So businesses do often take credit cards. They just don't take non-Chinese credit cards.

In this sense, they are different from other countries I've visited.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#18

Post by PakG1 »

reaperducer wrote: post #14
reuven wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? This is true for every other country in the world, yet somehow it's done. China is the exception. Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of…

The difference is that the domestic population of China is large enough to provide plenty of economic activity such that foreign tourists actually don't really move the needle. If you were operating a business, what would you do in that situation? There's not a lot of economic incentive to provide service to foreign tourists.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#19

Post by PakG1 »

reuven wrote: post #17
reaperducer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses can accept foreigner credit cards. But why would they, when foreigners are a tiny proportion of the population, and taking such cards probably costs them a fortune? This is true for every other country in the world, yet somehow it's done. China is the exception. Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of…

I totally accept your point about tourist vs. local prices. But when it comes to credit cards, China is truly different: They don't have Visa or MasterCard (or AmEx) in the country. They do have Union Pay, which is a special, China-only credit card. So businesses do often take credit cards. They just don't take non-Chinese credit cards. In this sense, they are different from other countries I've visited.

Well, to be pedantic, they do have Visa and Mastercard credit cards. Otherwise, it'd be really hard for their citizens to experience the world as tourists. But due to capital outflow restrictions, these credit cards are a bit limited.

Re: A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

#20

Post by reuven »

parliament32 wrote: post #15

Makes you wonder how the payment system in WeChat remains profitable if it's 100% free... do businesses have to pay a fee to withdraw?

Yes. You pay money to withdraw from your WeChat wallet into your (Chinese) bank account.

I've never had to do this, because I'm a foreigner, and thus cannot remove money from there.

Besides, WeChat is sitting on a pile of cash, thanks to this payment system: Everyone who transfers money into their WeChat wallet is basically giving TenCent (the WeChat company) money they can use to invest, or whatever they want. I've heard that they have about $60 billion at their disposal thanks to this, but I don't know where I read this and it's hard to know how accurate it is. But given that everyone in China uses WeChat payments, I wouldn't doubt it.

When I left China on Saturday night, I still had 600 RMB in my wallet. That money will remain there until my next visit, currently scheduled for April. I've effectively loaned 600 RMB to WeChat, which they can use however they want for four months. Multiplied over many users, that's potentially quite a bit.

Post reply on HN