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A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China

blog.lerner.co.il

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

#21

Post by PakG1 »

reaperducer wrote: post #13

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…

Happened to me. Lost my phone. Bought a cheap Huawei for temporary usage and got a replacement SIM card same day, was up and running really fast. Eventually replaced with a second hand iPhone 5C. I don't think the risk exposure from phone loss or breakage is high.

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

#22

Post by reuven »

reaperducer wrote: post #13

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…

A good point. I made sure to have a power pack (i.e., big, external charging battery) with me — not so that I could talk on the phone, but so that I could pay for things and/or call a taxi with DiDi. Without a charge on my phone, I'd effectively be penniless and stranded.

At least in China, they might be moving toward multiple and parallel services (i.e., WeChat and AliPay), but they're all based on phones. Which means that if you lose your phone, or if it breaks, you're really in trouble.

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

#23

Post by reaperducer »

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.

They do have Union Pay, which is a special, China-only credit card.

Not China-only. Union Pay is widely accepted in the United States, and probably every other country. Even small gas stations in the middle of nowhere take Union Pay.

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

#24

Post by reaperducer »

PakG1 wrote: post #21
reaperducer wrote: post #13

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…

Happened to me. Lost my phone. Bought a cheap Huawei for temporary usage and got a replacement SIM card same day, was up and running really fast. Eventually replaced with a second hand iPhone 5C. I don't think the risk exposure from phone loss or breakage is high.

Lost my phone. Bought a cheap Huawei

But the problem in a phone-only payment world is when you lose your phone, how do you buy the cheap temporary replacement? You literally have nothing to pay for it with.

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

#25

Post by jandrese »

reuven wrote: post #10
swang75 wrote: post #9

For an official guide on how to activate WeChat Pay without a China mobile number, what payment sources (primarily debit or credit cards issued by a mainland Chinese bank) are accepted, and what identity documents are accepted (including non-Chinese passports), you can go to WeChat's official Help Center site in English here: https://help.wechat.com/cgi-bin/newreadtemplate?t=help_cente... Perhaps the official docs of…

Perhaps, but the official docs (following your link) explicitly says: "At the current time, "Wallet" is only available to users registered in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Africa and Malaysia." In other words, the official line is that I shouldn't be able to use WeChat payments. The whole point of my blog post is that this official line is wrong.

It's still kind of true since you basically need to either find a friend you trust to launder money for you, or use some sketchy online service with high fees to launder the money for you.

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

#26

Post by jandrese »

reuven wrote: post #20
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…

I sometimes wonder how much money PayPal has failed to make over the years because they are so eager to freeze accounts at the drop of a hat that the only sensible policy is to empty your PayPal account at the earliest opportunity whenever you get a balance.

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

#27

Post by jianshen »

reaperducer wrote: post #13

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…

Eventually, you'll be able to pay with your face and won't even need your phone in some places [1]. I wonder if they're taking and storing stereoscopic photos of my face when I go thru customs...

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/13/biometrics-payment-china-s...

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

#28

Post by stcredzero »

reuven wrote: post #22
reaperducer wrote: post #13

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…

A good point. I made sure to have a power pack (i.e., big, external charging battery) with me — not so that I could talk on the phone, but so that I could pay for things and/or call a taxi with DiDi. Without a charge on my phone, I'd effectively be penniless and stranded. At least in China, they might be moving toward multiple and parallel services (i.e., WeChat and AliPay), but they're all based on phones. Which mea…

What would it take to establish a competitor to PayPal in the US?

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

#29

Post by PakG1 »

reaperducer wrote: post #24
PakG1 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happened to me. Lost my phone. Bought a cheap Huawei for temporary usage and got a replacement SIM card same day, was up and running really fast. Eventually replaced with a second hand iPhone 5C. I don't think the risk exposure from phone loss or breakage is high.

Lost my phone. Bought a cheap Huawei But the problem in a phone-only payment world is when you lose your phone, how do you buy the cheap temporary replacement? You literally have nothing to pay for it with.

Well, first, it'd probably be a phone-primary payment world, not a phone-only payment world. The traditional bank infrastructure would probably still exist.

But even if not, and it was truly a phone-only payment world, I can't believe that they wouldn't have some kind of backup process available.

And even if no backup process were available, the first friend I could bump into or email could help me buy a cheap phone, and then I'd pay them back after I'm up and running again.

I see no scenarios where my risk exposure is significant in a phone loss or breakage scenario.

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

#30

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]
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