31–40 of 115 posts
With the ubiquity of mobile this kind of thing really scares me.... phones are such an unreliable thing to place so much importance in
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…
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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.
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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,…
That's just moving the goalposts. The whole point of the original post was that moving to a phone-only payment world is a bad thing, and that's what is happening in some places (China is only one).
I see no scenarios where my risk exposure is significant in a phone loss or breakage scenario.
Then I submit that you lack imagination.
Here's a scenario: You're in a country you've never been before. You took an Uber to a restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge. Food was great. You pay with your phone, then leave.
In the street as you try to text your wife a picture of the awesome food, a passerby bumps into you and your phone goes through a sewer grate.
You now have no phone. You can't summon another Uber because you don't have access to the app. You can't call a cab because you can't pay for it. You can't take transit because your transit pass was on the phone. You can't walk back to the hotel, because your map is an app. You can't talk to the locals because your translation dictionary is an app. You're screwed.
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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.
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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.
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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,…
Well, first, it'd probably be a phone-primary payment world, not a phone-only payment world That's just moving the goalposts. The whole point of the original post was that moving to a phone-only payment world is a bad thing, and that's what is happening in some places (China is only one). I see no scenarios where my risk exposure is significant in a phone loss or breakage scenario. Then I submit that you lack imagina…
If you're that totally helpless in a foreign country without your phone, you probably should go with a friend or local.
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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.
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…
Luckily, you can rent battery backs for your cell phone everywhere in major cities in China (my experience was in Shanghai). I loved using my phone for everything and it was a little unsettling leaving the apartment only with my papers and a phone.