Stone

What I was trying to say is: you can avoid the $55 wire transfer fee, by doing this: (1) Open a FREE Schwab checking account (no mini. balance, no monthly fee); (2) transfer the money from BofA to Schwab via free ACH; (3) Use a Schwab Visa Debit to withdraw cash at an ATM with Visa logo inside China. https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/no-fee-debit-cards-for-international-travel/

Hello, Randy: All international wires cost money to wire in and wire out. Foreign ATM withdrawals may have non-BofA-ATM fee. There is only one way which is completely free.

Have you tried http://www.guideinchina.com/articles/4/how_to_send_money_abroad_with_alipay_1510652525888

Are there many people here who are also using Android Pay or Apple Pay? Have you thought about how you can quickly shut off Wechat Pay, Alipay, Android Pay and Apple Pay if you accidentally lose your phone? I heard iphone and Apple Pay should have strong security feature built in.

No, not from a Chinese bank account in China, because that would require an instant SMS verification code. I plan to set up either an Alipay or a Wechat Pay account when I visit China with my Chinese cellphone in hand, and then use Alipay (or WetChat) to pay for my next flight in China or hotel room in China while I am in the States (without the benefit of a China cellphone). I'll let you know if it works.

I have not used WeChat Pay or Alipay, so I'd like to know more. Once you have set up WeChat pay (Wallet) in China and have loaded some money in the Wallet account, do subsequent purchases using Alipay or Wechat Pay require cell phone instant message verification? Or is the message only required during the set-up phase? If subsequent purchases do not need cell phone verification, then it will help me a lot.

Randy is absolutely right: the online payment is from a Chinese bank in China to a merchant in China in very small RMB amount. Nothing is being sent across the country. I looked at the original post by Yuehan123. His wife can receive international roaming confirmation messages originated from China, while she is in the USA. That's the trick. But for someone who only makes online China payment very infrequently, I do not know if it is worthwhile to activate the international roaming feature for my China cellphone, because I think there could be monthly recurring fee for the China cellphone roaming features (as a charge from China Mobile).

Have you seen this website? It talks about how to set up Alipay. It looks like I might be able to do it without instant text message verification? http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/yes-foreigners-can-use-alipay-this-is-how

Thank you, Randy. You are the authority on China who I respect 100%. You suggested option (2). My question is: Let's say I have successfully set up AliPay, or Wechat Pay (Wexin Pay) when I am in China. After I return to the USA and try to make an online payment when I am in the States, does the Alipay or WeChat payment method require Chinese text message instant verification again? I doubt that I can I can set up my China cell phone roaming service that I can receive Chinese text message instantly in the States. That seems a difficult option.

An ongoing topic - click here for Most Recent Post I find it very difficult to make an online payment to a Chinese hotel, airline company or merchant when I am in the United States. In order to set up WeChat Pay, Alipay or any online banking payment from a Chinese Bank in China, the standard procedure is for them to send a short text message to my Chinese cell phone to instantly verify that I am a legitimate user. But my Chinese cell phone is off when I am in the USA. How to do this? I have thought the following options when I cannot receive Chinese instant text verification message: (1) Forward the Chinese cellphone text message to a email address, so that I can see? This does not seem a good method. (2) Open Alipay account when I am in China and when I am able to receive China text message. Then when I come back to the US, using Alipay or Wechat Pay do not require China text message verification. (3) Any other method? Thank you. Paul

Wow, this is completely news to me. My wife (US Green card) has traveled to Canada several times with me by land. We never thought about eTA when we planned to fly to Canada this year for vacation. Thank you.

Thanks, Randy.

Ctrip offers one of the lowest air fares for flights within China. Has anyone bought a domestic China flight on Ctrip website using a credit card issued by an American bank or using Paypal? Has everything worked out well in terms of flight and payment transaction including exchange rate? Thanks Paul

Anyone using Global Entry? How do you like it?

The American must have strong promotion going on, because it even allows me to fly from Boston to Dallas to Beijing (RT) at very low fare. But thinking of long flight to and out of Dallas, I will probably not go that route that despite low fare.

This is a good post that gave me one more reason to stay away from Detroit airport when flying from/to China.

Well, I have been fairly busy at work lately and my wife has fully settled in. I found during the past several years, everyhing has been going up quite a bit especially food prices. But airline ticket prices to China remains fairly competitive with the new players (like Hainan Airlines) coming in and creating competitions. I use United Airlines most of the time but am thinking of switching.

Has anyone tried Hainan Airlines the flight between US mainland and China? How was your experience and can you select a seat when you book a flight on its website directly? Their price appears fairly competitive.

This economic recovery benefitted people who own stock (and stock funds) and people who own real estate, hurt people who saved money in the Bank, as inflation is pretty high if you look at food, utilities, medical costs, etc. For people who own homes, but want to relocate to other area, unless they move to a cheaper area, they will find other homes are getting more expensive and require larger down payment.

I do not know where you live. But in Eastern MA where I live, real estate market is hot, hot, hot! Especially in some towns with good schools, people are buying real estate like crazy, I mean really crazy. There is definitely shortage of moderately priced homes. I saw a beaten up home listed close to $400K. The house condition is so bad that the seller does not allow for any kind of inspection, but the property is under agreement in less than 2 wks.

I really like this google tool. I did not know its existence. Thanks Handy for estimating costs, we used it last week to shop for airline tickets for my wife last week. Only down side is clicking book got us the number for China Eastern Airlines in NY, wife ended up calling their office in Beijing using Skype, and took an hour or so for the agent to get the details right and sell her the tickets. But the price was as quoted by Google. Can't you use China Eastern Airlines' website and booked the tickets directly from there?

I really like this google tool. I did not know its existence. Thanks

Nick: Do you know what kind of LG cell phone (model) that you wife got from T-Mobile? Is it a GSM phone? Thanks

For $100 to $300, you can buy a cell phone in China that will do what you want, with no modification needed. Simply change the display language to English. Just be sure it's a quad-band GSM. I haven't heard a thing about compatabilities of the CDMA phones. Yes, it was easy to install the O/S, but I forget what the procedure was There are so many cell phone retailers in China. I saw China Mobile stores everywhere. If I want to make sure that I get a genuine new cell phone (not a refurbished one), should I check out China Mobile? Which cell phone is a good brand/model in China market? Thanks

I have a Nokia cell phone that I got from T-Mobile several years ago. When I brought it to China, I put in a Chinese SIM card, then I could make calls within China. But when someone sent me a text message in Chinese, I cannot view it. Also, I am worried that some Chinese websites may not display properly. I need the Chinese character display, because that's how I can get a taxi ride in China easily. The cell phone that I have is too old that I need a new one. The iphone 5s will probably display both Chinese and English, but it is bit expensive. I am wondering if I can spend something like $300 or less (or equivalent RMB) and get a new cell phone that works in both US and China. Should I buy it in China or USA? I do not know how to download a new Chinese language operating system onto a cell phone. Is that easy to do? Thanks