WeChat Pay, Alipay and other Chinese Bank Pay

[Stone]

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

[Randy W]

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

 

 

The catch is in the verification when setting up the account, like you say. Unless you can set up roaming long enough to receive ONE text msg in the U.S., #2 would seem to be the way to go.

[Stone]

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.

[Stone]

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

[Allon]

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.

 

You should be able to if the phones are compatible. T-Mobile and Verizon I know have compatible systems. I know my wife, while in China, was able to send me messages directly. but we limited them to WeChat since we were being charged. I would think you could get something going using We-Pay/Chat for the messaging end but the question of security is paramount to me.

 

'Course, I do not trust anything but Paypal and Amazon. And even them........

[Randy W]

That article seems to be for foreigners IN CHINA, no ??

 

There's this -

 

The final process is the verification of your phone number. It doesn't have to be the phone number you are using the Alipay app on, but you'll need to type in the verification code sent to the number registered with your bank account.

 

 

I don't know if you've thought this all the way through - but it seems like actually making a payment from outside the country might be problematic, unless it'll accept an Internet connection from outside the Great Firewall.

 

I'm set up on both AliPay and WeChat, and have used WeChat, but only from within China.

[Allon]

We have used WeChat a lot from/to China and the US and had no charges applied. We use T-Mobile with the latest iphone from Samsung (not the Note 7). But the question becomes, as Randy says, the internet connection for making payments. It would seem to me possible to do with a cell phone if the app was there. WeChat brags about its capability. Might want to contact them.

 

Another consideration: money going to/from the US is subject to scrutiny by the IRS and Customs. Might want to contact a lawyer or accountant who specializes in such things to be safe. I was advised to be careful about how much and how often I send money to the relatives. (Noblesse oblige )

[Randy W]

We have used WeChat a lot from/to China and the US and had no charges applied. We use T-Mobile with the latest iphone from Samsung (not the Note 7). But the question becomes, as Randy says, the internet connection for making payments. It would seem to me possible to do with a cell phone if the app was there. WeChat brags about its capability. Might want to contact them.

 

Another consideration: money going to/from the US is subject to scrutiny by the IRS and Customs. Might want to contact a lawyer or accountant who specializes in such things to be safe. I was advised to be careful about how much and how often I send money to the relatives. (Noblesse oblige )

 

 

In this case, though, the money would come from a Chinese bank and be paid to a Chinese merchant, and in fairly small amounts, nowhere near the $10,000 trigger.

 

Seems like someone was talking about the 'Pay' option not being available outside China. I'll see if I can't find that discussion.

[Randy W]

Found it here - WeChat Chinese Version has a wallet feature

 

but that may just confuse you more, unless you're ahead of us on this.

 

The topic does touch on setting up a Chinese SIM card for use in the U.S., which may just solve your problem.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Stone]

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).

[Stone]

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 W]

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.

 

 

I've never used AliPay, except to put ¥100 into the wallet - this was at a discount, so I think I only paid ¥97 or whatever for the ¥100 credit.

 

You can pay directly from the bank account, which is what I do on WeChat, since I don't use it very often.

 

No, I don't think you'll need the SMS verification - just sign into AliPay or WeChat on that cell phone. This is where you can use a WiFi connection, and not rely on the data carrier.

 

You may already know how to do this on a web browser - if so, you're ahead of me there. I just scan the merchant's QR code on my cell phone and pay that way.

 

But back to my previous concern - I'm not sure you'll be able to do this through the Great Firewall. Let us know.

[Randy W]

I think all you need to do in either AliPay or WeChat to pay a merchant is to scan their QR code from within the app - it'll use whatever payment method you've set up - either wallet or bank account

[Stone]

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.

[dan1984]

No SMS messages required for WeChat payments, except for the initial set-up. I basically use WeChat wallet for everything now (be it for online purchases or outside of the digital world at 711s, restaurants, and even the local street side vegetable market), and haven't used Alipay in ages, so I don't really remember if there are SMS messages required - don't think so.