WeChat Pay for foreigners

China is the closest to a no-cash country in the world since the WeChat Pay and Alipay were launched. You would never know how convenient it is. Because you don’t have the experience of using WeChat Pay. The great news is WeChat Pay and Alipay already launched for outside of China users. This article will show you how foreigners who don’t have China bank cards and phone number to activate WeChat Pay Step by Step. Overseas credit card supported right now!

What is WeChat Pay?

WeChat Pay is one of the great features of WeChat. WeChat Pay is a payment feature integrated into the WeChat App, users can complete payment quickly with smartphones. WeChat has Quick Pay, QR Code Payments, In-App Web-Based Payments, and Native In-App Payments, all to fulfill the full range of scenarios your customers expect to fulfill different payment situations. Combined with WeChat’s official accounts, WeChat Pay service explores and optimizes o2o consumption experience, provides professional internet solutions for a physical business.

What can I do with WeChat Pay?

Well, the answer to this question will totally blow your mind. As I said, WeChat Pay is a Quick Pay solution, so there are so many things you can do with it as long as the payment is relative to money.

• Purchase almost anything.
  Yeah, almost anything!!!
• Public Service.
  There’re so many city public services launched on WeChat. Such as Social security and medical insurance, Utilities, Car service, weather checking, Government services, etc.
• Tencent Charity.
  You can donate to people who need it, and WeChat will list the donation program. Or people who need donations can apply for a donation. This really helps for those who can’t afford to pay their hospital check.
• Mobile Top Up.
  Everyone needs to Top-up mobile, you can do that easily on WeChat.
• Transfer Money.
  You can send money or receive money on WeChat. if you keep the transferred money on WeChat without withdrawing then there’s no fee to use. If you withdraw your money to your bank card, then there will be a tiny fee to cost.
• Red Pocket.
  Sending or receiving a Red pocket is a tradition in China. Especially when the New Year is coming. But now Red Pocket is more like a thing just for fun, it’s not about how much you get, it’s who grabbing the Red Pocket especially in the group.
• Pay bills.
  Pay the hotel, restaurant, hospital, etc.
• Found Management.
  For most people, they don’t have any idea about Fund. And how to buy and manage Fund. But you can use your small change on WeChat to buy Fund. That’s really convenient for people want to earn interest without taking much time there. You just need to pick one you want to buy and then they will do the rest.
• Bike or Car Sharing.
  You might have heard of sharing Bike, like Mobike, OfO bike. They’re a sharing bike for a short distance. It’s super convenient when your destination is not far from you.
• Order Taxi.
  Taxi is hard to get sometimes, but the Taxi on WeChat is easy. As the system will arrange the order to taxi-driver who nearby you most. And actually, we would like to call DIDI, it’s the most used Taxi service in China, it’s also a kind of car sharing. Fast and comfortable.
• Order Take-out Food.
  There’re many Take-out food companies in China. 美团外卖 and 饿了么 are the most used. As for take-out food delivery, China is the fastest delivery. Basically, you will get the take-out food in 30 minutes.
• Book Rail & Airplane Tickets.
• Book Movie Tickets.
• etc.

So many things you can do. I won’t show you all today, because this article is for activating WeChat Pay. But there’s one thing you need to know, you can’t shop online on Alibaba group companies, like Taobao, TianMao, Aliexpress, 1688, etc. The reason is that Tencent is competing with Alibaba.

As for your concern, I got a mobile payment too. When I pay the bills I just need to scan my phone with NFC, or something like that. But it’s not a real quick payment. We can finish almost everything in WeChat App, and super easy to use. Even a 70 years old man can do it easily. QR code payment is what I like most. What you need to do is scanning the QR code, and entering the payment password(If you set a password) when you purchase something offline. As for online shopping that’s much easier, you don’t need to find which credit card to pay for, remember what’s the password on this credit card.

No change, No coin, No forgotten password trouble. Do you want to know where your money has gone? WeChat Pay will record every payment, and easy to manage your payment. ALL IN ONE App.

If you’re planning a trip to China, doing business with Chinese, working in China, something like that, you should use a Chinese payment style. As the Chinese almost don’t use cash anymore. If you don’t have a WeChat account, you should create WeChat account before you want to contact Chinese or someone in China.

How many countries can use WeChat Pay?

I’m sure that credit card payment is the most used in the US, UK, and EU counties. If you get into my website, you must be interested in China. Maybe you’re a foreign student (overseas student), a businessman doing business with Chinese, traveling in China, or need to transfer funds to WeChat users, something like that. Then you will want to know how many countries can use WeChat Pay?

At present. they’re more than 49 countries(Regions) that can use WeChat Pay. However, there’re only three counties(four regions) that can use WeChat Pay before, the users from China Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, South Africa, and Malaysia. it has changed since 2019. But, most counties can only use WeChat Pay to purchase something, still not able to receive payment currently, which means consumption only, and able to transfer and send Red Pocket. Except for those four regions.

How to activate WeChat Pay(Foreigners)?

The key to activating WeChat Pay is to bind your bank(Credit card) card. If you’re not China resident. You can use several overseas Credit cards to bind WeChat. Which means, No China Bankcard, No Chinese phone number WeChat users can still use WeChat Pay right now.

WeChat Supported Bank Cards:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• AmericanExpress(AMEX)
• Discover Global Network ( include Diners Club)
• JCB card
• China Bank card (issued by China)

NOTE: The Visa, Mastercard, AmericanExpress, Discover Global Network, and JCB cards support Credit Cards Only, The china bank card supported Credit & Debit Card

For those WeChat users who have or don’t have China Bank Card, the following instructions all covered

How can I access the WeChat Pay?

Log in to WeChat and find [WeChat Pay] or [Wallet].

Click on the [Me] icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen. And then, you will see WeChat Pay or Wallet. What if I can’t find the WeChat Pay entrance, what am I supposed to do?

Basically, WeChat Pay only shows an entrance for those country users who registered in China Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, South Africa, and Malaysia by default. If you’re from other countries, you might not find the WeChat Pay entrance. In this case, you might need to ask someone to send you a Red Pocket, once you click on the Red Pocket, you will find your WeChat Pay entrance. You can continue to fill the form.

Click on [Wallet].

If you already found [Add Bank Card], you should click that. If not, follow my instructions.

Click on [Cards].

Tap [+ Add bank Card].

Enter your Bank Card Number.

And then enter your card number. If you don’t want to enter the Bank Card Number, you scan your bank card number by tapping the camera icon, it will recognize automatically, and you just need to check the number. After that, click on [Next].

Enter Card and Identity Information.

Select Card Type.

This is a really important step. You need to tap [Bank] and then select a Bank you want to bind by scrolling down or searching it on the search bar. If you’re not China resident, please select the Bank I listed before.

As for Card Type, if you don’t have a China Bankcard to bind., you can skip it, because there’s only one type, that’s only a Credit Card available for foreigners.

If you have a China bank card, you will see there’s Credit Card & Debit Card option by tapping Card Type.

Enter Bank Card Information:

Expiration: Select Month/Year. The card’s valid date is printed below the card number on the front of the credit card in the numerical format MONTH/YEAR.

CVV code: The CVV code is the 3 or 4- digits number on the back of your Credit Card.

Billing Address: First Name, Last Name, Region, Address, Phone Number, and Email.

If you’re binding a China Bank card you might no need to enter a Billing Address. But the phone number must be the same as the phone number you provided to the bank when you opened the account. If you didn’t provide a mobile number to the bank, you have forgotten it, or it is no longer accessible, please contact your bank and update the mobile number.

American and Canadian users might need to verify the billing address while binding.

NOTE: 0.05USD pre-authorization will be initiated to verify the account.

After that, Check [” User Agreement”] and then click on [Next].

Then you will receive an SMS verification code on the phone number you just filled in. After verification, you need to create a 6-digit payment password before you can use the services.

When it’s all done, you just activate your WeChat Pay. But for those users who bind Visa card, Mastercard, AmericanExpress(AMEX), Discover Global Network ( include Diners Club), and JCB card, you can only use to pay, not able to receive payment, you should be aware of that.

Once you bind your Bank Card to WeChat, your account will be safer, I mean, would not be blocked for no reason. That’s why Chinese WeChat users wouldn’t get blocked easily.

Now, enjoin your WeChat Pay trip! Thank you.