What is the best payment method for short-term stays?

[Flickserve]

So any time you want to pay for something , you have to log out of one wechat account to the other on the same phone and switch it back to do your messages. That’s a bit cumbersome for me!

[mungouk]

On 5/17/2019 at 9:14 PM, Flickserve said:

That’s a bit cumbersome for me!

 

Well, I can pay with Alipay no problem. 

 

At present the only situation I absolutely have to use WeChat pay is in the canteen at work, and really it's just a couple of taps to change accounts. OK, it's 4.  I just enabled "face pay" so it's actually less taps than entering a 6-digit PIN anyway  

 

btw "switch accounts" means exactly that — you don't log out and log back in again.  

 

Maybe in a while I'll work out how to add payments to the original account, but in the meantime this is good enough for me.

 

EDIT: Yes, I just tried it, and sending a ¥1 红包 to my older account triggered the real-name authentication process. Accepting the  红包 resulted in the "WeChat Pay" menu option appearing on the homescreen of this account.

 

[ltz1992]

how short are you talking about? if you are going there for at least 1 semester, i think its better for you to spend a few hours to make a local chinese bank account, and connect it to your wechat or alipay account. why? because its too risky to use cash in china nowadays, especially if your face doesnt look like chinese, they mostly will give you fake money, or they simply dont bring any cash. but i heard if you have apple pay, you can use it too in china, but i never try it before. 

 

using credit card is actually one of the solutions. using atm machine in china with your foreign bank account will charge you more money, and in my experience, it doesnt always work, you can try open a chinese bank account in your country, like (ICBC, BOC, CCB, etc), put money in it, and you can withdraw anytime anywhere you want in china.

[889]

Wechat seem to have stepped up their identity requirements. Today while trying to complete an online purchase, I was first required to upload a photo of my passport and myself. Had never been asked to provide this to Wechat before.

 

As said, that they impose this requirement in the middle of a purchase is mindless and irritating.

[ChTTay]

On 5/24/2019 at 11:23 AM, ltz1992 said:

because its too risky to use cash in china nowadays, especially if your face doesnt look like chinese, they mostly will give you fake money,

Wow ?

[DavyJonesLocker]

On 5/24/2019 at 11:23 AM, ltz1992 said:

because its too risky to use cash in china nowadays, especially if your face doesnt look like chinese, they mostly will give you fake money, or they simply dont bring any cash

 

that's complete nonsense. I wonder sometimes if posters on here actually live or have lived in china for any considerable time. 

 

[ltz1992]

On 5/25/2019 at 3:44 PM, DavyJonesLocker said:

that's complete nonsense. I wonder sometimes if posters on here actually live or have lived in china for any considerable time. 

 

im sorry, maybe the way i said it was a little bit too much, but well, i lived in beijing for almost 3 years already until now, and things that i said are based on my experience, well, its not me actually, but my other foreign friends, one of them is even a korean. its not always like that tho, maybe i was unlucky, or my friends were that time, but i just wanna share this with you guys, better bring an umbrella before it rains.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Not saying it doesnt happen but notes are still in widespread use here as far as I can ses. Just look at how many ATMS there are around. In fact I noticed at the hospital yesterday most people paid in cash, however I suspect a lot were from the countryside where cash may be more widely used. I think around tourist areas or some dodgey aggressive street sellers you have a much higher chance to getting bad notes but overall the chances are still low in Beijing in my view. Any chainstore , supermarket or shopping mall restaurant would not be in the business of handing over fake notes. 

I think peoples experience can differ greatly depending on the lifestyle choice and whether they can become street smart quick but that's really related to any city around they world. 

 

In any case using we chat , alipay just seems an easier and safer way to go about things now .At times I still use cash . Went to the blind massage place today and it was just easier to hand over a 100 kuai note that pay the person directly with wechat 

[mungouk]

OK some kind of development here... there's now a "relatives" function on WeChat Pay where you can add four other people to your account and give them permission to spend from your account.  Go to WeChat wallet and tap "Relative Cards". 

 

It's different from just sending a Hong Bao since it's a "you spend, I pay" arrangement, so it gets charged to your own wallet or alternatively you can select a preferred payment method.  You can set a monthly limit of up to ¥3000.

 

 

The menu suggests you can give one each to father, mother and 2 kids, but it looks like you can choose any of your WeChat contacts. In which case you could give payment access to anyone visiting China who needs helping out, without them having to link a bank card (I presume).  They have to accept the "Relative Card" within 24 hours of you sending it.

 

The T&Cs are here, and the "user guide" is here, in Chinese only. 

 

[889]

Have you tested this with your older unverified Wechat account? If it works it would indeed be a good way of making life easier for friends visiting the Mainland.

[mungouk]

53 minutes ago, 889 said:

Have you tested this with your older unverified Wechat account?

 

Unfortunately for this scenario my other WeChat account is verified now, but I did manage to send a card to it and then accept it from that account, so there wasn't any step where you have to confirm it's really your dad or anything.

When you accept the Relative Card it shows up under "Cards" associated with your wallet, not surprisingly.  So it's a bit like a virtual bank card.

 

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

I don't see this on my version 7.04. seems like the latest version too. I'm using the mainland version of wechat

 

What version are you running?

[889]

Have you looked under Me > WeChat Pay > Wallet? Should be there on V. 7.0.4 (English) at least.

 

Actually, according to this site it's been around for several months. And Zhifubao apparently has a similar function, called 亲密付.

 

https://www.pc841.com/shoujijiqiao/94303_all.html

[mungouk]

I'm using v7.0.4 as well, from the UK app store, but I'm pretty sure the relative card thing only appeared in the last week.

 

Maybe it's being rolled out incrementally?  

[DavyJonesLocker]

5 hours ago, 889 said:

Have you looked under Me > WeChat Pay > Wallet? Should be there on V. 7.0.4 (English) at least.

 

Lo and behold, there it is! Could have sworn it wasn't they earlier but maybe I just had brain freeze !