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I was there last month and it was almost impossible to get money on your WeChat account without a Chinese bank account. It was easy to fund my Malaysian WeChat
by dewey 7y ago
I was there last month and it was almost impossible to get money on your WeChat account without a Chinese bank account. It was easy to fund my Malaysian WeChat account but the balance isn't transferable or usable in China.
There's currently one remaining loop hole I know about which is to pay someone to send money via a red envelope / hóngbāo but it's getting increasingly harder. It's already asking you for a passport and right now it still works even if you cancel that but probably not for much longer. You can do that either if you know someone, ask someone in a store if they do it from their personal account or through some websites that take PayPal but with a hefty commission usually.
- usaar333 7y agoIs this a loop hole or intentional? I'm guessing wechat doesn't care to optimize the visitor experience. Has it ever been different? Afaik, it's as limited as it always was; they just added identity verification.
- dewey 7y agoIt's a relatively new change, the latest big change was in April when they removed one other way of sending a red envelope. So it doesn't seem like it's intentional. https://lerner.co.il/2018/12/28/the-foreigners-guide-to-wechat-payments-in-china/ https://lerner.co.il/2018/12/28/the-foreigners-guide-to-wech...
- srcmap 7y agoMight be related to some government regulations about money laundering. There is some problem with that in China.
- amaccuish 7y agoWhat's the point of this though? Surely it hurts tourism to China? Wouldn't it be better if foreigners could easily use wechat pay?
- dewey 7y agoI don’t have any numbers on that but it seems that external tourism isn’t a big priority for China. If it were they’d make sure that the Visa process is easier, at least the people at airport information counters speak English and other small things that tourists would encounter right away. This is just anecdotal but most tourists I saw were Chinese so maybe the percentage of non-Chinese tourists isn’t that high.