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WeChat seems like a really big deal here. My understanding is that to basically function in China you need to have WeChat on your phone (to call a car, pay at a
by tomasreimers 6y ago
WeChat seems like a really big deal here. My understanding is that to basically function in China you need to have WeChat on your phone (to call a car, pay at a restaurant, etc. )
If we box Americans out of it entirely, how will that affect travel to China? Will people pick up cheap/limited-use androids at the airport that they can use for all these functions?
- robjan 6y agoAmericans don't have access to the payment features of WeChat since it requires a Chinese bank account (with the exception of HK and Macau). It's a pain in the butt. Even as someone living in HK with an RMB denominated Unionpay card, I can't use it to pay in mainland China.
- tomasreimers 6y agoWow I didn't know that - do you know why? Is it that international interchange is just too much of a hassle?
- robjan 6y agoI can only guess it's a mix of local regulations and the fact that the RMB (CNY) isn't freely convertible. There's an HK version of WeChat pay which is more open but isn't very widely used since we have had the Octopus stored value card for nearly 25 years which serves a similar purpose. For everything else there's MasterCard (or Visa / AE).
- JCharante 6y agomust be for legal reasons, you can't even open red packets that people send you, so they just don't want you having a balance in their system at all.
- derwiki 6y agoSame with Didi—-needed to be used with a SIM card linked to a Chinese bank account/national ID. Ended up just paying cash for cab rides because of that hassle.