To Use WeChat Pay WITHOUT a Chinese bank account

 

I finally figured it out how to link your foreign bank card to WeChat pay without having a Chinese bank card this opens so many doors for businesses and transactions on WeChat.

 

In this article i'm going to show you step by step on how to do so,

So let's get started now this is a disclaimer I can't guarantee this will work 100 of the time this is just something that I did personally and it worked without actually inputting a Chinese bank account realize it took me many tries with the customer service that includes phone calls and using their chats to actually go through this it was quite painful.

 

But with persistence if you really want it eventually you're going to get it note that I think their customer service is very active, so let's start off with what you need you need a passport because there's going to be a passport verification you're going to have to go through you obviously need a WeChat account.

 

You need some kind of a phone number now this phone number can be from anywhere around the world but it needs to have signal that can receive a one-time password china doesn't do email verification like you may be used to in the west they only do phone numbers.

 

Maybe because it's more trackable, but so be it you need a phone number you need a master visa card from your home country's bank account and lastly this is not mandatory but it helps so much more you need to know someone that has WeChat pay and has been using WeChat for at least six months to help you with the verification and to get the process started.

 

Now the first step is to apply for a WeChat account so you can simply download WeChat on any app store it's very easy to find you can Google it whatever it may be once you download it you're going to have to apply for an account. As I have mentioned before you need to do so using a phone number emails won't work don't try not even your QQ email none of that's going to work you need a phone number if it's a form phone number still works if it's a Chinese one even better.

 

So then after you input your phone number from your home country you're going to be prompted to give a one-time password they'll send you a text with either a four or six digit password you can go ahead and open your WeChat account.

 

Now the fun part you can't just have a WeChat account you need to get verified and I think this is the most trying step WeChat can do. They also do this for Chinese people it's not just for foreigners you need to know someone that's been using WeChat for six months. And that can scan your QR code to activate your account to make sure you're a real person.

 

Okay! so you have a WeChat account the next step;

 

WeChat pay but then you go to the me tab and get it activated. Well there are actually two ways, there's easy way and the hard way and I’m going to show you both and other examples as well;

 

1)     The easy way is to friend somebody that's been using WeChat and has WeChat pay that can send you money using WeChat pay. So the process will look like this you friend somebody they send you like some money you click on the money and then that activates the system to activate WeChat pay for you.

2)     So then on the me tab you can go ahead and actually pay version number two let's say you know nobody that has a WeChat account you know nobody in china but you want to have a WeChat well you're gonna have to create a third-party platform that does purchases on WeChat.

3)     With your WeChat account and then right before you purchase it there's different options to purchase the goods select on WeChat and then select to add a new bank card when you're promoted to go ahead and pay and this will activate your WeChat pay on your WeChat and then you're good to go so once you have WeChat pay activated.

4)     Finally right you then go to the me tab WeChat pay wallet cards and add new bank card at this point you may be prompted to input a six digit pin to work as your security password and you can also use biometrics if you want to but i'm not going to explain the details into that don't forget the six digit pin please i've had people that forgot it and they were not able to recover their accounts it is really difficult especially if you don't have a Chinese bank account or a Chinese phone number to recover your WeChat pay if you don't remember your six digit pin so write it somewhere that you'll never forget it save it on your laptop whatever you need to do don't forget the six digit pin once you have your six digit pin established go ahead and continue on with your card information

 

The first step is to input the card number and it will automatically detect that it is a Visa or MasterCard after that you're going to be prompted to go to the next page and put in the personal information of the card for example;

·         The CBC code

·         The expiration date

·         The exact name that is on the card, and

·         The exact name email address, and

·         Email that is linked to that card's bank account

Note: If you get One Digit wrong you're probably not going to be able to link the card so make sure it's exactly as it matches in your bank account and then click on next and you should be able to link your bank account. But wait sometimes I click on next doesn't recognize it even though the information is all correct, no worries keep on pushing next and you'll eventually get an alert saying hey we temporarily blocked your WeChat pay.

If you want to fix this problem? [temporarily blocked your WeChat pay]:

If you want to fix this problem click on view more details and then you can submit a ticket with your problem. I recommend you put in your passport and your card information and explain in the description what your problem. That they can get it handled and the customer service will respond within 24 to 72 hours. Note they only have Chinese service don't even try in English, they only have Chinese they're not going to respond to you in English. It's a bit of a hassle they have to wait two to three days to get a response but this is one method you can contact customer service and if you stay tuned.

I will show you the phone number you can contact them with so that you can get immediate service instead of waiting the two to three days. So once you've linked your card you should see on your cards that your VISA MasterCard successfully linked you may not be able to use it yet because WeChat may do a small transaction like PayPal. They may either send you a couple cents or take out a couple cents for your bank account and then you may need to call them up and verify hey this small transaction amount was this much on this day so they can verify it's actually you. But after you've done that step and you've actually seen the card has been submitted and inputted and is registered inside WeChat pay.

The last step for you is to authenticate your account using your passport information. But how do you do that well now that you actually have a bank card link you're going to have to try and send somebody money.

So either the person that sent you money in the first place so you find a friend to send some money like he can be like a couple cents you try and send the money. And then you should get a pop-up that says according to the regulations of the People Republic of China you need to put in your personal information. Like your passport to make sure this is not a fraudulent account. So you continue on the steps it's going to ask you for your passport your expiration date personal information all that note you don't need a Chinese Visa. Don't need to worry about that but you need to have a valid passport that's not expired and it's going to ask you for a couple pictures one of the passport page itself that shows your face and your information and another.

One maybe a selfie sometimes they ask for this a selfie of you carrying your passport so that they know it's actually you and you're not just stealing somebody's passport.

Once you've gone through this verification which can take between 10 minutes if it's done through their AI system or maybe 24 hours then you are good to go and to start spending some platforms only accept WeChat pay.

So it gets really convenient that you actually have WeChat pay without a bank account in China some services like takeout food or like other e-commerce shops usually only accept WeChat.

But wait I want to give you guys a heads up what you may encounter not having a Chinese bank account with WeChat pay and it's the following you may encounter some restrictions on how much money you can send back and forth between your peers or anyone in china. Or if you're trying to send like a supplier money you may reach some encounters and they may temporarily block your WeChat account. And you have to unlock it again through verification and sometimes you may only be able to use WeChat in certain stores.

Because there are still some stores that just don't accept foreign bank cards even though your WeChat pay is linked to a foreign bank card it will say hey this store does not accept foreign bank cards. So you may have problems with that it's just something to be ready for if it were to happen to you now i don't even think you can top up your WeChat balance using a foreign card.

 i know that in alipay you really can't do that for that kind of service you usually have to have a Chinese bank account but when it comes to payments for like e-commerce or if you like go to mcdonald's and use their kiosk you should be able to use the WeChat pay no problem with your foreign bank card now as i mentioned before there's two ways to contact WeChat to solve these problems one is you keep on trying to add a new card and it's gonna give you an alert and then view details and they'll get the process started the other one i found out through a long process is calling them no they do not have english services so you need to know how to speak Chinese or have someone help you and they can go ahead and run you through the process i try to ask for english services they didn't so i'm like screw it i'll just deal with this in Chinese and it worked out just fine. 

To solve your problems using WeChat just something you should know so you got to solve it by phone or using their ticket system which takes forever.