How to Pay in China with a Foreign Card

Install Alipay and WeChat. Link a foreign card in each one if you can, preferably cards from two different banks. Keep the phone number that receives their text messages. The notes are for a stall, a taxi, or a counter that will not take the app.

Use that setup to pay a business: a meal, a ticket machine, a shop QR code. It is the wrong tool for sending money to a person, sending a red packet, or topping up a wallet balance. On WeChat, an international card is for everyday purchases in mainland China. The card can sit in the app and still be refused for a transfer.

Neither app wins every shop. If one refuses the payment, try the other. Then try a card terminal that shows your card’s logo. Then use the notes.

If you already use AlipayHK, WeChat Pay HK, or another wallet named in the 2026 official guide, you can scan a mainland code with that wallet. You do not also have to link a foreign card inside the China app for those listed wallets.

You are finished only when both of these are true: the app shows the charge, and the shop’s order or receipt says the payment was accepted. A linked card is not that moment. A charge with no order is not that moment either.

Before you leave

Do these once, in order.

1. Confirm the phone number on each app can receive a text. A data-only travel eSIM does not receive it. How to keep that number is in How to Get Online in China and Keep Your Number.
2. Have your passport, or a Chinese foreign permanent resident ID, with you. WeChat accepts either. A mainland +86 number is unnecessary when your own number receives the text.
3. Tell each bank you will link the card for shop payments in mainland China. The bank has to approve the link, and some banks say no. Add the second card if the first bank refuses.
4. In the app, add the card and complete the identity step on the screen. Stop when the card is listed in the wallet. The shop has not been paid yet.
5. Put small yuan notes in your wallet. Use them when neither app nor a card terminal will take the payment.

The first time you pay

1. Open Alipay or WeChat.

2. Scan the shop’s code, or show yours, whichever the counter asks for.

3. Read the amount and the fee before you confirm.

   On WeChat, Tenpay’s rule is the standard international-card fee. A single payment of 200 yuan or less, including a payment of exactly 200 yuan, is not charged that fee. Above 200 yuan, the fee is 3 percent of the payment. The screen shows the fee, and any waiver, before you confirm. If the payment is refunded, that fee comes back in the same proportion.

   Your bank can still add its own charge. The exchange rate is your card network’s and your bank’s. Those are separate from the 3 percent.

   If this is the first time you have linked an international card, WeChat may waive that fee for 90 days from the first payment, on up to 1,000 yuan of spending a day. Tencent announced that offer on 27 May 2026. It applies only when your account qualifies. The payment screen is where you see whether it did.

   On Alipay, pay the fee shown on Alipay’s screen for your account. WeChat’s 200 yuan rule stays on WeChat.

4. Look for the charge in the app and for the shop to accept the order. When both have happened, the payment is finished.

When it fails

The card will not link. Read the message in the wallet before you decide who to call. If it says the card issuer refused the link, call the number on the card and say you are linking it for shop payments in mainland China. If the message does not say who refused, contact the wallet’s support with that message. WeChat’s line is 95017. In Alipay, use Help inside the app. A second card is still worth adding, but a new card can fail too. Stop repeating the same card against the same message.

The card is in the app, and the payment still fails. Read what you tried to pay. A transfer, a red packet, or a wallet top-up fails on an international card even though the card is saved. Pay the shop, or use cash. If it was already a shop payment, try the other app, then a card machine that shows your logo. Do not send the same payment again until you know the first one did not go through.

The app shows a charge, and the shop has no order. Do not pay again. A second tap can become a second charge.

1. In the wallet, copy the transaction number, the amount, and the time.
2. Show that number to the shop and ask them to find the order.
3. If they still have nothing, contact the shop and the wallet with the same number. WeChat’s line is 95017. In Alipay, use Help inside the app.
4. Then look at your card account. A refund goes back to the same card. If the wallet says the refund was sent and the card still does not show it, call the bank with the transaction number. Ask the bank, not the shop, once the wallet has already sent the refund.

You would rather use cash or the card itself. Pay with the physical card only where the terminal shows its logo. If there is no logo, ask before you hand it over. An ATM that shows the logo can give you yuan. In Shanghai, a withdrawal is generally limited to 3,000 yuan at a time, and both the machine and your bank can set a lower limit. Any fee on the ATM slip comes from the bank or the machine. It is not WeChat’s shop fee.