FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Opinion: without Alipay and Wechat Pay, you are screwed in Shanghai
Old Apr 22, 2018 | 8:17 pm
  #44  
889
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Join Date: Oct 2014
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But if your name as shown in your passport takes up more than 20 chars/spaces, then only a much smaller subset of banks will work. Most banks truncate longer names, and that can be a problem since the bank account name won't match exactly your passport name.

Note too that if you opened a bank account previously with a passport you've since replaced, you'll probably have a problem, since the number of your current passport won't match the number in the bank's system. This may be true even if you've reported the new number to the bank, since they often just make a notation of the new number somewhere while the original number is locked to your account.

And if you've got a new SIM card, it's possible you'll have problems if your new number was previously used on wechat or alipay. The phone companies recycle numbers and this can be a real problem.

Finally, in the past year or two it's become significantly harder for foreigners on tourist visas to open bank accounts. You may have to trudge around quite a bit till you hit a branch that'll welcome you, bearing in mind that different branches of the same bank may have different policies. Speaking Chinese well enough to handle account opening or bringing a Chinese friend would be a good idea, to send the message you won't be a hassle.
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