Originally Posted by
Deltus
This could be a long shot, but does anyone have any positive experiences to share of reward credit cards in China? I guess I have a few general questions:
- Is it possible for foreigners to open credit card accounts? Any particular requirements?
- Would I need to open a normal bank account with whoever is issuing the credit card first? My Chinese bank account (as discussed earlier in this thread) is with HSBC. I'm thinking it would be a lot easier to focus on HSBC's credit cards...?
- It seems common for credit cards to come as a double pack of UnionPay and MasterCard. I'm hoping I'd be able to link a UnionPay one to WeChat and AliPay and keep paying as normal using those apps, but is that being overly optimistic?
Unless things have changed, it's very highly unusual for a foreigner to have a Chinese credit card. I do have one (even though I left in 2016) as I was sponsored by my former employer with CCB where I also had my account. I always got strange looks when I presented the card to merchants especially if they had to use different machines for a Chinese card versus a foreign card. That may have also been because they used the UnionPay terminal as my card was both UnionPay and Visa.