Originally Posted by
moondog
Why not get full fledged accounts instead? The cell phone and bank account drills are only a minor PITA if you have your ducks in order, and foreign cards are easy to add; you just can't use them at Lawson's. I would not pay a 5% transaction fee (did I get that right?) to be able to use foreign cards with a tourist pass.
No that’s not correct I’ll try to be more clear this time. On AliPay tourist pass function, you get two QR codes that merchants can scan:
1. direct charge to your foreign card. For me this is my chase sapphire reserve. The payment amount is directly charged to your credit card through aliPay at today’s exchange rate with no fees or markup. Even merchants that cannot swipe foreign CC can do this. I have never had this fail once in Shanghai for any merchant that can scan aliPay QR codes.I used this at Lawsons in Jing An just yesterday to buy 2 ice cream cones.
2. a makeshift aliPay debit card. You can load RMB onto this from your foreign credit card for a 5% fee. I only use this about once every 2-3 weeks when option 1 fails. It is generally in a smaller city in a small cheap merchant where I’m not worried about spending a few RMB in markup fee.
For option 2 above I could also use WeChat pay to save the fee. But for me I’m paid in USD to my American accounts so the only way I get money into my WeChat account is doing a stupid cash + deposit thing since I’d prefer not linking up with my Chinese bank. I’m perfectly fine to eat a few bucks per month on aliPay fees to be able to manage everything through chase. And if someone is actually a tourist or even short term resident this seems far easier than dealing with a China sim, a second phone, and a bank account where you’re going to have minimal fun setting those up if you can’t speak Chinese.