Originally Posted by
lsquare
I didnt realize the Chinese carriers have a surcharge for 5G. Is that the cheapest and viable plan for you? Since I have various options to roam in China, I won't need much if any data. I have read that China Unicom is better for Western phones than China Mobile. Not sure why.
Which city did you set this up in? Any advantages for a Beijing number over a Shanghai number?
Is there any way to pay with a credit card? Ok guessing if you're not always present in China, the only way to pay your plan is to have a bank account and use Alipay to pay every month? Any other way?
There's tons of different ones (e.g. ones that give you free data for specific apps like games and music). I didn't really want to bother and was just trying to get something cheap.
I have an iPhone X from this list:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202909. After iPhone X, Apple started making China-only iPhone models which I didn't want. Generally they have differences like two physical SIM slots but also FaceTime Audio is disabled. Since I know my phone is 100% supported, I don't have a problem.
I set this up in Chengdu which was probably a mistake. I likely won't come back here frequently. The 5G package is actually locked to Sichuan and can't be used outside it, hence why this is useless.
I really don't think it's possible to pay in most places in China with a credit card. I've tried and no one wants to deal with it.
The preferred method is: Alipay = WeChat Pay >> Cash with exact change > UnionPay local bank card (but why are you using this instead of AliPay/WeChat Pay?) >> credit card.
I plan to pay by using Alipay with a bank account. I assume you can also get your friend to pay for you.