Originally Posted by
Majuki
I'm wondering how useful having a UnionPay card is for Mainland China these days? I haven't been back since shortly before the pandemic. At the time, Mrs. Majuki and I mostly used the Alipay tourist service since they weren't charging for credit card loads at the time. We used UnionPay for some larger purchases to avoid DCC.
In my experience this ICBC Unionpay is not like the local China Unionpay. I haven't used it in a while but it doesn't even work on all local POS machines. I think it's treated as a foreign card. If an establishment takes a foreign card, then I might as well use my Chase Sapphire Reserve. Also, if I recall correctly, it got worse exchange rates vs. the Chase.
A China-issued UnionPay card is definitely useful, but again I don't think this one fits the bill.