Its almost the end of July, Anyone hear any news?

It's now October.

This is literally MUFG Union Bank all over again lol... they were supposed to launch their new credit cards in April, but pushed back to the end of August.

The ICBC US unionpay cards are now available for application.

Gold card : No annual fee, 1% cash back, no FTF
Platinum card: $85 annual fee (waived first year), 1.5% cash back, no FTF

Application accepted in branch or via fax only. Call branches for details.

Visa cards seem to be available too since there seems to now be an activation page for them. The main credit card page still says "October" though.

Exciting! Thanks for the heads up!

Any word on if either the Visa or Unionpay cards will be PIN preferring or Signature preferring? It would be great to have another PIN option...

If anyone else is wondering, I heard back from ICBC and they said both the Visa and Unionpay cards are Chip + Signature and Secondary CDW.

Hmm. Thx!

Online applications are available here!

I just applied and was apparently instantly approved. Good times!

As I mentioned in another thread, the benefits seem fairly underwhelming. (Fidelity offers 2% CB without an AF, for example.) Then again, one probably wouldn't be considering these cards unless one frequently travels to China.

Anyway, if they were actually PIN preferring instead of signature preferring (which sounds unlikely), I may almost be tempted to get one. I'd then have US-issued chip and PIN cards on effectively all four major networks (UNFCU = Visa, Diners Club = MC, Redbird = AmEx and ICBC UnionPay = Discover). :D

What is Redbird? :confused: Isn't it a Target reloadable card which had been discontinued?:confused:

My understanding was that it's available at Target locations in some states (or you can buy one online from a reseller). It's useless now for MS but if you actually want an AmEx that requires PIN for most purchases it's the only option.

Thanks for the heads up!

The only reason to get one of these is if your travels take you to China, where UnionPay is the say. It's also a carefree way to dodge DCC with those difficult merchants. Furthermore, I've been hearing of increasing issues with using Discover in the Mainland, and Discover won't work for Hong Kong UnionPay or Macau UnionPay. There are also merchants who don't understand Discover's agreement with China UnionPay, leading to reduced acceptance. There are stickers to place a UnionPay badge on the Discover, but I want something that's guaranteed to work.

I took the plunge and was instantly approved for a Gold card. I still haven't received an e-mail or any other additional indication of credit limit.

I was reading on the EMV thread that unless you have an ICBC account that there is no way to view information online?

Haha well that royally sucks. Reminds me of my Marukai JCB card...

Plus I saw someone comment on the DoC site that this can't be added to alipay or wechat pay. Not surprised I suppose since a lot of Chinese sites ask which Chinese bank the card was issued from and they might not have it set up easy.

Though the comment there about Chinese POS's not accepting the card puzzles me...