You guys might have spoken a bit too soon. 2 DP on another forum saying the acct just popped up on TU.

https://creditboards.com/forums/inde...2#entry5633012

Darn, now thats one more for the 5/24 wait. I keep telling myself to wait it out but can't help myself.:D

Oh well... When I checked the bureaus about 2 weeks ago nothing was reported other than the EX hard pull.

Anyone else have data points on the account reporting to the credit bureaus?

Is it possible to request the UnionPay card with embossed, raised lettering? The current one seems to only have flat lettering and it's mostly on the back.

I believe there is only the one design.

That's quite unfortunate, the current version looks cheap and not like an authentic credit card.

I've only used the card 3 times, all documented previously on this thread, and I haven't had any acceptance issues. I did get a rather confused look from the employee at the MTR ticket desk in Hong Kong, however, when I displayed a UnionPay credit card for group tickets on the Airport Express Line. :D

Hmm Seems like all the links in the wiki now just re-route to the visa version. No UP links work now.

They're still promoting the UP card on the monthly checking account statements. I'm curious how many applications they received compared to their expectations.

Got the card today. 8k Limit.

Activated no probs, though I did have a slight address error which was a PAIN to fix. Had to call in and they said the call center was in Hong Kong.

Odd question, but this seems like a reasonable place to ask.

Any chance a WeChat user could send me some money to activate WePay on my account? I will turn the money around back to you as soon as I can!

Thanks!

Interesting. I thought their call center would have been in the Mainland somewhere.

Yeah, I've noticed there's no way to update the address online. There is an address update form on the monthly statement. My concern is that there always seem to be transcription errors when giving an address update over the phone.

Saw on macrumors alipay is coming to the US. Might be able to add this card then. Who knows when though.

Also didi is rolling out slowly an english app and ability to take foreign cards. Exciting times.

So, is there a way to check the "status" of an approved online CUP application besides calling Hong Kong?
Just FYI, they sent me a link to apply once I attached a copy of my DL. It seems like the link is operational for anyone but I see that they are not available publicly.
Also, regarding acceptance. I know CUP rules in Mainland, how about HK, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore?

Email seemed to be the best way to contact them. Even when I call in they often have to say the nyc branch will get back to me by email.

I've used it around a bit. No problem in person but first try at amazon was a complete failure. Called in, and as usual they said they saw the denial but aren't sure why. They'll "get back to me". Lol

Expect a CS slog for everything u do on this card.

I can't speak for anywhere besides HK and the US for acceptance. I used the card at the Airport Express station in HK, and there was no problem with card acceptance. You're better off using a 0% FTF Visa or MC, however, as they'll get better exchange rates. While the UnionPay card doesn't have any FTF in theory, UnionPay does maintain a small spread on the exchange rate. You can see my post here with the HK transaction was about 0.27% above what it would be had I used a Visa card. You're still coming out way ahead compared to a transaction with forced DCC or for the convenience factor if a merchant in the Mainland only takes UnionPay.

The US will accept the card, but you have to let a fallback transaction happen as the US terminals I've encountered do not support PBOC, only EMV. I imagine as more places switch to turning on EMV, they might deny your transaction for attempting to swipe a chip card. I'm not an expert on UnionPay's acceptance rules, but I'd imagine you'd have less recourse than a Visa or MC transaction with respect to card acceptance.

I concur that e-mail is the best option. My only feedback so far is the lack of features on the website. For instance, an address change requires a call or mailing in the form with the statement; there's no facility to do it online. They only recently added the option of doing a payment from an external bank account. (There have been mixed results pushing payments from this and associated threads.) However, I haven't yet had any problems with their phone support. For instance, I needed to link the credit card with the checking account for online access, and the link happened exactly as described over the phone. Usually when one receives the message, "Let me contact the department responsible for that," and you get transferred around there is a less favorable outcome.

Overall, I think it's a solid card product for my intended use case and has worked as advertised.

Oh yes I agree. It meets the brief on main reason to have it.

That being said having had credit cards in Hong Kong and knowing the level of annoyance they put u through to get anything financial done i guess this isn't too bad haha.

So, I called the customer service line to check the status of my newly approved card. The rep asked me about my ID or Passport number (never shared my passport number on the app). Then, when he came back saying he could not locate any info, I asked him to look it up with my social, no luck either. If they cannot even do that, what are they good for?

Did you give a driver's license number during your application?

Yes, that I did but he still couldn't find it. He asked me if there were any "hyphens" in it but there are none.

Try e-mailing as HGHUA said. They seem to be more able to find out your information. Did you save the application number? I couldn't find a way to reference it later, so I did a screen shot when I applied. Maybe they can do a search based on an e-mail address?

I'm wondering if their e-mail address for card servicing isn't stateside?

So, I got an e-mail reply that my application was received and approved. Does anyone know if the card reports to credit bureaus?

Just looked at my EX report again, no trade line. The hard pull is there, however.

Same here. What CL did you get if you don't mind me asking? I will report mine when I get the card.

Most people had been getting an $8,000 CL. The card application did a hard pull of Experian, but as of 1-2 months ago they hadn't been reporting to any of the bureaus. However, there are some reports online that they're reporting to TU now.

$8k, like everyone else I know of.

I've been testing out the card per some other posts online, and I was able to select debit at Safeway. I entered my six digit PIN, and the transaction approved and posted as a purchase:

http://i.imgur.com/mTGvctit.jpg

It is also possible to do a PIN bypass and run it as a credit transaction. Also, I had initially swiped the card, but the terminal asked me to insert. After I inserted the card, the terminal told me to swipe.

I then wanted to see if the Arby's nearby supported PBOC since I knew they were using standalone First Data terminals, but the terminal did not. The cashier was having a difficult time with the terminal because it was giving conflicting information about inserting or swiping the card. Perhaps the terminal was trying to prevent a fallback transaction? Eventually, the transaction went through, and it said it was a Discover card:


http://i.imgur.com/THyhbt7t.jpg

Finally, I decided to try it out at Costco. To my surprise, it worked there too after I entered my PIN:

http://i.imgur.com/gyBelEAt.jpg

The two transactions above that went over the debit network cleared as purchases. I'm curious which debit network it's using. Might it be Discover's debit network?

So, I received my new CUP card, it's only 5k CL but I'm not complaining. Maybe once I use it a little, they will increase. Any experience with CL increases yet?

So, today I tried to use my UPC card at Sweet Tomatoes and it was declined as invalid card. The receipt said it was card type Discover and authorization failed due to invalid card. I thought that was resolved a long time ago for card-present transactions? Same was happening to my JCB card 6 years ago, at which time I decided to only use it in Japan.

Can't answer the network question, but I've also had success at Costco with PIN—both inside and at the gas pumps.

I've also had a few PIN-based gas pump transactions (not Costco) in the US that have never posted. This mirrors my experience with a China-issued ICBC UnionPay debit card, where US pay-at-the-pump transactions still haven't posted years later...

Does UnionPay have a prohibition against preauthorized transactions or something? That would possibly explain that behavior (though why they don't just decline such attempts before the customer fuels up is beyond me).

Made 2 transactions at one store and immediately after leaving got a call. They were for like 10 each.

They're really keeping a close eye on things. The whole address only, no store name thing doesn't help either.

This was stateside? I imagine with the address only and no store name means that you ran these as debit purchases? I tried a ~$50 debit purchase as well and immediately got a call from 877-779-5588. This is their Canadian customer service number. I called the number on the back of the card, and the customer service rep simply said they wanted to make sure that I was the one making the transactions.

I think the low barrier to getting contacted would exclude using this card in more creative ways. :) Others have reported the fraud departments at Chinese banks are highly sensitive. It doesn't help that we're having to run fallback transactions anywhere that's switched on EMV in the US.

I personally am sticking with my plan of using this card exclusively in China, HK, and Macau as a viable alternative when Visa produces unavoidable DCC and AmEx has acceptance issues.

Didn't Costco and the others listed above enabled EMV already? Why did the terminal allow the chipped UnionPay card to be swiped? That defeats the purpose of having EMV in the first place! :mad:

It's not because of the EMV setup at the retailer. You're right that they've enabled EMV, but UnionPay doesn't use EMV for its chipped transactions. It uses the PBOC (People's Bank of China) protocol, which I haven't seen a US terminal support. This is also why it's increasingly difficult to use a Discover card in Mainland China through the interoperability agreement. Pretty much using a Discover card in China or a UnionPay card in the US is causing a fallback transaction.

Fallback is useful on occasion. Nearly every issuer leans on the side of convenience rather than security whenever possible; for example, if the store's having a temporary issue with the chip reader, it's probably not much more risk to approve such a transaction.

My understanding is that PBOC and EMV are somewhat similar. In particular, both UnionPay/PBOC and other EMV cards have AIDs on them (per the "Terminal - POS" tab of this document), which is probably how a terminal can support both. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case in the US at the moment, and I don't know when that'll change.

Yes, you're right. Terminals can definitely support both, and my transaction from February in Hong Kong shows ICBC PBOCCARD as the application. While I wasn't paying close attention, I believe the terminal was the same as if I had used a Visa. Someone like percysmith could come and correct me if merchants in Hong Kong typically have different terminals for UnionPay and everything else.

Well the applabel is just a name given by the bank, it has no meaning in the transaction. Common CUP applabels I had seen included "UICC CREDIT" "UNIONPAY CREDIT", "UICS CREDIT"

AFAIK, card terminals in HK/Macau/Taiwan usually have two mode, one for VISA/MASTER/AMEX/JCB cards, another for CUP. Cashiers switch between mode when it is needed.

Merchants who have different terminals usually because of management requirement/ processing rate/ bonus points redemption/ bank promotion, but not merely because of card brands.

It seems that in China, the merchants that actually accept Visa and the like, all use a separate terminal to run the card, rather than using the primary terminal that is for UnionPay only. As a matter of fact, out of the ones that accept foreign cards, a few actually swiped my chipped Visa card, even though I see that the terminal has a chip slot! When I asked one of the stores about it, they merely replied that the chip slot is disabled, which was a surprise.

One... AIDs are not a uniquely EMV thing. Other smart cards use the same application format.

Two... The terminals definitely support the PBOC standards so I don't know why people keep saying that they don't... The application needs certified and loaded like any other...

I'm curious to know if any US merchant / acquirer - I don't know who does the certification - has actually gone through the process to certify the application. Would they all be the same AID just different APPLABELs based on what karlcheong said?