Mine is expiring this morning as well, and I haven't received another card either. I imagine there might be a few people whose cards had an October expiration date? (Applications opened at the end of October 2016.)

It looks like mine is arriving too based on USPS Informed Delivery. The return address matches the PO box on the account statements.

Hi fellas, just now diving into this whole UnionPay thing after an unpleasant trip to China with only my U.S. Visa card. (yikes!) I can go to a local branch here in the Bay Area to apply for the ICBC Union Pay in person, but with all the recent news that WeChat now accept "foreign credit cards" for its wallet (and subsequently plenty of expat websites out there debunking that theory), has anyone recently tried inputting your U.S. UnionPay card into your WeChat wallet?

And the way I understand it with the Chinese-based UP card, it is linked to a current account (so it acts like a debit card over there I suppose). Would there be an advantage to open a new checking account with the US based ICBC or is this UP card operate independently of a checking account?

I am currently running into a situation where my WeChat account needs to be validated (I use a China SIM card to register) and seems like I need to set up a wallet (and of course NONE of my credit cards work!)

Thanks so much in advance for any pointers!

I haven't tried inputting the card into a WeChat wallet. There was an example somewhere - I forget if it was here or another forum - of either WeChat or Alipay, but it required a friend "on the inside" to add the card manually.

The US ICBC UnionPay card is independent of the checking account, and acts like a credit card. There are some quirks with this card where it can act like a debit card if manufactured spending is your thing, but that's outside of the scope of this thread and best left as an exercise for the end user. :)

I signed up for a checking account when I applied for the card in branch at South San Francisco two years ago, but it's not required. Initially you couldn't do a direct bill pay from ICBC's website and had to push the payment from another checking account. However, the third party checking account functionality has been present since early 2017.

Many thanks Majuki! I did read someone here whose friend works at AliPay. So no go for the general public.

Good to know (in the U.S.) UP card is a credit card, not debit. I have *other* cards for manufactured spending, so I'm strictly planning to use this in China (so that I don't get laughed at the next time I produce a credit card there).

So it sounds like the main benefit of a U.S. ICBC UP card is strictly for paying with the physical card in China then.... as long as the vendor still has a POS machine, and not some QR code for WeChat, correct?

And I know this may be off-topic but I would love to hear from those who has successfully put in a U.S. based credit card onto their WeChat, since WeChat Pay seems to be the future.

Thx!

He got it into alipay because he knew someone who worked there. Lot of good that does us. I'm really upset this card isn't wechat and alipay compatible. Especially since lots of places now won't even take cards anymore.

I'd gladly authenticate myself with an icbc us checking acct if that worked in the apps. Ughh. I'm kinda tempted to just try to open an acct in shenzhen on a tourist visa which i hear is now possible.

You can link a foreign credit card, UnionPay or not, yet you cannot use it unless you are validated against a China based bank account. In other words, this foreign credit card feature is only useful to expats in China or foreigners who can open a bank account in China. BTW, ICBC USA, even though owned by iCBC, is not an eligible bank. :(

UnionPay cards issued by ICBC USA, however, is useful for card present transactions. Most POS machines in China takes UnionPay only.

Thanks Terry, sounds like it's still worth applying for then. I didn't venture out too much in my last trip so failed to survey whether most vendors still have POS machines or not. Eventually I'm sure the answer is a local bank account, just trying to avoid that for now. Happy Friday!

I'm in Shenzhen now. I tried to use Google Pay at McDonald's with my CSR (since it said Apple Pay was supported) but the payment failed. I tried QuickPass with the physical UnionPay card, and I'm happy to report that it worked! The Shenzhen Metro also advertises using QuickPass as an open loop payment system, but I sort of want someone else to be the data point for that one. :)

Jamester,

QuickPass is UnionPay's contactless brand, and it's a feature of the card. If you look on the back of your UnionPay card it will say QuickPass. There is also a mobile version of it, but to my knowledge ICBC USA doesn't support it. Theoretically when you see the QuickPass logo you should be able to tap and go. I'd try this for the Shenzhen Metro with the US based UnionPay card, but my Mandarin isn't good enough if something goes wrong. They'd probably be scratching their heads at how I got a UnionPay card. :)

I wonder if ICBC USA will ever re-open online application? :confused:

I can't speak for all places, but I've seen Quickpass branding all around. Others have reported issues using the US based UnionPay card, but I haven't had any hiccups the few times I've used it. I might try on the Metro later today.

It'd be nice, but admittedly this is a specialty product where people who truly need it would be willing to visit in person to apply. (Plus, there are geographic restrictions from what I remember, much like with the old JCB cards.)

By "pretending to be a Discover card", do you mean using it at merchants in the US? I've been half tempted to apply for it on multiple occasions just to see how well merchants here accept UnionPay but considering I don't have any upcoming travel to China any time soon (plus the fact that WeChat/Alipay are what most people there use) makes it a hard sell.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...81877a12dc.jpg
I used the QuickPass on the Shenzhen Metro on Tuesday and it worked just fine - only certain fare gates work - they're red and have a "UnionPay QuickPass" label in English and Chinese, like the one in the right of the picture. Just tap your card on the sensor on the *top* of the fare gate where it says "slide" when you enter & exit the station. (There's a QR code reader above the green arrow perpendicular to the ground - that's not the one!)

After you leave the station the fare will be calculated and your card will be billed. Mine posted like this:
01-16-2019 SZMOH GUANGDONG CHN purchase CNY 2.00 Card#xxxx. USD 0.30

By the way, the reason you couldn't use your Apple Pay at McDonald's is because Apple Pay in China is only for UnionPay cards...and the American ICBC card can't be added to Apple Pay. I've emailed them asking to have that feature enabled... their reply didn't seem promising.

Most merchants don't support PBOC protocol which then requires a fallback swipe transaction to process over the Discover network. Non-PBOC transactions to my knowledge will not work with a chipped transaction. This almost caused my card to be rejected at the Arby's in Sunnyvale. They have a separate card terminal than they use where they key in the amount manually. It is not connected to their register.

I didn't know that about Apple Pay being UnionPay only in China.

Thanks for the data point on the Shenzhen Metro, LASNRT! I had just been paying cash and using the tokens, which is I assume where you scan the QuickPass card in the red lanes. I did see people scanning their QR codes on the readers, and I think I did see at least one person using a UnionPay card. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have withdrawn CNY for such a short trip and gone cashless with UnionPay. I just didn't want to have any issues since my Mandarin is somewhat limited if there were any hiccups. I'll definitely try it next trip.

That's correct tmiw, my experience at our Safeway (that would be Vons for you in SD) is it goes thru via Discover transaction, and nevermind the fact UnionPay card numbers start with a '6', just like Discover. The only gotcha is that I CANNOT use the chip on the card but rather it asks me to slide the magnetic strip instead, and then press Enter for credit. (It does ask if you want a cash back but I cringe at the thought of high fees).

You're right, if you don't have upcoming trips to China (or have no interests to go there), this card makes no sense. Hope that helps!

I believe we discussed this before, hence my wondering about Jamester's use of the card in the US. Especially since I also remember that their fraud prevention people call after you do enough fallback transactions, too, which would make using the card pretty inconvenient if it gets locked often.

Yeah, UnionPay cards (at least when swiped) can be run as debit in the US, which would make this card a viable option for Costco and Arco. I didn't see anything specific at first glance on ICBC's site as to whether debit purchases with cash back would count as a cash advance, however (or would even be approved in the first place).

As Jamester said, unless you have trips to Mainland China, this card is of limited utility. I haven't had the opportunity to try the card in Macau yet - I was there unexpectedly on Friday but didn't make any purchases - but I will have the opportunity next month. The card works fine in HK, but percysmith and I couldn't get QuickPass to work in early 2017 at the couple of merchants we tried. My previous trip to Macau predated having this card.

The card worked (with a fallback transaction) as debit plus PIN at Costco. I imagine it would work the same at Arco. However, as you said, I received an inbound call asking if I had the card after about 5 or 6 test purchases.

The cash back is a convenience feature of using a Discover card, which allows cash back without fees at supermarkets. One doesn't earn rewards on this when using a Discover card, however. Without saying it directly, all permutations of transaction options at Safeway using UnionPay have posted as purchases and earned 1% cashback. The same goes for the debit purchases at Costco. This is unlikely to scale for topics reserved for other forums :)

This card have limited use in China due the lack of support for WeChat Pay/Alipay. Many store only accepts Wechat/Alipay. Like some of you said, it works great with Quickpass terminal, but only major places have those. I hardly see anybody using a "physical card" in China nowadays.

I am by no means a China expert, so take what I have with a grain of salt - but I've found the card to be quite useful. In my 4 trips in the last 16 months this card has been a life saver to be honest, and made my travels much smoother.

Yes, WeChat/Alipay are the most common forms of payment, but in the places that don't accept cards, I've never been refused cash payment, and most of them (street food seller, produce shop, etc.) I wouldn't necessarily expect them to take credit cards anyway. I do wish I was able to bind it to my Alipay and WeChat pay accounts - I've even emailed ICBC USA but it appears impossible.

I've heard stories of people who say places "only" took WeChat/Alipay, and wouldn't take cash, but I've never encountered this myself. Again, I'm no China expert, and stick to larger cities.

With this card, I've been able to do quite a few things, including (a) use it as a ticket for both Shenzhen and Guangzhou metros by just tapping the card at the fare gate, (b) purchase rail tickets on 12306.com, (c) use the self check out at Aeon and Walmart, and very importantly to me (d) avoid DCC that seems very common in many Chinese stores & hotels. My travel companion doesn't have a UnionPay card, and I've had to bail him out a couple of times when the cashier shakes her head at his Visa card...

If I may ask, how did this card let you down?

I tried to pay with cash at a FamilyMart in Shanghai yesterday, and both the (young) cashier, and the people behind me in line seemed quite irritated...so I ended up using Alipay.

Thanks for the information. I'm wondering what the acceptance would be like in China though considering there's no chip, and I also assume no QuickPass. I also saw on the website that there's a 1.49% currency conversion fee, but ICBC's reports 0%. In practice, UnionPay's rates are generally slightly less favorable than Visa or MasterCard, but I've found them to be within 30 bps of either. I assume the 1.49% would be on top of whatever UnionPay's conversion rate is.

What are the options for loading money onto the card?

I signed up for the card and got mine the other day.

Funds are loaded by bank transfer - linked via the Ecard website. I haven't loaded any money yet so can't confirm the transfer time.

In the packet of disclosures that came with the card, there's a $4.95 monthly fee mentioned. There's ZERO mention of this on the website, so I've emailed them about it and am waiting for a reply. If that's right, it's a complete deal breaker (the 1.49% FTF is bad enough).

Also, the website shows a graphic of the card with a chip, but as you mentioned there's no chip in the card, and no QuickPass as well.

If there's no monthly fee, I might load it with a few hundred dollars to hand off to travel partners who get stuck just as a back up, but otherwise it probably won't be that useful for me.

How accepting are merchants in China of a UnionPay without a chip these days?

Icbc card wasn't too bad this trip. UP is making a push for quickpass acceptance and many of the new terminals have that built in and cashiers know to use it first. Also shenzhen metro worked like a charm.

I was back in Shenzhen yesterday, and here's the ICBC UnionPay in action. There's no acknowledgement tone or beep. The fare gates simply open.

http://i.imgur.com/dHqtxtl.mp4

http://i.imgur.com/1pQonMpm.jpg

Update with pending (¥14) and posted (¥2) transaction:

http://i.imgur.com/9G4Xqgam.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Xf61iWKm.jpg

Use in Cuba?
 

Bizarre question - can the US ICBC issued Union Pay card be used in Cuba?

Apparently Union Pay cards CAN be used in Cuba (ihttps://www.unionpayintl.com/en/mediaCenter/newsCenter/companyNews/3009113.shtml). Visa, Master, and Amex are all US based companies, so their worldwide affiliates are prohibited from operating in countries with US financial embargoes, but since Union Pay is China based it (apparently) doesn't have the same restrictions. However, I'm guessing the US issued one would disqualify itself by being US issued.

Has anyone been able to use this card in Cuba?

(Slightly related side note, I visited Myanmar in 2005 while the US sanctions were still going on, and Visa/MC/Amex couldn't be used at all. I was able to use my Japan-issued JCB card at a couple of hotels though, since JCB was Japan based and therefore not part of the embargo. That's why I'm wondering about Cuba & Union Pay.)

There seem to be exceptions, see here.

https://www.comparecards.com/blog/us...visiting-cuba/

This is not a topic I follow, and circumstances may have changed.

Non US Visa/MasterCards work fine in Cuba already (unless the issuer is a US insitution). I'd imagine a US UnionPay card wouldn't work.

At one point Stonegate Bank was offering US issued Mastercards that worked in Cuba. It looks like another bank bought them, however, so who knows?

The credit card is no longer offered, see the link in my previous post for the explanation, which has no do with economics rather than regulations.

I made use of my first UnionPay offer at 99 Ranch. They're having a promotion of $10 off a $50 or more purchase currently. I saw an advertisement at my local 99 Ranch, but I could only find the promotion listed on the Chinese UnionPay website, not the English UnionPay website. Unlike most other card offers I've had this one only requires you to present the card at the time of payment. The cashier scanned a paper coupon to provide the discount. 99 Ranch's payment system also does support UnionPay natively with PBOCCARD, so I didn't have to swipe and run as a fallback transaction over the Discover network. I didn't try QuickPass, but I haven't had luck outside of Mainland China.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert in any of the following things. It's just my experience and what I've heard from my friends.

First, As of 2018, it makes a difference when a Chinese and US-dwelling citizen applies for the US-based ICBC card. Under such circumstance, SSN is not required. The ICBC USA will pull a credit report from the Chinese credit bureau. That's probably helpful for someone with no credit history and no SSN. They can still get a real, high CL credit card which can be used in major stores, and accumulate some credit history.

I tried QuickPass in HK (2019), Taiwan (2018), Macau (2016) with no success. I heard some major brands in HK now supports QuickPass and a friend told me the merchant needs to explicitly enable that feature.
Besides, I have a China-issued Visa-only card which features EMV and payWave. Somehow I only succeeded using its payWave in a small grocery store in Berkeley, the Target in Cupertino and nowhere else in America. Weird.

Funny story: I noticed that promo, used my CCB-issued chip debit card, whose chip is broken, and made a successful fallback transaction through UP network. Immediately in 30 seconds, even before the receipt was fully printed, I received a message from the bank saying my card has been locked and I had to make an international call to unfreeze it. UP is really worried about swiping.


I had a classmate who traveled to Cuba in 2017. His China-issued UP card barely worked there. Eventually, he ended up with some CUP with exchanging CNY cash on the black market.

A kind of universal POS terminal with a big touchscreen and orange plastic has been widely used by corp merchants. That terminal supports Wechat/Alipay/UP by default, and it seems business owners cannot deny foreign UP cards separately. You will have a good chance to use any foreign-issued UP card when the merchant uses that kind of terminal.

The problem is that if the cashier discovers you are using a foreign card, they may cancel the transaction and insists you change the payment method. Because the merchant is still charged a higher fee for foreign UP cards. Therefore some businesses may write the policy that doesn't allow customers to use them. The current highest processing rate for domestic UP is 0.6%. For foreign UP, it seems to be ~2%.

As a comparison, the fee for Alipay/WePay commercial recipients is about 0.35%. For A/W individual recipient, there's no transaction fee, but a 0.1% withdrawal fee will occur if they want to transfer the balance to their bank.

Lastly just FYI, that terminal can work with any V/M/A/D/J cards too but it's not enabled by default. I heard using Amex on that terminal will charge the merchant on a whopping 4.5% rate.

Now the official rule of foreigners opening bank account is:

• you must have any kind of visa which permits you a single stay longer than 90 days (e.g. family reunion visa, student visa). The usual 10-year touist visa issued to US citizen doesn't allow that.
• or, you must have any kind of visa/status which permits you to legally earn in China (e.g. short-term work visa, student visa with fieldwork/internship permit)

In the real world, it's quite a YMMV experience. A lot of branches don't want to open an account for you because they don't know how; not because they can't. And generally, branches in Shanghai is much more flexible than those in Shenzhen. Maybe it's because Shanghai banks deal with more foreigners from Western countries, as HK residents can just open their account in China Mainland without any visa/status requirement.

Thanks for the information, and great first post on FlyerTalk!

Do you by any chance know if Target now supports PBOCCARD? When I last tried - about two years ago - it was still a fallback via the Discover network. As I posted earlier, after about the 4th or 5th fallback transaction ICBC called me. Both USPS and Walmart support the protocol. Safeway - about a few months ago - did not.

I have only tried QuickPass in Hong Kong outside of the Mainland, but each transaction failed. I was with percysmith, so language and knowledge of Hong Kong payment systems wasn't the issue. If it didn't work, it was a technical limitation at the time.

In the Mainland, almost all cashiers are confused how/why a laowai with a purely English name has a UnionPay card, but I have not yet had my UnionPay card refused.