I agree. I associate my China number with all China-based accounts, apps, and loyalty programs. Perhaps related to the "number = ID" concept, there are often nice triangular synergies between phone number, app/mp, and WeChat/Alipay.

It's true that the SMSs follow me wherever I travel, and I get many, but they are easy to ignore.

Complicated issue. My US number received SMS fine globally. I have my DiDi account attached to my US number. I never had a single issue receiving SMS 2FA token from DiDi. My worry of using a Chinese nubmer was that I will get charged for incoming SMS while roaming outside of China. I was afraid that will deplete my mobile phone account balance faster. I usually prepaid a chunk of money into it because they don't accept my foreign card for automatic monthly payment.

My worry is valid..especially over the pandemic. My coworkers using Chinese number for the accounts were locked out because they didn't get their SMS while in the US, so they couldn't access their WeChat or AliPay, which then created a chicken/egg situation that they can't then use WeChat or AliPay to pay their local mobile phone,which caused their phone service to be suspended. I am the only one managed to keep my WeChat account alive on the over 3 years while my coworkers were locked out one by one. When they finally went to China, their carrier told them their SMS was using up their balance bit by bit and they depleted their balance (went into negative). Not every plan offers free incoming SMS while roaming.

China has a caller/sender-pay system, but SMS while roaming is not guaranteed to be free - it's plan specific.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you guys that it's generally better to use a Chinese number for registration on Chinese apps/systems but it has its issues as well. Needless to say, China has its policies and ways of doing things. It's not my place to judge. I can say that it's creates a lot of headaches for foreigners. I am tech-savvy, money-savvy, travel-savvy, and i still find it so unpredictable.

Btw we have a phone thread here, I�ve detailed my plan in depth https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chin...s-china-6.html

I will say that I got charged a nominal amount like Y3 for domestic SMS *in China* while my plan has free receiving of SMS *outside China*. So who knows� I assume responding to SMS outside China isn�t free.

My local coworker taught me that all 3 carriers have a 8RMB plan that has minimal data like 100-200MB with either 0-10 min voice or free caller ID. Because how China treat mobile phone number as ID and porting number is difficult, many people keep their number on the 8RMB plan, and just add a second line when they jump from plan promo to promo, or carrier to carrier. I wouldn't mind pay 10MB for maybe 0 min/ free incoming SMS and 500MB of data. It would be enough to cover my data needs when I am in China for a trip, and cheap enough not to even have to think about it.

The 200MB of data a month is just enough for me to do a Baidu map search or tranceive some WeChat message. The issue all Chinese apps are are like ad-machine... Those ads use up soooo much data more than the actual task you are trying to carry out, so 200MB would go very quickly. I have my phone setup to restrict mobile data on everything except WeChat and AliPay.

Because of your previous advice, I did try get a few SMS while in the US, and havne't seen any extra money deducted. I will know for sure by the end of the month when the account cycles.

That's an amazing plan if true. Are you still in China at the moment? Can you verify this? I would love to get that plan with China Unicom or China Mobile in Shanghai.

Porting number is difficult?

How did you set your phone to only use data for Alipay and WeChat Pay?

Is it possible for me to roam with T-Mobile and use Alipay/WeChat Pay?

By the way, another dumb question. Now that I have AliPay setup with a Chinese phone number, foreign credit card, and not that prepaid thing, are there legitimate places I can add cash to my AliPay balance? Like, can I go to an ATM using my US-issue card to withdraw cash. Instead of taking actual cash, can I scan AliPay and have the money go in there? Or are there machines that can recharge AliPay balance using cash? Not sure if you guys travel to Japan, but Japan is just perfect. I can recharge IC at every transit station.

please use the cell phone thread for cell phone related questions...

I've heard about https://swapsy.com/ but haven't used it. I'm sure you could give cash to a hotel person to be honest. ATMs or other machines don't accept Alipay from what I've seen.

I am not in China right now. I have this 8RMB plan for years. 0-min outbound voice, 300 outbound SMS, 200MB nationwide data, Incoming Caller ID, free incoming call and free incoming SMS. It's on China Unicom. I think it's a grandfather plan but many people pointblank ask for it.

My US number is on T-Mo, but I generally do not want to install Chinese apps on it. I had them installed a few years ago and it was painfully slow. T-Mo free roaming data is slow to start with and then the app's data traffic has to be routed back to the US and back again to China, so everything is just painfully slow. They require too many permission and god knows WeChat use up gigabytes of storage for no reason. My China Unicom SIM is on a Xiaomi phone that I dedicate for China. I just go into data settings and restrict other apps from mobile data. 200MB a month just enough for my one to two week trip for map and WeChat. I will do rest of data on my T-Mo phone. Even if I go over 200MB, I can buy like a 2GB data add-on for 7 to 10RMB if I remember correctly. Of course you will need a AliPay or WeChat Pay to pay for that add-on. Basically, AliPay/WeChat runs your life

You could give me (or pretty much anyone else in China) cash, and I would transfer it to you. In spite of the fact that I dislike cash, there are ICBC CDMs minutes away from both my home and office.

ETA: I want to highlight the fact that both Alipay and WeChat Pay rely upon actual banks. And. I want to dismiss the notion that China is a cashless society. Cash is easy to get (from CDMs), and it is kind of easy to spend....but you might end up forking over 100 for a 2-pound bag of potatoes.

Yes they can deposit the cash at an ATM, but it has to be an ATM of their bank. So recognize that giving someone cash so they can put money in your Alipay account is imposing on them.

Basically, the conversation always includes people who work for the company.

So? Co-workers or not, you should be aware it may be an imposition. Particularly if you're thinking of a larger sum that may drain their bank account until they can rush to replenish it at an ATM with the cash you gave them. And those machines can be problematic, and sometimes reject perfectly good bills, creating more hassle for the Good Samaritan.

Based on what I'm reading in this thread, I can now use Alipay with a foreign credit card and pay for stuff throughout China? Is that correct?

Technically true, but YMMV. It can vary from vendor to vendor, credit card to credit card, and week to week. It's good to have both a card and balance on Alipay, but the balance has to come from someone with a Chinese bank account (for us either a co-worker or the hotel will do it).

I do have a Chinese bank account that I managed to open in Shenzhen pre-pandemic -- but I have lost access to the Chinese phone number that it's bound to. So I might be out of luck getting it re-activated.

Good call re. getting the hotel to top your Alipay balance up. Is this common practice?