1. What is WeChat Pay?
WeChat Pay is a payment feature that integrated into the WeChat app, which is a messenger and social app of Tencent.
You can find it in the “Me-Wallet” section.
WeChat Pay can fulfill a variety range of payment scenarios that users may encounter, including but not limited to:
Top up mobile
Book flight and hotel
Pay for water and electricity bills
Make purchases on e-commerce websites
Order and pay for food delivery
Transfer money to friends (especially through “red packets”)
Repay credit cards
Donate to charity
etc.
When launched, WeChat is widely considered as the Facebook of China. After years of improvement, WeChat has grown far beyond a simple social media platform. Unlike Facebook, whose revenue comes mainly from advertising, WeChat makes most profits through value-added services. And WeChat Pay played a significant role in this service strategy.
2. How can foreigners open a WeChat Pay account?
First you need to have a WeChat account, passport, a Chinese bank card and Phone that linked with your bank card.
Step 1:
Open WeChat and click on “Me-Wallet-Cards”
Note: If there is no “Wallet” in your WeChat account, it’s because you’re using the international version of WeChat. You can go to “Me-Settings-General- Language” and change the language to simplified Chinese. This will help activate your WeChat Wallet. Once the wallet is activated, you can change the language back to English and WeChat Wallet will stay.
Step 2:
Add a Chinese bank card.
Both credit cards and debt cards can be linked with your WeChat Wallet, as long as it’s a Chinese bank card.
Note: Make sure the name you use exactly matches (case sensitive) with the name linked to your bank card.
Step 3:
You have successfully linked your card to WeChat Pay! Congrats!