GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — WeChat Pay is now collaborating with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Global Network (including Diners Club) and JCB to enable overseas users to link their credit cards to WeChat Pay and use it for payment transactions and services in China. With this collaboration, overseas users will now be able to use WeChat Pay across multiple payment scenarios spanning shopping, restaurants, transportation and accommodation. For instance, overseas users can use to purchase railway tickets.
In recent years, more and more overseas visitors are travelling to mainland China and some have chosen to stay and work here. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of inbound tourists reached 141.2 million in 2018, an increase of 1.2% over the same period of the previous year. Furthermore, according to the Minister of Science and Technology, China is also attracting talents from around the globe to start innovative new businesses. Currently, there are more than 950,000 foreigners working in China, and the country has cumulatively issued 336,000 overseas talent work permits in 2018.
However, the inconvenience of not being able to use the widely adopted local mobile payments is becoming a major pain point for overseas people living or visiting mainland China. The Chinese government has introduced a variety of policies to bring convenience to their daily lives, something which WeChat Pay is committed to helping achieve through quality of life enhancing innovation.
WeChat Pay is already supporting overseas users with mainland bank cards, savings cards and credit cards from up to 128 available banks registered with their passports. Users simply enter their bank card number, name, ID number and the mobile phone number for binding their bank cards in a few easy steps to enjoy the convenience.
Given that overseas visitors tend to use more international credit cards, the collaboration between WeChat Pay and global card associations will provide more convenience for overseas users both traveling and living in mainland China.
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