How to Set Up Alipay as a Foreigner (and Fix a Declined Card)

In China you pay for nearly everything with your phone: metro rides, coffee, street food, museum tickets. Alipay is the app most visitors use, and it accepts foreign cards. Set it up at home, where you have time and a reliable connection, rather than at a shop counter with a queue behind you.

What you need

• Your passport
• A card issued outside mainland China: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover, Diners Club or UnionPay International
• A phone number that can receive texts during sign-up

Before you go, let your bank know you’ll be in China and make sure online and overseas payments are switched on for the card. Many declined payments come from the bank’s fraud check, not from Alipay.

Setting it up

1. Download Alipay from the App Store or Google Play. The publisher is Ant Group.
2. Sign up with your phone number and the code sent to you by text.
3. Verify your identity in your profile settings. Type your name exactly as it is in your passport, scan the passport and do the face scan. It is often approved within minutes, but it can take longer, so leave a few days before your flight.
4. Add your card under bank cards, either by typing the number or scanning the card. Alipay may place a very small temporary charge to check it.
5. Make a small payment as soon as you can, ideally before you need it for something important.

Paying in a shop

Most of the time you scan the shop’s code. Tap Scan, point the camera at the QR code by the till, enter the amount and confirm.

Supermarkets and chain stores usually do it the other way round. Open Pay and let the cashier scan the barcode on your screen.

In many big cities the metro gates also take Alipay’s transport QR code.

If there’s no QR code in sight, or your card keeps failing, you can ask:

Fees

The 3% applies to the whole bill once you go over ¥200, so a ¥250 dinner comes to ¥257.50. For big payments such as a hotel stay, paying by card at reception can work out cheaper. Your own bank may charge a foreign transaction fee on top. Many travel cards don’t, and some travelers use a multi-currency card such as Wise for a better exchange rate.

You don’t need to top up

A lot of first-time visitors look for a way to load money into Alipay before the trip. With a foreign card linked, there is nothing to load: each payment is charged straight to your card.

Sending money between people is a different story. Paying a friend back, or having a Chinese friend send you money, often doesn’t work on an account set up with a foreign card. Settle up in cash or pay the shop directly. Be wary of anyone offering to “top up” your Alipay for you; it usually means a stranger transferring money from their own account.

When your card is declined

Go through these in order.

1. Check the name. It has to match the name on your verified passport, and cards belonging to someone else won’t be accepted.
2. Open your banking app. If there’s a fraud alert, approve the payment, or call the bank.
3. Try another card. Some prepaid and virtual cards are refused.
4. Retry on a stronger connection.
5. If none of that works, add the same card to WeChat Pay. It often goes through there.

Don’t keep retrying the same failed step over and over in a short time. If Alipay still won’t accept your passport or card after a couple of attempts, set up WeChat Pay and use that.