[Traveling to Chengdu (Chengdu) independently, living completely on Alipay by adding credit Master cards]
After getting the bank statement, I confidently posted this review to give back for the useful information I found in this group, helping those who go later to be more confident.
From Vietnam, I installed Alipay, declared my passport, and added my 3 Master cards, I don't have Visa cards.
Tried paying for 12306 train tickets via Alipay and it was super smooth, deducted faster than buying online at Bách Hóa Xanh so I confidently didn't exchange any RMB.
Note: Payments over 200 RMB will be charged 3% fee - I knew this but still got charged in a moment of confusion.
Once in China then
- Subway, buses can use Alipay or swipe Master card directly
- Calling Didi taxi deducts straight from Alipay, it lets me choose which of the 3 cards
- Hailing taxi on the street, use my Alipay to scan their code also allows payment.
- Eating/drinking: from restaurants to street stalls, they scan my Alipay code or I scan theirs both work.
Alipay will report payment to store, payment to individual, personal transfer. At first I was worried, but now back with bank statement I see the charge fee and exchange rate for all 3 types are the same, don't know if cheaper than exchanging cash but super convenient, no worry about scam risks, spend as much as want without worrying about exchanging back and forth.
But there was only 1 time Alipay scanned the code ok, showed food store xxx (small store like a skewer stall in front of house), but at payment it warned some risk, absolutely refused. Gave the phone to the owner, switched to Chinese they still couldn't pay. So to be safe from then I always pay before using service with places that need to scan seller's code
Among the 3 cards I used, the best exchange rate is VIB Travel Elite -> Standard Charter -> UoB.
But don't use VIB Travel Elite to pay via Trip ok, charged 1% foreign transaction fee even though it shows VND and no cashback like when paying directly in China.
Cre: Hạnh Pa
