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Q: prepaid debit cards in China
Are there any prepaid debit cards in China? If so, are they branded with visa/mc ? I gotten to the point now where i really need a visa/mastercard to make the majority of my online purchases now, especially since some of the websites i used to use, no longer accept unionpay. I read in a previous thread about China Merchant Bank offering a cobranded card with a monthly fee of 50rmb if the balance is less than 50,000. I will go to the bank tomorrow to see if they can give it to me. In the mean time i wanted to see if there were any prepaid card options here in China? I thought about getting a prepaid card from America, but the issue would be reloading the card from China. Any ideas or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated,
8 years 38 weeks ago in Money & Banking - China
Personally I'd go for the Merchants bank joint Unionpay/VISA debit card. I've had an account with them for 6 months now and it works great. Not used the online banking yet as I had problems downloading the software but then I've been lazy and not tried for a few months. Their phone app is good once you learn how to use it (Chinese only!).
I don't remember having to pay a million by got fee and my balance never goes about about 35k.
WanderingTeacher:
Sounds good. i'm gonna try them tomorrow. I just hope they don't give me the run around. I know things work differently in different cities, and i just have a feeling that when i go there, they are going to claim that they have no idea what i'm talking about. When you opened the account, did you have to make a deposit/fund the account right away? just need to know if i should bring some cash with me or not.
Hotwater:
I had my wife with me when I opened the account so she did most of the talking! From memory I opened the account with about 100rmb but then transferred about 10k from another account once I got the card. The card for the visa account takes about 1 week to get issued though (sorry, forgot this before!). Taking a Chinese speaker might help if yours isn't great.
WanderingTeacher:
I can speak chinese almost fluently so that's not a problem. I'm just hoping they know what card im talking about. i swear these people never seem to know what im talking about. at CCB today i showed them a picture of my friend's co branded debit card and they all went around asking other people what card this was and im like "IT's YOUR card..it says "China Construction Bank" how do you not know what card this is? so that's my main problem..dealing with people who dont know anything and to save face they just tell me "no, we don't have this" , instead of saying "im sorry i don't know, let me find out for you so i can give you accurate information" lol
Personally I'd go for the Merchants bank joint Unionpay/VISA debit card. I've had an account with them for 6 months now and it works great. Not used the online banking yet as I had problems downloading the software but then I've been lazy and not tried for a few months. Their phone app is good once you learn how to use it (Chinese only!).
I don't remember having to pay a million by got fee and my balance never goes about about 35k.
WanderingTeacher:
Sounds good. i'm gonna try them tomorrow. I just hope they don't give me the run around. I know things work differently in different cities, and i just have a feeling that when i go there, they are going to claim that they have no idea what i'm talking about. When you opened the account, did you have to make a deposit/fund the account right away? just need to know if i should bring some cash with me or not.
Hotwater:
I had my wife with me when I opened the account so she did most of the talking! From memory I opened the account with about 100rmb but then transferred about 10k from another account once I got the card. The card for the visa account takes about 1 week to get issued though (sorry, forgot this before!). Taking a Chinese speaker might help if yours isn't great.
WanderingTeacher:
I can speak chinese almost fluently so that's not a problem. I'm just hoping they know what card im talking about. i swear these people never seem to know what im talking about. at CCB today i showed them a picture of my friend's co branded debit card and they all went around asking other people what card this was and im like "IT's YOUR card..it says "China Construction Bank" how do you not know what card this is? so that's my main problem..dealing with people who dont know anything and to save face they just tell me "no, we don't have this" , instead of saying "im sorry i don't know, let me find out for you so i can give you accurate information" lol
See 'laowai friendly bank' for more on CMB Visa/Mc account.
Everything works the same at Gold account, except they added your phone to the account. Apparently, when Sim runs out, account will be blocked too.
I'm not sure, if that explanation which was given to me is OK. One should ask Qs about that, especially if they'll ask for the phone no.
I got a China Merchants Visa card, yes I did have to put dollars into it to make it work.. Otherwise it hasn't been very useful as I was hoping. Thats about as prepaid as you are going to get. I know what kind of prepaid cards you're talking about, but no, they are not here in China.
WanderingTeacher:
I didn't need to out any money into the account. They said I'll get a text message once my debit card arrives next week. But why hasn't it been as useful as you thought?
