Alipay

Alipay (Hangzhou) Technology Co. Ltd

About this app

Alipay is a leading open platform for payments and digital services in China.

Users with a Chinese ID and bank account can use Alipay to make payments online and in person at various merchants outside of China as they travel for leisure, business, or study.

Foreign visitors to China can connect their credit card to take advantage of Alipay’s widespread acceptance by tens of millions of merchants across the country. Alipay is not designed or intended for use by foreign users in their home country or anywhere outside of China.

Ratings and reviews

Alipay international version is a very helpful add if you are traveling in China and other Asian countries. I was in China for three weeks and one week in Japan and used it frequently with ease. They offer great service and 24 hour call and chat support. You can link it with your credit card and pay for almost anything in China. All the invoices are detailed and contain a lot of information. Credits and refunds are easily processed. You can even use Didi app from Alipay to call for ride sharing.

It's kind of a joke that Alipay pretends to serve international customers. As soon as you download the app, you get a terms and conditions screen in Chinese with no option for other languages. In the app itself, even the text that is translated to English is often incomprehensible, or the heading will be translated and then the rest is in Chinese. Outside of China, you can't use Alipay at all unless you're a Chinese citizen. Updating your ID is a huge pain.

Worked well for payments in Shanghai. Does not work at all for money transfers (must have a credit card issued in China). Hit and miss if you use Didi through the Alipay app as it will sometimes pop up questions in Chinese, which I am not able to read. Would be very useful to have an all-English app for non-residents.