WeChat is the one of the popular payment channels in China along with Alipay. It is the most suitable option for expats and foreigners in China as creating WeChat account does not require Chinese ID card. Also, everyone from road side vendors to big shopping malls accept WeChat payment making life easier. Besides vendor payments, you can easily transfer money from your WeChat account to any of your friend’s account. For example, when your Chinese friend pay money for you at the restaurant, you can instantly transfer the amount using WeChat.
In this article let us explain the step by step process of transferring money to another WeChat account.
What You Need for Money Transfer?
Before doing money transfer between WeChat accounts you should have the followings:
- Your own WeChat account. You can download and install WeChat app from any of the mobile app stores.
- You have added the receiver in your account as a friend.
- Verified WeChat Pay account.
- You have added a payment method using your bank card or have sufficient balance in your WeChat Wallet.
Remember, you can’t do international money transfer using WeChat Pay even you have account from other available countries. If someone sends red envelope, you can only use the money in China from your balance to pay vendors or top-up mobile. You need to verify the account with Chinese bankcard in order to transfer the red envelope money to your bank account.
How to Do Money Transfer in WeChat Accounts?
Now let us go through the step by step process.
- First open your WeChat app and choose the friend you want to send money under “Chats” section.
- Once the receiver is selected, tap on the + button next to the input box.
- You will see multiple options and tap on the “Transfer” button.
- On the next screen, enter the amount to be transferred to the selected person.
- You can also enter a note for the receiver to understand the purpose of the money transfer.
- In our example, we enter 6000 RMB and add a note “Insurance”.
- Finally tap on the “Transfer” button.
- WeChat will automatically select the payment mode based on the available balance. If you have sufficient balance in the Wallet then the WeChat balance will be used for payment. Otherwise the connected bank card will be used for the payment.
- If you have multiple cards or want to add a new payment card, then touch the payment option as shown in the above picture.
- You will be seeing all the connected bank cards along with the WeChat balance and the option to add a new card.
- Once the payment mode is finalized, authorize the payment using Face ID or Touch ID or password.
- Now that the money is transferred from your side and you will see a message in the chat section like below. You can tap on the message to view details of the transfer.
- Once the receiver accepts the money transfer, you as a sender will receive a confirmation message. WeChat will also change the previous message from the transfer symbol to the tick mark with the “Accepted” word.
- You can tap on any of the messages to see more details on the time of receipt.
Sending Reminder to Receiver
WeChat will automatically cancel the transaction and return the amount if the receiver did not receive the money within 24 hours. It is possible for you to tap on the chat message or transaction and send a reminder. The reminder will also be received as a chat message by the receiver. Sending reminder helps in case if the receiver forgot to accept the money.
Accepting Money at Receiver Side
- The sender will instantly receive the message on money transfer in his / her WeChat account. The note message entered by you will be shown in the message (we have entered a note “insurance”).
- He / she can tap on the message and accept the money to transfer.
- Receiver will get the transferred amount to his/her WeChat Wallet balance. He/she can either spend the money from the balance or withdraw the money to the bankcard.
Receive Money Without Being Friends
Sometimes, you may go with your friends or colleagues and spend money on-behalf of all. If you know all the people in the group, then use Split Bill option to share the bill with them. If you don’t know the people, then you need to add them as your friend. Alternatively, ask them to send money to your account without adding them as a friend.
Follow the below instructions to receive money from unknown people not in your WeChat contact list.
- Open WeChat and go to “Me > Services > Money” option.
- You will see multiple options under the QR code.
- Tap on “Receive Money” to view another QR code.
- Anyone can scan this “Receive Money” QR code and send money to your WeChat account.
- You can set specific amount by tapping on the “Set Amount” option. Otherwise, the sender can type any amount and send to you.
- Unlike your vendor payment code, “Receive Money” code is permanent and fixed. You can tap on the “Save Image” and save the QR code to your photo library on the phone. If required, you can print out this code and collect money from anyone. This is the way small shop owners collect the money by printing and pasting the “Receive Money” code on the cash counter.
Handling WeChat Payment Failure
If you have any problem in your account, WeChat will stop the payment and will not allow you to send or receive money. This generally happens when you changed the passport or ID card and did not update the details in WeChat Pay. In such a case, you will see an error message like below while trying to transfer the money. Tap on the “View Solution” and update your correct ID card details along with your photo. If everything goes fine, you will be able to transfer the money immediately.
Remember to provide correct source of the fund, especially when you are living in China without a job as a family member. In case if your WeChat account is blocked, learn more on how to unblock the account.
FAQ on WeChat Money Transfer
Well, WeChat enables a very simple way to transfer money to your friends and receive money from anyone. However, remember the followings before sending money to any unknown person.
After you transferred the amount, there are no ways to stop the money transfer. Even the receiver can’t reject the transfer.
The amount will be deducted from your balance or bankcard instantly and the receiver can also accept the money immediately without any delay. However, if the receiver did not accept, the transfer will be in waiting for acceptance status for 24 hours from the time of sent.
WeChat will automatically cancel the payment transaction, if the receiver did not accept the transfer within 24 hours. The sender will receive the amount back in WeChat balance or linked bankcard.
No. There will be no separate receipt or invoice (called fapiao in Chinese) issued for WeChat transfers. So, only use money transfer within your informal friends circle. When you need a fapiao, pay through appropriate channel with the proof.
Avoid using money transfer to personal accounts on shopping malls. Instead show your vendor payment bar code / QR code so that the cashier can scan with the scanner. Go to “Me > Services > Money” section on the app to view your vendor payment code. You can also find the vendor code quickly by tapping the + button on the top right corner of the WeChat app and then tapping “Money” option.
The vendor payment code is valid for one minute and for only once. WeChat will generate a new payment code every time. This is to avoid fraud activities by using the payment code offline.
Yes, and we highly recommend to setup the password for accessing vendor payment code to avoid accidental use.
No. It is possible to transfer the amount to anyone’s bankcard in China if you have verified WeChat Pay setup.
Earlier we noticed there was an option for the payment delay in the settings to send the money instantly, after 2 hours or after 24 hours. However, we do not see this option is available any more.
WeChat records all transaction history of sent and received money for you to check anytime. Go to “Me > Services > Wallet” and tap on “Transactions” showing on top right corner. You can view the items month wise or select the category from the dropdown to view the transactions.
WeChat does not deduct any amount when transferring money to other’s account. However, there is a nominal fee when you want to withdraw the money from Wallet to your bankcard. 1000 RMB is a free withdrawal limit and you need to pay 0.1% for the remaining amount exceeding 1000 RMB.
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