Payment gateways in China are highly digitalized allowing to send and receive the money easily. WeChat and Alipay are part of everybody’s life and the physical currency literally disappeared with the dominance of these services with smartphones. However, sending and receiving money from abroad is not possible with the local payment services as they handle currency only in RMB. Though you can do money transfer in Alipay, it is still not a convenient way for receiving USD. So, PayPal is the best option to consider for receiving money in USD and then withdraw it to your RMB Chinese bank account.
PayPal China
PayPal is one of the few foreign entities offering payment gateway services in China. Though you can use paypal.com, they do have paypal.cn website. Recently PayPal also announced USD to RMB transfer from PayPal Payments (Beijing) Co. Ltd (PPCN). However, this PPCN account is currently available only for business account holders and not for individuals.
If you are an individual want to receive money in USD from friends or as a freelancer, then you need a PayPal account and linked it with your local bank card. You need a Chinese name and ID card to create a PayPal China account. That obliviously means, foreigners can’t create PayPal China account and send/receive money.
Transfer USD to RMB in China Bank Card
Follow the below steps to withdraw the money received in USD to your local China bank account:
- Login to your PayPal China account
- When you are in “Dashboard”, click “Transfer Funds” button showing below your account balance.
- You will see a list of options for money transfer and select “Transfer to your bank” option.
- On the next page, you should see the preferred bank account is automatically selected and click “Next” button. If you are not seeing your bank appears, click on “Don’t see all your banks or cards?” link and select the bank manually.
- By default, PayPal will show all balance amount in your account for transfer. Delete the appearing amount and enter the amount that you want to transfer. Click “Next” button to move next step.
- On the next page, view the details of your transfer. You can still edit the amount here and type the reason in the text box which is optional. As you can see, PayPal will deduct $35 for transaction. If everything looks fine, click on “Transfer $(Amount) Now” button.
- This will send the money to your bank account and you will see a message like below. Click “Done” button to close the transfer page and go to your PayPal account dashboard.
Receiving USD in Chinese Bank
Unlike many other countries, you can’t directly receive USD into your local RMB (Chinese Yuan) account. The amount transferred from PayPal will go to your USD account balance which is kind of linked with your RMB account. You can do the conversion and transfer USD to your account from the bank app. Alternatively, go to nearby bank branch and convert the USD account and transfer the amount to your local Chinese account.
Once you have the money in your bank account, you can transfer to WeChat Pay or Alipay to use it digitally anywhere in China.
RMB Transfer Option
As you can see, there are three transfer options available in PayPal China account – back transfer, physical check and RMB transfer. The last “RMB Transfer” option is the new one to directly convert USD and receive RMB in your Chinese account. However, this is available only as a business account and not for individuals. When you select that option, the transfer page will redirect you to the paypal.cn site.
You can accept the terms and open an account by uploading your business license and ID card.
The big advantage of RMB Transfer option is that you will get the money on the same day when you transfer before 1 PM. In addition, the transfer is free with 0 local service fee at this point of time as a limited time offer (this will change soon for sure).
FAQ on Transferring USD from PayPal China Account
No, PayPal China account needs Chinese name and ID card for registration. You can use your foreign PayPal account but cannot transfer money to your local China bank.
Yes, you can receive the amount in USD from any country.
First, PayPal apps are not offered through Chinese mobile app stores. You can download the app from another country’s app store and login with your PayPal China account. However, the transfer may not work in mobile app and you should use desktop or web access to do the money transfer.
USD 35 is the transaction fee deducted by PayPal for each USD transfer. Your bank will deduct another $11 or more and you also need to bear the fluctuations in currency conversion rates.
It will take around 3 to 7 business days to receive the USD amount in your Chinese bank account.
No, you should use the bank app or go to bank to transfer the USD to your RMB account. USD balance will show separately till you convert and move to RMB balance.
At this point, it is only for business account holders with PayPal China. You need to convert your individual account to business type by uploading necessary documents before using this service.
Yes, you can switch the language to English or Chinese by selecting it from the footer section.
If you are not able to select the bank, there is a possibility that your bank does not support PayPal transfer. You can confirm this by checking with your bank or PayPal support.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.