Meituan has supported foreign-issued VISA/Master credit cards, including US cards, for quite a while now. I had been putting off writing about it, but Asia Miles recently started letting users earn Asia Miles on Meituan Waimai and Ele.me delivery orders, so I had to move this post up. For now, I’m publishing it as a quick update and will turn it into a more polished article later.
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Sign-up Link
For Meituan Waimai, my referral QR code is below (you need to scan it with WeChat):
Adding a Visa/Mastercard Credit Card
Meituan currently has two main apps: Meituan (the all-in-one app) and Meituan Waimai (delivery only). Both apps support adding foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
If your card is not a Visa or Mastercard, you can use PayPal Key to convert it for use instead (for example, turning an AMEX into a Mastercard). See this PPK guide. However, using it with Meituan will incur FTF.
In both apps, the setup process is the same: find “Wallet” in the app, then add your bank card.
Where It Works
Currently supported payment scenarios include: all delivery orders, some non-delivery services (for example, foot massage and similar services also work), and some in-person QR-code payment transactions. I’ll go into more detail on this later. Transactions post as MEITUAN, and the category is Food & Drink—simple and straightforward. You may want to use a credit card that earns bonus points on dining, such as CSP/CSR/Citi Premier/Citi Prestige.
It looks like Meituan Waimai is still expanding this feature. It started with only card adding, then support for delivery, then broader support in the main app plus some QR-code payments, and it will likely expand further in the future.
In my personal view, the strongest setup for using US credit cards in China right now is the combination of “WeChat Pay + Alipay + the Meituan app.” The three complement each other in many cases. In some places they do not overlap at all, and only one method will work. I’ll cover that in more detail later.