TenPayGo: A Simple, Smooth Way to Use US Credit Cards for QR-Code Payments in China, with Bonus Earning Potential

Last month I tested TenpayGo + Apple Pay with US Bank Altitude Rewards, BofA Alaska Summit, and Chase Sapphire Reserve, and all of them triggered the cards’ 3x bonus categories. If you have these cards, you can prioritize using them; if not, you can at least fall back to the 2x Capital One Venture X.

• US Bank Altitude Rewards: Mobile extra 2x was triggered

• BofA Alaska Summit: I spent about $700 through TenpayGo, and it was all treated as foreign-currency spend, earning 2x points. This relationship bonus can also earn 10%, so it’s basically 3.3x

• Chase Sapphire Reserve: According to a member update, Chase now has penetration detection for tenpaygo and can recognize dining spend. He paid with Tenpaygo + Apple Pay and then completed the payment with CSR. He successfully earned 3x dining

Of course, if you don’t have any of those cards, then consider the no-foreign-transaction-fee 2x card, Venture X, as a floor. Getting at least 2x is pretty good too.

About TenPayGo

TenPayGo is a payment-focused app launched by Tencent, mainly aimed at foreigners visiting China. But it is very helpful for us when using U.S. credit cards in China. To put it mildly, it’s the smoothest and simplest payment method I’ve experienced so far! The app lets you add U.S. (or other foreign) credit cards, then pay in China by scanning QR codes or by having merchants scan your code.

Download and sign up

Right now, this app can only be downloaded from the U.S. App Store, and you can’t find it in mainland China’s store. Also, it seems to still be in testing and not fully open yet. When registering, you can only use a Gmail address; using other email addresses will prompt you to wait for the official release. I downloaded it on iOS, and I’m not sure what the situation is on Android.

At the moment, this app does not require identity verification or a phone number. All you need is an email address! That means one person can register several accounts, so you don’t need to worry about hitting a spending cap.

This app only has payment functionality, so it’s very simple and there isn’t much else to say. I haven’t seen an app this clean and smooth in a long time!

Add a payment method

This app supports adding a credit card directly, or linking iOS Apple Pay for payments. However, you can only add one card directly, and it has a higher risk-control probability, so I recommend using Apple Pay instead because it’s more convenient.

Apple Pay

If you’re using an iPhone, TenPayGo can link directly to your Apple Pay and use the cards inside it to complete payments, so you don’t need to add cards one by one again. Very convenient. In my own comparison, paying with Apple Pay is smoother, rarely triggers risk controls, and causes far fewer fraud alerts from the card side.

At the moment, Apple Pay payments under ￥200 have no fee; anything above that is charged a flat 3% fee.

Direct card entry

You can also enter the card number, expiration date, and other details to add a credit card directly as a payment method. However, you can currently only add one card. I tried it myself, and several banks were declined outright, while others triggered fraud alerts. I’m guessing banks have stronger risk controls for this kind of rare direct charge; wrapping it through Apple Pay works much better.

Also, if this card has already been added to WeChat Pay, adding it in TenPayGo will produce an error. You can delete it from the WeChat side, wait about ten minutes, and then add it in TenPayGo.

Fees and exchange rates

As mentioned above, payments under ￥200 have no fee whether you scan or are scanned. However, there is word that Android charges a fee, and only iPhone is fully free.

As for exchange rates, I checked and they are very good, basically the same as Google’s exchange rate. I made a payment of ￥200

and checked the exchange rate; it was basically identical

How to pay

This app supports paying by scanning a QR code or by being scanned, but it currently does not support jumping from a mobile browser or app into TenPayGo to complete payment.

Merchant scans your code

For being scanned, just tap Pay Code.

I tested it myself, and merchant-scanned payments basically had no issues. Gas stations, supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants all worked normally.

Scan to pay

For scanning, most merchants’ WeChat QR codes work fine, including bundled payment codes. Some codes will say to use WeChat Pay, and it seems they don’t accept TenPayGo scans. Also, if it’s a personal collection code, there’s a high chance it won’t work.

Which card to use

First, pay special attention: TenPayGo payments should count as spending outside the United States, so you should definitely use a card with no foreign transaction fee. Otherwise, if you’re charged 3%, it’s not really worth it.

Right now, whether you pay by linking Apple Pay or by adding a card directly, TenPayGo cannot pass through the merchant category. It simply shows WEIXIN Wallet Payment, and it does not belong to any category.

So the best choice is to use a card that already has multiple-bonus earnings built in.

There is also another card worth special consideration: the BofA Alaska Summit card, which offers a 3x overseas spending category. This card should be able to trigger it.

If you’re paying through Apple Pay, you can also consider the now-discontinued Altitude Reserve, which offers a mobile wallet 3x category.

FAQ

Here are some of the issues and notes I’ve run into:

• network error: usually the credit card issuer has blocked it, and it’s hard to remove. This usually appears when adding the card directly.
• system busy: after a fraud alert, this will keep showing system busy; it usually goes away after waiting a full day

We discuss some more advanced use cases in our Knowledge Planet community. If you’re interested, feel free to join.