Many readers carry both Chinese and U.S. credit cards. In the original PayPal Key introduction, I mentioned that AMEX credit cards issued in mainland China (USD version) can be linked directly to a U.S. PayPal account, and transactions can post normally (different mainland banks have different tolerance levels: some link instantly, some are rejected instantly, and it also depends on how active the PayPal account is). However, PayPal Key cannot select this kind of Chinese AMEX credit card.
Linking Mainland UnionPay Cards to PayPal/PPK
So can UnionPay credit cards, which have the largest issuance volume, also be linked to U.S. PayPal? The answer is YMMV. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- First, the activity level of your PayPal account matters a lot. If it is not active, you may not even be able to add your own U.S. credit card.
- Chinese credit cards do not have a billing address concept, so you can just enter a U.S. billing address (this applies to any merchant).
- For UnionPay credit cards, choose the Discover network (they all start with 6).
- Whether the charge can post depends largely on the Chinese issuing bank. Some banks work, others do not.
The image below shows a China Merchants Bank UnionPay credit card linked to U.S. PayPal:
What is worth noting is that after being converted through Discover, it can actually be linked to PayPal Key, which basically turns a UnionPay card into a Mastercard.
- After a purchase, Pending will show CN, and the final posting will be corrected to US. In addition, mainland banks also seem to have delays in statement synchronization, YMMV.
- Since the posting country is the U.S., this can fully trigger overseas online cashback promotions for UnionPay credit cards.
- Can be used for PayPal Key and the year-end free QR code scan promotion
Is There Any Risk?
Personally, I do not recommend that you do this. I’m only writing this article to say that it can be done. But there are risks.
- It may trigger risk controls at mainland banks. This is usually relatively easy to resolve.
- It may trigger PayPal risk controls. If posting is delayed or too many cards are linked, it may trigger fraud controls and require you to upload statements for all credit cards.
If PayPal flags you and asks you to upload all statements, they will not accept Chinese credit card statements, let alone Chinese-language statements. PayPal is extremely stubborn when it comes to statement review. Even genuine statements from U.S. banks are sometimes not accepted. In short, they are very unreasonable.
[Recently, I’ve also been frequently switching between PPK + linking new cards (U.S. cards), and PP asked me to upload statements. It’s been exhausting.]
So for now, I suggest waiting and seeing how this plays out.
HT: Reader CK