Over the past couple of days, the overseas version of WeChat has rolled out a new payment option: you can now choose built-in Apple Pay at checkout. In practice, you just scan as usual, and the charge is automatically billed to the credit card added to Apple Pay.
However, there are some requirements for your WeChat account:
- Your WeChat account cannot be verified with a Chinese national ID card
- Your WeChat account must be verified with a Chinese passport or a foreign passport
- You must have added at least one foreign credit card to your WeChat account
If you meet the requirements, you can enable it here: WeChat Wallet – Payment Settings – Manage Other Payment Methods – Apple Pay. Note that this feature only supports foreign cards and does not support UnionPay. The fee structure is the same as regular scan payments: transactions under 200 RMB have no fee, while transactions over 200 RMB incur a 3% fee.
This may not be especially useful for users in the US, since abroad you can usually just pay directly with Apple Pay, and there also are not many places where you can scan to pay with WeChat. But it could be very useful in places like China or Japan, where WeChat QR payments are accepted in many locations. By routing the payment through Apple Pay, you may be able to trigger bonus rewards categories on many credit cards. For example, the US Bank Altitude Reserve earns 3x on mobile wallet purchases, so that would effectively mean 3x points on all eligible QR-code payments through WeChat (roughly equivalent to 4.5% back).
US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card
A premium travel card with up to $325 in annual travel credits! Earn 3x on travel and mobile wallet purchases!
- Welcome bonus: 50,000 points (spend $4,500 in 3 months)
- Rewards: 3x on travel (airfare, hotels, car rentals, etc.) and mobile wallet purchases, 1x on all other purchases
- Redemption: Redeem for travel at 1.5 cents per point, or 1 cent per point for cash back
- Annual fee: $400
- Apply now>>
For another example, Apple Card earns 2% back on Apple Pay purchases.
Goldman Sachs Apple Card Credit Card
Perfectly integrated with iPhone! No annual fee!
- Welcome bonus: $75 (make any purchase within 30 days)
- Rewards: 3% on Apple purchases (including online, in-store, App Store, and more); 3% cash back at Uber Eats, Walgreen, Panera, T-Mobile, Nike, and ExxonMobile (when using Apple Pay); 2% on other Apple Pay purchases; 1% when using the physical card directly
- Redemption: Cash back is calculated daily and deposited into Apple Cash
- Annual fee: $0
- Apply now>>
Some readers have already tested it and were able to receive the bonus rewards normally.
The 3x rewards from US Bank have not posted yet, so we will need to confirm that later.
According to reader reports, you can even scan a personal payment QR code. That means you could directly convert US dollars into RMB while also getting 3x back (about 4.5%). That said, doing this too often would likely increase the risk of triggering fraud or risk controls, so it is probably best not to do it too frequently.