Thread: Accepting Online Payments in China

The Internet is a very important business platform which is making international business possible. It's understandable that many businesses are trying to target Chinese Internet users. China has the fastest expanding number of Internet users in the world.

While online payments in China are relatively rare they are becoming more popular. Sites such as Taobao.com (similar to eBay) are making Internet purchases much safer and more popular. The Chinese are quickly discovering that shopping on the Internet is cheaper and more convenient than visiting high street stores.

So how can you accept credit card and bank account payments in China? Well there are quite a few different options.

Chinese Debit Cards

99% of Chinese bank accounts will be issued with a debit card. Unlike western countries this is unlikely to be a Visa or Mastercard card. China almost always issues their own "UnionPay" card. These work in pretty much the same way as a regular card. What's more international agreements also make it possible to withdraw money from many foreign ATM's using a china union pay card.

PayEase

Website: [url=http://www.PayEasenet.com]http://www.PayEasenet.com[/url]
Email: [email]sales@payeasenet.com[/email]
Phone: +86 10 8265 2626 (China)
Phone: (408) 567-9300 (US Office)

PayEase is one of the most popular payment gateways in china. This supports all of the Chinese debit cards and also adds support for Visa, Mastercard and JCB cards. This company is based in Beijing and has offices in the US and Hong Kong.

The set up fees for PayEase are 8,000RMB (which is around $1,200 depending on the exchange rate). They also hold 1,200RMB ($180) as a security deposit. The fees are 5% per transaction.

There is a settlement delay of around 45 days before the money is paid into your bank account. PayEase makes it possible to transfer the money into your local bank account and they will handle the exchange rate conversions.

If there are any charge backs then it's impossible to argue your case because the merchant accepts the charge backs automatically. This is not a very good feature of the account.

CtoPay

Website: [url=http://www.ctopay.hk]http://www.ctopay.hk[/url]

CtoPay is another very popular payment gateway which can accept Chinese debit and credit cards. This is an international company with offices in ShenZhen and Hong Kong. The set up fee for CtoPay is 6,000RMB ($880) and there is no security deposit. The fee per transaction is 6%. There is also a settlement delay of 45 days.

Any charge backs can be dealt with individually. CtoPay will even help you fight the charge back if needed.

95ePay

Website: [url=http://www.95epay.com]http://www.95epay.com[/url]

95ePay is another Chinese payment gateway which is based in GuangZhou. They charge a setup fee of 8000RMB and charge 8% commission. The settlement delay is 45 days.

Alipay

Website: [url=http://www.alipay.com]http://www.alipay.com[/url]

Alipay is similar to PayPal but works in china. It's the most popular payment option in china and is used on sites like TaoBao and many other popular shopping sites.

It's a fairly cheap way to accept money in china. As long as you are a verified user then the fees will be free under 5000RMB per month. Over 5000RMB Alipay will charge 1%. The maximum charge per transaction is 40RMB and the minimum is 1RMB.

Although it's possible for foreigners to apply for an alipay account they must have a bank account in China to use the service. The bank account must be at one of the following banks:

• Bank of China
• China Construction Bank
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
• Bank of Shanghai
• Bank of Hangzhou
• Pingan Bank
• Bank of Communications
• Agricultural Bank
• China EverBright Bank
• SPD Bank
• Guangdong Development Bank

Your bank account must also be set up for e-banking which will cost around 10RMB per year. This is a very cheap way to accept payments and the Chinese bank accounts can be used to transfer the funds to your domestic account. This however will incur fees and involve a trip to china to set up a Chinese bank account.

A complete overview along with a comparison chart can be downloaded in PDF form here.

Forgot to mention that most of the sites are in chinese which can make understanding them a little difficult. Google Translate will normally do a pretty good job of straightening things out.

if you need any help applying or translating your site then please let me know as I will be able to help out

Andrew