Using Alipay from China when you're not Chinese: please help

[SiN-TAX]

Hi and thanks for reading!
I have fully setup and authourised my Chinese Alipay account and wish to use it to buy games from Steam. Every time I try to pay, it keeps asking me for my "Real name" and "Chinese ID" card number.
I am at a loss as to what to do with this and I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? I've contacted Alipay support but 我的中文不好.

[schnitzeljaeger]

http://answers.echinacities.com/question/why-cant-foreigners-set-alipay-account?type=alatest

[SiN-TAX]

Thank you, but as I said my account is fully setup and authourised. I have done what Alipay call "Real name identification" It's actually quite simple. The problem I have is when trying to pay foreign companies, it still asks for a Chinese ID card number.

[Legendary old man]

I have no idea why you are posting here instead of continuing to get it sorted out through Alipay. How many people here do you think are living in china?

[SiN-TAX]

Well there actually a few people on here that use Alipay to buy games on Steam, but thanks for your helpful comment.

[che]

Maybe I know the answer,u need use ur ID to make ur alipay to send money to a foreign account.but it's okay to buy stuff on the {ลิงก์ถูกลบแล้ว}taobao.com .Chinese rules,I have to use others account to trade.and now,money gone,games not in.WTF!

[Dark Colossus]

Did some one found a solution to this?

[SiN-TAX]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย DarkColossus:

Did some one found a solution to this?

There sadly isn't a solution to this, I've spoken to Alipay's support and although my Chinese is terrible, from what I understand you have to have a Chinese ID number which is only given to Chinese citizens. There is no 'why', it's just company policy.

[ObstacleOnion]

I just ran into this problem right now, from my broken chinese it sounds like you need to use Chinese identification to authorize your first foreign payment. So our fully functional Alipay accounts will work for Chinese purchases but not for Steam. Looks like I've got 50 kuai stuck in limbo :(

[Lunaire]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย SiNTAX-eRROR:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย DarkColossus:

Did some one found a solution to this?

There sadly isn't a solution to this, I've spoken to Alipay's support and although my Chinese is terrible, from what I understand you have to have a Chinese ID number which is only given to Chinese citizens. There is no 'why', it's just company policy.

I guess the solution is to ask for another card than a "Union pay" one but then I expect to encounter some similar problem when I'll ask the bank for one lol

[Kickin' Chicken]

How about "borrowing" one from a Chinese friend?

[SiN-TAX]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย RajaNaga:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย SiNTAX-eRROR:

There sadly isn't a solution to this, I've spoken to Alipay's support and although my Chinese is terrible, from what I understand you have to have a Chinese ID number which is only given to Chinese citizens. There is no 'why', it's just company policy.

I guess the solution is to ask for another card than a "Union pay" one but then I expect to encounter some similar problem when I'll ask the bank for one lol

Yes you will, the only other cards would be Visa or Mastercard but they are both attached to credit cards and not debit cards. Credit in China is worked out via assets rather than being sucured on property from what I've been told (maybe wrong, but makes sense considering the situation on owning property in China.) or based on the amount of savings you have (not sure of numbers for this).

I think this is also going to be effected by which bank you are with, some are better than others when offering services to foreigners, I moved from Citic bank to ICBC for this very reason, also they have an English version of thier website.

[SiN-TAX]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Kickin' Chicken:

How about "borrowing" one from a Chinese friend?

I've not met a friend whom is willing to try, but I have had offers from my friends to just buy it for me with their account and then gift me the game.

To be honest I'm mostly using Taobao now, I've found some good sellers on there, and although a little more expensive than buying direct, the process most of the time is very smooth.

[Dark Colossus]

the best solution is to buy a gift card from taobao and bargain with seller

[Bardocki]

l