Chinese payment giants revive effort to accept foreign credit cards

Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) and Ant Group said that they would allow users to link international credit cards to their platforms, an issue that has long plagued foreign visitors as the country’s payment system has kept credit cards out for years.

Tencent, operator of the popular chat app WeChat and payment network WeChat Pay, said on Wednesday that WeChat users overseas can link credit cards issued by Visa Inc (V.N) to their WeChat app from next month. Foreign tourists can then pay with WeChat when traveling in mainland China.

This comes after Mastercard (MA.N) announced last week that cardholders can link credit or debit cards to the Alipay digital wallet where they can finally “pay like a local”. Alipay is the mobile payment app owned by Ant.

China’s mobile payment network became highly closed-off to overseas tourists since mobile apps became the predominant payment method in the country in the late 2010s, triggering a boom in ecommerce. Foreign visitors often find themselves unable to pay for things in China where many shops and restaurants now only accept mobile payment rather than credit cards or cash.

This report’s information was first seen on REUTERS; to read more, click this link.