A mere ten years ago, when our friends wanted to go to the movies after school we had to beg, grovel, and cry until our parents gave us money to buy a ticket and some popcorn. However, in today’s cashless society, with things like WeChat’s Relative Cards, children may never have the opportunity to experience that.

Instead of giving your children physical cash as an allowance, they can now receive an allowance straight on their phone that will replenish itself monthly, so you won’t have to worry about them having funds wherever they go, as well as being able to teach them how to budget.

The way to set up a Relative Card for your child or children is quite simple.

How to Set Up a Relative Card

Step 1:
Go to your WeChat profile page and click on “WeChat Pay”

Step 2:
After that, click on your Wallet

Step 3:
Once you open up your Wallet, click on the tab that says “Relative Cards”

Step 4:
You will then see the option to gift a Parent-Child Relative Card by clicking on the orange button that says “Send”

Step 5:
Once you do so, you will see three types of Relative Card options; Father, Mother, Child

Step 6:
Once you select the type of Relative Card you would like to create, you will be asked to set a monthly limit for the recipient. The limit you set will renew every month and caps at RMB 3,000

Step 7:
After you set the monthly limit, confirm by entering your payment password

Step 8:
After it’s confirmed, the card will be available for use and all your child will need to do is open up their chat log with you and accept the Relative Card.

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 March – April issue
Photo: Getty Image

I recently wrote about raising kids with allowances. I outlined a number of benefits of doing so, with one of the most important ones being to help kids foster the right kind of attitude to and relationship with money. Giving an allowance can help you raise grounded kids who are financially savvy, and wise savers and spenders, with a real sense of accountability.

There are many ways to gift your child with an allowance. When they’re young, it’s usually pennies and small notes in a piggy bank; as they get older they may receive a weekly or monthly allowance paid in cash. However with most kids now using their smartphones for just about everything and anything, there’s an easier way to pay your kids allowance and a more efficient way for them to keep tabs on their spending. Enter WeChat Wallet.

It doesn’t take long once you move to China to realize that WeChat is your lifeline. It’s a social networking platform that is more than just about connecting you with your friends. You can build a business, network, pay bills, coordinate events and activities, catch up on local news, read articles, make a hotel or restaurant booking, buy tickets – the list is endless, and now you can use WeChat to pay your kids!

Parents can now gift a ‘Relative Card’ using WeChat. You can set one up for mom, dad, and child, and you can create up to two WeChat Wallet cards for kids. Follow the instructions below to set up a monthly allowance card for your kids. Don’t forget to remind them that spending digital money is very easy; before you know it, it’s gone! When giving a monthly stipend to your kids, you may want to encourage them to save some, spend some, and give some (to a charity of their choice). These purposeful acts show them that there’s a particular formula to how one should handle money.

• Click on “Me” on your WeChat homepage
• Click on “WeChat Pay”
• Click on “Wallet”
• Select “Relative Cards” from the menu
• Click on “Gift a Relative Card”
• Click on the “Child” card option
• Search for the name of your kid and select
• Input the limit you would like set for your child’s monthly allowance, and send.

This is a great and easy solution for switching up the way you pay your kids their allowances or to start gifting your kids pocket money.

Photos: Pixabay

November sees a host of blockbuster movies hitting the screens in Beijing (see our pick of this month’s family-friendly flicks). But are you deterred by the hassle of buying a ticket, or worried your chosen screening will be sold out when you get to the cinema? Check out our guide to buying tickets on the all-encompassing WeChat app, and enjoy your popcorn stress-free.

• Go to WeChat Wallet under “Me” and select “Movie Tickets”, confirm to link to your account ID to the in-app program.
• By default, the program shows a list of all ongoing and upcoming movies, with red and blue buttons beside them respectively. Select the second icon at the bottom of the screen 影院 (yǐng yuàn, “Cinema”) if you want to check the list of movie theaters around the city instead.
• Click on the movie you’d like to see. All the listed movies come with basic information including a synopsis, trailer, and reviews to help you to make the right choice.
• After picking a movie, choose a specific cinema. The program provides the list of theaters in order of distance from your current location. If you have an preferred cinema in mind, scroll down to find it on the list.
• Once you’ve decided on a cinema, you’re ready to reserve your tickets by clicking on the red button 购票 (gòu piào “Buy ticket”), selecting the screening time you prefer.
• Choose your seats. Seats marked in red are already booked, while blank means they’re available.
• Pay for your order after double checking the ticket information, and tapping the orange button 确认支付(què rèn zhī fù “Confirm to pay”) to finish purchase through WeChat Wallet. Please note that movie tickets can’t be returned or exchanged.

When you get to the movie theater, you can either pick up your tickets at the customer service counter, or print them out from the dedicated machine by showing the message or the QR code.

Photo: rottentomatoes.com

One of the WeChat functions that you need to access immediately is WeChat Wallet, as it can make your life China easier in all sorts of ways. There’s information online about this function but unfortunately, it gets outdated very quickly as WeChat implement strings of updates to abide by new government regulations.

The Wallet function is readily available to WeChat accounts set up inside China (also if you downloaded the app here), but it’s hidden for accounts set up in the international version of the app. If you already have an account before moving to China, a quick way to activate WeChat Wallet is by asking someone who already has that function to transfer you a small amount of digital cash. When you try to receive that money, WeChat will prompt you to link a bank card or a mainland ID (exclusive to Chinese citizens) to verify your identity.

At the moment, WeChat Wallet allows linking of almost every local Chinese bank card, and a few foreign credit cards with MasterCard, Visa, or JCB. Linking your WeChat Wallet to your local Chinese bank card is easy, even if you set up your WeChat account overseas.

Step 1: To access WeChat Wallet, have someone transfer you any amount of money. It can be as little as RMB 0.01. Once you open it, you’ll be prompted to do a real name authentication. If you set up your WeChat account in China, you can skip this and move straight to Step 2.

Step 2: Select “Add New Card” to link your local Chinese bank card and you’ll be prompted to enter information, such as your full name, passport number, occupation, and region in China. Important note: Make sure you input your name the exact way as the bank inputted it into their system. The name field is case sensitive.

Step 3: WeChat sends a code to the phone number linked to your bank account. (This is a very common method of verification in China.) Enter the code in the appropriate box. Once you have successfully linked your local bank card, the Wallet function will be available and should stay under the Me tab from now on.

At the time of writing, linking a foreign credit card to your WeChat Wallet is technically possible. However, several tech insiders who tried doing so have noted that the hassle of linking credit cards outweighs the benefits, since in many cases you cannot use the card to pay or transfer money outside of China. We recommend just using a local Chinese bank card.

Anyway, let’s have a run-through of the functions under the WeChat Wallet tab.

The first three icons, Money, Balance, and Cards are interlinked to one another.

– Money is used when paying vendors. Hold the QR code and barcode out to them, they’ll scan it, and the payment is made. Under this function are several items, but one that you’re likely to use is Receive Money, where people can scan a QR code to transfer you money.
– Balance contains your digital money, including sums you received from digital red packets and transfers. Top Up withdraws money from your bank account, and Withdraw sends money back to your bank account. On the top right side is Transactions that records the amount of money you received or released.
– Cards is a list of connected bank cards.

The other functions are named in English but their separate pages are in Chinese. The one function that is in English all throughout is Mobile Top Up, which allows you to buy phone and data credits for your linked phone number.

Photo: Andy Penafuerte III
This article appeared on p12-17 of beijingkids July 2018 Home & Relocation Guide issue.

Welcome to your new home in Beijing! I know that it will take time for you to get around to everything you need to do here in the city. But if there’s one piece of advice that you need to follow, that will be to download WeChat. Do it now!

OK, think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Apple Pay, and all the other social apps that you use. Most of the major functions of those apps are available on WeChat. This app is essentially one heck of a social media giant that will help you in the coming days, months, and years during your stay in China.

That being said, it might seem that WeChat is just like any other social platform, but let me tell you: it is beyond that. From chatting and networking to paying bills and utilities, and even donating to charity, WeChat can do almost everything. And while I was finishing this article, the app was updated, and I needed to rewrite some parts because they were upgraded in an instant!

Using the app is easy-peasy, and its interface is pretty intuitive and user-friendly. Signing up is effortless as long as you already have your mobile number ready. But remember that a Chinese mobile number is linked to your passport as a means of verification, and you’ll be using that number to access many of the app functions, like mobile payments and joining large groups.

Now, look at your app homepage. On the top right of the screen, you’ll see a plus (+) icon. Under that menu, you’ll see four options. Tap “Scan” and point your phone camera towards the QR code on the right.

That’s our official WeChat account! Tap “Follow” and on our account you’ll see daily updates, stories, event information, and all the other essential resources to help you in your new home! Now, tap “Back” twice to get back to the app’s homepage.

QR codes are very much ubiquitous in China, and there will be times that you need to point-and-scan to unlock many things here, such as adding contacts, paying vendors, or accessing hyperlinks and information, to name just a few.

WeChat Functions

As I’ve mentioned, the app interface is pretty user-friendly. But we’re going to explain the most basic functions, categorized by their location in the screen.

More (+)
Top right icon on the homepage

– Scan is pretty much like the example we’ve given on the previous page. This function also now allows instant translations from Chinese characters into English.
– Money is disabled by default, unless you already linked your Chinese bank card to your account. When enabled, it shows a bar code and a QR code, which other people can scan to collect payments.

Contacts
Second icon on the bottom menu

– New Friends is where you’ll see all the people who’ve added you. Tap Mobile Contacts to upload your contacts who have linked their mobile numbers into their WeChat accounts.
– Group Chat shows all the group chats you’ve saved.
– Tags is a list of, yes, tags. It’ll be particularly helpful when you need to categorize your contacts.
– Official Accounts contains the accounts you’re subscribed to (if you tapped “Follow” earlier, you’ll see our account!).

Discover
Third icon on the bottom menu

– Moments is like a scaled-down version of Facebook’s Timeline or a Twitter feed. Scan is also present in this menu.
– Top Stories is a curated list of trending topics in Chinese.
– Mini Programs can be considered as in-app websites. Most of them are in Chinese, though, and require a higher level of Chinese knowledge to navigate.

Me
Fourth icon on the bottom menu

– Favorites contains the WeChat articles, photos, attachments, and other items that you marked as a “favorite.” It is helpful, for example, when you need to revisit an article for later reading.
– My Posts is like your Facebook wall, and includes all the items you posted. The three dots (…) icon will show your friends’ comments, and the big camera icon on the current day prompts you to post photos or short videos.
– Sticker Gallery is a repository of all saved and bought stickers.
– Wallet is a powerful function that, as its name suggests, acts as your wallet (albeit digitally). Once accessible, you can transfer and receive money, accept digital red packets, top up mobile credits, purchase tickets, donate for charity, and more. We’ll talk more about that in detail on the next page.
– Cards & Offers contains digital vouchers which you can get by purchasing items from various vendors using WeChat Wallet.

Photos: Andy Penafuerte III; courtesy of TechNode
This article appeared on p12-17 of beijingkids July 2018 Home & Relocation Guide issue.

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.

688 million people used WeChat hongbao on Feb 15 (Chinese New Year’s Eve) with Chengdu, Chongqing, and Beijing with the fastest hands according to WeChat’s New Year’s Eve big data, our sister site TechNode Chinese is reporting. 15 percent more people used WeChat hongbao in 2018 compared to the year previous

In China’s new year, elders give the money to children hoping to pass on a year of good fortune and blessings, and the younger generation give the money to their elders as a blessing of longevity and a show of gratitude. In a country where 95 percent of its internet users mobile device to access the internet, more and more people send their red envelopes to their relatives and friends through WeChat, making into a game of who can open them the fastest.

The stroke of midnight rang in the Lunar New Year. At the same time, a shower of red envelopes filled mobile screens across every part of China. New Year’s Eve (除夕 chuxi), the day before Spring Festival (春节 chunjie), is the peak time to grab red envelope  (红包 hongbao). There are even tactics to grab hongbaodepending on which phone you use.

Below are the New Year’s Eve data for 2018:

688 million people sent or received hongbao on Feb 15

Users from Beijing, Chongqing, and Chengdu grabbed the most hongbao the fastest

In all age groups, users from the post-’80s generation (those born in the 1980s) were the largest portion of the “Red Packet army,” comprising 32 percent of total users, sending or receiving Red Packets. Post-’90s, post-’70s followed the ranking, comprising 27 percent, 22 percent, respectively.

WeChat was even able to track the fastest single user and the most generous:

The report also tracked how users spent their time during the New Year’s Eve through their purchases.

With an attempt for Tencent to keep its first place in hongbao war, WeChat Pay also announced hongbaoraffles throughout the seven-day Spring Festival holiday. Stay tuned to see who won the 2018 hongbaobattle as the Spring Festival comes to a close.

Images: WeChat

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.

Tencent’s WeChat Pay, one of China’s major mobile payment services, announced today that international credit cards are now allowed on the mobile payment platform. Expats living in China and residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan – places where WeChat is ambitiously expanding its user base – can now bind and activate WeChat Pay accounts with credit card services provided by MasterCard, Visa, and JCB.

It’s worth noting that this is the first time users are able to use WeChat Pay without having a Chinese bank account or credit card, according to a company statement from Tencent.

As China is going cashless, WeChat Pay and Alipay – a mobile payment service under Alibaba’s financial arm Ant Financial – have become ubiquitous and embedded in all kinds of daily consumption settings, such as online shopping, ride-hailing, ticket purchasing, bike renting, food delivery, and hotel booking.

Released in August 2013, WeChat Pay has expanded to 25 countries around the world, serving the large amount of Chinese tourists traveling abroad. “WeChat is initially a social app,” Grace Yin, director of WeChat pay cross-border operation at Tencent, told TechNode last week in Guangzhou. “If [local users]don’t have experience using WeChat, then we cannot ask them to establish WeChat payment,” she said.

In fact, WeChat Pay is popular among the expats living in China. According to a data report released by Tencent last year, over 64 percent of foreign expats in China used WeChat Pay for their daily needs. It’s fair to say that most people (including the TechNode team) don’t need to leave their house with their wallet any longer.

Photo courtesy of TechNode

All the bank information you type in must be exactly consistent with what was used to open your bank account. This includes capitalization and order of the name used to open your account. If you’ve tried to no avail to switching the order of your name during setup, typing without spaces, and dropping your middle name, you may have to go to the bank to fix errors. For Alipay, if you enter the incorrect details more than three times, you will be temporarily locked out and unable to attempt to register again for 24 hours.

Pre-step

Set up your Chinese bank account, download apps, and make basic accounts

This article originally appeared on p 41 of beijingkids May 2017 Home & Relocation Guide.
Download the digital copy here.

Quite a few people from the community have reached out to us, asking for a WeChat Wallet guide.  At first, I was a little puzzled as to why such a guide would be necessary, but I was reminded that I have had my WeChat ID for years now and it is set up differently from the newer versions.  Apparently you have different functions if you registered for WeChat later, and if you have an international version of WeChat, especially attached to a foreign phone number (rather than a local one, or in my case, no number at all).

To test the theory, I have borrowed a relative’s (much newer) WeChat and decided I’d use her WeChat to set up WeChat wallet. Only, I discovered that she didn’t even have WeChat Wallet under “Me”! After doing some research, I have concluded that this is a relatively common problem with foreigners who use a non-Chinese version of WeChat and don’t have it connected to a local number.

So, I followed the guides on the internet and I can attest that changing the language to Chinese, exiting the app, and re-logging in did not work. Note: I even tried changing it to different versions of Chinese and it still didn’t work.

What did work was receiving a red envelope, closing WeChat, and reopening it. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open a red envelope in a group chat, or request a friend to send you Lucky Money. It can be as little as RMB 0.01, but I accidentally sent ten cents.

Step 4: Press “Wallet” to see all the wallet functions. The wallet should stay in your menu from now on and will not disappear.

Step 5: Now you can use your existing balance by having friends transfer money to you, or by opening Lucky Red Envelopes.

Actually, for the longest time I didn’t add any cards to my WeChat wallet, but simply relied on my husband transferring funds to my WeChat when I needed it. I have also received payments via WeChat, and whenever friends and I went out to dinner, I’d pay cash and have them transfer their share to me so that I’d have some funds in my wallet.

However, a few months ago, I finally caved in and attached a bank card. My next post will be a step by step guide on how you can also attach a Chinese bank card to your WeChat wallet!

Photo: Flickr