November 17, 2021
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Articles

Recently, a large number of foreigners -particularly those with only one bank account- could no longer access money stored in their WeChat Wallet due to sudden enforcement of an existing policy that requires linking one’s WeChat Pay to two separate bank accounts.

 

Before you race to your bank in search of help, here’s an overview of solutions and workarounds

Image: The infamous identity verification message
Solution 1: Link 2 bank cards
Add two bank cards to verify your identity.
Yes, mafan!
Solution 2 (temporary): Re-verify your identity 
If you can’t add two cards, the temporary trick is to cancel WeChat Pay and re-verify your ID and bank card details to register again. Follow these steps and you are good to go:
Step 1: Withdraw WeChat balance to zero. 
You can withdraw the money in the wallet to your bank card.
Delete linked cards.
Step 2: Cancel WeChat Pay 
Go to Me – Pay – Payment Management (tap the three dots at the top right) – Wechat Pay Cancellation.
If you can’t cancel it directly, Wechat will list the reasons:
2.1. Auto-Deduction Service
2.2. Wechat Pay Score
2.3. You still have money in your Wallet (¥ symbol)
 
 
2.1. Cancel all Auto-Deduction Service
E.g. Didi, Meituan, Transportation, Apple App Store, etc.
Go to Me – Pay – Payment Management (tap the three dots at the top right) – Auto-Deducation Service, then cancel all the services. Click on the services., find the “关闭扣费服务” at the bottom of the page to cancel the service
2.2. Cancel Wechat Pay Score
Go to Me – Pay – Wallet – Wechat Pay Score – Tap the three dots at the top right
2.3. You still have money in your Wallet
Again, make sure to withdraw the money in the wallet to your bank card.
Step 3: Register WeChat Pay again 
Do this by verifying ID and linking a bank card – receive text message code to verify.
Open Wechat Pay: Go to Me – Pay – Payment Management (tap the three dots at the top right) – Real-Name Authentification. Then bind a Chinese bank card to your Wechat account again to complete the real name verification
After following this process your WeChat Pay should work again.
Important Notes
1. You can’t access WeChat Pay without a valid ID
You can not use WeChat Pay if your ID expired. The ID must be the same one you used to register in the bank. If you have applied for a new ID, you can take your ID and your bank card to renew your information in the bank.
2. This process of cancelling WeChat Pay and starting over will delete all of your transaction history.
3. Your name and phone number must match.
To link cards, you must make sure that the spelling of your name and phone number match your bank’s statement.
Spelling ways might differ in different banks or even different branches, here we list some examples:
ICBC: Surname+blank+First Name, e.g. Zhang San
Agricultural Bank of China: Surname+First Name, e.g. ZhangSan
China Merchants Bank: Surname+blank+First Name, e.g. Zhang San
Bank of China: First Name+blank+Surname, e.g. San Zhang
*We suggest that you call different branches to double-check how they’d put your name.
Sources: The Beijinger, Anyhelper Best of Wuhan, Expat Focus Plus
CDIS China Chengdu