How do you send money internationally with Alipay? Along with WeChat, Alipay handles a vast majority of financial transactions for the Chinese population.
As a foreigner, is it possible to take advantage of Alipay to wire money home? And if so, how exactly is it done? I’d like to answer these questions and more in this simple guide.
Before we dive too far into this Alipay tutorial, there are a few things I would like to mention. First, and most importantly:
There is no easy way to move money out of China.
Period.
If you’ve come here thinking that Alipay is going to be a magic bullet, you’re going to be disappointed.
There are a number of options for easily sending money into China, but very few that can get money out of China. China intentionally makes it difficult to get money out of the country so even these few options aren’t straightforward.
So to be clear, if you’re planning to send money outside China using Alipay, you should understand that:
Got it? Ok, then.
If you’re still hoping to understand how to send money outside of China using Alipay, this step-by-step tutorial should help.
With Alipay, sending money internationally can be done in just a few steps, that we’ll detail shortly.
There are a number of very important requirements and restrictions that you have to be aware of before you start, though.
With that background information in mind, you’ll want to make sure you’ve downloaded the Alipay app for iPhones or Android devices and created an account.
Time needed: 25 minutes
The transfer process using Alipay to get money out of China can be done by following these simple steps.
While the Chinese friend you have help you can likely navigate to the international transfer function in the app, if they need help, you can tell them that on the home screen they should select 更多 or u0022Moreu0022 button, followed by the 上海汇聚 or u0022Shanghai International Transfersu0022. From there, the big blue button you see here will begin the transfer process.
Add the appropriate information for the recipient bank outside of China. This includes name, address, bank SWIFT code, routing number and bank account number. Below is a translation of what that page will look like.
Before initiating the transfer, you need to input the sender’s information. This includes the currency you’re sending and the reason for the transfer. The reasons include traveling, paying tuition among other explanations why a Chinese person would need to send money overseas. In this example, I selected personal travel as there is no option for helping out foreign friends sending hard earned money home.
After filling out the sender’s information, you will be direct to a terms and conditions page where you need to review the terms of the transfer before proceeding. After 20 seconds, the next button will display where you can proceed with submitting the transaction.
Before submitting the wire transfer, Alipay asks follow-up questions based on what is listed for the reason for the transfer. In this case, I selected travel and it asked me how the sender will be traveling abroad and will the sender be traveling independently or with a group. As this is not relevant to you, you can list whatever you want. The Chinese government in recent years has been really careful about money being sent overseas, so this is a way for them to track capital outflows.
The following are some of the most commonly asked questions about using Alipay to make an international transfer.
Some of the questions have already been answered above, but I will list them here again for the sake of brevity.
No. International transfers through Alipay require a Chinese ID, which means that if you want to make a transfer of money outside of China, you will need a local Chinese to help you.
There is a limit of 30,000 RMB per transfer with Alipay and two transactions per day (60,000 RMB total). Chinese citizens are limited to sending no more than $50,000 US dollars or equivalent converted currency overseas per year.
This depends on the recipient bank’s institution. After making the transfer through Alipay, check with the recipient to confirm receipt or contact the home bank to verify how long it will take for the funds to transfer.
There are a number of reasons a transfer could be rejected. It could be an error in the bank routing or account numbers; it could be a limit on the individual who is initiating the transfer; it could be Alipay suspects taxes haven’t been paid on this money as is required by Chinese law. In any case, Alipay doesn’t disclose the reason why a transfer has been rejected and there is no known way to find out this information.
Prior to sending money home with Alipay, check to ensure all the information on the recipient end is correct. If listed incorrectly, you will still get docked all the transfer fees from Bank of Shanghai and the recipient bank to get the money back.
It also couldn’t hurt to do a practice transfer with a small amount. You can also save the recipient information in Alipay making it much easier to send money home the second time around.
Have you sent money internationally using Alipay before? Share your experience in the comments below!
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View Comments
Hello,
I want to send money bacK to the states and i do have a chinese bank account as well as alipay. Here is my question:
For the sender INFORMATION, does it only require thE chinese friend’s citizen number? And the rest of the sender info is my own? MY own bank account etc?
Thank you!
That probably wouldn't work because the Alipay account would need to be connected to your friend's number but your bank account.
i have alipay and a chinese bank ACCOUNT and i want to wire transfer to my bank account in my home country, is this possible without any help from a chinese NATIONAL?
Yes, you can do it through your bank with your passport. It will be very easy or very hard, depending on how much money you're trying to send.
Hi
Can i send money to Morocco via alipay
Thanks
You can, but as I said in the article, you'll need to have a Chinese friend with a Chinese ID card helping you.
Hello, I tried to use this method to send money home to my American bank account. I didn’t know what to put as the reason, and so my Chinese friend just put “translator”. We Were able to send $100 but when we tried to send a larger amount It it didn’t go through. My Chinese friend told me that it is because the bank that was sending the money did not believe the reason we gave them. It made me think that maybe this is not an OK way to send money. I thought it was legal before but now I’m worried that it’s not legal. I’m worried that my friend will get in trouble. Neither of us knew that It might not be allowed. Will she get in trouble?
Why would it be illegal? Unless the money hasn't been properly taxed you should be fine. I'm not sure why it's not working for you.
FROM the comments listed above,does it mean if ALIPAY is not ok with the reason for sending they may not approve it?
another one is how long will the transfer take to reflect in the receiver's country transfer from china to malaysia
Obviously Alipay has the right to deny any payment on its platform. Transfers usually only take a couple business days at most.
I need to receive some payments from several chinese nationals (in china) - they are basically each paying for the registration fee to attend a conference in Hong Kong - how can I set up alipay (in Hong kONg) to receive these funds? I assume that I can only receive RMB as opposed to any other currency? Many thanks.
They can also use Alipay to wire money directly to a bank in Hong Kong, which would probably be easier.
Thank you so much for this great resource. I just sent money through alipay with a Chinese friend and it arrived in 4 business days. There is A 50,000¥ limit, and it cost $15 for the transaction Fee. By far the cheapest and easiest option I've seen.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, TMax :)
I have had a friend do this for me a few times. The fee is about .5% of the total sent. I have only been able to have 1K uSD sent to the USA, anything above this has been rejected.
Hi, Did your bank abroad charged you as well? The article says that it will charge when you send and the receiving bank will make a charge charge as wEll. How's the exchange rate?
Hi, motivated by TMax's comment from a couple days ago, I tried sending money to Poland today via my colleagues' Alipay account. It turned out that the limit is 18,000 RMB and the fee is 50 RMB. I hoped to transfer 100,000 RMB and split it into two transactions. It turned out that this is impossible.
Am from Nigeria, how can I CREATE ALIPAY? top up ALIPAY?
The same way as anybody else. You can create an Alipay account easily. The hard part is funding it. In that case, you'll need to open a bank account in China just like anybody else.
Transaction limit - 18,000¥
2 transactions per day.