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Update March 2017: Discover has become nearly unusable in China. If you do not have the newer chip version you may experience success, however the chip cards are rejected at almost all merchants except those that otherwise accept many foreign credit cards. I have repeatedly sent feedback to Discover and gotten no helpful response. One representative said sometimes in her experience terminal require 3 failed attempts with a chip before accepting the magnetic strip swipe. Fat chance getting someone to swipe over and over in China!
Discover and China’s UnionPay have reciprocal deals to allow their cardholders access to the other’s payment network. I had forgotten about this until reminded by a Businessweek article on state-bank backed UnionPay, with its strangle-hold on China, has the #2 place in global credit- and debit-card transaction volume at 23.8%, trailing only Visa. In China, UnionPay gets a cut even of American Express, MasterCard and Visa transactions. The article did not provide UnionPay’s global ex-China position.
‘Foreign’ (non-China issued) card acceptance in China is still quite low. A merchant may have Visa and MasterCard logos on display, but that may only apply to China-issued cards. Some merchants may in theory accept foreign cards yet claim their machine just happens to be broken, or try to add a surcharge. Generally the answer is just a ‘no.’ Foreign cards are only reliably accepted at high-end international brand hotels, fairly common at high-end restaurants in major cities, and some retail, like Carrefour and Walmart. Some of the online travel websites now accept foreign credit cards with less hassle than a few years ago when fax authorizations and such were required.
Discover’s partnership with UnionPay promises to solve this, their cards accepted by any UnionPay card reader, and Discover does not charge foreign transaction fees. I specifically say card reader, and not merchant, because virtually no one in China knows the Discover brand and Discover cards do not display the UnionPay logo familiar to Chinese. Reader Andrew R commented of his difficulty convincing Chinese merchants to accept his Discover card. I was in Shanghai two weeks ago but did not have a Discover to test.
I searched UnionPay’s website for information on Discover and found little of use to print out and show to Chinese merchants. Discover, though, clearly has dealt with this difficulty and has a handy Chinese-English print-out card. I strongly recommend you show this card anytime you try to use Discover in China.
Discover has a Country Acceptance Map, and an Asia FAQ. In addition to China with UnionPay, Discover is accepted in Japan at JCB locations, and Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand at Diners Club International locations.
I have not extensively traveled Japan in some years so not sure if foreign card acceptance is much of an issue. The other countries I have traveled more recently and my experience is that if a merchant accepts Diners Club International then they also will accept Visa and MasterCard. American Express coverage is always spotty.
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If anyone lives in the US or Canada you can now get a Unionpay credit card at ICBC. They are located in limited locations only for US: NYC, LA, Bay Area, Seattle and Canada: Vancouver and Toronto.
http://www.icbc-us.com
http://www.icbk.ca
How is the application process?
If Discover could get accepted AliPay or WeChat wallet, my life would so much easier. The new cards with a chip are a pain, but they do work at most terminals. A few machines simply work without any problems, but most will initially reject the chip. There is a way around it, though. The majority of machines will reject the chip, but then display a message saying the card can’t be used. If you immediately pull the card and swipe it (sometimes it will say 请刷卡 or Please Swipe Card at that point), it then asks for the PIN (000000… Read more »
Huh, I wouldn’t have thought of that one, I am usually in the position of cashier glee when they see my card failed. I will have to test that formula, thanks!
On the PIN, which I have set, does it take the 4 digit PIN?
On returns, I am curious, have you ever had a return actually post to your account? We have not had an attempt recently, but 1-2 years ago each my mother-in-law had did not post back so we had to dispute. Each time Discover promptly provided the money.
For me, Discover works really well in China, you can use it almost anywhere. I even used it to buy Chinese medicine at a small pharmacy, train tickets, smallish grocery stores, etc. with no problems. I speak Chinese well though and you just have to assure them it will work. It’s fun to see the amazed look on the cashier’s face when the transaction goes right through.
@bmold86 – do you have the new chip version? Last year when the chip card came out my wife had it in China and it wasn’t working, fortunately she still had the non-chip and that continued to work.
Yes, I have the chip version, seems to work great! Will try again this January when I’m back. Much easier to keep track of receipts/spending etc. vs giving cash and asking for handwritten slips
@bmold86 – glad to hear issue has been resolved. The other one we have had is the purchase returns in China, which are rare to get out of a merchant, do not post back to Discover. Each time I sent in the records and they then credited the amounts.
One of my good friends lives in China and had trouble getting merchants to accept his discover card. His solution was to print out a tiny unionpay logo and tape it onto the front of his card– since then, he’s had no trouble getting anyone to run it!
@Christina – I had thought about trying that myself, Discover should provide a kit. Do you know if he has the new chip version? In October may wife and others had tremendous trouble with that until she went back to the old non-chip card.
Wow thanks guys. i tried 3 different merchants and they keep trying and it failed. then called discover and rep didn’t know S##@ about anything international ended up with supervisor and s/he didn’t know much either. found this and six zero would do the trick. it looks like most of the chip readers can’t read discover card but the side reader (normal creditcard reader) works fine and then prompts for pin
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US Air has a 25k RT awards to Central Asia; have you ever tried routing through Europe to get there from China? I know Asiana flies to some of those countries, but some of those countries seem to only be serviced through European Star Alliance carriers, yet they’re categorized with northern Asia on the award chart.
Can’t wait for the China series if you decide to do it. I’ve found lots of small, expensive airports at tourist sights (Jiuzhaigou, Zhangjiajie, Datong, etc.) are very accessible for 12k Delta Miles roundtrip. I live in Xi’an (China Eastern hub), so lots of flights are under that 800km limit.
@JS – and those 25k awards within Asia…oh my yes, I had some incredible trips off those, especially in NWA days, all the way out to Turkmenistan.
@JS – thanks for the detailed updates, those are very useful, particularly the don’t attempt to explain, while the 000000 for PIN is new to me. I am heading back to Shanghai today for a week. I had lived in China for 8 years, then when I got the blog going I was already back in the US and had a gap of two years without a trip to China. You remind me that I have intended to cover Asia and particularly China a lot more, and have not been good at carving out the time. I have traveled to… Read more »
By the way, one reason I bookmark this blog is that you occasionally cover traveling in China. I’d love to hear more about traveling within Asia for expats. There are some great deals for those of us living over here. (like 12k mile roundtrip economy tickets within China using Delta Miles, up to a 800km each way or 25k roundtrip from China to Eastern Russia, Guam, Saipan, etc.) So keep the China travel news coming!
I’ve been trying the card everywhere I go and am having a lot more success. Wal*Mart, a Shell gas station, a local car repair place, Watson’s. All of them took the card and I know they don’t take Visa or Mastercard because I’ve tried before. UnionPay called me back yesterday after that whole ordeal a couple weeks ago; they said that Metro has received the training and information they need and that I can use the card now. I haven’t been able to try it out yet, but I do want to keep pushing it through as it saves me… Read more »
I got a Discover card because I live in China and would love to earn some miles on all these day to day purchases. So the card came and I was all excited to use it at Metro (kind of like Sam’s Club). They accept UnionPay, so I got my stuff but when I checked out they wouldn’t take it, I showed them the wallet card that Discover posts online to explain to clerks how to swipe the card. The manager refused to swipe it. I called UnionPay and they said it is fine and told the store manager to… Read more »
You’re not wrong in anything you wrote here. Above all, your final comment about Discover getting its UnionPay logo on the card is extremely important for customers who can’t or don’t want to put up with explaining. I had the same experience at Metro, which was extremely frustrating. I also had a woman at an Italian restaurant who refused to listen to my instructions about processing my card as a UnionPay card. She kept using the international card function, because she assumed I didn’t know what I was talking about. Mind you, these interactions were in Mandarin, and I’ve already… Read more »
@JS, @Bryon – I am back in Shanghai and wish I had a Discover card to test, I figured it would be quite the challenge, just like the places where the fapiao machines just happen to be broken that day (and every day), but if you come back tomorrow… 🙂
Andrew, I currently live in Nanjing and used to live up north in Changchun. One negative of how I spend cash here is that it gives me no chance to build up credit or frequent flyer miles, which is what I do with my cards when I’m in the U.S. For someone spending most of the year in China, would you recommend adding a Discover card? It sounds like you’ve had a positive experience. I also feel like it good be great when eating out with friends – I could pay with a card, and they could give me cash.… Read more »
@Byron Meinerth – I lived in China for 8 years and had no idea what I was missing with all this. It sounds like you already have some cards to build your history, just not many chances to use them in China so not much activity or earning. If some of your existing cards have no foreign transaction fee you can at least use those a bit for the occasional plane ticket, hotel or restaurant that accepts them. Then I do think adding a Discover card is a good way to earn something for everyday spend. The new Discover lineup… Read more »
Thanks for the full summary. I’ve never used the Discover/Union Pay print out card but maybe should….I speak enough Mandarin to convince clerks to give it a shot, but it can be somewhat of a hassle. That said, it’s been convenient to pay with card everywhere from a coffeeshop in Shigatse Tibet to smaller hotels/hostels in Dongbei that certainly wouldn’t take the big cards. Discover isn’t that useful if you are going to stay within the more tourist/international centric areas, but great outside it. And I’ve found the FX rate to be quite good with Discoer/UnionPay – for whatever reason,… Read more »
@Cook – I agree, although I find Amex has been sitting still while other, newer cards offer better earning and/or benefits than comparable Amex cards.
Foreign acceptance of AMEX suffers from the same issues as domestic acceptance: AMEX charges their affiliated merchants roughly twice the processing fees charged by the most of the other brands. While *most* AMEX card programs have far better perks for the cardholder, someone still has to pay for them so an increasing number of merchants just say NO. Obvious exceptions are virtually all airlines and hotels operating under names that are universally known; those folks have no choice. I carry an AMEX, but the opportunities to use it are becoming fewer by the year. Again, someone still has to pay… Read more »
I used Visa throughout my trip to China mostly without incident. The incident was dynamic currency exchange. There are online pdf’s available to take with you.. which I would.