Wise International Debit Card: How do mainland Chinese users open virtual and physical cards?

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Compared with other bizarre virtual bank cards, Wise International Debit Card is a breath of fresh air. Since the cost of holding a card is low, you may wish to hold one if you have the need to purchase and subscribe to foreign apps or services.

However, like most financial services, it is not easy to use for mainland Chinese users, although they can open multiple foreign currency accounts and have their own iBan and Swift/Bic codes. However, the virtual card and physical card services provided by Wise to other countries are not yet open to users in mainland China.

But now there is a solution: first register Wise with real mainland Chinese identity information, and after the account deposit verification is activated, then change the residence information to a country that supports bank card application.

Countries opened: UK, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Brazil or Canada, etc.

All countries: see here

This method was not feasible before. On the one hand, users in mainland China could not change their place of residence, and on the other hand, if they changed to other places of residence, they would be required to provide real proof of residence. But now Wise seems to have opened up this restriction: in mid-2023, you can freely change your application through the Wise App; by the end of 2023, I was unable to apply after changing my place of residence on the App, but my application on the web was successful.

[A user can apply for 1 physical card and 3 virtual cards]

It is unknown whether this restriction will be temporarily relaxed or will be closed at any time. Friends who are capable and interested may wish to apply. As long as you have a Chinese passport, other conditions are not a problem.

Friends who have already registered but still want to apply for a bank card can refer to the following process. Taking the web page as an example, it is very simple:

1, change information

Click on the avatar in the upper right corner and click "Information"

2, change country and address

About choosing a country: It is recommended to choose between Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. These countries provide international express services to individual users who apply for a Wise card for the first time. In other words, if you don’t have a foreign address and don’t want to use a forwarding service, you can fill in your domestic address and mail it directly back to your country.

About the address: Proof of residence is not required to fill in this address, so you can use Google Maps. I filled in the address of a British transshipment warehouse. Also: the residential address and mailing address are filled in separately, so don’t worry about not being able to change them.       

3, apply for a bank card

Click "Apply for a new card" and follow the process.

The virtual card can be activated immediately. If it is a physical card, you can pay attention to the following points:

• Physical cards are divided into ordinary cards and environmentally friendly cards. The ordinary card costs 2.5 pounds and the environmentally friendly card costs 4.5 pounds. There are differences in exchange rates in other countries, but not much in price.

• Mailing methods are divided into surface mail and express delivery: surface mail is free, and express delivery is generally DHL. Items are easy to get lost when shipped by regular mail to China, so it is recommended to choose express delivery. Because I use transshipment, if the direct mail price is too high, you can consider transshipment.

• Both virtual cards and physical cards can be bound to Alipay/WeChat/Apple Pay/Google Pay, etc. For those who don’t have a “digital collection addiction”, actually just use a virtual card to save worry and money.

It is said that the first time you make a purchase after binding a Wise physical bank card to Alipay, you will be asked to provide a photo of the physical card to verify the authenticity... This can only be done after the physical card is sent. There is actually no need to worry about these routine issues. As long as you apply with real information and use the card legally and compliantly, customer service will be able to solve everything.

Friends who want to register with wise can consider my invitation link, so that both of us can have remittance discounts, a win-win situation ~

• Wise:Registration link