Paying with a foreign card in Shanghai: linked cards, card terminals, DCC and ATMs

The short answer. Your Visa, Mastercard, Amex or JCB card can be used in Shanghai in two quite different ways. Linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay, it works almost everywhere, because the shop only sees a QR-code payment. Physically, at a card terminal, it works in a much smaller set of places: hotels, big malls and department stores, chain restaurants, airports, railway stations and metro ticket counters. Most small shops, cafés, street food stalls and market traders have no card terminal at all. Two more things are worth knowing before you go: you can now tap a contactless card at Shanghai metro gates, and if a terminal or ATM ever asks whether to charge you in your home currency, say no and pay in yuan (CNY).

For setting up the apps step by step, see how to pay in Shanghai. This page explains what happens to your card in each case and what it costs.

Why so few shops have a card terminal

In most countries a card terminal is the default way to pay. In Shanghai it is the exception, for three reasons.

Customers pay by phone. Chinese shoppers pay by QR code in Alipay and WeChat Pay, and most small businesses only ever print a QR code and stick it on the counter. A card terminal is extra equipment they have no reason to buy.
Foreign cards used to cost shops more. Until June 2024 a shop typically paid a fee of about 2.5–3% to accept a foreign card, against about 0.6% for a Chinese bank card and less for mobile payment, according to Yicai. Visa and Mastercard cut those fees in mainland China from 15 June 2024, but small shops that never had a terminal have little reason to get one now.
The government’s plan does not aim at every shop. The State Council’s 2024 plan on payments for foreign visitors asks banks to upgrade terminals so that listed key merchants accept overseas cards, to make ATMs pay out yuan on foreign cards, and to keep cash as the backstop. Small traders are expected to keep using QR codes.

The numbers show the gap. The People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai office said that at the end of March 2026, 67,000 merchants and 97,000 card terminals in the city accepted both Chinese and foreign bank cards. A year earlier the figures were 66,000 and 96,000, so the network is barely growing. Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2025, foreign cards were used about 1.2 million times at card terminals in Shanghai, but nearly 20 million times through Alipay and WeChat Pay. Visitors are already voting with their phones.

Where a physical foreign card usually works

Hotels (especially international chains), for the bill and the deposit.
Large malls, department stores and brand flagship stores in the main shopping districts.
Chain restaurants and coffee chains in tourist areas, though not all.
Airports and the main railway stations.
Metro station service centres, which all have a terminal that takes foreign cards, and the metro gates themselves (see below).
Some taxis. Dazhong Taxi and Bank of China began fitting foreign-card terminals in April 2024 and had nearly 1,000 cars equipped by October that year, with a target of 2,000. That is a small share of the city’s taxis, so do not count on it; pay by QR code or cash.

Where it usually does not

Small restaurants and noodle shops, street food, wet markets, fruit and convenience stalls, most independent cafés and boutiques, temple souvenir stalls, bike share, and anything run through a mini-program. In these places your choices are a QR payment or cash.

Look for the card logos on the terminal itself (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB) rather than on the door, and ask before you order if it matters.

Linked card or physical card: what is the difference?

	Linked card (绑卡, in Alipay or WeChat Pay)	Physical card (刷卡, at a terminal)
Where it works	Almost anywhere that shows a QR code	Only at shops with a terminal that takes foreign cards
What the shop sees	An ordinary Alipay or WeChat payment in yuan	A foreign card payment
App or platform fee	None up to 200 yuan per payment; 3% above 200 yuan	None from the shop or platform
Exchange rate	Set by your card network and bank	Set by your card network and bank, unless you accept DCC
Your bank’s foreign-transaction fee	Still applies	Still applies
Currency-conversion trap (DCC)	Not offered by the shop	Possible; always choose yuan
Deposits and holds	Not used	Hotels may put a hold on the card

The 3% fee on linked cards

The published rule for both apps, reported by Yicai when it was introduced in July 2023: a single payment of 200 yuan or less carries no fee; a payment above 200 yuan carries 3%. If the payment is refunded, the fee is refunded in proportion. The app shows the fee before you confirm. The Beijing government restated the under-200-yuan waiver for WeChat Pay in March 2026, so the rule was still in force then.

WeChat Pay also ran a promotion in 2026 for people who link an international card for the first time: no 3% fee on payments under 1,000 yuan for 60 days from the first payment, with the saving capped at 30 yuan a payment. Promotions change; check the fee line on your own screen.

What this means in practice:

Everyday spending (coffee, lunch, a museum ticket, a taxi) stays under 200 yuan and costs nothing extra.
For a single large payment, such as a 1,500-yuan dinner or a hotel bill, use the physical card if the place has a terminal. You avoid the 3% (45 yuan on 1,500 yuan).

What the exchange rate is

Alipay’s own page says the exchange rate for an international card is provided by your card network and issuing bank, and to check your card statement for the exact figure. In other words, the amount is charged in yuan and converted by Visa or Mastercard and your bank, as with any foreign purchase. Your bank’s foreign-transaction fee, if your card has one, applies on top in both the linked and the physical case. A card with no foreign-transaction fee is worth having for China.

Alipay also says linked international cards cannot be used for personal transfers, red packets, investments or insurance. You can pay merchants; you cannot send money to a friend.

DCC: the “pay in your home currency?” question

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC, 动态货币转换) is when a card terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your home currency (dollars, euros, pounds) instead of the local currency. It sounds helpful, because you see a familiar number. It is almost always more expensive.

How it works

With DCC, the conversion is done by the shop’s or ATM’s payment provider at a rate it sets, with a markup built in, instead of by your card network. The European consumer organisation BEUC estimated in 2016 that DCC can add 5–6% to a payment. Your own bank’s rate is usually much closer to the market rate, even after its foreign-transaction fee.

What it looks like

On a terminal or ATM screen: two amounts, for example CNY 1,200.00 and USD 172.40, with buttons like “Pay in USD” and “Pay in CNY”, or “Accept / Decline conversion”.
At a hotel desk or a shop counter: “Would you like to pay in dollars?” or a terminal handed to you with your home currency already selected.
On the receipt: a line such as “Currency conversion”, “Exchange rate”, “Markup” or “Transaction currency: USD”.

What to do

Always choose CNY (yuan, RMB, ¥). If the screen asks you to “accept conversion”, decline.
If staff choose for you, ask them to cancel and run it again in yuan before you sign or enter your PIN.
Check the receipt. If it shows your home currency, ask for a refund and a new charge in yuan on the spot.
If you only notice later, contact your card issuer. Visa says merchants and ATMs must give you the choice and must not choose on your behalf; they must show both amounts, the exchange rate and any markup, and must not use font size or colour to push you. Visa recommends declining the conversion when those details are missing and reporting the incident to your card issuer.

Where you may meet DCC in Shanghai

We have found no official figure for how many terminals in China offer DCC, and we have not tested terminals ourselves. Travellers’ reports mention it mainly at hotels and some department stores, so be most alert there and at ATMs. It does not arise when you pay through Alipay or WeChat Pay, because the shop takes a yuan payment from the app, not your card. It also does not arise at the metro gates, which charge the yuan fare.

Tapping your card on the metro

Since 28 June 2025, contactless bank cards can be tapped directly at the gates across the whole Shanghai metro network, after a pilot on the Maglev from 14 June 2025, according to the People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai office. The Shanghai government’s metro page lists UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB contactless cards, and says the card or wallet must have enough balance or credit and must allow small payments without a PIN. Tap the card on the reader at the entry gate and again at the exit; the fare is charged in yuan.

The same office reported more than 1.6 million gate taps by bank card by the end of March 2026. We have not yet tested foreign cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay on the gates ourselves. If your card is refused, use the station’s service centre, where every terminal takes Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club and JCB, or the QR-code route in Alipay. See getting around Shanghai.

Hotel deposits and holds

Most hotels ask for a deposit at check-in, usually as a pre-authorisation (预授权, yù shòuquán) on a credit card: the amount is held, not charged.

Use a credit card, not a debit card, so the hold does not lock your cash.
At check-out, ask the desk to release (cancel) the pre-authorisation and to charge the final bill in yuan. Keep the release slip.
The hold can take days to disappear from your statement after the hotel releases it, depending on your bank. If it is still there after a week or two, call your bank with the release slip.
If you pay the deposit through Alipay or WeChat, ask how it will be returned before you pay.

ATMs and cash

Coverage. At the end of 2024, 8,836 cash machines in Shanghai, 98.8% of the total, accepted foreign cards for yuan withdrawals, according to the People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai branch. Look for the Visa, Mastercard or other card logos on the machine.
Limit. Bank of China caps a single foreign-card withdrawal at 3,000 yuan; other banks set their own caps. Your own bank’s daily limit also applies.
Fees. Bank of China says withdrawal and inquiry fees on foreign cards are set by your issuing bank. Check your bank’s overseas ATM fee before you go; a few larger withdrawals usually cost less than many small ones.
DCC at ATMs. If the screen offers to convert the withdrawal into your home currency, decline and withdraw in yuan.
Exchange. The same Shanghai branch counted 3,056 bank branches offering personal currency exchange at the end of 2024, plus currency-exchange machines and agent counters. Bring your passport.

Cash is legal tender and shops may not refuse it, but small sellers may struggle with change for a 100-yuan note. See the cash section of how to pay in Shanghai.

Before you fly: a card checklist

Bring two cards on two different networks (for example Visa and Mastercard), ideally with no foreign-transaction fee.
Tell your bank you are travelling to China and ask it to allow online, overseas and contactless payments.
Link at least one card to Alipay and, if you can, the other to WeChat Pay.
Make sure one card is a credit card for hotel deposits and for tax refunds paid on the spot (see tax refunds).
Learn the one rule: pay in yuan, not your home currency.