How to add/withdraw CNY to online payment service accounts
Chinese Yuan joined the "club" of the most popular world currencies several years ago. Major online payment services just could not ignore such an important phenomenon. Most services already support direct adding and withdrawing funds in CNY as well as CNY accounts. In this review we will tell you more on how to replenish an e-wallet and how to withdraw funds to a CNY bank account.
Alipay
Alipay is a Chinese online payment service created mainly for purchasing goods from Alibaba and AliExpress. It would be simply weird if Alipay didn't support adding funds from CNY accounts. The issue is that it's rather difficult to find clear information about the fees.
According to the public sources Alipay charges 0.1% withdrawal commission for accounts in all currencies including CNY accounts, of course. Alipay directly works with the biggest Chinese banks including Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and many others.
Basically an Alipay account is assigned to your credit or debit card and there is no big need to upload any money to the e-wallet — you may pay right from your card account using Alipay as the intermediary service.
You can also use third party exchange services if you want to exchange USD, EUR or any other currency to Alipay CNY. The average fee would be about 3.5% — 4.5% for adding funds.
Epay
Epay is another large Chinese online payment service. Unfortunately it does not support direct account replenishment in CNY or RBM — the list of supported currencies includes USD, EUR, HKD, GBP and BTC.
However those who want to recharge an Epay account with Chinese Yuan may go to the Exchangers section of the Epay website and use a very simple online form. You will need to provide the needed information such as the region, the payment method and the language. After clicking Find the system will offer you all possible options for exchange.
However, when trying to find a service allowing to upload money from a CNY bank account you won't find any. The same is with the withdrawal to a CNY bank account. Therefore we can only suggest looking for a third-party exchanger yourself.
Perfect Money
Perfect Money does not allow for creating CNY accounts, however an owner of a CNY account still can add and withdraw funds to a USD or EUR Perfect Money account. The service has automatic currency converter embedded and CNY will be exchanged to USD/EUR or vice versa in accordance with the relevant currency exchange rate.
Typically there is no fee for adding funds via a wire transfer, however money withdrawal includes 2.85% service fee plus the bank fee which may be very different.
Some users are not happy with the exchange rates offered by Perfect Money. If you are not satisfied either — try to find a credible exchange service which has more attractive conditions.
Ukrcash.com is an online exchange platform where you can sell or buy Perfect Money USD and EUR for CNY Union Pay. For instance, selling 100 USD you will have to pay 6.25 CNY fee. The amount you get is 625.5 CNY only which is a bit lower than 91% from real amount based on the Central Bank currency exchange. Getting 625.5 CNY instead of 688 CNY can be frustrating, but such an offer is one of the best available online.
PayPal
Sad news again — PayPal does not offer CNY accounts for its users. Just like with Perfect Money it allows for direct adding/withdrawing funds with automatic currency conversion. To be honest, the exchange rate offered by PayPal is a bit better than the rate in Perfect Money.
PayPal has an option of assigning a Union Pay card which makes many users feel confused — they believe they are using a CNY account, however typically Chinese customers operate USD accounts.
Bank account withdraw fee in PayPal China is 1.2% of the withdrawal amount which cannot be less than $150. Moreover, it's very important to withdraw funds to a bank which is a partner of PayPal otherwise there is a risk of the money getting stuck somewhere between PayPal and the bank. Please contact your bank prior to withdrawal and get sure if it can accept transactions from PayPal.
Considering the specific system PayPal works with there is no commission for adding funds except for $1 fee charged upon registration. This $1 is later returned to the credit card account the user specified.
Advanced Cash
As for Advanced Cash it is quite predictable that this service has no CNY accounts available. Anyway, one can add funds using a CNY card or just an account in a Chinese bank — the money would be simply converted into USD.
There is a couple of exchanges where one can sell 100 USD in Advanced Cash for 650-660 CNY and get this amount to a bank account. We suggest that it is the best withdrawal option.
OKPAY
As a true multicurrency online payment service OKPAY allows for creating a full-fledged CNY electronic wallet. What's more, one can add and withdraw CNY directly to/from his or her OKPAY account.
Adding money via SWIFT bank transactions include no fee, while the withdrawal operation has the 1% (not less than 10 CNY) commission plus the bank fee.
A normal wire transfer fee for account replenishment starts from 4% depending on a bank. The withdrawal commission is equal to 5% or higher. Please contact OKPAY customer support service and ask about the commission for your bank.
Finally, Visa and MasterCard CNY accounts can also be used for adding or withdrawing money with the fee of 4% + 7 CNY for any of those two operations.
Bitcoin
There are dozens of exchange service where one can buy or sell BTC for CNY. Check Ukrcash.com, A-Exchange, 24Pay and other exchangers and find the most convenient one. Considering how popular Bitcoin is nowadays there should be absolutely no problem in finding the best withdrawal solution.
It is also an easy challenge to purchase Bitcoin for Chinese Yuan. Please check the exchange services mentioned above or just make your own research on the web. Just keep in mind that it's worth paying attention to both service fee and the exchange rate which is sometimes too low, but people still use such exchanges due to low commission and lose money.
