I am running a site which does accept payments. However, apparently we can only accept payments from paypal. But, most of our customers are from China and a lot of them can only pay with RMB. I emailed paypal to ask if it is possible to request money in different currency but they replied with a No. So does anyone know if there is other way that I could accept money from China, considering that I have no China local bank account?


Thanks alot.

there's currency restrictions in China, same as in India

Sure, open an iKobo account (www.ikobo.com). I'm sure they accept every country. Setup your items and ask your customers to pay using their preferred Visa/MasterCard credit / debit card online. & it's secure too.

Another option would be (www.stormpay.com) I made 2 transactions & they look fine.

he's talking about transferring Chinese currency out of , not into China

Originally posted by ozex
there's currency restrictions in China, same as in India

Ozex,

What do you mean by currency restrictions in India?

According to ccavenue form India, their 3rd party credit
card processing service only deals with:
- Actual US Dollar billing available :confused:
- No currency conversion charges

Check out their website:
http://world.ccavenue.com/

Do you think this is make sense to you?
I am concerned about this because I am thinking about to sign-up with CCavenue, and I am using USD on my website.

Thank you for your help.

If your customers already have credit card and US dollars, then it's not a problem. The problem is how they change from local currency to USD. Basically, it's like this:

small amount USD in China, India => world, no problem.
world => China, India, usually no problem

local currency in China, India => foreign currency, some problem.

Yes, thats true but China is a little less strict nowadays as the country prosper. India cannot afford any currency outflow. It will make the country poorer so their government is very steadfast on this.

I think most Chinese have credit cards now.

What do you think of China economy?
Do you think China economy is much better than before?
Are you interested in China market?

China's got everything at a very cheap price. Labour , material ... etc.
The world is going to be affected is China continues to sell things for a cheap price. They have too much supply. And also many are buying from them because of the cost factor.

But many also are not buying because of the business ethics factor. Most of China's business man think of how to con the other party . I said most, not all. No offence

Joshua

Transferring RMB out of China is definitely restricted.

However, there is company who's stepping into this grey area that they accept on-line RMB payment within Mainland and they pay you in HKD in Hong Kong, but you risk all your money to be held by gov anytime and you loss 100%.

The best is still WorldPay and it works very well for many of our clients.

Tips for you: If your clients really want to pay you, they have many ways to transfer money out of China, like they can ask their relatives or sub-company overseas to pay you. It's really a matter if they want your service, then they will find their way to pay you.
Sound very simple right?

World Pay is quite expensive I must say. And they charge monthly fees too. Is the World Pay server always available?
Hostingasia : you meant to say that Chinese credit card is good with World Pay ?

Joshua

Yes, customers in China have credit card issued by banks like Chase, CitiBank, etc and they must deposit enough amount before they can use it. It's more like a debit card for them in Mainland.

In the case of government restriction on online transaction as such, is it possible to for the ppl in India or China to send international cheque (check) or demand draft issued by banks, given that they have gotten an invoice from the hosting company ?

Joshua

Not in China

Then how do Chinese buy and sell things on the internet?

I presume those who are rich will gain access to credit card facility from big banks like Citibank. I am not sure if the local banks offer credit card facilities, but to the best of my knowledge, I hear from a friend who told me that if you put money in the chinese bank, you will be charged money, instead of gaining from it (through interested).

Joshua

I bought a software online from a Chinese company (based in China), they used Regsoft to process the order, the curremcy was USD.

So, normally Chinese from the mainland cannot use credit card to buy things o the internet? But They must have some methods to buy things on the internet. This is interesting..

No, I mean to say that only well established ppl can afford to apply for credit card
=)

Hi may I know which service or product do you want to sell to Chinese?

Originally posted by concorde
Hi may I know which service or product do you want to sell to Chinese?

I think if we want to have a full coverage to China mainland's internet users, we's d better to have a website in Chinese.

Once we have a Chinese website, our target market will not only in China, but also in Taiwan, Hongkong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

There are approximately 500 millions Chinese living out of China mainland. But it does not mean that all of them know Chinese. :cool:

For China market services, I can think of immigration, education, labor agency, marriage agency, travel agency...etc..

I forgot to say I am a Chinese who live in mainland. I ignored the market here and only get $ from US people:)
If anyone have any ideas about earn money from Chinese market online, please let me know. I would like to help you. As I said in another forum, if a Chinese want to pay your service or product, we can even bring the cash in front of your door.

I am a mainland Chinese (living in US right now). I know how it works.

The Chinese currency is not freely exchangable. However, Chinese can have accounts in other currencies, including dollars or euros. If he has an account holding dollars, he can take debit card (although they call it "credit card", it is really a debit card because it takes $ from their savings account) which can be used to purchase goods in dollars.

Those debit cards are MasterCards or Visa. Some online (and offline) merchants would accept them, some won't. I guess it depends on the payment gateway. I don't have concrete idea which gateway handles better.

Locally, the e-commerce are done mostly with "cash on delivery". Normally, the company would operate in the city only and it would have its own delivery people, who delivery the goods and collect the cash.

There are local software companies who would do online delivery. In that case, the customer usually have to do a bank transfer.

Does this mean their "debit card" is as good as any credit card elsewhere , and it world wide accepted? The gov doesnt prohibit them from spending over certain limit online?

Btw, is there censorship on the internet in china? I have heard this for some time, but not sure if this is true

Joshua

yes, the debit card is like credit card, only they have to fund it before purchase. There is a limit on the card not per purchase. Sellers that take Paypal sometimes leave the money inside to pay for foreign goods, so your best bet is to take Paypal. A lot of people take Moneybookers as well.

As I said, if your customer want to purchase something indeed, then they have their ways to pay you. You don't have to worry at all.

you still lose a lot of customers though

Originally posted by ozex
you still lose a lot of customers though

Agree...

:rofl:

This is the method for "No other Method" :)

Ha, it seems you translate this from Chinese...
:roll2:

Anyway, we need to figure out the besy way to let our customer to pay us..

Hi

How about www.graphcard.com?
I think they accept China payment without using credit card.
Check it out..

probably illegal and again you risk to loss 100% of your money at the end.

Why it is illegal to use graphcard in China?

See, that's what we are referring to, if your customer want to pay, they have their way.

The above is exectly what many our of mainland customer using, find a relative or overseas sub-sidary branch to pay.

or through the black market or undergound channel like the above, though not secure, but the risk is on your customer, not you.

Again, my point is if your customer really want your service, they will find their way to pay you in whatever currency you ask for. Clear?

the world is full of competition, most online business rely on impulse buying. If there's risk involved for the customer, it's very hard to do business with them, they will probably go to a local provider that offer a higher price but is more reliable.

However, that's exactly the case in countries with currency export restriction like Mainland China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, etc. You just have to accept the fact because there is no way for you to change it against a country policy.

There is no currency exchange restriction in Malaysia. Malaysia is using fix exchange rate rather than floating rate to hedge the currency fluctuation. But I believe Malaysia will change back to floating rate in proper time.

there is after the asian financial crisis, that's why most exchange place stopped changing Malaysian currency 6 years ago.

Interesting topic isnt it? I just hope China will get online banks opened out more like paypal, egold...

A lot of Chinese has accounts which hold foreign currencies. This is totally legal (and more flexible than in US). They get the dollar, euro, yen..... from trips to those country, or relatives.

If you want to accept payment, you should worry more about the local import/export laws. I don't think you can just find a customer in China and have him pay you. You have to check if the sector's import is controlled by the government and what the regulations are. Sorry, I have no experience in hosting so I cannot really comment.

For my section, I would need find a Chinese reseller (who has import license). The reseller buys from me and then sell to the end users. Another option is to establish a Chinese office, which is of course not practical.

Believe it or not, most people in China conduct Internet transactions by wiring money through a bank. Some banks here do allow one to transfer money online (similar to Paypal). However, it is a pain to open such an account and one cannot transfer money between different banks (such as from the Construction Bank of China to the Bank of China).

If you do your business here in China, my suggestion is that you would need to open up a bank account here to accept payments first. If it is not a lot of money, you can find an agent to entrust the payments. (If it is a lot of money - over $1000 USD per month, you might have to consider paying sales taxes though.) Afterwards, you can ask your agent in China to wire a large sum out of here to you, perhaps once a month.

However, in selecting this agent, he or she must have the ways to send the money to you. However, this gives your end customer less pains and perhaps more confidence in the transaction the fact that he is dealing with someone closer to his home.

Anyway, I am physically located in China so I can help if need be. :)