New to WeChat?: How to Find and Set Up Your WeChat Wallet

Quite a few people from the community have reached out to us, asking for a WeChat Wallet guide (for a guide to adding a card to WeChat Wallet, scroll to the bottom of this post). At first, I was a little puzzled as to why such a guide would be necessary, but I was reminded that I have had my WeChat ID for years now and it is set up differently from the newer versions. Apparently you have different functions if you registered your WeChat later, and if you have an international version of WeChat, especially attached to a foreign phone number (rather than a local one, or in my case, no number at all).

To test the theory, I have borrowed a relative’s (much newer) WeChat and decided I’d use her WeChat to set up WeChat Wallet. Only, I discovered that she didn’t even have WeChat Wallet under “Me”! After doing some research, I have concluded that this is a relatively common problem with foreigners who use a non-Chinese version of WeChat and don’t have it connected to a local number.

So, I followed the guides on the Internet and I can attest that changing the language to Chinese, exiting the app, and re-logging in did not work. Note: I even tried changing it to different versions of Chinese and it still didn’t work.

What did work was receiving a red envelope, closing WeChat, and reopening it. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open a red envelope in a group chat, or request a friend to send you Lucky Money. It can be as little as RMB 0.01, but I accidentally sent 1 mao.

Step 2: Press “Red packet transferred to Wallet” to view your total balance.

Step 3: Once you’ve exited WeChat and reopened the app, you should be able to find your Wallet under “Me”:

Step 4: Press “Wallet” to see all the Wallet functions. The Wallet should stay in your menu from now on and will not disappear.

Step 5: Now you can use your existing balance by having friends transfer money to you, or by opening Lucky Red Envelopes.

Actually, for the longest time I didn’t add any cards to my WeChat Wallet, but simply relied on my husband transferring funds to my WeChat when I needed it. I have also received payments via WeChat, and whenever friends and I went out to dinner, I’d pay cash and have them transfer their share to me so that I’d have some funds in my Wallet.

RELATED: Tips on Protecting Your Money on WeChat Wallet

However, a few months ago, I finally caved in and attached a bank card. My next post will be a step-by-step guide on how you can also attach a Chinese bank card to your WeChat Wallet!

This blog originally appeared on our sister site beijingkids.

Photo: Flickr