Want to accept payments from China? Try STRIPE and Wechat PAY. I use Stripe and it works fine and pays into my bank account.
Creating a Stripe account
This section will provide you with steps to create a Stripe account.
1. Go to https://stripe.com/
2. Create an account
3. Complete the verification requirements.
4. Wait for Stripe confirmation email.
5. Go the Stripe Dashboard and go to Settings> Payment methods
6. Choose to Link WeChat. You WILL need an account on the WeChat messaging app. It will look like this:
How do you convert the yuan to the dollar and get it in your United States bank account? How can Chinese students pay you? Try STRIPE.
Check out this interview “Stripe and WeChat Pay for ESL Teachers” – it is an interview with Arthur Marek that explains how Stripe works and answers the following questions:
Other Options: Get paid from China
There are a few other options to accept payments from China but they take a bit more time to set up and have a higher barrier to entry.
To accept payments via Alipay International, you need a company. Then, the CEO of your company needs to sign documents and the entire process takes a few weeks. Also, you won’t get any funds until the account reaches $5000 minimum so you need a high turnover for this to be worth it for you.
Tenpay is similar to Alipay in that you need to be a company and it is not worth it for freelancers or smaller businesses.
Paypal China
To use PayPal China, your Chinese student will need a credit caard with dual currency and they need to have their identity confirmed and verified with Paypal. This won’t work for most of your Chinese students, though you can ask them if they have used Paypal China in the past. If so, it might be a good option.
Unionpay cooperates with financial services businesses in other countries and this might be an option for you if you have a few hundred dollars for the initial setup. Unionpay is like Paypal in that they take a decent percentage for every money transfer, though. They are worth it if you can afford the 2.5% charge that Union pay takes from each paid amount.
Also, if you are interested in freelance teaching, then consider checking out the many resources for going solo. The most helpful resources, in my opinion, are Facebook groups, actually. They will give you some up-to-date information about best practices, where to advertise to students, and which platforms support freelance tutors and, most importantly, how much you can realistically earn on them.
Here are some of my favorite Facebook groups for freelance teacher networking.
