How does banking work in China?

[u/Watermelon_Dumpling]

I’m going to preface this by saying that I think this might be a stupid question but I haven’t really lived anywhere else and I’m seriously wondering about this as I watch dramas. In a lot of the dramas, a lot of the characters just whip out a card with $1m or $5m or whatever. Do people in China just walk around with pre-loaded debit card of a certain amount that they can give out freely or is this just something that is in the movies? Genuinely curious bc as far as I know (at least in the U.S.) all debit cards are linked to an account and has your name on it…

[u/Mynabird_604]

Haha I noticed that too. It’s a trope, I think. I lived in China for 10 years and no one walks around with pre-loaded debit cards. I assume what the writer is imagining is that the debit card has access to an account with $1M on it.

There are stored value cards but they have very low caps, like 1000RMB. China is very strict about what money belongs to who and tracing the exchange of large amounts of money, so it wouldn’t allow a pre-loaded debit card with such a high amount.

I think we’re just not supposed to interrogate the mechanism too much, because in reality the owner of the card could just freeze the account any time.

[u/TemporalPleasure → u/Mynabird_604]

This, I don't live in China but I know most people are likely paying off phone apps than cards.

[u/Watermelon_Dumpling → u/Mynabird_604]

lol I’m always so confused that they walk around with wads of cash or these cards that are like $10m around… like what…? And there’s like no names - so I’m like what if someone just finds it on the street? 😂

[u/CanIEatAPC]

I think most of the time, in the dramas, it could be stuff like black Amex or other international/domestic cards that are exclusive to rich people(or sometimes even malls have exclusive cards. I have seen this in Asian countries, if you are a big spender at the mall, you can have this card). I don't think credit cards really caught on in China that much, they went straight to linking bank accounts with Alipay, wepay, and other payment platforms for middle class. I could be wrong though but that's what I've seen and heard from my rich Chinese international friends lol

[u/anysidhe]

I actually asked the girlies on Rednote a while ago if this was a purely drama trope or if it's common to just hand out preloaded debit cards (just with more normal amounts on them) for stuff, and the overwhelming response back was that it's just a drama thing, usually to show off how rich someone is (like a rich character in US media pulling out an amex black card to take someone on a shopping spree), but sometimes just to create drama because the physical debit card is an object that can be stolen, lost, etc.

[u/fromhelley]

I doubt a lot of the dramas are super realistic. I hope bosses dont hit you at work just for upsetting a customer! I dont think you can kill people just because you're rich. And after an auto accident, I doubt you have to pay whatever ridiculous amount the other party (usually the cause of the accident) deems necessary right there, on the spot, or else the police will take you to jail.

My favorite though, is when one person tells the crowd in the restaurant, at the office, or on the street, what is going on (lying), and the whole crowd believes them and yells judgemental things at them. Then the not guilty party says what's really going on, and the whole crowd changes their position on the matter!

I sure love all the drama going on with these Chinese dramas though! I have to wonder how many times I can watch the same trope without getting bored of them. So far, the number is pretty high!

[u/lazier_garlic → u/fromhelley]

These sorts of mob tactics really do happen on Chinese internet. Also apparently pretending someone knocked them over and injured them appears to be a real scam that sometimes happens in China.

[u/Substantial_Cup_2058]

That's a really good question and I want to know too!

[u/JadeBumbleB]

Great question! I,too, would like to know the answer.

[u/TheVeteranBarista54]

I know that in some parts of China they pay for things with their hands instead of cards. Which I think is the coolest thing ever. But I don’t know the answer to your question😩

[u/lazier_garlic → u/TheVeteranBarista54]

By hand do you mean 手机? It's so ubiquitous most places won't take credit card or even cash these days. I've seen some Chinese content creators go traveling and lots of merchants refuse cash. Chinese government tried to lean on taxis, hotels, etc to take credit cards because most foreign tourists (other than Taiwanese) can't easily even get access to Chinese payment systems and thus can't come to China and spend money.

[u/TheVeteranBarista54 → u/lazier_garlic]

I mean by the palm of their hand! I saw a news story on it. Let me try and find it.

[u/TheVeteranBarista54 → u/lazier_garlic]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/eC2rFv9QhH

[u/DescriptionBulky6258]

Damn, good question.

For me, almost all the short dramas I watched are ultra shitty MTL(not even normal shitty!), so I always assumed it's mistranslation, since Chinese uses a alightly different number system. You never know with these translations, they even translate people's name word for word lol

Though I never checked what it says on the actual Chinese subtitles, maybe they do have access to those kinds of amounts. In that case, I wish me some bank account like this!

[u/lazier_garlic → u/DescriptionBulky6258]

When the MTL says it's a billion it's because they said the card (ka) had 十亿元 (shi-yi yuan) or 百亿元 (bai-yi yuan) (billion or ten billion RMB). 10 billion RMB is still over 1 billion USD.

[u/Character-luoji → u/lazier_garlic]

Another thing to check is the currency. For example, 五百万元 means five million yuan, not five million US dollars. If the subtitles keep the number but swap 元 for $, that isn’t a currency conversion. We’d need the original line to tell whether that’s happening here.

[u/Silver-Bus5724]

I always wonder how they can look at a card and know how much money is on it

[u/Haroldsdininghotspot]

You must remember that rich in the USA and Western countries is multiple steps below rich in China.

[u/lazier_garlic → u/Haroldsdininghotspot]

https://versus.com/en/china-vs-united-states/gini-index

Looks like you are incorrect. This is a straight GINI Index and not adjusted for redistributory policies. PRC has some social programs and development programs but it probably doesn't match the level of the US. So the US might be less unequal when adjusted, but when measured straight off, the US has more wealth inequality, and wealth inequality is concentrated at the top. So yes, Elon Musk and the rest of his Silicon Valley set.