Many people use social networking app WeChat and its original Chinese version, Weixin, to keep in touch with friends, but if you sign up to its Wallet section you can also buy group discount coupons, book taxis, buy movie tickets and more. Another function is the ability to transfer money long-distance from your bank card or WeChat Wallet Balance to a friend’s account, even if the recipient is miles away. 

Users can also transfer money to friends who are right there with them by scanning a QR code on their friend’s phone – for more information on that method, read this article.

Note that this function only allows users to transfer money into their friend’s WeChat Wallet Balance, not directly into their bank account, although the recipient can pay it into their account once they’ve received it.

Before we begin, make sure you have set up your WeChat Wallet with a debit card.

Step-by-step guide

1. Open WeChat.

2. Press the “Me” button at the bottom of the screen, then tap the “Wallet” option. 

3. You will see the main Wallet options screen, as in the picture below. Press “Transfer” at the top left. 

4. A menu should pop up from the bottom with two options; “Transfer to a Friend” lets you move the money to anyone in your WeChat contacts book; “Receive In-Person” lets you do the same to someone who’s there with you. For this article we’ll focus on the first option. 

5. Tapping the first option will take you to your address book, with those you have talked to most recently placed towards the top (in the future the names at the top will be those you have sent money to recently). Tap the name of the person you want to send to, or tap “Open Contacts” to select someone else from your address book – remember that this other person will need to have set up their WeChat Wallet too.  

6. On selecting a contact, you will be asked to input the amount to be transferred. One account can transfer no more than 20,000 yuan per day through this function. Note that the “Free” text in the type-in field means that WeChat will not charge a fee for transferring the money.

7. You should now be asked to select a payment method; one of the debit cards you have attached to the app, your WeChat Balance (if you have money in there) or a new card. WeChat may assume you want to use your existing card, in which you may not see this screen, and skip straight to the screen on step eight.

8.Once you have a payment method selected, you will be asked to enter the six-digit WeChat pass code that you created when setting up your Wallet. If you want to change your payment method, tap the green ‘Change’ text and you will be taken to the screen from step seven.

9. Once you’ve entered your pass code there will be a short pause before the confirmation message below appears. The recipient must confirm the transfer before the money is moved across to their account; if they do not confirm within 24 hours, the transferred money will be sent back. 

10. The receiver should get a WeChat message notifying them of the money transfer right away. The message is automatically sent on behalf of the payer, to remind the receiver to confirm the transfer. He/she can click on the message to confirm the payment. 

11. If they do, they will see something like the page below. They must press the green button to confirm; the money will then be transferred into their WeChat balance. Otherwise, they can tap the small blue “Reject Now” text at the bottom to cancel the transfer.

12. Once it is accepted a second automatic WeChat message will be sent, this time from the payee to the payer, saying that the transfer is completed.