Discover in China--Keep Getting Turned Away

Anonymous · ‎11-04-2016

Hello All. I am in China right now. One of the reasons I wanted my newly acquired Discover card is that I am here in China quite a bit for work. Even the 1% rewards would be helpful when spending here in China. I heard about the fact that Discover is accepted anywhere where there is a Union Pay logo. Well, I've tried to use it like three times at different stores, one included a Walmart and it's a no go. I even gave them the little cheat sheet printed from the Discover website. The manager came over and tried to do it. Still a no go.

For anyone who has successfully used their card in China, how did you get it to work? Any suggestions will be kindly appreciated.

pizza1 · ‎11-04-2016

oh wow, Im bumping this to the top hoping you get someone to comment. Good luck, and hope you have other cards you can use. Have you tried calling Discover??

UncleB · ‎11-05-2016

Having never been to China I can't provide first-hand assistance, but hopefully some others on here will be able to help.

I do have a question... is the issue with the merchant not being willing to swipe the card, or is the problem that once the card is swiped (or inserted) it's declined?

If it's the second issue I would be making a collect-call to Discover to have them take a look at things.

lg8302ch · ‎11-05-2016

I have previously used it in mainland China but had difficulty convincing the merchant to swipe the card..... found a small union pay sticker and added that myself to the card and the card got swiped with no issues at that time. This was before the chip got integrated. With the chip I had problems in Switzerland with certain cards. The standard blue card worked fine but all the lovely design cards got rejected. Then we found out that there is a different chip manufacturer for the nice design cards ... I have not tried to order the custom design cards anymore. Which one do you have? I will be in Hongkong in 10 days and certainly give it a try if I have the option.

edit: and you did let Discover know that you travel? This card will otherwise not work and as soon as swipe is done it gets the "not accepted" ... most other cards trigger fraud alerts but Discover simply does not work without the travel settings

Anonymous · ‎11-06-2016

Thank you all so much for responding. So sorry that I have not replied before now. Had computer issues.

But, yes, I am in Mainland China, although I am in a smaller, lesser known province. Each time, they have tried to swipe the card (regular maroon/burgundy colored card). They have tried inserting it into hte machine and they have tried swiping it with the magnetic strip. Neither seems to work.

I did do a travel alert and have not received any notifications from Discover that there is a problem. So, I will try to call them. And find out what the problem is.

By the way, yes Pizza, I have other cards. I used my mastercard to pay for my hotel. Sooo, I wasn't stuck. :-)

Thanks again everyone who tried to respond.

BronzeTrader · ‎11-08-2016

The merchants there would say: what the fuxx! is this card! :-)

Anonymous · ‎11-08-2016

@BronzeTrader wrote:
The merchants there would say: what the fuxx! is this card! :-)

LOL! That is hilarious!! I'm dying of laughter here!!! And you're right, that is what I've been feeling while I have been here.