How to send yuan to China

I recently started using CSSBuy to bundle multiple orders from different Chinese sellers and ship one package while saving on shipping fees. If you want, they can also act as an intermediary between buyer and seller for translations and payments, however, in the end, if you make a lot of purchases the extra charges start to go up: The 6% for service, 4% to PayPal and especially the spread they charge on dollar/yuan conversion, which is 4.4% (Rate on their site: 6.60 CNY per USD; bank rate 6.89 CNY per USD).

So when you then start to get serious about buying for business, better then to try to transfer Chinese yuan directly to the seller. The problem is that the market is very regulated, so it is not as easy as making a normal bank transfer.

So let’s see what options there are, keeping in mind that at the time of writing the exchange rate is CNY 7.57 per EUR and that because of KYC regulations I have not tried them all yet due to the fact that they require a lot of personal data:

Rewire

Rewire allows you to send yuan to Chinese bank accounts or “mobile wallets” (phone wallets). I couldn’t figure out what they mean by “mobile wallets”. Alipay or WeChat Pay? If they are either of these two it is very convenient, but if they mean a prepaid top-up on the phone much less so, because it is almost impossible for a seller to accept a phone top-up worth hundreds of euros as payment.

Exchange rate: 7.60 (Higher than the official rate? Will this be a lure?)
Sending fee: €5.49

Remitly

Remitly clearly says on the home page that it can send money to bank accounts, Alipay and WeChat Pay. Unfortunately, however, regarding the fees and exchange rate they are a little fuzzy. It says that for the first 1000 euros sent, a promotional exchange rate applies, but only for new customers and maximum once per customer. And once it’s up and running, how much does it cost? Mystery!

Exchange rate: 7.52 (as a new customer offer, regular rate is unclear)
Sending fee: €3.99 for “express” sending (which seems to be the only way to send)

Panda Remit

Panda Remit, as you can guess from the name, specializes in sending money to China. Again the home page clearly indicates that you can send money to bank accounts, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Exchange rate: 7.516
Sending fee: €5.99

Paysend

The page dedicated to China on Paysend says “Send money online China to any UnionPay, Alipay, Weixin (WeChat Pay) and Mastercard for only €1.5.”

Exchange rate: 7.5381
Sending commission: €1.50

Wise

Known before as Transferwise, it appears that it can transfer to both bank accounts and Alipay/Weixin. However, I assumed this from reading various comments online; the official documentation does not explicitly mention the methods. On the website it is well explained how their fees work and it is interesting to see the comparison they put with competitors. I was amazed at the level of transparency, because with some combinations of amount and currency they are the ones who say they are not the cheapest. For example, if you choose to pay in pounds, they are the ones who say Remitly is cheaper.

Exchange rate: 7.5727
Sending commission: 0.65 euro + 0.65%.