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Registering for an Alipay Account

For most of you, this will not be a necessary step.

If you followed the directions in our guide to signing up for Taobao,  and left the final checkbox checked, then you will already have an Alipay account created for you automatically. But if you do need to sign up for Alipay account independent of Taobao, then check this out.

First, let’s confirm that you don’t already have an Alipay account

Go to the Alipay registration page. Type in the email address you used to register for Taobao and click the button.

click it to see if ur registered for alipay Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

Here is what you might see after clicking that button:

your email already registered on alipay Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

  • Blue – You are not registered on Alipay. Please continue with the registration form. 

congradulations youre not registered on alipay Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

 

Alipay’s registration form

When registering for Alipay seperately, it will ask for more info than when you signed up for Taobao.  They will want your ID (passport) number and a phone number. Let’s take a look.

 full zhifubao registration form part a Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

 

Some tips on the first part of the form:
  • For numbers 1, to and 3, you enter in the same thing twice to confirm against typos.
  • Your passwords in 2 and 3 cannot match!
  • Number 4 is a security question. The default is asking for your Dad’s and Mom’s names. Remember what you type. 

 

Okay, take a breath. Now the rest of the form.

full zhifubao registration form part b2 Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

 

Some notes on the second part of the form
  • Passport 护照 is the second option  
  • Enter your mobile phone number. Or another contact phone number. They only need one.

Time to check your email

The next screen will tell you that you need to confirm your email address. Go to your email.

zhifubao registration complete check your email1 Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

 

You will receive an email that looks like this. (Check your spam folder if you don’t see it.) Click on the circled link.

zhifubao email confirmation Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

 

Since my name is not really Marty McFly, I did not click through. But when you click the link, you will see this success screen.

confirmed zhifubao account Registering for an Alipay Account taobao international

You’ve done it!

That’s one of the more difficult forms Taobao will throw at you, but you did a great job. Now you can take a look around Alipay – check out our guide to the Alipay Control Panel.

More questions?

If you have any more questions, you can check out the official walkthrough (in Chinese, but still very intuitive) or ask us in the comments below.

27 Comments »

  • daf said:

    hi,if i’m an international buyer but i have a china bank account (i set up one the last time round i went there) , in the passport section, what do i fill up?

    thank you!

    # 1 December 2009 at 1:16 am
  • laobanniang said:

    Hi Daf, for registering for an Alipay account, you still fill in your correct passport number following this guide, because you don’t have a Chinese ID card. Chinese bank account is only needed if you want to recharge your Alipay account with your bank account balance. Since every bank’s online portal is different and they changes constantly, TFG currently don’t have any guide on how to do this. If you know a little Chinese, here’s a Chinese guide on how to charge your Alipay account using your bank balance, the example bank used here is ICBC bank.

    # 2 December 2009 at 9:23 am
  • Yemi said:

    Can I use alipay and make payments from a bank in the USA?

    # 2 March 2010 at 10:26 pm
  • Yemi said:

    After following the directions, I got this warning message.

    X 对不起，请不要重复提交请求。 请回到原始页面重新刷新

    Does it say my computer is going to blow up? Help!

    # 2 March 2010 at 10:30 pm
  • laobanniang said:

    hi Yemi, Alipay currently doesn’t support paying from foreign banks. if you’re located outside China, you’ll have to use an agent to buy stuff for you.

    # 3 March 2010 at 10:58 am
  • T.T. said:

    Hey guys, thanks for the great work. This guide is amazing, kudos for it. I have assembled a howto with some extra tips, just in case. I think you’ll love to take a look at it: http://fb.cityweekend.com.cn/Intro

    # 8 July 2010 at 5:07 pm
  • julie said:

    Can i pay the stuff by using Paypal account ?

    # 16 July 2010 at 2:06 am
  • laobanniang said:

    Hi Julie, Taobao currently doesn’t support Paypal.

    # 17 July 2010 at 9:24 am
  • fashionfans said:

    Hi there,
    I’m from Malaysia and there’s a Bank of China branch here. If I open an account with the local Bank of China branch here, will I still be able to use Alipay for payments and refunds?

    Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks!

    # 29 July 2010 at 9:17 am
  • laobanniang said:

    Sorry, we’re not very sure about this. Maybe you can inquire with the bank. As far as I know, Bank of China in mainland China has this service. It even has a Taobao themed credit card here. Not sure if this service is available at oversea branches.

    # 29 July 2010 at 9:32 am
  • abby said:

    hi
    if i dont have a china bank account, how to i verify my account? alipay requires users to verify their identity or else they will cap at rmb500 :/ i would like to remove that cap

    # 3 October 2010 at 1:28 pm
  • laobanniang said:

    Hi Abby, You have to have a China bank account to get your account verified. Please view our FAQ for more guides on verifying your account.

    # 15 October 2010 at 4:53 pm
  • jesper said:

    Hi, how about link with visa card ?

    i im Thai, and have thai visacard, i want to buy on taobao

    how about that ?

    Jesper

    # 4 November 2010 at 2:56 am
  • Hae said:

    Hi, is there any way to delete my alipay account? Or to change the registered name at the very least? I really wanted to delete my account permanently but have no idea how to do so, since I don’t understand Chinese. I hope you guys could help me on this one. Thank you so much! I’ll await your response.

    # 10 December 2010 at 4:10 am
  • Mike said:

    Hi! I am new in using taobao. I have already an account in taobao I just need to set up my ICBC account to use in taobao because my friends says it’s safer and I can still wait if the product that I ordered came before I give the seller the money. How do i do that?

    # 11 December 2010 at 10:13 pm
  • remnants said:

    they keep telling me “图片校验码有误” after I’ve filled up all my particulars. Why?

    # 14 December 2010 at 4:12 pm
  • navish said:

    hi,

    i have bank of china visacard. can i link this to my alipay account for use?

    Are there any extra verifications for visacards or mastercards linked to alipay account?

    cheers.

    # 16 December 2010 at 12:58 am
  • @ said:

    what kind of services that we can get from Alipay?sorry, i’ve read the website but i didn’t understand..thank you…

    # 29 July 2011 at 4:03 pm
  • sherlylim said:

    i’m frm malaysia…hw i wan to buy product in taobao.com ..and i oso dun hav china bank account?

    # 16 December 2011 at 3:09 pm
  • Richie said:

    so i have an alipay account, and the problem is if I want to buy stuff they will ask for my id number (15-18 digits), I dont understand whats it ? is it chinese id number or what ?

    # 29 December 2011 at 1:37 pm
  • James said:

    I don’t get it! When I enter my china number…it always says “the phone does not exist!” WTF???!

    # 9 January 2012 at 5:56 pm
  • Alex said:

    I don’t understand about id number too. My passport number has wrong format.

    # 16 January 2012 at 12:50 am
  • tomas said:

    can i open bank acc. in some bank in china ONLINE ? i m not from china like ICBC or something else ?

    # 25 January 2012 at 8:11 pm
  • le douche said:

    same problem here with the ID # number issue… yeah, how do we do this without a chinese ID #? this is the page that i think combines your bank account with alipay (if im understanding correctly)

    # 14 February 2012 at 11:39 am
  • Des said:

    Hi! I’d like to open an account on Alipay for my business so people can pay me through it. Does it work like Paypal? Is it still necessary as a business to give the Passport number?
    I tried to contact on the English website but no answers for now.. Please help!!!

    # 28 February 2012 at 12:15 am
  • Martin said:

    I have the same ID problem with linking an ICBC “e” card (the blue one) to my AliPay account. The problem is that AliPay asks for a valid Chinese ID card number in order to verify my ICBC account. Being a foreigner, I don’t have one. ICBC have my passport number and they’re fine with that, but AliPay doesn’t allow it. So that completely prevents me from linking my AliPay account to my ICBC account. It’s kind of a big issue as it means it is impossible to link the accounts.

    Has anyone managed to get around this problem?

    # 29 March 2012 at 12:07 pm
  • Carmen said:

    Im trying to add money to my alipay account using the Postal Service. I bought a 1000 rmb credit yesterday and it won’t let me use it unless I have a valid Chinese ID? Therefore I still cannot make my taobao purchases. Help!

    # 15 April 2012 at 9:34 am

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