This year we are seeing tons of new freelance online English teachers trying to find ways to accept Chinese payments. Due to the new Chinese government regulations concerning tutoring companies in China, teachers and their students are trying their best to stay connected and continue their learning journey together. One of the biggest challenges that teachers are facing is how to accept Chinese payments like Alipay and WeChat pay. Luckily, there are a few options:
- Integrate payment into your freelance teaching website.
- Create individual invoices through Stripe directly.
- Use a freelance teaching service like TeachOn.
1. Integrate Payment Into Your Freelance Teaching Website
This option is for those entrepreneurs who are really going all-in on their personal brand. Building your own personal teaching website is no small task, but it may pay off in the long run to have an established landing page for your business. If you’re using a website service like Wix or WordPress, make sure that you’ll be able to connect your site with Stripe. Through Stripe you can accept Chinese payments yourself by integrating Alipay and WeChat pay onto your website, but you will need to do a bit of coding.
If this task seems daunting, then you can hire someone on a site like Upwork to take care of this for you. This option may require the most effort, the most money, and may not be the best fit for you. If you don’t have your own website, and just want to collect payments, have a look at our next two options.
2. Use a Freelance Teaching Service Like TeachOn
As a veteran, full-time VIPKid teacher of 6 years, I understood the need for a service that could help freelance online English teachers accept Chinese payments quickly, easily, and securely. That’s how TeachOn started. We have an incredibly easy process that allows teachers to sign-up for free in minutes, create your very own teacher profile page, and start collecting payments immediately. We are powered by Stripe so you can be sure that your money is safe and secure.
Here’s an example of a TeachOn profile page and WeChat QR code.
3. Create Individual Invoices Through Stripe
Stripe allows you to create individual invoices through your personal account fairly easily. At the time of writing this we haven’t figured out how to activate Alipay using Stripe invoicing, but we were able to produce an invoice with a WeChat payment option. Keep in mind that for each transaction there are going to be fees associated with Alipay/WeChat pay and also Stripe’s fee and a currency conversion fee. If you want to try and create an invoice to accept Chinese payments yourself, follow these steps:
- Sign up with Stripe
- On the left sidebar go into “Settings”
- Enable Alipay and WeChat pay (must confirm through email)
- On the left sidebar click on “Customers”
- Then go to “Invoices”
- Start creating invoices
At the time of writing this we’ve noticed more and more people being denied eligibility for WeChat Pay via Stripe. Depending on your location, Stripe may require different information and documents from you. In the end, you may need to show them a website, proving that you are indeed a teacher or a social media account that has some information about you may suffice.
If you were originally trying to invoice your students but have been denied access to WeChat Pay or you just don’t to do deal with the hassle of creating invoices for each transaction, check out TeachOn.org!
Wrapping Up
These are just a few ways for freelance teachers to accept Chinese payments. Depending on your time, level of entrepreneurship, and quantity of students that you teach every week, you can choose the right option for you. For those entrepreneurs who really want to build their brand, creating your own website and integrating Ali pay and WeChat pay may be the best fit for you. For those that only teach a couple of students a week, making your own Stripe invoices might not be an inconvenience. For those teachers who are in search of a streamlined payment process that is super convenient for them and their students, TeachOn has got you covered.
