I finally managed to add my overseas debit card to both major mobile wallets after a week of confusing declines. The card itself was active, online payments were enabled, and the bank app showed no blocked authorization attempts. The issue turned out to be the name order.
My passport shows my family name first on the China entry record, while the card issuer stores my given names first. The wallet form accepted the card number, but the verification step failed until I entered the name exactly as it appears in the bank profile rather than the order shown on my passport. I also had to remove spaces from my middle name.
For anyone arriving soon, it is worth checking how your card issuer stores your full name before assuming the card type is unsupported. Has anyone seen the same thing with Chinese bank cards issued to foreign residents, or is this mostly a foreign card verification issue?
