A bank wire. Most China sourcing is paid this way.
A wire cannot be pulled back once the receiving bank credits it. The legal check is simple and buyers skip it: the beneficiary on the PI must be the company that signs the contract, with the same registered Chinese name as on its business licence.
Two requests should stop you before you pay: a new bank account announced by email, and a request to pay a personal account. Verify the first through a channel you already had; decline the second.
The email that changes the account
A common situation: an email arrives from the sales manager’s usual address, with the usual signature, saying the company’s bank account has changed for tax or audit reasons. The new beneficiary is a Hong Kong company or an individual. The buyer pays. Either the mailbox was compromised or someone inside is diverting money, and in both cases the supplier will say it was never paid. Proving that you paid the right party is then your problem.
A personal account adds a second problem. Paying an individual makes it harder to show that the company received the price, and harder to freeze anything later, because the money you can trace sits with that person rather than the company you contracted with.
Account clause
Fix the account in the contract, so that a change needs more than an email:
“All payments shall be made only to the following account in the Supplier’s registered name: [bank, account name, account number]. Any change shall be notified in writing under the Supplier’s company seal, and the Buyer may withhold payment until it has confirmed the change with the contact person named in this Agreement.”
Confirm any change by calling or writing to a contact you already had, never one given in the email that announced the change.
Related terms
- Business licence and unified social credit code
- 30/70 payment
- Company seal and contract seal (公章, 合同专用章)
- All twelve terms
Read next
- Your Chinese Supplier Says It Has a New Bank Account: How to Verify Before You Pay
- “Pay My Personal Account”: Say No to a Chinese Supplier; a Hong Kong Company Can Work
- How to Freeze a Chinese Company's Assets Before You Sue: Property Preservation in China
Holding a PI and about to pay?
Send us the PI and a line about your product. We reply in writing with the contract you need, the fixed fee and the delivery time.