How do you pay your bills in Shanghai? I’ve tried:

- post office

- convenience stores

- banks (some  machinese in the banks where you can scan the bar code and pay through your bank account)

- SHFFT.com

The most I use: SHFFT.com, because I don’t want to queue in the post office, stores or banks or simply because I always forget to bring the bills.

SHFFT (Short for Shanghai Fu Fei Tong, which means Shanghai Payment System) is a Citizen Project initiated by Shanghai Government. Actually I found its English name in its website is pretty dull and technical:

EBPP =  Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment

The site is in both Chinese and English.

First you need to register. It requires ID card or passport information to register.

Then you can pay the bills. If you can read Chinese on the bill, you can pay by entering your contract number. If not, you can simply pay by typing the bar code.

The payment can be made through via various banks. In my opinion, the only problem users who can’t read English might have is at this step.

After choosing the bank you want to use to pay, the site will direct you to the bank website. Sometimes I found the bank page is available only in Chinese.

But apart from that, it is a convenient way to pay all the bills, including mobile phone top up and broadband.

If not online, you can call 962233 to pay through the phone. English service is available.

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