Paying bills in China

What bills do you pay? If you are renting, are bills included in the price of rent, and is this common practice in China?  In my case I pay all the bills as I rent directly from the landlord, some of my friends have it include it in the rent fee (this happens normally when you rent through an agency)

How can you pay your bills (e.g. online, at provider's store, at the post office)? Which is the most convenient or reliable way? China is probably the most digitalized country in the world, you can pay everything using your phone (Wechat, Alipay, Unionpay, etc) or in a convenience store (family mart, lawsons,etc).

With what frequency are different bills sent in China? Are there different deadlines for payment? Monthly, each service most likely will have a different deadline, but as I said, since you can pay from your phone it's super simple.

Payment of bills is very straightforward in China.

Rent.  I pay my landlord directly.  I do this monthly.  I just move money from my bank account to theirs using WeChat (WeiXin).

Electricity and utilities. I pay the building manager directly.  I do this monthly. I just move money from my bank account into my utility account using WeChat.

Phone. I recharge my phone as needed.  Usually, that is about 100 RMB every three months or so. (Around $18 USD). I just move money from my bank into the phone account using WeChat.

Cable subscriptions.  No need to pay. It's free in China.  If you want VIP service, you can purchase it for a year.  You would use your cellphone to scan a QR code, and then transfer money using WeChat.

Takeout food.  Not really a bill, but everyone uses this service because it is so convenient.  You just use the Er Le Ma application on your cell phone and pay using WeChat or Alipay.

Rideshare.  Bicycles are so cheap and convenient.  Cost is around $0.05/ for a half an hour rde.  Just use one of the many applications on your cell phone, and pay using alipay or WeChat.

In China, everything is electronic and totally networked.

If you are using Alipay then its quite easy to pay bills by yourself. But you have to read little bit chinese. Once you paid bill successfully then every month you can know the amount of Bill without seeing bill.

What bills do you pay? If you are renting, are bills included in the price of rent, and is this common practice in China?

We pay electricity, water, cell phone, parking fees, etc.  My company pays the rent direct to the landlord.  I don't know what is common, but both jobs I have had here in China provided me an apartment, but I was responsible for the consumption utilities (phone, electricity, water, etc.)

How can you pay your bills (e.g. online, at provider's store, at the post office)? Which is the most convenient or reliable way?

For the apartment utilities, we simply go to the service center.  The odd thing here in China, versus the US, is you get a card that charges a meter.  You have to, yourself, check the meter and recharge the card before the meter becomes 0.00 otherwise your lights go out  or your water stops working.  In the US, you get a bill every month that reflects your consumption.  Another thing I find odd, is these utilities are more expensive here compared to the US.  It may just be where we live though.  For the telephone, we walk to the China Unicom office and pay for two or three months at a time.  It is very easy...  We get no bills though by mail, email or other means.

With what frequency are different bills sent in China? Are there different deadlines for payment?

As stated above, we get no bills by mail, email or other means.  They are all consumption charges; we have a card and when the money on the card is consumed, the service stops.  There is no payment deadline, I guess the deadline is simply recharge before the lights go out!

Hey.
I don't know about the rented apartment as my husband's company provided us the apartment we are living into. Although i pay my electricity and water and gas bills on a Family Mart store which is available I think at every next signal. And for the wifi bill it's all done online through Alipay. We paid for 8months altogether.

Cheers and Enjoy your stay in China