WeChat and Alipay Money: How Family Can Access It After Death

WeChat and Alipay may hold tens of thousands in balance, plus funds in Yu'ebao, Licaitong, and other investments. After you pass away, family members without your password, fingerprint, or face unlock will find this money locked inside the phone. Platforms have legal inheritance processes, but they are slow. This article walks through the inheritance processes for WeChat and Alipay separately.

WeChat Pay Balance Inheritance Process

WeChat's official customer service number is 95017. A family member calls and states "the user has passed away and we need to withdraw the wallet balance," and customer service will guide them. Required documents: death certificate (household cancellation notice or hospital death certificate), heir's ID, hukou book (to prove kinship), and a notarial certificate issued by a notary office. After submitting the full set, WeChat reviews for 1–3 months. Once approved, the heir must provide a bank account number for the transfer.

Alipay Balance Inheritance Process

Alipay customer service is 95188. The process is similar to WeChat: death certificate + heir identification + proof of kinship + notarial certificate. But Alipay adds a complication: Yu'ebao funds sit with a fund company, not Alipay itself — customer service must coordinate with the fund company to process them, making the whole process 1–2 months slower than WeChat. If heirs do not know a Yu'ebao account exists, that money may remain with the fund company indefinitely.

The Fastest Way — Password Handover

Going through the official inheritance process takes three months at best, and up to half a year at worst. What families need most is time — and often what they want is not "to recover tens of thousands of RMB" but "to log into WeChat and read chat history," "to export iCloud photos," or "to cancel a subscription." If you encrypt your passwords in TimeWill and set a heartbeat trigger, your family receives the passwords directly after a check-in is missed — no customer service calls, no notarial certificates, no three-month wait.

Balances Your Family May Not Know About

WeChat Family Cards (the spending limit you set for your parents), WeChat Licaitong (money market funds), Alipay Yu'ebao, Huabei and Jiebei debts — these are things your family does not know about but that need handling after you are gone. Unpaid Huabei debt lowers Zhima Credit but does not pass to family. List all your payment accounts clearly and update them in your digital will.