My Nigerian bank issued cards that have worked on Aliexpress

Aliexpress is a top shopping website that allows me to buy a lot of cool stuff from China and some of these stuff are sold even in US stores like Amazon as well as European stores like ASOS.

It can be a bit confusing for first time shoppers in Nigeria when it comes to buying things from sites like Aliexpress. One might try the first time and your card could be rejected and so one might feel that Aliexpress doesn't accept Nigerian issued bank cards. In actual fact, they do accept any Nigerian issued cards as long as it works on a platform that they support. Aliexpress accepts cards powered by Visa and Mastercard and these cards are already available to Nigerian bank customers in form of credit, debit and prepaid cards.

Cards that I've used
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Zenith bank USD Visa Prepaid Buxz card: This is the first one I got and have been using. You don't need to have an existing account to get this one as all you need is bring your dollar equivalent as well as your personal id card, utility bill. One needs to bring at least $120 for a start and he'll be able to spend $100 while $20 goes in as yearly fees. There is also a reload fee of $5 each time you reload. I love this card because there are no need for relying n the exchange rate used by the bank since it's already a USD card. I can get dollar at my rate from the black market. This is the first card I used that worked successfully on Aliexpress as it's already designed for global shopping for merchants that accept US dollars. I use it on stores like Aliexpress and Amazon USA.

Union Bank Naira Visa debit card: This is a basic savings account linked Naira Visa card you are entitled to if you have a Union bank account. Since I already had an account, I just got this one and enabled it for online shopping by using an ATM and setting my I-PIN. It worked first with Amazon and then also with Aliexpress. The thing about this card that I love is that you don't need to buy dollar from the black market since you can get it from your bank. You can make US dollar payments with the Naira in your bank account and so you know how much you are charged exactly for the transaction and there are no hidden or transaction charges other than the exchange rate used for your transaction.

GTB Naira debit Mastercard: I recently just started using this one from GTbank and I didn't need to buy any token or make any special requests. I didn't even request any special service from my bank but it just got enabled recently for shopping on sites like Amazon and Aliexpress. It is a Naira debit card and so dollar payments are paid from the Naira in your bank account without any extra charges.

First Bank Naira debit Mastercard: I love this one and got it also when I opened an account with them. It works swiftly and the first time I tried is was when setting up and verifying my Paypal Nigeria account. I noticed that first bank was already working with Paypal and so I also tried it on Aliexpress and it was accepted.

Shopping on Aliexpress is quite easy and you are protected as a buyer by the platform since money is not paid to seller immediately until after you've collected the goods from NIPOST and they are in good working condition.

Once you've made payment with your card, the next step is for the seller to send it and when you receive a notification that it has been sent, you can then check your Aliexpress orders to get the tracking number. You can then use that tracking number to track your item online till it gets to you in Nigeria within 3 or 4 weeks.

After you've collected your goods from Aliexpress through NIPOST, you should then check your account and the button that confirms you have received it so that seller can be paid. It is that easy.

Shop on Aliexpress