Accessing Cash: Wire Transfers; Travelers Cheques and ATMs

[h2]ATM[/h2]

For simplicity's sake, and assuming you aren't going to be earning any money locally, the best thing to do is probably use your bank card from home - obviously check you'll be able to, but there can't be many cards that can't be used abroad nowadays. It might be worth opening a new account at home with a bank that offers good rates on overseas transactions.

Many banks charge an international transaction fee, in addition to an ATM withdrawal charge. These charges can be substantial.

However, if you shop around, you may find banks that don't charge such fee. Nationwide in UK is one. Bank of America (US) has a relationship with China Construction Bank, and there is no fee for withdrawing from Construction Bank ATMs with Bank of American ATM cards.

Please note however, that more than one forum member has reported issues with the CCB debiting their BoA account, but not issuing any money.

If you are from Germany, your EC card will work in China and you can withdraw cash. The fees are quite low too

[h2]Wire Transfer[/h2]

Wire transfer, also known as T/T, is the fastest way to receive a large amount of money. You need the destination bank's number, also know as the swift code and your account no. Banks usually charge from USD20-USD40 one time for outgoing transfer. There is no limit as far as I know to how much you can transfer. Large corporations transfer millions all the time through wire. Incoming transfers have no charges.

Transferring out of China, however, is more complicated (to be discussed).

For wire, Bank of China is the quickest. Some of the other banks wire through Bank of China and will take much longer. Bank of China transfer usually get through the next day.

One thing to note: make sure your name matches that in your passport! If you have a middle name on your passport, but no middle name on your wire transfer, the transaction may not go through.

Exchange rates through the Bank of China is close to the market rate. If you try to withdraw your cash in your native currency before exchanging to RMB, they will charge you 1%. If you convert first to RMB, then there is no charge.

[h2]Opening a Bank Account[/h2]

If you are in China for China for a long-term stay, it may be more convenient to open up a local bank account. The biggest banks in China are Bank of China (中国银行), Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC - 工商银行), Agricultural Bank (农业银行), Construction Bank (CCB - 建设银行), Bank of Communications 交通银行, and China Merchants Bank (CMB - 招商银行).

Although probably all of the above banks can receive foreign wire transfers and exchange your foreign currency, Bank of China (BoC) has special authority in deal in foreign currency. In particular, for depositing a check from a foreign bank account, BoC charges a much lower processing fee (about RMB10) than the other local banks and the processing time is much shorter (5-6 weeks vs. 8 or more weeks), though still too long.

Bank of China accounts were always limited to the province/region where you opened them.

All you need to open a bank account is your passport, an address and a phone number. It could even be a friend's address. They don't check and won't be mailing you anything. Though it might be intimidating if you don't know Chinese, BofC has staff that speaks English and has many non-Chinese-speaking customers..

For a long-term stay, it may be preferable to open a local bank account and use the debit card they issue. To transfer money from foreign accounts, you can either wire them over or deposit a personal check paid to yourself. Wire probably can happen within a day. Depositing a personal check takes much longer, about a 1-month turnaround, but the fee is much less for a personal check, less than US$10 paid to BofC vs. US$30 you would have to pay the banks on the two ends for the wire. Once the foreign currency is in your BofC, you can convert it into RMB as needed.

Many banks have nowadays online banking. ICBC has an English interface, which makes handling easier. CMB has Chinese only. HSBC has also an English interface, but it is not really a "local" bank. Their deposit minimum now is RMB 100,000 - or you pay RMB 150/month account fees.

For sending money within China check the transfer fees. They are different from inner city and out of city. They can be as high as 1%, usually capt at RMB50

I don't have time right now to do a full edit of this wiki page, so I'm noting the following here and I'll come back later (or if someone else wants to do the edit, by all means go ahead):

1) You should also mention American Express travellers checks as an alternative to carrying foreign cash. It is nearly as convenient as cash, but a lot safer (in case of loss/theft). BoC takes a small commission for cashing travellers checks, but on the otherhand uses a slightly more favourable exchange rate compared to cash conversions.

2) Many (or all?) banks will not convert foreign currencies other than US dollars on weekends (and also holidays?). So if you are holding, say, Euros, make sure you plan ahead.

3) When changing money, you will need your passport. The bank will also issue you a receipt for the money change transaction. Hold onto these receipts, you will need them if you want to convert any unused RMB back to your native currency at the end of your trip.

4) An alternative to changing money at the bank is to do so privately (either with a local or other foreigners). This is sometimes the only option if for whatever reason you are unable to change RMB to a foreign currency at a bank. Obviously, you need to carefully consider the risks involved with this approach.

BofC has staff that speaks English

That rather depends on where you are. I'd guess that most Bank of China branches do not have English speaking staff.

Also, not all branches can deal with foreign currency. I have to pass my nearest and go to the next. Where they don't speak English!

One thing I would add is that there is a limit to how much money you can send to the US. If you send 10,000USD (regardless of wire transfer, Western Union...) or more at one time, a red flag goes up. Its best to send just under that amount (9,995USD or break up the transaction).

Also, some US banks (BoA) do charge for incoming wire transfers, $20-40USD. You need to check with your US bank directly.

Here's a question. Lets say you have some friends/relatives in China and you occasionally want to send them money for whatever reason. Is it lawful or will it otherwise work to open a bank account in the US and mail them the ATM card, then just put money into their US account and let them withdraw it in China from an ATM?

My partner's done that, but from the UK to Taiwan. I always wondered whether the bank here in London would wonder how come someone has two bank accounts, and occasionally makes withdrawals from both, thousands of miles apart, but it works.

I know people who do this between Australia and China, and I don't think there is any problem with it.

I guess then the question is: can you do anything similar in the opposite direction? (I have a hard time imaging foreign banks accepting Chinese bank ATM cards but who knows.... Last time I was in China most banks didn't even take each other's ATM cards, and with some banks different branches of the same bank didn't take each others' cards.)

I'm not sure when you were last in China, but the banks now have what's known as "Union Pay" 银联, and any card bearing this symbol will work with any ATM that also bears this symbol. Also (in Beijing at least), there is an increasing number of EFTPOS terminals in shops and supermarkets, allowing you to swipe your card instead of paying cash.

I'm pretty sure most Chinese bank cards will not work overseas. They typically need to be connected to the visa-electron or visa-plus network (or some other similar network) for this to work. A card will typically have a symbol on the back for all the different networks it supports.

incoming wire transfer; BofC charges $10, regardless of wired amount.

check your home country banks and financial services. my broker offers free outgoing

wire transfers, and recently initiated a free checking account that offers refunds of

atm fees, including overseas atm's.

Other issues

No Chinese bank offers joint bank accounts for couples though new western banks are starting to enter the market an may offer this service. Most international banks require a large deposit for personal banking. This partly due to the undeveloped virtually non-existent credit history system. Other people such as a spouse can access you account with the pin code and card. If they want to withdraw more than 10,000 RMB they need to bring your passport or be authorized already to with draw this amount.

One Bank account may be able to have two credit cards linked to that bank account. Most Chinese credit cards work like western debit cards where Chinese customers must first deposit a set amount of money the minimum is usually 6,000 Yuan and then the credit card can withdraw from from that account. You still need to pay back money to return the level to 6,000 yuan each month or you will pay interest on the difference.

Credit cards usually have a pin number that you will need to input. The exception to this in the Merchant's Bank, which simply requires the signature.

Credit cards are usually can be used in large supermarkets, upscale restaurants or hotels.Some big department stores also accept them.

[top] Checks

Personal Checks are very rare and hardly used. In the case where you want to write a check to yourself and cash it at the bank. It will take at least one month to get the cash. The check must be authenticated by phone and then it is sent to the US bank. The US back then send the money to the the Chinese bank with processed check. The Chinese bank will call you to fill out some final forms and deposit the cash in your account. The same fees for exchanging money plus some banks have Check processing fees.

Cashier's Check are sometimes used to pay for big items such as cars and conferences. There are occassions when people use suitcases to carry cash to the dealerships to pay for the cars as well. Cash counting machines are common in banks to deal with the number of paper bills they highest denomination being the 100 yuan note.

One Bank account may be able to have two credit cards linked to that bank account. Most Chinese credit cards work like western debit cards where Chinese customers must first deposit a set amount of money the minimum is usually 6,000 Yuan and then the credit card can withdraw from from that account. You still need to pay back money to return the level to 6,000 yuan each month or you will pay interest on the difference.

This is not always the case, I would change the wording from "most" to "some".

Credit cards usually have a pin number that you will need to input. The exception to this in the Merchant's Bank, which simply requires the signature.

Again, this is not always the case. If you are making a payment using a domestic credit card that doesn't have a PIN, you can enter a bunch of '0's. Of course, it is safer to assign a PIN to the card.

Anyways, this is good info - feel free to update the wiki page.

It's a wiki for a reason...help out and do it yourself!

You still need to pay back money to return the level to 6,000 yuan each month or you will pay interest on the difference.

Quote:

You still need to pay back money to return the level to 6,000 yuan each month or you will pay interest on the difference.

They charge you interest on your own money?!

That's called "secured credit". Normally secured credit is secured with collateral like your house or something, but in the US at least they have these "secured credit" credit card accounts for losers who have such a bad credit history (multiple bankruptcies probably) that nobody will give them a credit card. By depositing money with someone these people can get a credit card and start building some amount of positive credit history even if it's silly that they're borrowing cash against their own cash.

So this sounds like cash-secured credit card accounts in the US except just applied to the general population since there's little-to-no credit reporting going on....

Yeah, I think everyone has secured Credit, paying interest on your own money. (Credit card companies complain that almost every one in China pays their bill on time meaning the interest doesn't get charged much.)

I think it is because the record keeping across province lines are very bad.

I have heard stories of scrupuless business people with a famous name, going from one province to another and taking massive loans for building a new building and then skipping town . They don't have a system that can be accessed by other provinces. This problem is made worse by the fact that lots of CHinese people have the same first and last names.

Shenzhen was experimenting with a credit tracking system I last heard.

When people do business they usually call their paid off/ relative police officer who does a criminal background check which is nationalized. These don't usually have civil crimes like not paying a loan. It will have things like marriages, divorces and Kids though.

I have friends at Unicom and Telecom who do this service for jealous husbands inpecting the new numbers in there wives/ girlfriends cellphones. Men don't usually let the wives check their cell phones. Go figure.

People also use guanxi business networks to not get cheated, but if you're doing cross province business it can be harder..

have fun,

Simon:)

Yeah, I think everyone has secured Credit, paying interest on your own money.

Again, I'd like to point out that this generalization is inaccurate.

I do agree with your other points regarding poor credit history tracking.

hey hey Mr. CDN,

If you know of a bank in China that provides credit cards without a deposit , back it up, tell me the bank so I can sign up with them.

Also confirm that there are no other circumstances like there is not deposit but the credit is backed up by a house or Business account with a minimum balance. (Which would make it basically the samething)

I don't profess to know everything about China but I went to a bunch of Banks asking about it and couldn't find one.

So details please Mr. Cdn.

have fun,

Simon:)

wow those 'secured credit' credit cards sound strange. the idea of credit cards is to encourage people to spend money, hence incur a debt and make them pay off interest. The interest is worth it because you got something you otherwise couldnt. but this other system does the opposite! these cards will actually discourage spending. im no economist but i guess its probably a good thing for the chinese economy. should help keep down inflation seeing as the economy is growing so rapidyly anyway.

Hi Simon,

BOC and ICBC both offer "true" credit cards. See:

http://www.boc.cn/en/common/third.jsp?category=1099533459100

BOC credit card is a double-currency credit card according with international standard, designed for global usage. You can pay with it within your line of credit, and enjoy as long as 50 days of interest-free repayment period without prior deposit.

http://www.icbc.com.cn/e_icbcmodule/thirdindex.jsp?column=Bank%2BCard%3EIntroduction%3EPeony%2BCredit%2BCard

I believe those cash-secured credit cards that you've described are known as "quasi credit cards". In effect these are just debit cards that work on the credit card network:

http://www.icbc.com.cn/e_icbcmodule/thirdindex.jsp?column=Bank%2BCard%3EIntroduction%3EPeony%2BQuasi%2BCredit%2BCard

http://www.boc.cn/en/common/third.jsp?category=1099533515100