Personal Banking in China:
OE admin Mandy asked this question the other day:
roots mentioned in another thread that the ATM card issued by his bank in China won’t work overseas. Is this the case with all banks in China? Which of the banks are most expat friendly? What are the requirements for opening an account etc?
Which do you use and why?
My 2 answers, please excuse my language:
Chinese banking is so Fuked up that you notice even Jack is avoiding the issue.
Almost all Chinese banks are still nominally owned by Federal or Provincial governments.
The 4 largest banks in China are the ones you are most likely to see: ICBC, BOC, CCB, and ABC. Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China been the most popular.
The most f*cked up part of it all is that money doesn’t travel, which created the current cash culture of Chinese economy. Getting money into and out of the country can be especially tedious, and stupendously time consuming.
Don’t expect ANY ATM cards or Credit Cards from Chinese banks to work outside of the country. HK, maybe, if you go to their branches. Chinese banks are heavily protected and extremely archaic (and nontransparent), despite the fact that they are listed on the NY stock exchange. RMB is a protected/controlled currency, which makes the whole thing even more cluster f*cked.
The reason you can’t use their ATM cards outside the country except maybe in HK is because (I am assuming) it’s a RMB account. Most RMB – foreign currency trades/exchanges are still strictly monitored.
Do what most of us do, get one Chinese bank account, and one foreign bank account from home. I lucked out because HSBC is heavily presented in Canada, HK, and slowly, China. A lot of expats rely on grey market money exchanges and Western Union to send money home.
As for the Chinese banks themselves, ICBC is the most popular, “common folk” bank, and BoC is probably ranked second in terms of presence and accessibility. All you need is RMB cash, a passport, an address, and someone to fill out the form for you to open an account. CCB and ABC are more specialized, and probably wouldn’t be as convenient.
All in all, a pea soup of cluster f*cking skull bashing lunatic doggery that is still pretending it’s the 80s.
I had to correct myself a bit upon farther research (btw, I am in no way endorsing CMB to anybody):
Anyway…, I got bored, so I looked into CMB’s services and offers. It basically boils down to this, certain Chinese banks have signed working agreements with various banks around the world, and some banks’ ATM will take a Chinese ATM card. The problem is still RMB. Since your account is most likely to be still in RMB, and you certainly can’t take out RMB, so you will get the an exchange equivalent. The highest ATM equivalent right now seems to be RMB 2000, which is about 2-300 USD.
What complicates things is that some Chinese banks have signed agreements with Visa or Master card. There seems to be an ATM type of card that is Visa certified or something that will deal in USD. What makes it even more screwed is that you can apply for a Visa itself, which should have been easier thing to begin with. But the f*cked up thing is that you seem to need an USD account to start with before you can even do this, otherwise you seem to need a RMB transfer payment plan in place.
Anyway, look for this symbol going outside the country:
银联
Your limit is RMB 2000/day.
QUOTE :
1、在境外哪些商户和ATM刷卡可以用人民币支付？
境外地区贴有“银联”标识的商户和ATM，均可以使用信用卡内人民币账户支付。
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2、在境外“银联”标识和VISA、MasterCard标识的商户和ATM交易，有什么不同？
1）支付货币不同。在“银联”标识的商户和ATM用卡，支付货币为人民币；在VISA或MasterCard联网商户和ATM用卡，支付货币为美元。
2）还款货币不同。境外地区的“银联”交易，客户直接用人民币还款；在VISA或MasterCard联网商户和ATM用卡，客户用美元还款，或申请人民币购汇还款。
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3、银行按什么汇率将交易的外币兑换成人民币？
按照交易当日国家对外公布的外币对人民币的外汇卖出价兑换。
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4、哪些信用卡可以在境外“银联”商户和ATM交易？
招商银行VISA信用卡、招商银行MasterCard信用卡、国航知音信用卡均可以在境外地区的“银联”商户和ATM交易，用人民币支付。
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5、境外是不是所有的商户和ATM，都用信用卡内的人民币支付？
在境外地区，只有在贴有“银联”标识的商户和ATM，才用人民币支付；其余商户和ATM刷卡，均从美元账户扣款。For a list of countries or more info if you can read it:
As for me? I’ll stick to my original advice. Keep your China/foreign accounts separate. It’s much more convenient and hassle free.
Check OE for original discussion.
