Hi everyone, I am new on this forum so my apologies in advance if this has been covered previously.
I am a Canadian that will be living in Taiwan for 4-8 months in Taipei starting July 2017 and was wondering what would be the best way to manage day to day banking in Taipei? I am currently with Royal Bank of Canada at home. Is it easy to open a bank account in Taiwan as a foreigner? I want to get some advise from people to see how they are able to withdraw money with minimum fees for they daily cash needs… thanks everyone!
You’re not supposed to be able to open a bank account in Taiwan without a resident visa (I’ve heard anecdotally of some people successfully doing it, however). Will you be in Taiwan on a resident visa or are you planning on bringing a bunch of money over and then putting it in the bank while you come on a tourist visa?
Canada’s moving further and further away from a cash-economy. It seems rare for people in Canada nowadays to use cash. Taiwan on the other hand, is very much still a cash-based economy and most locals seem to walk around with wads of it in their pockets.
If you’re teaching buxiban or something on the side, expect to get paid in cash. Don’t expect to pay for anything using a bank card in Taiwan - the closest thing to that might be a stored value 7-11 or Easycard (the public transport stored-value card used in Taipei and elsewhere also works at convenience stores).
Banks in Taiwan don’t charge monthly fees or fees for withdrawals from their own bank machines. Withdrawals from machines belonging to another bank cost something small like 7 or 8NT (C$0.35) - compare this with Canada where a withdrawal from another bank’s machine is something ludicrous like $3.
More information on why you think you need a bank account will be helpful in giving you more advice.
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Thanks for responding Spaint, it is much appreciated. I won’t be working in Taiwan. I am slow traveling across Asia and will be using Taipei as a home-base, so I will be staying there for a few months at a time. My original thoughts were to just open an account with a local bank that has a good infrastructure of ATMs and branches in Taiwan (and maybe in surrounding countries), then transfer some money in there. This will be used for regular cash withdrawal for daily expenses. Once money runs out, I transfer some more money from RBC to that taiwanese account, rinse and repeat. Also, if I do open a local account, I wont worry too much about losing the bank cards (and can easily get replacement cards). Thoughts?
THanks,
I wouldn’t waste a bunch of time trying to find a bank that would open an account without a resident visa. It would likely be fruitless.
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If you don’t have an ARC (which you won’t have when you arrive anyway), go to the NIA and apply for an ID number (統一č‰č™ź). You can see the application form on their website. You basically just need your passport.
The certificate with your ID number (which resembles an ARC number) should be acceptable at any bank, though there’s no guarantee the first person you speak with will be aware of this.
There have been reports (in another thread) of difficulty withdrawing money from Canadian bank accounts while in Taiwan.
Afaik, a standard ATM card from a Taiwanese bank (the kind that’s easy to get) is useless outside of Taiwan.
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yyy’s advice is how it’s done. That’s how the other people I’ve heard of without ARCs managed to get their bank accounts.
OTOH, I’ve never had a card from a Taiwanese bank that didn’t have a Cirrus logo on it. Cirrus allows you to withdraw from ATMs overseas that also carry the logo. Of course, your Canadian cards probably have this logo too, and should work the same way. I don’t know anything about the folks who’ve had trouble withdrawing money from Canada while in Taiwan.
I don’t think you’d easily be able to wire money from your RBC account to a Taiwanese account while you’re outside of Canada - you might be better informed than me about this. Perhaps if you were to give someone power of attorney over your account back home you could get it done that way.
The most international bank in Taiwan is probably HSBC, and you can use their “Global View” to link accounts in different countries together and transfer money back and forth online with them. Their system’s flawed though: Taiwan’s banking system won’t let you send money to your foreign account online unless you set it up at the branch in person with your foreign account as an authorized recipient. On the Canadian side, HSBC Canada apparently doesn’t believe HSBC Taiwan has Global View and Global Transfers, so you can’t get into the system from your Canadian account. That means for now you might not be able to transfer money FROM Canada to Taiwan (I’ve succeeded the other way round).
I’d probably travel with traveler’s checks and my bank card and hope neither get stolen.
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You and spaint already explained everything but in terms of banks the post office is a good one as they have branches everywhere, China trust as they have ATM’s in all 711 in Taiwan which are every street corner , and Cathay bank is at all MRT stations, and taishin bank is at most family Mart’s.
Those 4 are pretty accessible everywhere so you don’t need to pay the $5nt fee each time you hit up another machine.
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Oh yeah, the other thread that just popped up reminded me: on certain days, including one whole week every year (CNY), banks are closed, utterly, utterly closed. If you’re trying to transfer money close to a holiday, do it in advance. If something goes wrong (expect something to go wrong), you won’t be able to Western Union it because WU goes through the banks (and their website is an inaccurate piece of waste). 
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thanks the all the info, greatly appreciated!
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thanks dan for taking the time to respond!
thank you so much for all the info provided!
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Hello GaryL,
I’m also a Canadian and soon I’m leaving for Taipei to study for several months. So I would like to know what was your experience dealing with the banking stuffs there ?
Is there a bank or even a branch that you would recommend ?
thanks
If you have an ARC just pick any old bank. They will all be fine.