Atm problem

Before going back to the US for a stint a couple weeks ago, i went to my bank, to make sure i could withdraw from my account while in the US.

“Of course,” They said.
I thought i had heard i might have some problems, so i asked again…
“don’t be silly!” they said.

As you can guess, the card didn’t work in the US, but did work on my return, even though I had cracked it in accidental frustration. I went to my bank, furious, and after 30 minutes they discovered that foreigners can’t withrdaw on their funds from outside taiwan.

in my rage, i forgot to ask if this is a bank policy, or a ROC policy, and so now i ask the forum. I would like to know which institution i should fire bomb (metaphorically).

by the way, my bank was “Taishin” or Tai2xin1 (taiwan de tai, new de xin).

I’ve also had this problem. The bank first said it was because I was a foreigner, and after my reaction to this said it was because I only had a one year ARC. As I don’t have an overdraft facility I have no idea why I shouldn’t be able to withdraw my money from outside of Taiwan My bank is ICBC. I know that some of my friends are able to use their cards outside of Taiwan, not sure what bank they are with. Anyone else have this problem? Have solved it?

Me and my girlfirned have a joint credit card account with Citibank. Actually she (Taiwanese) is the primary cardholder and I am an authorised user - this is the only way I cold get a credit card in Taiwan. When were overseas I loaded up the card (in credit) first, then used the card to withdraw cash. She could on her card but I couldn’t on mine. We asked why and the answer given was because I was a foreigner.

Bri

I think i should clairfy that i tried to withdrawl US$30 and US$100, both of which would account for less than %10 of the holdings in the account at the time.

Also, i wasted a lot of money (over a hundred US trying to get some answers while in the US). I’m going on a crusade (whoops!) to get some of that back, becuase when i called they said (after checking) that everything was “zhengchangde” and that i should try it again and call back.

happy happy kill kill.

And my wife asks why I keep my Australian bank accounts - well I have about $NT600,000 available credit on my cards (just two) - I even used that credit to “secure” a car purchase here - we could take the car and bring the cash the next day - can use them anywhere in the world - and I just found some more good reasons to keep them.

I am not sure if there is any legislation or bank policies, but I do suspect that the reason why you cannot use your Taiwan issued ATM card may be more of a programming issue than anything else.

When I first arrived to Taiwan I was unable to use my US-issued ATM card at any of the ATM’s in Taipei. A few months later I opened a new account in the US and lo and behold, the ATM card worked here.

I had similar issues when I lived in Central Europe for two years. None of my US-issued ATM cards worked on any machine in the country where I was living.

I am not professing to have the definitive word on this issue, but my guess is sometimes the magnetic strip on the back of your ATM card works in an ATM machine in a foreign country and sometimes it doesn’t. I do not think that bank or governmental policy has anything to do with it.

it is not a tech issue. The guy at the bank said it was a policy. I’m just not sure who’s policy.

If there is a CIRRUS thingy(I think that is what you call it) on your card you can use it abroad… it is like an ellipse at the top right corner of your card

Several banks offer this

Bank Of Shanghai
World Commercial bank
Taipei Bank
En Tie Commercial Bank

It is not a foreigner policy…the function is probabily not on your card…else bank policy is not to supply this feature on their ATM cards

I could use my Cirrus thingy in Vietnam

According to ICBC, its a new Central Bank of China policy.

What Bri said seemed pretty clear - one account - two cards - one for Taiwanese works o’seas, one for foreigner does not.

It stinks.

I have one on my wife’s account - I will pass final judgement when we try them both overseas.

The idea of obtaining your cash in a foreign country from ATMs seems “foreign” to Taiwanese - but why would anyone want to cart about travellers cheques or US dollars when the ATM is so easy, and is absolutely the most cost effective way unless you are afraid of currency fluctuation. It has worked for me for ten years in about 20 diferent countries. Sure I carry US$100 and same in travellers cheques as emergency money - I never needed it. I gotta do something with the travellers cheques - they are so old

ATM’s generally let you have US$50 to $100 (in equivalent local currency) without checking for available funds. So if you have a problem - try again for a smaller amount. That way you avoid any problems with international data transfer (ATM “phone home”).

I was in Sweden once - the people who had come from China for the meeting were given US$10 travellers cheques. The local Swedish bank charged them $US4 to cash them

Once again, the manager said it was a policy that foreigners are not allowed to withdraw funds from an atm card while outside of taiwan.

the card has a plus “thingy” which allows one to use it at any atm that has the plus symbol, which usually coincides with the visa symbol.

Yep my card has Cirrus thingies and everything, but luckily I asked at the bank, ICBC, before I went on holiday and was told I couldn’t use it because I’m a foreigner. Tried it anyway and the ATM said the card data was incomplete. My card from home works fine here and in every other country I’ve been to.

So what to do - I guess I could get a card for my wife’s daughter - and I take it and use it overseas

My wife and I are both foreigners and both have accounts with ICBC. She is currently in Australia and having no difficulties using her ICBC card. We had heard of these difficulties before - but the bank didn’t seem to know anything about it.

Just one of those Taiwan things