Does anyone live in Taiwan while using a U.S. Bank of America account? I’m wondering where the Bank of America branch in Taipei is located (I’ve only heard rumors that one actually exists). Also, would I be able to withdraw money like any branch in the U.S., or are there fees involved? I’m just trying to find a way to avoid using ATMs and incurring fees.
There is a BOA located in Taipei at TunHua N Rd and Minseng E Rd, but it’s only for commercial transactions. As far as I know there is no BOA in Taiwan for ordinary consumer banking and no BOA ATMs. I’ve lived in Taiwan for 6 years and have a BOA account, but only for use in the US, from time to time.
If you’re planning to move to Taiwan you’ll want to just open a local banking account. Or are you only coming over for a short visit?
That is correct. BOA tried opening a retail branch about 7? years ago, in the former IBM building at 八德 Ba1de2 - 敦化 Dun1hua4, in Taipei, but the subsequent merger with Nationsbank led to a corporate decision to downsize in Asia, and the retail business was sold to ABN-AMRO (EDIT: now RBS).
The decision was partly due to the Asian financial crisis, perhaps partly due to xenophobia on the part of the merger moguls, but also due to unfair restrictions which the Taiwan government placed on foreign banks opening new branches, meaning that BOA would not have been able to open enough branches to reach economical scale to compete with local banks.
Yeah I’m only coming for three months; I just need to get money out for food, rent, and tuition money. I was trying to find a way to withdraw money without the fee, plus I feel really weird just showing up in Taiwan with only a BOA debit/Visa card that may or may not work at ATMs. I assume (from what I could gather on this forum) the theory is that if my card has the “Plus” logo on the back, I could use an ATM with that logo to withdraw money from my BOA checking account and a fee is charged. Believe it or not, I’ve never used a non-BOA ATM.
Yeah I’m only coming for three months; I just need to get money out for food, rent, and tuition money. I was trying to find a way to withdraw money without the fee, plus I feel really weird just showing up in Taiwan with only a BOA debit/Visa card that may or may not work at ATMs. I assume (from what I could gather on this forum) the theory is that if my card has the “Plus” logo on the back, I could use an ATM with that logo to withdraw money from my BOA checking account and a fee is charged. Believe it or not, I’ve never used a non-BOA ATM.[/quote]
I lived off an ATM card when I first came to study in Taiwan. BoA is notoriously bad for hidden charges though so I suggest you confirm with them how much the international transaction fees and exchange spread are going to cost you. It may be more cost effective to open another US bank account (Wells Fargo / Citibank come to mind) but that’s up to you to decide. *I’m biased because I hate BoA with a vengeance along with half of America.
BoA is notoriously bad for hidden charges
Totally agree, I got charged twice on the same day for overdrawing my BOA savings account… I didn’t know about it for months, until i went back to the States. annoying!
[quote=“TheLumberjack”]I feel really weird just showing up in Taiwan with only a BOA debit/Visa card that may or may not work at ATMs. I assume (from what I could gather on this forum) the theory is that if my card has the “Plus” logo on the back, I could use an ATM with that logo to withdraw money from my BOA checking account and a fee is charged.
Believe it or not, I’ve never used a non-BOA ATM.[/quote]
I asked BOA today, and they confirmed that there’s absolutely no way to use the Taipei branch to access your US money, but they said a card with the “Plus” logo should work. Just make sure that your bank hasn’t set up any regional restrictions (i.e., that it’s ok for international use), and check on whether the same password will work internationally. In some countries, the number of digits required for passwords is different within and outside the country, for example.
BOA is now located on 43F in Taipei tower. However, there are still no walk-in services for retail customers (that means you). It provides services to large corporations only.
Even if your comming for a short period its probably easy just to open an account here, as long as you have a visa any local bank should let you open one I would recommend the bigger ones since some of the bigger ones have decent english service’s:
Taipei Fubon
China Trust
Bank of Taiwan
Cathay United Bank
First Bank
The problem with many ATMs in Taiwan seems to be that they’re for local banks only. So an international card won’t work in a good percentage of them.
However, if you have a Bank Of America Visa Debit card, you should be ok to withdraw money at any ATM with the Visa Logo. The fee is quite a bit, however.
Matt
[quote=“Puppet”]The problem with many ATMs in Taiwan seems to be that they’re for local banks only. So an international card won’t work in a good percentage of them.
[/quote]
The only ATMs in Taipei that I’ve seen that are restricted to local ATM cards are the ones owned by the post office and an institution called the Ninth Credit Cooperative of Taipei (there is no English on the outside of the bank whatsoever).
I’ve used my US ATM card in Taipei at several ATMs owned by various local banks.
Maybe it’s different outside of Taipei?
[quote=“david_in_taipei”][quote=“Puppet”]The problem with many ATMs in Taiwan seems to be that they’re for local banks only. So an international card won’t work in a good percentage of them.
[/quote]
The only ATMs in Taipei that I’ve seen that are restricted to local ATM cards are the ones owned by the post office and an institution called the Ninth Credit Cooperative of Taipei (there is no English on the outside of the bank whatsoever).
I’ve used my US ATM card in Taipei at several ATMs owned by various local banks.
Maybe it’s different outside of Taipei?[/quote]
Possibly. I live in good ol’ Changhua, which is obviously not as big as Taipei and may have less options.
Or maybe it was a problem with Bank of America, where I have my account set up back home. But there are a few ATMs I cannot use here. Luckily, the China Trust ones work and that’s what 7-11 has.
Matt
As of this date, my understading, from a recent phone call… to BoA at 2715-4111.
Bank of America has 1 branch in Taiwan, at Taipei 101. It provides commercial banking to corporations; no retail (consumer) banking. They said typically only listed (at stock exchange) companies have accounts with them. He said if you have a US corporation that banks with B of A, one path is to start with your rep there in the USA and ask them to contact Taiwan to try to get you an account with their Taiwan branch.
Although at least the two B of A’s are under the same website, it may still be needed to wire money in rather than any intra-bank transfer. And that they may not have “multi-currency” accounts but rather an account denominated in each currency you require (USD, HKD, TWD…).
Wells Fargo bank has a similar situation here: only commercial, only 1 branch, in Taipei 101, Telephone: 8862 8101 6118. If you want your US corporation serviced here, better to start in the USA and have them contact the Taiwan branch. I actually thought they had a HsinChu branch too.
I suspect Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and American Express banks here don’t have retail either, but I haven’t confirmed that. There’s also Wachovia, but Wells Fargo bought them recently.
Even if you were to find a BofA ATM, I would not count on avoiding fees. You used to be able to do this with HSBC, but no longer. Most banks will charge you a currency exchange fee regardless of who owns the ATM. If you go through the Visa/Mastercard network, there’s an extra 1%.
FlyerTalk is the authority on this: flyerguide.com/wiki/index.ph … n_Exchange
I have a Schwab ATM card and a CapitalOne credit card (both 0% currency fee) that work great for international travel.
[quote=“Toe Tag”]
I suspect Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and American Express banks here don’t have retail either, but I haven’t confirmed that. There’s also Wachovia, but Wells Fargo bought them recently.[/quote]
Citibank has several branches in Taiwan: citibank.com.tw/APPS/portal/ … branch.htm
I realize this may be the first time you’ve posted on this subject, but the general issue has been discussed ad-nauseum. It doesn’t matter what bank you use in the US, or any other country. Once you cross the border, you aren’t in Kansas anymore. You are making an international transaction with all the exchange rates and fees involved. It might make you feel more comfortable seeing a familiar name on the sign, but if you are accessing your account in the US, it’s still an international transaction.
Re Citibank - they are affiliated with other country Citibanks (including the US) but they are not the same bank. They have a minimum personal account balance of about US$25,000, and they require (!) you to be able to read Chinese to open the account (according to their rep on Minsheng E Road near Tun Hwa).
So if you have a Citibank account in the US and think you are using Citibank ATMs here in Taiwan and so don’t have to pay ATM charges, international conversion charges, or the now ubiquitous and bastardly 3% “foreign fees” they’ve been tacking on for a year now, you would be wrong.
If you have an HSBC Elite account, which requires either US$100k or something like that as a minimum balance (>>OR<< you can pay a US$50/month service fee), they will help you open a linked account in Taiwan HSBC and that will eliminate or reduce your transfer fees and ATM fees.
False info alert. :no-no:
Citibank do not have a minimum account balance but you are charged a monthly administration fee if your balance goes under NT$200,000 (around US$6,000 - not $25,000). There is a minimum US$5,000 for fixed time deposits.
They gave me a copy of the contract in both English and Chinese.
BTW, Citibank are not perfect but they are my favourite bank in Taiwan for various reasons.
I have two Wells Fargo ATM cards. Neither one of them works in Taiwan. We have two banks here in Taitung (that I know of) which work on the PLUS system: ChinaTrust and Changhua Bank. In both those banks, the ATM accepts my PIN number, then spits out the card when I try to make a transaction. The receipt (in Chinese) says that the machine “could not complete the transaction.” I spent a long time with Wells Fargo (USA) on the phone, and was assured that nothing is wrong with either card, but their records show no attempt to use the cards in Taiwan, so the transactions never even got that far. Yes, the PINs I chose are only 4-digits. I have successfully used both cards in Panama and Nicaragua. Perhaps if I can find a bank with the STAR system I can get them to work, but I haven’t seen that in Taidong (Taipei, maybe). My cards do not support CIRRUS, which is available here.
So I wouldn’t rely on an ATM card - you can wind up in desperate straits. Good old cash is king. Several stacks of US$100 bills (new bills, not old crumbly ones - you get a bad exchange rate on the latter, if they’re accepted at all). US banks do not keep new cash at the teller windows - you have to order it a few days in advance. Put the bills in a safe-deposit box when you get here, and cash them as needed.
Traveler’s checks are an option. You get charged a 2% commission, which is worse than what you’ll get for cash.
Changing US$ into NT$ in the USA is a bad deal - exchange rate is awful.
An international credit card does seem to work OK, but not every store accepts them. I seem to get charged 2% on the exchange rate despite insistence by the credit card companies that they don’t do this.
Wiring money to yourself - the best way by far if you already have a local bank account. I believe there is a US$10,000 limit if you don’t have an ARC. Exchange rate is the best you’ll get, less than 1% commission. It might be possible to wire money to yourself without an account and then pick up the cash in person, but I’d check with the bank first.
Bank draft - I did that once in Hong Kong (where if worked fine), but I haven’t tested it Taiwan. Again, I suspect there is a US$10,000 limit, but I haven’t asked. Don’t count on this solely, and make sure the draft can be refunded in the USA in case you can’t cash it here.
Such is my experience.
regards and good luck,
DB
I was told otherwise by Citibank when I tried to open an account there, years ago. They were unfriendly, unwelcoming, and clearly were not interested in doing business with the average English teacher. Perhaps things have changed. 