Wasn’t really sure where I should post this. Dealing with banks in Taiwan certainly isn’t fun and games, but it gives me a little relief to know that others are suffering also 
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Japanese banks are famous for their crazy fee structures. Taiwanese banks are actually much better in this regard.
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Actually to be honest with you, Taiwan bank fees are nothing, literally just rounding errors.
ATM withdraws are 5nt (and only if you withdrew on ATM owned by other banks), transfers are 15nt.
In most developed countries the ATM fees are 10 times that. Then they have all sorts of crazy fees for overdraft, wire transfer, etc…
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Try being a customer of an Australian Bank and using their Cards Overseas.
Withdraw Cash from an Account at an ATM or Pay for a purchase with your Credit Card - AUD5.00 + 3% of the Transaction Amount. Reason for this is that most Overseas Transactions are converted at the Visa or MasterCard FX Rate, but Australian Banks are greedier and want the extra 3% to cover their missing out on processing the original FX conversion.
So, to pay for a Hotel room in say Taipei - say TWD3000, they will hit me for AUD5 plus 3%. Likewise, withdraw TWD5000 from an ATM, is the same, +5.00 and +3%.
As has been said, Taiwan Bank fees are cheap.
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We get a $200 fee here for anything from 1000 to a few million. I like that, its worth the phone call to clear the money…
Wire transfer always incurs a fee and the fee is independent of transaction amount. So people don’t usually wire money unless it’s really large amounts, like more than 500USD.
200nt in taiwan at bank of taiwan, regardless of amount. very cheap. The issue is that usually other countries have a very high fee.
I use Barclays in the UK, I know they keep my money safe because they make it hard to me to get to it.
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I used to remember ATM fees being several dollars in the West, like in the US if you are using a non bank affiliated ATM it’s several dollars. Total ripoff. Luckily in the US I never take out cash… because everyone took cards. Even if I needed cash it is actually cheaper to just buy something at some grocery store or whatever and then just cash back. Fees are no different than using your debit card to buy stuff.
Even food stands took credit, they had those weird thing that plugged into a smartphone and could read your card this way. But US is really backwards in regards to card security. They were still using magnetic strip when I got back there. Nobody in Taiwan uses magnetic strips anymore, it’s either those RFID thing or the smart chip. Actually nobody uses checks in Taiwan either but they’re used in the US (and banks make massive money charging for overdraft and bounced checks). Edit: They do use checks in Taiwan but only b2b, nobody uses personal checks in Taiwan.
Taiwanese banks interrogate you as well when large withdraws are needed. They are particularly paranoid about things over 500k. My wife, the own of our comoany, has been verbally assaulted many times and embarrassed publicly for trying to withdraw money. Interestingly, we changed banks and the new bank (different county) now gets on the phone and yells at them to be more professional everytime we need something transfered from there. Its quite comical. Makes me like the new bank all the better despite long waits for literally everything.
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A lot of this is due to money laundering… it’s stupid but they are supposed to audit everything more than a certain amount to prevent money laundering.
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Yup, but the disrespect given by the older bank ladies is horrendous. enitled government workers at their best. Special kind of hate for them. Its the same stuff you hear everywhere in taiwan judging and abusing people. but i expect better from government bank employees.
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Maybe go with a commercial bank rather than government banks? I found commercial bank employees are often VERY courteous.
Yes, they are WAY better at common decency. but many commercial banks are pretty evil, i still sink my savings into government one for now. But basically all i need banks for are swift transfers and my pillow case is riskier than their vaults. Otherwise, not needed and i am indifferent.
I dont think i could ever live with myself using banks like Citi.
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When someone is trying to be extra nice to you, it means they are about to screw you over…
Human and decency seems to be mutually exclusive at times.
Not like the good old days when you could deposit a million and the teller couldn’t care less. I had 1M NT in one bank a long time ago, they pissed me off by saying no credit card for foreigners so I opened another that didn’t have a problem with giving me a card, withdrew the money in cash, closed the other account, put the cash in my scooter seat and drove to the new bank.
No issues and the teller didn’t even blink. Wouldn’t try that today
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No, now you would transder it to the new bank and the bank your leaving would take a fee just as a final f*ck you, farewell.
Although, taiwan has a LOT of really rich people. Every bank hask a bacentrance for them for sure. 1 million is quite a lot of money to me. But for them they pass triple that on training day at the front desk.
But i am right here with you. They are assholes to you, make it look obvious and show them some people cant be oppressed. i have done that as well, albeit not that much money and not over credit cards. If no one stands up to people, then they have no reason to believe they have done anything wrong. The cycle will continue. I respect you for that.
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