I had mine in Taiwan taken from me for no reason other than being a foreigner.
I still have one left.
Can you withdraw cash overseas with a Basic account?
For a Premier Account, a minimum, monthly average balance of TWD 3 million is required. If the Bank’s requirement for minimum average balance is not maintained, the Bank shall have the right to collect the account administration charge of TWD 1,000 per month, prescribed by the Bank.
For an Advance Account, a minimum, monthly average balance of TWD 500 thousand is required. If the Bank’s requirement for minimum average balance is not maintained, the Bank shall have the right to cancel all related benefits at any time.
Any visa debit card will allow you to withdraw money abroad, that is the whole point of using the visa network. When you open up the card you need 2 different pin codes, one 6+ digit one for domestic ATMs and one 4-digit one for using abroad.
There are not many credit cards with no international fees, even if you get a USD from IDK where they will still charge you some kind of fee for the transaction. I know people with 100s of millions in the bank here and still the credit card companies will ask you to pay something related to the trip with their credit card in order to void the foreign transaction fees. I know in the US there are many that don’t charge you for that but in Taiwan that is just the way it is…
Plus you can build a credit record here in case you want a loan or mortgage… (your milage may vary)
As already mentioned… less transaction fees
You can use it for car rentals and hotel stays… most won’t accept debit cards
And you can just pay it at any 711… super convenient
To be clear, I’m talking about 300NT, i.e. $10. That’s nothing. It’s every month or two because that’s how often I choose to transfer. If I thought that was unreasonable I could transfer every 6 months or every year, but I’d lose a way more by not having several months of income invested in the US than I’d save in fees.
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That makes zero sense to me. Where are all of those fees coming from?
I have an HSBC visa debit card thru a Premier account but every time I ask someone at HSBC about keeping it if I draw down my balance below the minimum required I get the run around.
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HSBC Visa Debit Card is available for Premier, Advance and Integrated TWD deposit account holders aged 16 years or above. Applicants’ age from 16 to 19 would need to obtain applicant’s statutory representative’s agreement
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Premier and Advance customers with non-TWD saving account and aged 16 or below, and any other account types who are not eligible for HSBC Visa Debit Card, please apply for an ATM card
That’s HSBC’s policy, I believe they provide more features than regular visa debit cards. You can withdraw money globally without charge and stuff like that, but if you go to a regular bank you can open an account with 1,000NTD and get a visa debit card.
You can apply for the integrated account which is free as I remember with no minimum balance, and it’s on the list I quoted there. Obviously you’ll get a different visa debit card. And none of the perks of HSBCs advance or premier accounts.
If you draw down your premier account below the limits, it’s quite expensive as they charge a 1000nt fee per month if memory serves.
That’s what I said. $300. My credit card asks for payments every month. I have never heard of a credit card that asks for payments in six months.
https://tt.scotiabank.com/personal/rates-and-fees/credit-card-rates-fees.html
Every purchase I make has a 2.5% currency conversion fee. For every purchase I make in a Taiwanese store, I have to pay 2.5% extra.
Sending money back to Canada? Well that’s subject to Scotiabank’s rates of 2.5% taken from the total sum. Or, I change to Canadian dollars here and send it that way. Either way, it’s subject to a commission fee.
With a credit limit of $5000 Canadian, 5% is already $250 Canadian.
Now, that might be a bit extreme cause I don’t spend $5000 Canadian a month on CC purchases. But even if it was just $300, $300 is a really good restaurant, a treating-myself meal. It may be nothing to you, but for me, that could be…an extra 2TB hard drive every four/five months or other treats. For me, my purchases mean that I spend $1000-2000 every month in fees to use a CC for the sole reason of being a foreigner. A fee, completely wiped if I use a Taiwanese CC. A foreigner tax if you are more fortunate, and a restriction on the poor if you are less fortunate. $300/m can simply go towards building a portfolio. It’s not life changing, but why waste money?
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Right, you said $300, as in dollars, bucks, not NT or NTD. 300NT is $10, not $300.
And…holy cow…yeah…you need a card without international fees. That goes without saying. I didn’t realize that’s what you’re talking about. I still don’t see the point in getting one in Taiwan, though, unless all cards in Canada are as bad as yours seems to be.
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I use Taiwanese dollars cause I live in Taiwan. I don’t use US dollars.
That’s why I wrote all Canadian dollars with the word Canadian after it.
The other thing is… I’m not even supposed to continue with my credit card. I don’t have a job in Canada. I don’t live in Canada. The bank is supposed to terminate my contract when I end my residency in Canada. Bank managers have been nice to look the other way and often won’t know if you don’t say anything. My mum lets me use her address for this stuff. But not everyone has an address in their home country for this kinda stuff. Not everyone is on speaking terms with their parents. I got this card way before I ever considered leaving Canada and I wouldn’t be able to get a different one now so I don’t know of other cards that are better or worse for international transactions. I wouldn’t be able to get it anyways with no Canadian job. I don’t feel I need a card without international fees, I need a domestic CC.
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There are many places that only accept local bank credit cards, I am talking about even Taiwanese HSBC or Standard Chartered won’t get accepted. Places like supermarkets, McDonald’s, etc. but one key place where you need a local bank credit card is HOSPITALS, God forbid something happens and you need to spend quite a considerable amount of money, you can just swipe your local credit card and worry about that later. When my daughter was born, I just swiped my local card, instead of figuring out where to get 100k+ NTDs.
You can get your phone bill, insurance payments etc directed to you credit card. You can finance things for 0% interest and build credit in the country you live, I say a local credit card is a must.
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Fair enough, but in international or expat circles like this it’s rather unheard of for people to say “dollars” when they mean NT.
That always perplexes me. We live here, why don’t we use New Taiwan Dollars first? Why do we need to emphasise that we’re talking about Taiwanese Dollars…In Taiwan. I can’t even think of a single store that accepts US dollars.
Nobody in Canada goes around saying ‘And that’ll be $4.99 Canadian, Thank you.’.
In Australia, not one person asked me to pay 'em in Australian dollars. They just say Dollars.
A good third of businesses simply use $1. Otherwise they use 1元 and some use NT$1.
We only have one BK in Danshui and it’s at the mall that only has one bus that comes every hour.
I like BK. It’s Canadian…now.
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BK is Canadian now? wow.
And yeah, I always go to BK every time I buy something from the PC market and my wife makes fun of me for that.
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