Hi guys,
I’m from Canada and will soon move to Taiwan to study. As I won’t be making any income, I’ll have to bring most of my savings to Taiwan with me when I arrive.
I wouldn’t want to bring all those CASH with me, I heard Bank Draft is a good idea to bringing a few thousand dollars to Taiwan?
Which would save me more money on transaction fees/exchange rates: bank draft in CAD or bank draft in NTD? I heard only a few banks would do CAD-NTD exchanges, is that true?
Thanks!
-Katie
What is your native language?
Bring USD. Hundreds, new, not damaged.
ATM fees might add up but they aren’t that bad depending on what bank you use.
I think you could use Citibank. I used to have an account with them,and at the time there were no fees to withdraw money from ATMs pretty much anywhere in the world, plus the exchange rates were good, too. They only have a few locations in Taiwan though, so whether that makes sense will depend on where you actually go.
I tried the bank draft, Certified Bank Check. 30 day wait to clear. It even happened one time at Bank of Hsinchu in Houkou for a 100 dollar travelers check. Just transfer. So much easier. Dont forget that $10,000 is the max you can take out of U.S. - that includes the dollar bills and pocket change that happens to be in the pockets. Result - arrest and questioned for about 2 hours.
I had a student travelling for MA in U.S. She is about 30 years old with a possesive mother. I had gone over this monetary thing 5 times with her but mom knows better and insists on holding all the money. Properly declared that mom was holding about 18,000 U.S., 1/2 of which was her daughters. Result? Both arrested, ushered to a questioning room and grilled for 2 hours. Finally released but missed the connecting fligh, spent an extra night in L.A., motel and food expense and non-refunadble ticket on their unused connecting flight! I tell that story because, students going to U.S. need to listen up. Moms too. (That one was beyond hope!)