Hi all, as a non-Taiwanese living in Taiwan, I often experience the inconvenience financial service due to my identity, for example I cant apply for a credit card online.
Currently I am working as a trainee in a bank, I would like to reflect this issue to my bank in a systemic way, expecting to make some changes. Thus, non-Taiwanese’s opinions about our financial needs and the related problems are very important.
Do you need the following financial services from banks in Taiwan? And do you have any difficulties during application process and daily using?
Foreign currency exchange
Debit card
Credit card
Domestic remittance
Foreign remittance
Travel insurance
Mutual fund
Saving/Life insurance plan
Personal financial advisory
Others
Please let me know your thoughts.
Also, if there is any question, please let me know.
Credit cards (or VISA/MasterCard debit cards) are old issues. Most banks nowadays, would offer you the cards for free.
Recently, most of the problems are:
unavailability of English (dual language) forms for transfer money or other purposes.
unavailability English speaking staff in teller/counter or customer service in some out-of-city locations.
uncommon foreign currencies (aside from USD, JPY, CNY or EUR) usually unavailable in said locations as well. Even GBP would be difficult to get in most New Taipei banks.
I was flabbergasted at how long it took to change money in a Taiwanese bank. It was a long, drawn out process - taking 15 to 30 minutes. I cringe at the thought of actually opening a bank account.
I tried to open a mutual fund account. Taiwan cooperative, Mega bank, and yuanta told me to get lost, foreigners can’t buy their funds. Taishin said yes.
Banks refusing money because im not taiwanese , really strange.
Banks routinely deny credit cards for foreigners unless you have a guarantor. Such banks that demand guarantors include Huanan, Taiwan cooperative, land bank, Taiwan business bank, changhua bank. Interesting trend, they are all government banks, openly practicing discrimination.
I’d like to get a personal loan, not possible
Like immersion already said, a huge time nightmare changing money. Sign here , and here, and here, and need copies of everything, arc not enough.
Travel and life insurance, I would like to get info on it but don’t really know where.
It’s quite strange…as I know, the process shouldn’t take that long. Is it because of identity check? Have you considered or tried to change money via internet banking or mobile banking?
The other nine are not so much a problem, but under the topic of others, would be a mortgage. Every bank will ask for a higher percentage of the mortgage to be paid by a foreigner than they would ask from their partner (assuming they are Taiwanese). doesn’t matter the foreigner has a more consistent record of earnings or that the foreigners earnings are consistently higher. The variation can be around an extra 5% of down payment to a property.
I am curious that what channel you use to buy funds in Taishin? Do they provide info and contracts in English version?
For travel and life insurance, actually the Taiwanese banks provide great conditions and the price is low, unfortunately related info usually is in Chinese only. I am wondering if it is good for foreigners if we can buy insurance and funds online…(of course the webs are in English)
Hi Si, it was the branch channel.
He made a call and they said ok. Although the investment fee MER is a little high.
He didn’t show me the paperwork, I was just asking. He said bring back arc, passport and health card if i wanted to proceed.
I just thought, to be honest I dont think banks in Taiwan really care to market to foreigners. They likely figure that the majority of foreigners are caregivers and factory workers that won’t apply for any of these other services, they just need an account for their pay and monthly remittance.
The rest of the western foreigners are usually here for 1 year for an experience and dont need any financial services either.
The percentage of foreigners here for the long term is likely so minuscule from the banks point of view that its better just to deny the odd one that comes in than spend money setting up a program for them. Even setting up an account for us to put pay into is mafan for them since they cant sell us other services, but they do it because there would be a lot of angry Laobans that use all their services that would be upset.
These banks are open to have foreign customers (without restrictions)
Post Office (granting VISA debit card for free since 2012)
Cathay United Bank
First Bank (offering VISA debit card as of recently)
Changhua Bank (offering VISA debit card as of recently)
This bank is open to have foreign customers (with minimum requirements)
HSBC (savings minimum 500K at any time, otherwise it will get taxed heavily)
DBS and CTBC make a difficult time for me, just to open a new savings account, somehow. If you are holding an APRC, they will question on why there is no expiration date on your card and suggestively saying that you are using a fake card. In the end, they won’t let me open a savings account there.
I was made aware, that in any event (banks with same name/affiliation, i.e. HSBC Taiwan and HSBC Singapore), international remittance will always be counted as inter-bank transaction which cost around 400 NT per transaction (similar to Western Union).
Is there a minimum deposit for Citibank? How much is the fee and the minimum amount? Do they also charge a fee for ATM withdrawals and debit card payments outside of Taiwan?
I am trying to make up my mind between Cathay and Citibank.
“The government will continue to adopt even more open measures, open up diverse financial products, expand the scope of our wealth management business, and let Taiwan become an Asian corporate financing centre and high-level asset management centre.”
Taiwan with so many unnecessary regulations that you need 2 hours and fill out 20 pages to open a simple bank account.
Go and try to get a credit card or take a loan.
Financial Hub … hahaha
So many financial companies are struggling to enter the Taiwanese market because of ridiculous bureaucracy. Everyone is suspected to launder money and have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is legit.
They’ve been making pie-in-the-sky claims about turning Taiwan into a financial hub for decades, kind of like that plan to make English an official language. Everybody stopped taking them seriously about this years ago.
This was not the case when I opened an account and applied credit card at HSBC a few months back.
I had my bank account opened + credit card application done within 15-20 minutes from walking trough the door. The cards then arrived in the mail a few days later after doing the minimum deposit of the account (they didn’t process the application prior to depositing funds on the account)
The worst thing is that it’s not really difficult to make it a financial hub. There is just no willpower from the banks, they like their old dinosaur way of doing things
That’s because HSBC is foreign and they have probably streamlined the process. Local Taiwanese bank branches usually have no idea what to do when a foreigner comes in and need to consult a binder full of regulations
Becoming a financial hub is about more than Taiwanese banks providing retail services to foreigners. To attract foreign capital, you need an attractive tax structure, business-friendly environment that accommodates foreign businesses and investors, predictable legal system and realistically, English accessibility.
The elephant in the room is that Taiwan isn’t recognized as a country by the countries that matter the most. This doesn’t affect trade so much but it does make becoming a real financial hub all but impossible.
