I can longer recommend Mega Bank. Couldn’t find my debit card, so went to my nearest branch and they said because I opened my account in Taipei, I would have to go all the way back there to collect my new card, or wait a few weeks for it to be sent to my branch. Withdrew all my money and gonna find a new bank.
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Just swung by Cathay, who wouldn’t open an account for me because I already have an account with Mega. Strange since I used to have an account with Cathay a long time ago. Apparently there is some ‘new rule’ but they wouldn’t show me any proof of that. I kicked up a fuss and now they are opening a new account for me.
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WTF
Bullshit excuse of the month
Some months ago they opened an account just fine. Didn’t even ask about other bank accounts.
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Must be BS because they are opening an account for me now.
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They also said they couldn’t find a record of my old account, but when helping me apply for a new one, they magically had all of my old info, such as old employer.
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The banks do look at your credit file with jcic when opening an account and they can see all the accounts you opened in the last 3 or 6 months I forget which. If you opened more than 1 or 2 they will try to say you can’t get an account. I guess it looks suspicious why someone would need so many accounts in a short timeframe. But over time a person could quite literally collect em all like Pokemon if someone was so inclined.
The last time I opened an account was over 2 years ago, but she knew I had other accounts because she asked me and I told her.
It gets even more fun if you have a company and are the company’s responsible person. They’re able to see all loans and bank accounts of the company too.
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Seems to me that it isn’t very difficult if you are doing things properly.
Came with a job. Have an ARC.
Opened a post office account first. No problems there. Transferred myself $2M NTD from my UK account to have some cash on hand. They phoned me and asked me to confirm my name, because the post office account is ‘surname, middle, first’ and obviously my UK account is ‘first, middle, surname’. They didn’t bat an eyelid at any future transactions.
Couple years later I went to CTBC. No reason other than it was the closest to where I was living. Opened an account in about 30 mins. Again, didn’t bat an eyelid when I transferred a chunk of money from the UK.
Applied for a credit card with CTBC. Got 100,000 limit straight away. After 6 months I asked for an increase to 600,000, and they approved 200,000, but told me that I can ask again after another 6 months. That will be January, but I assume they’ll bump it up again.
So I can’t say I had any terrible experiences. Some difficulties with paperwork in Chinese, but they were happy to help, and I had colleagues and family to help also.
If you’re trying to do things without an ARC, without proper paperwork for working, or without proper salary statements, tax statements etc, then maybe it’s more difficult?
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Post office will never give you a hard time, you don’t even need an ARC.
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They did give me a bit of a hard time about tax residency status for CRS. But it all worked out when the supervisor got involved.
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I still have my main bank account in Singapore with DBS and I was considering opening one with DBS here as well. Hopefully transfers between the two would be more hassle-free. I’m not interested in a credit card for the time being, so that issue is “solved” luckily 
How’s the service compared to the others? Is it a valid alternative or being a foreign bank does it lack something that local counterparts offer? Apart from not having its own ATMs. Thanks!
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I still have my account there, and besides the credit card issue, I’m very happy with them! I have USD and NTD accounts, I never had any issue to receive and transfer money. Everything works very well, and I still pay some of my bills via their WEBSITE. I’m sure they definitely might lack something that local banks can offer, but the issue at least in my case with the local banks is: If there is no information in English, I will not know what else they can offer or I can use.
If DBS provided a credit card, I would say: It is the best bank I ever had.
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I know people have had success here, but I just went to Cathay United today to try and open an account (just checking!) but they told me it wasn’t possible for foreigners. They said there were too many strict regulations.
I know this is a 100% bullshit answer because I know foreigners who have opened bank accounts at Cathay even when it’s not their designated workplace bank. I just couldn’t believe the answer. They said I could try another bank!
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Do you have an ARC? If not then yeah there’s no way to open an account. You might be able to open one at the post office but they will ask for tax returns. Cathay also asked me for tax returns and the process took 3 hours with a 3 year ARC.
I do have an ARC, I’m married to a Taiwanese citizen. I knew it would take a while so I came prepared with everything! But they said no way, not even with an appointment. Ugh.
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That doesn’t make sense, any reason they gave? Are you from a small country or one with high risk of money laundering?
I’m American! The reason they gave was literally “審查很嚴格”. I get it, FATCA makes it more complicated. But this is a major international bank that certainly has procedures for this. I couldn’t believe it!
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Just an update! I got the credit card at Fubon 
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