Foreigner opening bank account

Business Money
41

Today I went on a journey to find a Taiwanese bank that supports Google Pay on their debit cards. :sweat_smile:

  1. Chang Hwa Bank - ε½°εŒ–ιŠ€θ‘Œ
    This is the bank where I get paid at the moment. They gave me a visa debit card when opening an account and their online banking is very dated but has English.
    After lots of explaining and finding the few people in the bank who had a clue, it was a miss. CHB only has Google Pay on their credit cards! (debit cards usually work just fine with Google Pay) :man_shrugging:
    Of course a foreigner has to put down a deposit as high as the limit you want to have to get a credit card (basically defying the purpose of a credit card) :man_shrugging:
    The woman felt bad as she understood how shitty their policies are, but could not do anything.

  2. Chunghwa Post - δΈ­θ―ιƒ΅ζ”Ώε…¨ηƒθ³‡θ¨ŠηΆ²
    Previous employer paid to that bank. They give Visa debit card when opening an account.
    They only support Taiwan Pay (台灣Pay)

  3. Mega International Commercial Bank - ε…†θ±εœ‹ιš›ε•†ζ₯­ιŠ€θ‘Œ
    The very first bank I used in Taiwan.
    Their ATM’s support many financial networks. So even very basic bank cards from Europe worked fine.
    They do not support Google Pay and the employee recommended to try Cathay United Bank!

  4. Cathay United Bank - εœ‹ζ³°δΈ–θ―ιŠ€θ‘Œ
    They made a new account for me and issued a visa debit card that works with Google Pay and supports contact-less payments. I have to wait a week because my account has just been set up, but then it should work fine. Success!

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Google made a list with supported banks. That would have saved me an hour of my time:

Banks Supported cards Unsupported cards
Cathay United Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards Commercial cards
Chinatrust Bank CTBC VISA and Mastercard credit card and debit card Prepaid cards, Commercial cards, Procurement cards
Union Bank of Taiwan All VISA and Mastercard credit cards VISA Debit Card, Commercial cards, procurement card
First Bank All VISA and Mastercard personal credit cards VISA Debit Card, Commercial cards
Shin Kong Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards VISA Debit Card
Standard Chartered Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards and Visa debit card
Taishin International Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards and Visa debit card Commercial cards, Procurement cards, JCB credit cards
E.SUN Commercial Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards Commercial cards, Procurement cards
Entie Commercial Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards Debit Card (yet to support), JCB credit cards
Hua Nan Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards All Debit cards
HSBC All VISA and Mastercard credit cards VISA Debit cards, VISA Business Card, MasterCard Corporation Card
Shanghai commercial bank All VISA and MasterCard credit cards VISA Debit Card and JCB Credit card
Taiwan Cooperative Bank All VISA and MasterCard credit cards VISA Debit Card, Commercial cards, procurement card
Bank SinoPac All VISA and MasterCard credit cards Prepaid cards, Corporate Purchasing Cards, Corporate Cards
Taipei Fubon Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards Miffy card, Procurement card, JCB credit cards
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank All VISA and Mastercard credit cards Commercial cards, Debit cards, Procurement cards, JCB credit cards
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