Just want to share a free transfer of fund by Citi Bank. Its free global transfer feature has been in place from US to Taiwan for a long time. It started charging $600 per transfer from Taiwan to wherever, and now, just found out myself, it’s also free till end of next year.
If you transfer from /to a Citi account in Taiwan to/from a Citi account in the US. It’s free of charge.
This was almost interesting until you said it was Citibank to Citibank only.
How magnanimous of Citibank not to gyp us out of NT$600 for shuffling a few figures in their accounts.
Does anybody have a Citibank savings account in Taiwan? What kind of fees, if any, do they charge? Their website was not forthcoming with information about that.
Assuming they do offer fee-free savings account, and the deal with free transfers to foreign Citibank accounts is still valid, this could be a good way to transfer money out of Taiwan without copping the high fees that are usually associated with foreign currency transfers (assuming, of course, you have a Citibank account in your home country).
I will call into a branch later this week or early next week and see what info I can find…
OK, an update to my last post. I have opened a normal Citibank transaction account in Taiwan. I went into a branch with a Taiwanese friend who helped me out, and the process took almost 90 minutes all up. Bring your passport and ARC along. I was issued with an ATM card that morning, and by the afternoon I was able to access the internet banking for the account. I was impressed with the English version of the Citibank Taiwan website, and I also had to call the 24 hour hotline and the English speaker on that service was very helpful too.
In terms of transferring money, I was told there’s a 3-5 business day wait until I can link up my foreign Citibank account with the Citibank Taiwan account I opened, so I will update further once that happens. So far it seems like it might be a good way to transfer money overseas.
It works fine for me. I have been transferring fund back and forth between US and Taiwan. No fees what so ever. It took me some time and effort to set up and link, but it was worth it.
I opened a Citibank account in Australia, and took the ATM card to Taiwan and was able to withdraw cash with no fees at all. Pretty good rates too.
Really.
After I read the comments about Citibank, I decided to check it out to see if this solution would work for me. OMG, these past two days have been a nightmare in disorganization, lame excuses, and age-old racist policies that I thought were long gone after my 10 years in Taiwan.
So that you all can avoid my frustration, DO NOT GO TO THE SHI LIN BRANCH! :fume: :fume: They probably have never opened an account for a foreigner there and they have to look at written procedures to open a basic checking account!
Yesterday it all started with a contract that was all in Chinese, and in order for me to sign it, I had to be able to understand it. They did not have an English version, and they insisted that I bring a Taiwanese friend with me that can explain it to me in order to sign it. So day 1 I wasted one hour and then brought back my Taiwanese fiance today. For 3 hours we had to sign forms, including one saying that I had read the English version of the form which didn’t even exist!! Initially I refused to sign this one, since it was a total lie!! Finally after two trips to the “gui tai” and asking the staff manager, they told me that they called the Citibank head office and that they DO have an English version of the contract, but that they don’t have it in the branch I went to. So they promised to give me the English contract next Monday, and so I signed it so that I don’t have to come back.
Finally after they get my ATM card, internet and phone pin and all of the other stuff initialized, I have to sign more forms saying that they did every correctly. So now it is 3 pm in the afternoon, and the only next thing to do it create my internet account. So, I already have an internet account for my Citibank credit card, but they told me that I will have to create a new one. :s OK, so I try to create a new account, and three times the damn site rejects my user IDs for one reason or another, and then get this…I am locked out of creating an account and I am told that I have to call customer service I guess to reset my account!! :fume: :fume: :fume: :fume: :fume: :fume:
So here after 4 total hours, I still haven’t gotten my account set up and I have yet to open an account on the US side so that I can transfer money. I am not so optimistic about this whole process and I am quite disappointed that Citibank doesn’t have their act together!
It’s quite sad that the only banks offering this service in Taiwan are HSBC and Citibank. I have HSBC, but the requirement to do global transfers is restricted to HSBC Advance and HSBC Premiere. The Advance account requires a monthly balance of 500,000 NT, and the Premiere account something like 3 million NT! If you don’t meet these requirements, they charge 350 NT and 1000 NT respectively! I don’t have that kind of money, and paying these fees here every month are ridiculous.
Anyway, hopefully your Citibank experience is better than mine!!
Citi staff aren’t particular smart in doing things. I had a similar experience in a Taizhong branch. It’s nothing to do with being foreign, I am Taiwanese. They just didn’t know what form is required for setting up a global transfer. You need to do your 1st transfer at the branch in person, with a form or two singed, and after that, online transfer is possible. It took me 2 trips to get the form filled out and account information registered into their system. And we don’t have MRT in Taizhong. I was so disappointed. I’d think a branch near Taipei train station would be more competent in paperwork like this. So, perhaps, a tip to future citi customers, choose one near Taipei train station.
Once you get things set up, it’s really nice, though. Who cannot love free international transfers?
I just use my US Citibank ATM card to withdraw NTD out of any Citi ATM. No fees, decent rates.
The Exchange rate this last time was something like 30.2 NTD / USD, not bad- better than cash bank exchange at the airport, and about on par with the xrate for my US credit card transactions.
Then I just go home, hoard cash and pretend I’m some kingpin with my stack of :discodance: 1000 dollar bills
Is this free international wire transfer for accounts in the same name (same person) or can it be from person A to person B?
following!
After a few weeks of trying to get the free international transfers to work, I was finally told on the phone yesterday by a very unhelpful Citibank employee that apparently free international transfers are only for Taiwanese citizens, and not for foreigners. It would have been helpful if some of the bank staff had told me that on any of the 4 occasions I went in to try and setup the account.
I was also told that only Taiwanese citizens are able to use the online global transfer to foreign accounts - foreigners have to call up or go into a branch to transfer money, and have to pay NT$600 per transaction. This is despite the staff in the branch assuring me it was possible for me to do online, and for free.
I am beyond frustrated with Citibank Taiwan! I tried telling the woman on the phone that other waiguoren on Forumosa were able to setup the free online transfers, but she said it must be some mistake! I would close my account, but it probably requires 3 hours of paperwork, so I guess I’m stuck with it now. Oh well… :s
I am so sorry to hear that. I am a citizen of Taiwan so our situation is different. Perhaps you go just go to a branch with a Chinese literate friend, and try to do it right there. I don’t understand how they are going to regular bank accounts of foreigners and bank accounts of the citizen on their website. I don’t think they’ve got that specific technologically to do that. I’d think she’s giving you incorrect information. They are not very clear themselves what they should be doing, speaking from my personal experiences.
Yes. it can be to a different person or 10 different people. I only have done it to my own accounts but from what they advertised, it’s what global transfer supposed to do,transferring funds within Citibank.
I need to wire some money from US to someone in Taiwan. (The bank is Shanghai bank in Taiwan) I am wondering what bank info I need to ask them to make a successful transfer? is it just like routing number, bank account number, swift code? thanks