I asked a private lender/mortgagor that I share an office with and they said that the rule against giving credit to foreigners is the fact that the Taiwan bank has no way to collect on the foreigner’s debt if he/she fled the country. As by definition and practical treatment of foreigners in Taiwan, the expectation is that a foreigner’s stay is “temporary”. What would be interesting to see is if non-Asians with APRC and/or citizenship or other “non-temporary” status can get credit like a local.
Another pain in the ass.
My wife and I both have credit cards from China Trust - she recieved in the mail today a notice concerning new rules for “banks engaged in foreign currency exchange”.
“When issuing credit cards for natural persons over 20 years old who hold the foreigner’s resident certificate in Taiwan, the persons resident certificate should be valid for more than one year, and the expiration date of the credit card issued to the person should not exceed the expiration date of the card holder’s resident certificate.”
We have fax China Trust a copy of our arc whereby they will then reissue the cards. For my wife this will be a yearly necessity.
Apparently this is a government regulation (?).
Hexuan, that is the point of my messge. 
You should make an issue of it at whichever bank you hope to apply to, or where you have been turned down. I am not trying to rubbish any particular bank. I am only trying to show readers the importance of complaining to the bank that it is unacceptable, and not just to other forum readers.
[quote=“kelake”] Does anyone have any experience with either of these banks? Or others? I’m leaning towards Citibank simply because they have a branch in Hsinchu (Xinzhu).
Thanks.[/quote]
Kelake,
Try Hsinchu International Bank or First Bank. I have accounts with both, and even a credit card from First Bank. I can’t complain about either.
You should ask him how banks in the UK would collect money from Taiwanese with UK credit cards. He wouldn’t have a baldy because he doesn’t know his arse from his elbow. Most people who work in banking that I’ve met couldn’t find their arse with both hands and a map.
Hexuan, that is the point of my messge. You should make an issue of it at whichever bank you hope to apply to, or where you have been turned down. I am not trying to rubbish any particular bank. I am only trying to show readers the importance of complaining to the bank that it is unacceptable, and not just to other forum readers.[/quote]
Yeah we already know that thanks. No harm to you, but these “I’ve got a credit card” posts are no help at all unless you name the bank, and preferably the branch.
And just to clarify, that is unsecured and without a guarantor?
The expectation is, for exactly the same reason that we see stupid racist job ads specifying ‘ABCs only’ etc - the people making the rules have their own ideas about the people they are supposedly doing business with, and little things like ‘reality’ don’t count.
Whoever has these expectations should throw them out of the window and ask how long the applicant has lived and plans to live in Taiwan. They should ask about the income and outgoings. They should assess the credit-worthiness of the individual on his/her own merits, not on the basis of their own stupid preconceptions which say that ‘foreigners’ are only here for a short time and will do a runner without paying their bills at the end of that time.
Had nothing but good luck with HSBC - savings and CC.
We deposited a substantial amount of money into a fixed term account with Chinatrust… all for a mommoth 3.2% p.a. Wow.
hexuan wrote:
Yes! No guarantor. Unbelievable, but true.
[quote=“stan”]hexuan wrote:
Yes! No guarantor. Unbelievable, but true.[/quote]
Useful info, thanks.
For many people I think it is the convenience of a card rather than a huge credit limit that is important. Banks here defeat their own credit flight risk argument by lending outrageous sums of money on CCs at very high interest to people that clearly on the face of it cannot afford the repayments. The cost of recovering a Taiwanese person’s debt may in fact be prohibitive. (Buy shares in debt collecting agencies - that’s my tip of the month)
If, say, credit cards were issued with only US$1,000 of credit, that would be enough for a holiday, hotel, car rental whatever, and for an extended trip money could surely be put in the credit card account to creat a positive balance. There is even a card in the UK which pays a competitve rate of interest on “positive” balances (i.e. they owe you money). (Frizzel’s CSMA credit card)
I don’t think we expect the banks to roll out millions of dollars in loans to us, just a credit card that makes life easier on holiday or one of those other times when a credit card is essential (buying stuff on the internet for example).
I just got back from opening an account with citibank. It took almost 2 hours to set up an account. This seemed rather excessive but since my company set up my other Taiwan bank account I have nothing to base this on.
I went in there with a very simple request (or I thought so), I wanted to open an account that would allow me to access my money via atm card outside of Taiwan, a visa card, and online banking. I wanted all this done in one application. I said simply that if they needed a local guarantor for the visa I would rather take my business elsewhere.
I am not sure exactly why Taiwan banks set up multiple branches. This branch though quite polite could do very little and in the end I ended up starting the process via phone with the main branch in Taipei. At Land bank it was always the same procedure. They always had to send every document to Taipei and would never take responsibility for anything.
The whole process seemed rather unprofessional with no one wanting to give simple yes or no answers to anything. I dealt with a manager who started our conversation by trying to discourage me from opening an account. The 250k minimum balance is ridiculous.
I never did get an answer about the credit card despite talking to a supervisor in Taipei and all they could assure me of was that they would send of a visa card application asap.
Not sure how useful this information is but if the visa application is successful I right a note here.
Incidentally, it’s interesting how the staff’s attitude toward me changed when they realised just how much I was depositing today. They immediately became all giddy and excited. Perhaps I should have mentioned that at the beginning - money talks here in Hsinchu.
Quite likely, most Taiwanese banks assume that US/Brit/Oz/etc. foreigners are ALL english teachers, who don’t have ANY money…
Hah!
Kenneth
I’ve had an error spattered relationship with HSBC.
I was hoping their Premier account would mean I’d have to spend less time doing all that boring banking stuff. They’ve got nice lighting and comfy chairs in their Premier account suites, but I’d still prefer to spend more time reorganising my sock drawer.
Having said that, it does seem to be getting better. Any time there’s a problem, I have one person I can go to who speaks good English, will listen sympathetically to my moans and generally sorts them out. When I said I was having a problem getting a hold of her, she gave me her mobile number.
Minimum fee for the Premier account is NT$200,000.
It doesn’t have to be at a low interest rate. It can be in a bond fund, for example (mine’s up 1.6% in the 2 months since I’ve had it).
You get a free credit card for the first year, and if you object to paying an annual fee the following year, it may be waived.
The monthly statement is in English and well laid out.
I still don’t know what to spend all my credit card bonus points on though, since the bumph for that is in Chinese.
You can set up a standing order to pay off your credit card monthly.
For cash cards, you can withdraw cash from any machine in tw and pay no transaction fee.
[quote=“highwave”]Minimum fee for the Premier account is NT$200,000.
It doesn’t have to be at a low interest rate. It can be in a bond fund, for example (mine’s up 1.6% in the 2 months since I’ve had it).
You get a free credit card for the first year, and if you object to paying an annual fee the following year, it may be waived.
The monthly statement is in English and well laid out.[/quote]
Now that’s more like it. I know that’s how it works in the UK: it is the amount of the “relationship” with the bank that matters.
It seems First Bank do the best credit card: Their Platinum Card has 8.8% interest and gives you a Priority Pass lounge access card. Better than any others I’ve seen. No annual fee either.
HSBC also has the Priority Pass airport lounge access card.
Call me paranoid, but I’ve never used it because it looks open to abuse.
When you go into the airport lounge, giving them your Priority Pass gives them your credit card details. I can envisage a situation where the lounge staff are a little less than clear about what is complementary and what will appear unexpectedly on your credit card bill the following month.
I had a Citibank account for about 6 months. Then canceled it because of the high maintenace fee they charge if you don’t have a certain amount in your account. The service was great, most of the tellers spoke English, and there was never a long line to wait. I just couldn’t take having to alway have the minimum of $250,000 in my account each month. If your account drops below that, they would charge you $500. The other thing I didn’t like was the fact they didn’t have bankbooks. You would need to ask for a printout if you wanted to know your transactions. And many services were automated, withdrawls/deposits could only be done at their ATMs.
HSBC English Phone Banking, Internet banking, in person.
Local banks English? Maybe but not expected.
Citi Bank More expensive but English Service
HSBC more expensive but did I say English!!!
Have a problem with either? You can fix it in English.
You don’t need to find a translator or the such.
PLUS YOU NEVER HAVE TO VISIT THE BANK AFTER YOU OPEN THE ACCOUNT.
I go once a year to get some investment advice and swithc my investems if need be.
HSBC rocks compared to the local crap banks. But be prepared for the servie… it cost slightly more…
Ski
Can’t pay my HSBC credit card bill by direct debit from my ChinaTrust account, so I have to go there in person and hand over cash. Convenient? Not. I have no idea who’s to blame for this, and can’t get sense out of anyone at either place.
I have so far sent eight e-mails and made several phone calls to individuals at HSBC - not the anonymous numbers, the direct lines to the people who should know - requesting info about setting up direct debits to obtain payment from my customers for my new business. I was told by someone who had made an erroneous calculation that I won’t have a high enough turnover to qualify for this service, but gave no further info. I’m now waiting for someone to get back to me with a clarification of what the parameters actually are. Call that customer service?
I did a quick google on direct debits in the UK, looked at a few sites, sent ONE email, and got a reply two hours later. He informed me that DDs cost 25p (NT$15) per item, and you need to have a minimum of 500 transactions per month. That would be all I needed to know, but it’s apparently beyond the ability of the world’s local bank to actually communicate with their customers.
[quote=“Taipei Times”]In an interview with cable channel USTV at the time, Leech (President of HSBC Taiwan) said the bank’s priority was to serve Taiwanese businesspeople in China,
HSBC Taiwan posted a pre-tax income of NT$3.46 billion last year, an increase of 30 percent over 2003, with its personal financial services and corporate banking business growing 75 percent and 24 percent respectively.
Martin Spurling, a senior vice president of personal financial services at HSBC Taiwan, said the bank expected to keep similar revenue growth in personal financial services compared with last year.[/quote]
Actually, I had an account at Citibank for ages…
Never had a problem with their online or phonebanking services, not that my needs are difficult to meet…
Didn’t think they were that great though, until
I decided to switch to HSBC…
Reasons
- online banking
- phone banking
- branch nearer my home
- saturday opening
- English speaking
- convenient cost-saving mortgage…
BUT, I have been quite UNimpressed by
HSBC for at least three of those reasons…
- shortly after I joined, they canceled Saturday banking
- they denied us a mortgage because they said they didn’t do loans on houses with ODD zoning (ie. NOT residential)
- AND, within three months, they canceled my phone banking because they said I never used it… True. BUT… I wanted that service because it’s not always convenient to find a computer that is safe.
- It took them nearly a year to contact me about a message I sent them via their internet banking service.
RESULT
- I never transferred my money from other bank(s) to HSBC, denying them a fair amount of cash… >>> THEY LOST $$$
- we remortgaged with a bank who had NO problem lending money on our property… and other banks were also willing and happy to lend us…
THEY LOST $$$
- I have been checking their interest rates against local banks. To my dismay, their rates are about .4-.5% LOWER for CDs than the local banks…I’m thinking of closing my account there instead, and moving most stuff back to Citibank and to one or two local banks instead.
- Result: I will probably NEVER use their bank here in Taiwan much again.
Oh, and I forgot (added later)…
I tried to use their online banking to set up a new CD, but the system kept rejecting me… so even the online bank doesn’t work properly.
So out of six reasons for joining HSBC, I only have location (and it isn’t THAT convenient, really) and English speaking left ( I must confess even there that Speaking Chinese at HSBC certainly helped get things done faster…) So overall, 0/6.
I would strongly suggest that Foreigners AVOID HSBC and deal with Citibank or the local banks (whose rates for services are generally better). And Service-wise, Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank were quite a lot better than HSBC for service!
KenTaiwan98