‘Online’ Bank’s xenophobic reasoning for denying "foreigners" the ability to open an account online

The problem seems to be that all online-only banks are refusing to accept noncitizens as customers. Perhaps I missed something, but that’s the vibe I am getting.

Guy

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Yeah, yeah, sorry, I’m still waking up. But I still don’t see xenophobia here, leave alone racism.

Not sure, is this them?

Yes that’s them

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They aren’t virtual bank accounts! Also paypal is a payments platform. Try applying at Nextbank, Richart bank, Koko bank etc… You would be denied even if you naturalised because they won’t even accept Taiwanese people not born here!

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Have you tried to do this in one of the Cathay branches in your city, in person?

And again, this is not racism, and I don’t think it even qualifies as xenophobia. Stupidity and laziness? maybe. I don’t know what the international standards are for opening this type of accounts. They might need to comply with certain regulations which may imply extra work or risks they don’t want to take, as simple as that.

I think you should file a lawsuit to help the system. The law says businesses can’t discriminate against people based on where they are from. So this policy should be illegal. If you have the time, you should take that letter to a lawyer and see if they think you have a case there.

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Ok. Explain this to me as if I was a three year old:

  1. They refuse Taiwan issued NHI cards/driver’s license for foreigners when it comes to banking purposes? Did they say that?

  2. Or do they only reject foreign issued ones? The same ones they government accepted?

Or did you try to open an account with your country of origin’ s paperwork and that’s the one they do not take -even though you are legally in Taiwan, I presume.

BTW, I also object to the Mexican comment, first of all because most get driver’s license as the only legal ID they can get, and second because it assumes a lot of racist s#$@.

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This is a really tricky one as my lawyer advised me against it because they’re so petty, they’ll blacklist you.

Unless you’re fine with martyring yourself financially…

Just one bank or all banks?

Can’t you just sue again if they refuse you service?

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They reject foreign ones. However… because we are “foreigners” they assume that we ONLY have foreign ones and therefore won’t even accept our applications…

The Mexican comment is relevant because they assume that we are for the most part undocumented and live off of cash with no health insurance and no drivers license…

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They talk.

That is more tricky and extremely costly and extremely risky. There is a reason why businesses often say they have the right to refuse service to anyone. Often, like a shitty employer, they will make up a bullshit reason.

Your honour, he was too aggressive to our staff.

This is why I push hard for dual citizenship. It solves 99% of these problems and then once we’re on the other side, some of us can use our power to pull people who haven’t quite made it and look out for them.

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Also many states don’t offer drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. The ones that do… give one that cannot be used as a form of ID

Dual citizenship won’t solve this one

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Yes it does.

If you’re Taiwanese, you’re not a foreigner. This is clearly another issue where foreigners get the shaft.

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Says very clearly that you have to be born in Taiwan to be accepted

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Your ID card doesnt state where you are born.

That is an easier case to fight anyways.

A naturalised friend of mine had this problem and said it does…

So what do you propose?

At least I can claim a citizen is a citizen is a citizen.

For one thing… We need to make everyone aware of the xenophobia.

Make the banks loose a lot of face and they’ll change

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