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

I reckon FSC reply will be BS wrapped in chickenshite baked with a sprinkle of horseshit .

Just wait the document to get the reference number and then u can proceed.

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I get two calls from Taishin Bank today. First was a nice lass Ms Chen. I explain that on the online form I cannot put in my elementary school education as the form only accepts two things, Chinese language and secondly only a Taiwan elementary school. She tells me should not be necessary for the online bank but it’s required for the credit card. So if I cannot put in the school name then don’t apply. Polite as she is. No qualms pls go elsewhere for a credit card. Then I tell her it’s required for the bank account I did not apply for a credit card.

Then later on another call this time from a male staff member. So yes we go thru that I was not educated at elementary school in Taiwan. So can I just put in any Taiwan school name I like and lie on the form. Silence. Then he says OK he will send me an email in a day or so. He asks why I didn’t contact Rickhart Bank. I said I left message on the banks Line and FB page and sent an email to their contact us on their website and they never replied to me. So FSC complaint.

So they know you cannot enter an elementary school outside of Taiwan on their online form. I told the guy this is discrimination against Taiwan citizens who were educated abroad, like Jeremy Lin and I.

My wife answered his call for me at first. After call is over she is like you’ve done it again, you and your buddies complaining to the FSC. I’m like yes darling… it’s wrong for the IT people at the bank to design an online application where only people educated in Taiwan can apply for a bank account or credit card. It’s discrimination. lol.

My wife is like you don’t even want an account or credit card from that bank anyway. lol

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@Mataiou Control Yuan is too busy playing politics :sweat_smile:

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:eyes:

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the language barrier is the lesser problem. U go to a country, u have to be able to speak the language there. This is really a “whitey” problem tbh, back in Italy we would go bananas over immigrants pretending not to speak Italian with banks/post/government.

But banks, yep… finally some more attention is being brought on this charade.

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it’s not a whitey problem if your government strategy is to attract foreign professionals though. There’s a lack of foreign banks , international insurance and international online banking services and banking apps for foreigners as well which creates more problems.
They are just so Godamn bad where do we start.

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The language barrier is not the problem at all. It is the thing that people pretend to be the problem.

Take China Trust for example… you go there everyone speaks English from the security guard to the teller… and even the digital announcement calling your number changes to English (nice touch)

The problem? When first met the security guard he pressed “foreigner/foreign transaction” button which actually puts you in a longer queue with a much greater wait time…

But that’s the first problem. The ARC number doesn’t link to anything… the credit card doesn’t link to your normal bank so you can’t check both your credit card and bank balance without logging into each one… etc…

Also you can’t even use the bank to verify things such as line pay because of the ARC number not linking.

I’d much rather Esun or Cathay where I spent my whole account opening process using google translate and broken Chinese to be met with a system that actually works!

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nope, sorry mate. you come to a country, you have to speak the language over time. I am Italian, I would never imagine to move to say the UK and speak Italian there.

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As a German I don’t expect the bankers here to speak German to me, but English is an international language.

As Italian you can go to a German bank and they will be able to talk to you in English.

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nah, the principle of pretending to speak a foreign language in another land is not good to me.

Good luck trying to get serviced in English in Italy, we would speak with the hands to you, but for sure not in English. Better luck in French in Valle’e d’Aoste or German in Sudtirol.

Chinese is very difficult, it’s 5x more difficult/time consuming to pick up due to the reading and writing system as most languages, hence they really need to offer English for internationals. Learning to read and write Italian is a piece of cake compared to Chinese.
To be fair many banks do offer English online banking but overall English services need to be strengthened.
If you have an English services line they should actually answer it in English.

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I do get what your saying, but if Taiwan wants to recruit foreign talent then providing English services beyond the visa application process should be a focus.

It takes time to learn the language and if it was essential to learn to move to Taiwan, setup a bank account, take out a phone contract etc then the recruitment targets would be severely limited.

I think also some peoples linguist skills may not be good to pick up the language even over an extended period of time, but they excell in certain fields that benefits Taiwan.

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No it is diverting resources and eyes away from areas that need more attention such as providing equal services to foreign citizens.

This whole coddling of people with English services really highlights that foreigners are of a different people not truly accustomed to Taiwan

Also I learn more when I am speaking in broken Chinese

It really isn’t difficult to simply whip out google translate and get things sorted

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I agree, though boosting the recruitment of foreign professionals also loudens the voice for better retention policies / equal services.

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Welcome to Taiwan. Leave a message on the English service line get a call back from a person who can barely speak English. What could go wrong. lol

I’ve done that with bank staff till they get to the point of saying I need to transfer you to someone who speaks English. Then I switch to Chinese… sound of relief on the other end of the phone. Sometimes I let them speak to me in Chinese and I reply in English. But to really wind up bank callers from Taipei start speaking to them in Taiwanese.

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You learn more from interaction with bank staff rather. Also it can be fun if a little time consuming.

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I’m sure even in Italy, if one went to Rome for example, that most if not all banks have employees that can speak English. In Canada, the bank literally has a ton of languages available, of course not at every branch. RBC Bank says ’ **Talk to someone in your language― service is available by phone or in branch in up to 200 languages’

I’m sure it shouldn’t inconvenience Taiwan’s banks too much to have at least one English speaking branch per city.

It was kind of cute the effort my local Huanan Bank branch went to to be bilingual (and it is listed as a bilingual branch). The first time I went, the one guy who spoke English downstairs was the wealth management guy, so he had to coordinate everything with the other staff members. Then to actually open the account they had to drag some poor not-usually-customer-facing guy down from upstairs, because none of the regular bank clerks spoke enough English.

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Still hadn’t heard anything back from the FSC after several more days, so I just sent another message inquiring about the status of my complaint, pointing out that the Taishin response was BS, and saying (politely) that I hoped they’d be doing their job and actively investigating my complaint and enforcing the regulations (in the hope, probably incorrectly, that it might reduce the likelihood of needing an administrative appeal). :whistle:

Wrote back to Taishin saying their response was unacceptable and I’d be continuing to pursue it with the FSC and MOI too.

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So, be prepared. Got the hefty reply of the FSC to my administrative appeal.

The appeal has no grounds since an administrative appeal might only be considered in the case a decision (read a fine or penalty) imposed by an agency is considered as infringing the complainant rights. So inaction is not ground for administrative appeal.

Then I will appeal to the control yuan on the basis of negligence by the agency.

My head is hard

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