Online Banking in Taiwan

Business Money
1

My current bank doesn’t offer online banking in english, and the paperwork involved in sending a Telegraphic Ttansfer from my account seems to average 20mins sometimes, so I am considering if it is worth changing banks.

Which banks in Taiwan offer decent english internet banking? Of those, do any allow online TT sending? (Online TT is a pretty handy thing, and one I made good use of in Singapore. IIRC, I had to set up the destination account at the bank in person, but payments to it after that were just a click away…)

I would have thought an international bank like HSBC would be a good bet for online services, any comments?

2

Yup, HSBC has online banking, in English.

3

And it works very well. Used it to TT overseas without a problem.

4

Thanks for the feedback, sounds like the direction I will be heading.

5

And it works very well. Used it to TT overseas without a problem.[/quote]

I guess that must be HSBC online, and not HSBC Direct online? AFAIU, the latter only allows transfers (with no fee btw) to predesignated accounts. Or was your overseas TT to a predesignated account?

I’m just activating mine today.

6

One other thing, does HSBC have foreign currency accounts such as USD, meaning you can deposit USD directly and hold it as USD (or other currencies)?

I searched their website but could not find these answers. Thanks

7

Yes, you can have a multi-currency account. You must keep a balance of NTD150,000 or more, else they charge you a monthly fee for the account (NTD500 I think).

Citibank does the same but require NTD250,000 and I dunno if they offer online banking in English.

8

AFAIK, the HSBC [color=red]Direct [/color]service is NTD only. Don’t know about regular online HSBC stuff.

9

Yes, you can have a multi-currency account. You must keep a balance of NTD150,000 or more, else they charge you a monthly fee for the account (NTD500 I think).

Citibank does the same but require NTD250,000 and I dunno if they offer online banking in English.[/quote]
Is it a must to keep 150,000NT$ balance in the account, in order to open it? I want to open a normal account, doesn’t have to be multi currency, do I have to put in 150,000NT$ as I create my account?

10

If I recall correctly you must deposit this amount to open the multi-currency account. You can withdraw most of it more or less immediately, but then you will be charged the fee (until you deposit more than the limit again).

Dunno for HSBC but at e.g. Taipei Fubon Bank there is no such limit for a normal account. I opened my account there with NTD100 though that was many years ago (when it still was Taipei Bank).

11

And it works very well. Used it to TT overseas without a problem.[/quote]

I guess that must be HSBC online, and not HSBC Direct online? AFAIU, the latter only allows transfers (with no fee btw) to predesignated accounts. Or was your overseas TT to a predesignated account?

I’m just activating mine today.[/quote]

It’s HSBC Online, not Direct online. Our overseas TTs cost us NTD 17 (!!!). If you went directly to the bank teller, the fee is NTD 30 per TT transaction. And it’s one of our predesignated accounts. We’ve set it up for all sorts of payments, like utilities, credit cards, etc. Things that one would easily find in say a US online bank service.

12

Do you need to go to a HSBC office to set up an online account? Or can you just do it…online? Sorry if this is a really dumb question.

13

It’s not that dumb. I’m interested too.

I got my colleage to call up and got answers that contradict the advice given here from my local branch. But the general consensus was that the branch doesn’t really ‘deal’ with foreigners much anyway, so it’s a better shot for me to head into Taipei.

14

Well, I just had a call with HSBC.

This is what they told me. I can set up a bank account for online banking.

If I want a foreign currency account in USD, I can open that no problem…with a 100,000 USD deposit :astonished:

I queried HSBC Direct vs HSBC, and she said HSBC Direct is for NTD only.

Oh well, I guess ICBC/Mega bank is going to have to do. They just dont have english online banking, so it’s gonna mean 20-30mins shagging around in person everytime I want send some funds home. :s

15

do you guys use the online banking to pay CC, electricity bills etc? I am kinda afrid to do it not sure if its’ safe in Taiwan and with all the hacker, virus etc

16

To be honest, I find it pretty hard to go past using the trusty 7-11 or other convenience store to pay bills, parking tickets etc etc.

A couple of things the Taiwanese have got so right, and this is one of them.

17

[quote=“Truant”]Well, I just had a call with HSBC.

This is what they told me. I can set up a bank account for online banking.

If I want a foreign currency account in USD, I can open that no problem…with a 100,000 USD deposit :astonished:

I queried HSBC Direct vs HSBC, and she said HSBC Direct is for NTD only.

Oh well, I guess ICBC/Mega bank is going to have to do. They just dont have English online banking, so it’s gonna mean 20-30mins shagging around in person everytime I want send some funds home. :s[/quote]
Sorry if this is off topic, but assuming you were able to read the online banking system for MEGA, could it be used to send funds back home? Or would you still have to go see a teller in person? I ask because I have an account with MEGA, but I am not enrolled in the online banking. Every time need to transfer money from my NT$ bank account in Taiwan to my US$ bank account back home, I have to go spend about 20 minutes in the bank. Could this be avoided if I used the online banking?

My Chinese is not perfect, but I could easily write down the steps required for doing this routine task if it meant I could save time waiting in line at the bank and having to fill in all of those forms.

Would I need to have a US dollar account with the bank, or could they do a currency conversion (NT -> US) for me while also transferring the money? Sorry to ask so many questions. I’ll be thankful for any answers.

18

[quote=“scomargo”][quote=“Truant”]Well, I just had a call with HSBC.

This is what they told me. I can set up a bank account for online banking.

If I want a foreign currency account in USD, I can open that no problem…with a 100,000 USD deposit :astonished:

I queried HSBC Direct vs HSBC, and she said HSBC Direct is for NTD only.

Oh well, I guess ICBC/Mega bank is going to have to do. They just dont have English online banking, so it’s gonna mean 20-30mins shagging around in person everytime I want send some funds home. :s[/quote]
Sorry if this is off topic, but assuming you were able to read the online banking system for MEGA, could it be used to send funds back home? Or would you still have to go see a teller in person? I ask because I have an account with MEGA, but I am not enrolled in the online banking. Every time need to transfer money from my NT$ bank account in Taiwan to my US$ bank account back home, I have to go spend about 20 minutes in the bank. Could this be avoided if I used the online banking?

My Chinese is not perfect, but I could easily write down the steps required for doing this routine task if it meant I could save time waiting in line at the bank and having to fill in all of those forms.

Would I need to have a US dollar account with the bank, or could they do a currency conversion (NT -> US) for me while also transferring the money? Sorry to ask so many questions. I’ll be thankful for any answers.[/quote]
It’s not off topic. You situation is almost identical to mine.

My understanding is that Mega doesn’t have online banking. It didn’t when I asked about it last year when it was still the ICBC. But you raise a very good, and obvious point. I will go in and ask them if now that they are Mega if they have Online banking I can use. That may very well be the most elegant solution of all.

To be very honest, I doubt very much that they would provide online international TTs via the web. The amount of paperwork I have to endure and check triple checked by seemingly everyone in the bank indicates to me that allowing customers to do their own online TTs would give Mega the shudders.

19

[quote=“Truant”][quote=“scomargo”][quote=“Truant”]Well, I just had a call with HSBC.

This is what they told me. I can set up a bank account for online banking.

If I want a foreign currency account in USD, I can open that no problem…with a 100,000 USD deposit :astonished:

I queried HSBC Direct vs HSBC, and she said HSBC Direct is for NTD only.

Oh well, I guess ICBC/Mega bank is going to have to do. They just dont have English online banking, so it’s gonna mean 20-30mins shagging around in person everytime I want send some funds home. :s[/quote]
Sorry if this is off topic, but assuming you were able to read the online banking system for MEGA, could it be used to send funds back home? Or would you still have to go see a teller in person? I ask because I have an account with MEGA, but I am not enrolled in the online banking. Every time need to transfer money from my NT$ bank account in Taiwan to my US$ bank account back home, I have to go spend about 20 minutes in the bank. Could this be avoided if I used the online banking?

My Chinese is not perfect, but I could easily write down the steps required for doing this routine task if it meant I could save time waiting in line at the bank and having to fill in all of those forms.

Would I need to have a US dollar account with the bank, or could they do a currency conversion (NT -> US) for me while also transferring the money? Sorry to ask so many questions. I’ll be thankful for any answers.[/quote]
It’s not off topic. You situation is almost identical to mine.

My understanding is that Mega doesn’t have online banking. It didn’t when I asked about it last year when it was still the ICBC. But you raise a very good, and obvious point. I will go in and ask them if now that they are Mega if they have Online banking I can use. That may very well be the most elegant solution of all.

To be very honest, I doubt very much that they would provide online international TTs via the web. The amount of paperwork I have to endure and check triple checked by seemingly everyone in the bank indicates to me that allowing customers to do their own online TTs would give Mega the shudders.[/quote]
Cheers, Truant. I’ll also try to go ask them sometime. It’s worth asking even if there’s just a small chance that it is possible.

In the meantime, if anybody else knows the answers to any of my questions, please feel free to share.

20

Well, here’s a positive update.

I went to my Megabank, and asked about online banking.

They explained to me that they have just opened up their (chinese only) online banking to International TTs.

It was so new, that the manager asked for a few days to study their manual updates before he gets me to fill out the forms.

So, bottom line is Megabank does offer international TTs now, but it’s in Chinese. I am signing up next week to see how it goes.