I have an account with O-Bank, but I opened it at their office, so don’t know if they’ve completely gone online but I did open an account at one of their offices about 3 years ago.
Does O bank have any deals such as free withdrawls at other banks? A better interest rate? Credit cards?
I read somewhere they do micro loans as well.
Sorry I can’t answer that cause I remember they didn’t have ATM’s so if I wanted to make a deposit using another bank atm, I’d have to pay a fee so in the end, I’m not using it at all, I can only confirm foreigners can open an account with them
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OK thanks. I always wondered what the draw was with these fintech banks popping up. I doubt they really being much to the table that existing big banks don’t either have already or can easily copy. Plus Taiwanese tend to like old established banks as they feel safer so…
From their advertisements, they seem to have good cashback rates, as foreigners we still can take advantage of some discounts using line pay, ipass, etc or websites like shopback.
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I have to say that, with all the unhappiness in the world right now, I genuinely love you guys and what you are doing to make things better. 
Guy
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Yeah, had quite a hard time for the account I opened at Cathay United, they checked my Gold Card with this tool manually, and the result came back but with no photo. So they had to call the NIA, check with them, redo the check, call again to verify, and finally they were satisfied. Took 45 mins!!! After that at the post office all went smooth when opened the account there, whereas at HSBC no issues at all (maybe due to being a customer already in HK they have more info about me already).
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that’s why they verify it also against the picture uploaded on NIA servers. Had an issue with that, see my earlier reply.
A workaround would be if the banks offered verification using Citizen Digital Certificate, which guarantees the ID and other data to be valid. Don’t need ID number check API.
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It already works for citizens, in particular for credit cards. for foreigners, 沒有辦法。。。
Fuck their 辦法, fuck all the 辦法s
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Especially when they are covered with 沒有
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It really never stops to amaze me how inconsistent different branches are in their procedures. I opened an account at Cathay last year and there were no issues with my Gold Card. The clerk didn’t know what it was, I explained “it’s a 3-year ARC” and that was all 
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Maybe a bit more background here. The day I went to the banks to open the accounts, it was the same day I picked up the updated gold card with my Chinese name and address on it (when I applied I wasn’t sure about the characters yet and didn’t think about the address). It seems that the system wasn’t “updated” yet. Anyways, it went through. It is just quite annoying that people do not read what’s written on it. So many times they say ask “你有沒有ARC?” And I reply that is a bloody ARC too, it’s written on it, also in Chinese, just read… Very annoying we cannot apply online to anything, since the systems do not support foreigners, just because they do not want to make a new flow to also upload the passport and update the databases to support new ARC numbers. @fifieldt isn’t there anything which can be done for this? I mean at least letting us foreigners apply online with ARC first, then upload all the other docs (like passport, visa, everything else) later? it is so cumbersome to always need to go to offices/branches with the passport in your pocket. If you need any assistance/counselling on the KYC procedures for financial institutions, I can give you some insights as it is my industry.
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Why the confusion, doesn’t it look 95% the same as a regular ARC?
You wish it would be that easy. They see a different colour (gold instead of blue), they don’t see written immediately Resident Certificate, so it is outside their “rails”, they go into panic. 99% they go to speak to their superior or closest colleague, 1% (maybe less) might even try to say it is not an ARC and use the usual 沒有辦法 BS to just get rid of you.
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That’s the Motor Vehicle Office’s specialty. Every time they throw the card back at me and say “我需要你的居留證”, then I give it back and explain “這就是一種居留證，你看清楚” and they throw it at me again with a “NO NO NO, I WANT ARC”. The three Taiwanese characters that we all know and a slam on the counter usually get their attention, but definitely not something that I enjoy doing every f***ing time. BTW the switch to Cinglish like it will magically make the ARC appear is epic 
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This is hilarious because the card literally says “ARC”, what more do they want than an ARC card that says ARC on it 
But yeah for most of the stuff I’ve dealt with here, it’s usually the first time they’re seeing a gold card. I just bring along my partner who is a native Mandarin speaker and magically there are no more problems.
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That’s so true. If a Taiwanese says “it’s an ARC” in Mandarin, they will believe it. If I say the exact same words, they will ignore me and start speaking Cinglish like it would make any difference
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